Strawberry Summer (4 page)

“That’s a shame.” Alan’s voice had become bitter, and that same icy look she had seen before had come into his eyes again. “I hate to disappoint you and everybody else, but I’m afraid that at the moment the future of Camp Pinewood looks kind of dismal.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“I wish I could be as carefree as they all are tonight,” he went on, staring off at the crowd of counselors but seeming not to really see them.

There was an awkward silence. Chris broke it, her voice strangely high-pitched from its forced cheerfulness. “Well, I guess I’ll go back to the others. I see my sister just reappeared. I thought she’d gotten lost....”

“I’m sorry,” Alan said suddenly, his voice softer. “I didn’t mean to sound so angry. Or to lay my family’s problems on you. Please don’t just walk away.”

“O-okay.” Chris was surprised by this sudden change. She was also surprised to see this other side of Alan Reed that was suddenly emerging.
And
curious to know more about it.

“Why don’t we go outside on the porch?” he suggested. “It’ll be much quieter there. Besides, there’s a full moon out tonight. You should see how beautiful Lake Majestic looks.

“So, you live in Whittington,” Alan said as they leaned against the porch railing, taking in the view and sipping their lemonade. “That’s about a hundred fifty miles from here, isn’t it?”

“Why, yes, it is.” Chris was surprised. “How did you know where I’m from?”

“Oh, I just happened to check out your application. I figure it can’t hurt to know something about the people who work for my folks.” He tried to keep his voice light, but it was obvious to Chris that Alan didn’t bother to “research” all of the counselors.

“What else do you know about me?”

“Not too much. But I hope to find out more.”

His last remark really startled her. And here she’d thought he was staring at her from across the room because he didn’t like her!

“Well, of the two of us, I’d say that
you’re
the mysterious one, Alan Reed! You seem so distant ... as if you’re a thousand miles away.”

“Yeah, I know. The truth is, I have been pretty preoccupied lately. Worried about the camp, and my parents, too.

“But tonight is supposed to be a night for celebrating, not worrying! We’ve got the whole summer ahead of us. Besides, I shouldn’t be burdening you with my family’s problems, anyway. Hey—I have an idea. Are you in a daring mood tonight?”

“Pretty daring ... Why?”

“How about a moonlight swim?”

“Well ...”

“Come on. We’ll just slip away, and no one will ever even notice that we’re gone. I know I’m in good hands, since you are the swimming instructor and all. Having you there is even safer than inviting along a lifeguard! Besides, you’ve got to admit that Lake Majestic looks pretty inviting!”

Chris laughed. “You certainly can be convincing! All right, it sounds like fun. Let me go change into a suit, and I’ll meet you at the boathouse as soon as I can.”

“You’re on!”

Fifteen minutes later, the two of them were splashing around in the lake, laughing like children who were doing something they weren’t really supposed to be doing. Unwinding in the cool, refreshing water was the perfect ending to the first day of camp.

“Maybe we’d better get back to the party, before anyone misses us,” Chris said after a while. “I wouldn’t want to hurt your parents’ feelings.”

“Don’t you think they’ll notice that their son and their swimming instructor both have unusually wet hair?” Alan grinned.

“Oh, you’re right! I guess that’s the end of that party.” Chris sat cross-legged on the dock, wrapped in the towel she’d brought along. She did feel bad about deserting the party ... but at the same time, she was having a wonderful time. Her swim had revitalized her, it was lovely sitting out by the moonlit lake ... and Alan Reed, much to her continued surprise, was turning out to be excellent company.

“Since you’re the one who dragged me away from all those homemade cookies, I’d say the very least you can do is tell me all about yourself.”

“There’s not much to tell.” Alan shrugged. “During the summers, I work here. During the year, I go to high school. I’ll be a senior next year. I’m on the basketball team and the school newspaper, my best subject is science, and I enjoy learning about nature. In fact, I’m really looking forward to Camp Pinewood’s first annual outing next Tuesday.”

Chris was puzzled. “I don’t remember hearing about any outing.”

“It’s always one of the hits of the summer. We’re taking the ten-year-olds to a local wildlife preserve. We pack them up with box lunches, load them onto the big blue bus, and lead them on a full day of exploring the nature preserve. It’s always one of the highlights of my vacation.”

“It sounds like fun. I don’t suppose you can find a place for a swimming instructor....”

Alan laughed. “I’m afraid you’ll have to stay here and entertain all the other kids, those who aren’t lucky enough to come along.

“Now, if I don’t get into some warm, dry clothes soon, I think I may turn into a snowman! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to bring along a towel!”

“I guess these moonlight swims are not part of your normal schedule,” Chris teased. “But it
is
getting chilly, now that you mention it. Even with this towel that I had the ‘foresight’ to bring along, I’m getting cold. I’d better go back to my cabin and change, too.”

“Okay. I’ll walk you back.”

“Afraid I’ll get lost in the dark?”

“I could certainly use that as an excuse,” said Alan. “After all, I know these rocky paths a lot better than you do. Or I could just be honest and say that I’m having such a good time that I don’t want the evening to end yet.”

“Well, that’s hard to argue with. Especially since I feel exactly the same way!”

Arm in arm, Chris and Alan began the uphill climb from the lake to the cabins. They were laughing loudly, wrapped up in their joy over having found someone they could have so much fun with.

They never even suspected that they were being watched.

The morning of the ten-year-olds’ outing to the
Lake Majestic Wildlife Preserve, a sprawling national park over on the other side of the lake, Jake Reed awoke with the feeling that it was going to turn out to be a perfect day. The sun was shining brightly, its heat tempered by the cool breeze that wafted off the lake. The bus was all checked out and ready to go; the afternoon before, he and Alan had spent several hours working on the motor, anxious to make sure that the first outing of the camp season proceeded smoothly. And probably most important, the campers themselves were excited. Although camp had only been in session for a little more than a week, Samantha and the other nature counselors had already given them a good background in birds, trees, and flowers—exactly the kind of thing they would be seeing at the wildlife preserve.

Jake was whistling as he strode out of the house, waving to Alan, who was up ahead, near the bus. But as soon as he saw the expression on his son’s face, his whistling stopped.

“Oh, no!” he cried. “What is it this time, Alan?”

“Somebody decided we could make the trip without air in our tires,” Alan said grimly, gesturing toward the bus.

Sure enough, the air had been let out of all four of the tires. Not just a little, either; every one of them was completely flat. The sight of the tremendous blue bus standing by the side of the road on four flabby black tires might have been comical if it hadn’t been for the fact that the mere sight of it made Jake Reed’s stomach tighten.

“Well, we’ll just have to get the hand pump and start pumping.”

“That’ll take at least an hour. It’s almost eight, and we told the kids we’d be leaving at eight-thirty on the dot.”

“We’ll just have to explain that we need to make a few repairs on the bus before we can get going.” Jake tried to sound matter-of-fact, but he knew as well as Alan that such a delay—especially where something as exciting as an outing to a wildlife preserve was concerned—was exactly the kind of thing that would be reported to parents immediately, in letters and telephone calls home.

“I’ll get the pump,” Alan offered. “But first I’ll tell Mom to alert the counselors. Maybe they can come up with some way to distract a few dozen disappointed ten-year-olds.”

At nine o’clock, Alan and his father were still pumping up the last tire. The campers started arriving, led by their counselors, chattering away excitedly as they anticipated the journey ahead. They’d already been looking forward to it for days. They were armed with binoculars, box lunches, and sweaters.

“Just in time,” muttered Jake. “I’d hate to have to tell this crowd that we still weren’t ready for ‘em.”

Alan shared his father’s relief. As he watched the campers pile onto the bus, he told himself that a half-hour delay was really nothing to get upset about. He watched from the side of the road, expecting to see his father drive away with a busload of cheering kids.

But as his father went to start the engine, it resisted, offering little besides a pessimistic whirring sound.

Something else was wrong.

Immediately Alan sprang into action. Within seconds he was poking around the motor, trying to find out what was going on.

“Just another minute or so, kids,” he heard his father call to the campers with false heartiness, “We’ll have this big blue machine moving in no time!”

It took Alan a few minutes to figure out what had happened. At first, it looked as if everything was in order. He was puzzled. But then he checked under the distributor cap—not a place it would ordinarily occur to him to look—and discovered that the rotor was missing. Someone had taken it.

“Dad, could I talk to you a minute?” He tried to keep the fury out of his voice.

“Just a second, kids. I think Alan’s found out what the problem is.”

“I found the problem, all right,” he said angrily, once his father had come closer, out of earshot of the children. “Someone stole the rotor.”

Jake sighed heavily. “They probably didn’t steal it—just hid it someplace cute, like in the refrigerator or underneath the front porch. Well, kids or no kids, I guess the only thing for us to do is drive the pickup into town and get a new rotor. Rudy’s opens at nine, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll go,” Alan volunteered.

But as soon as he got near the pickup, parked on the other side of the house, he stopped dead in his tracks.

The air had been let out of all four of the truck’s tires, as well.

He felt like stomping around and yelling and then going out to find the person who was responsible for all this. But he couldn’t. So instead, he went back to his father, who was explaining to the busload of wailing ten-year-olds that their departure would have to be postponed once again—for at least another hour.

“Better make that two hours, Dad,” Alan muttered. “It looks like the pickup isn’t going anywhere, either. At least until we take the time to pump up
its
tires, too.”

Jake Reed shook his head slowly. “We’d better cancel the trip altogether. For today, anyway. Do you want to be the one to break the news to sixty eager kids who are already jumping out of their skins, or should I?”

By lunchtime, the entire camp was buzzing about the morning’s canceled trip to the Lake Majestic Wildlife Preserve. True, it had been rescheduled for the following week. But to the ten-year-olds who had been all ready to go, the following week seemed very far away indeed. And all the other campers were sympathetic. They knew how disappointed they would have been if it had been they who were counting on a trip. And even though they understood all about the broken bus and pickup truck, they couldn’t help blaming it all on the staff of Camp Pinewood.

“I’m going to tell my mother and father about this,” said Lucy Kramer, one of the camp’s more outspoken ten-year-olds. She had just sat down at one of the long dining room tables. To help reverse the somber mood that had fallen over the camp, the Reeds had ordered the kitchen staff to prepare a special lunch. And Lucy had certainly taken advantage of it. Her tray was piled high with french fries and chocolate cake-—and little else besides.

“I’ve been waiting to go to the wildlife preserve ever since I got here. I even brought my father’s binoculars, especially for something like this! And now we have to stay around this stupid old camp all day. Boy, I’m going to write my parents a letter about this right after lunch. And they’re going to be plenty mad!”

Chris, sitting behind her at the next table, couldn’t help overhearing the little girl’s tirade.

“I have a better idea, Lucy,” she said gently. It took everything she had to keep the anger out of her voice. “Go ahead and write to your parents and tell them that the trip to the wildlife preserve was canceled at the last minute because of some trouble the Reeds were having with the camp’s bus. But instead of complaining about it, why don’t you tell them that while you were disappointed at first, you decided that it would be babyish to let it ruin your day? Tell them that instead you realized that things don’t always work out exactly the way we want, and that you’re determined to make the best of it. And that now, you even have something extra special to look forward to for next week!”

The little girl was dumbfounded at first. Then a smile crept over her face slowly. “You know, that might not be such a bad idea. Maybe my parents will even send me a
present
when they hear how grown-up I’m acting!”

“Now
that’s
what I call fast thinking!” said Alan, who happened to be walking by. “How’d you like a job as the official Public Relations director of Camp Pinewood? We could use a few more people with your sense of diplomacy!” He sat down at the table, across from her.

Chris blushed at his compliment. “Well, you’ve got to admit that Lucy
was
being a bit childish. From what I’ve heard around the dining room, I don’t think most of the kids are taking it quite so hard.”

“I hope not. But this is exactly the kind of thing that’s been happening around here over the past couple of summers. We look like we don’t know what we’re doing—usually because of some stupid little thing. Harmless, too, except that it ends up creating a lot of bad feeling. Sometimes I wonder if even the counselors realize it’s not our fault.”