Love and Pollywogs from Camp Calamity (11 page)

I punched in Mom’s cell phone number, because I
knew she’d already be at her retreat by now. She picked up after the third ring.

“Mom!”
I was so relieved to hear her voice, even though there was a lot of static.

“Effie!” She sounded shocked to hear my voice. “Are you all right?”

My throat burned when she asked me that. I could tell I might bawl if I wasn’t careful. I tried to collect my wits.

“Are you still there? Are you all right? Are you on Sister Lucille’s phone?”

“Yes, and I have permission to use it. I was calling to tell you that I have a terrible case of altitude sickness! Nobody warned me about this. Did you or Maxey have it when you were here?”

“Effie, you can’t get altitude sickness at camp. It’s only—I don’t know, it’s—”

“It’s one
thousand
feet above sea level!” I said. “I certainly
can
have it!”

“Okay, calm down. Tell me your symptoms.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “I was fine until I got here, but the minute I got off the bus, I got all cold and shivery inside, and my feet felt like cement.”

“Okay, what else?”

“Isn’t that enough? I’m freezing, I can barely walk, and nothing tastes good to me either.”

She paused a minute. “Did you tell Sister? Can I talk to her, Effie?”

“No, because she’ll just say there’s nothing wrong with
me. I told her all about it yesterday. She took my pulse and checked my temperature and then said I was fine. And I’m definitely not!”

“Effie, what you might have is homesickness. It kind of feels just like you described.”

“But I’m
not
homesick! I think I would know if I was!”

“I’m not sure you would. You’ve never been away from home before.”

She had a point there, but I wasn’t going to give in to her. “Maybe you should just come get me, Mom. I’m worried about Pretty Girl too. She’s so old, and what if she dies while I’m here? And you’re missing an awful lot of work, you know!”

But even as I said all this, I knew in my gut that I couldn’t quit camp. I couldn’t leave Nit and Aurora. Plus, I promised I’d help Chica learn to swim, and what about learning to swim myself, and the Outstanding Camper medal? I had a lot on my plate, and it was starting to spin!

“Pretty Girl will be just fine. Remember what Dr. Garrett told us? That time to a cat isn’t the same as it is to us? This whole week might feel like five minutes to her. Plus, she sleeps twenty hours a day. She’ll probably love having things be so quiet in the house. And as far as my job goes, I deserve this time off. It’s been way too long!”

“Wull, since you have the time off, then, why don’t you quit the retreat and come to Camp Wickitawa? We could use another basketball coach here. Poor Aurora is having to play with the boys! And I don’t want you to get too
lonesome, Mom. Maybe you could bring Becca’s dad with you. He was a holy mess Sunday at the bus. Did you see him? He might be having a hard time at his job from it.”

I did not tell her the part that I was worried she might get so desperate for company that she’d go visit Dad in prison.

I could almost hear her running her fingers through her hair. “Effie, I’m going to hang up now because I’m going to a yoga class. And you need to get back to your friends. You are going to be fine. Pretty Girl is having the time of her life. I’m going to suck the tasty marrow from this retreat, and I hope you’ll do the same at camp. But that’s up to you. You can get in the game, or sit on the sidelines and be miserable. So what’s it going to be, darlin’ girl o’ mine?”

I didn’t say a word.

A
fter I talked to Mom, altitude sickness slammed into me. Nearly knocked my windpipe clean out of me. And I got a bellyache to go with it. Like I was starving-mad-hungry, but the kind of starving that no food could fix.

I’d been on my bunk playing possum since I’d come back from my call. I could tell Aurora and Nit were dying to ask me about it, but I just couldn’t talk yet. Rest period was officially over, so Cricket was letting everyone be noisier now. Drew, Kimber, and Georgia had their heads together over on Drew’s bunk. That was never good. Drew loves to stir up the pot whenever she has a chance. She isn’t mean like Kayla, she just likes it when things get exciting. Kimber is up for any kind of plotting that has boys involved, and Georgia likes the planning part of most anything.

Naomi is Drew’s best friend, but she tends to stay out of things that could lead to people getting in trouble. She was lying on her bunk counting out her spending money. Her mom worked at the bank, and Naomi was very good with cash. Everyone had been super surprised that she hadn’t gotten picked for Angel Scout treasurer and I’d gotten it instead. I figured the nuns stuffed the ballot box so I could win. Nuns will do a sketchy thing like that to make a girl feel better about having a crook for a dad.

“Cricket!” Naomi called. “Are you and Phil still taking us over to Totem Village after Mess?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look up. We were all supposed to get to go right after arts and crafts that afternoon, but they’d closed Totem Village for a while after one of the boys threw up his lunch in there. We heard he’d hurled three times in three different places. Ms. Marshall promised they would try their best to open again after dinner for the girls.

Sister had taken care of the sick kid, but she wouldn’t say who it was. Guess she didn’t realize that the first second we hit Mess we’d find out anyway. One of the boys would be sure to spill the beans. Throwing up was big news. She did say it wasn’t anything contagious, and he would be absolutely fine.

I wondered if it was Donal who got sick! I hadn’t seen him at lunch. I bet Nit was wondering the same thing. I noticed she was chewing her hangnail when Sister talked to us about it.

“I’ll check with Ms. Marshall at dinner, but I’m sure she’ll keep her promise to you about opening up,” Cricket said. “Please try not to spend
all
your money on candy, will you?”

“Heck no!” Kimber said. “I’m getting a camp T-shirt and some different kind of sunscreen, if they have it. The kind my mom packed smells like medicine. It’s horrible. I told her to get me coconut!”

“I’ve got some you can borrow if they don’t have any,” Georgia hollered. Georgia has a big voice. We don’t have fourth-grade cheerleaders at St. Dominic’s, but if we did, she’d be the loudest and most enthusiastic. Her mom is a hotshot lawyer in Houston, and I think Georgia inherited her loud voice from her.

I had to get back in the game, like Mom had said, no matter how crummy I felt! I popped up from my bunk like my fake nap had given me lots of pep. I stretched my arms overhead and yawned. “I hope we have something good for dinner. I’m famished!”

“Me too,” Aurora said, her teeth black from licorice. “Want some, Ef?”

I shook my head. “No thanks, I’ll wait for chow.”

Nit looked like she was about to drill me with some questions about my call to Mom, so I grabbed my toothbrush kit and headed for the biffy. “I’m going to brush my teeth!” Which would be the first time in—I dunno,
ever—
that I had brushed my teeth in the middle of the day, even though I know you’re supposed to.

Our sink for washing up was outside the biffy, and it was nearly as long as a canoe. It looked like some kind of wooden trough for feeding animals, but it had spigots in it instead of mush or hay. Naomi was already there brushing her teeth, and she gave me a wave with her pinky. Maybe I could just carry my toothbrush around with me, and whenever someone asked me something I didn’t want to talk about, I could start brushing!

After I brushed my teeth till they squeaked and my tongue till it got ticklish, I flossed for a while. I think I was impressing the heck out of Naomi. She was washing her face and putting on lotion. Gee, maybe if I didn’t get Outstanding Camper, I could get Outstanding Dental Hygiene of the Week. But that would not get my picture in the hallway of St. Dominic’s. It would not get my picture in the
Tyler Wash Tribune
, and it definitely would not give me the normal kid life that I wanted so bad. The kind where you didn’t get nervous every time you saw two kids whispering, or the kind that didn’t make you or your big sister the first suspects anytime anything at school got lost or stolen.

I sighed and wrapped a second wad of floss around my fingers. I went to the bottom and started sawing between my lower teeth.

The whole time I’d been thinking about what camp would be like, I always thought that for once, I’d finally be like everyone else. If even just for the week! Instead of living in the crook’s house, I’d be living in a cabin just like
everyone else. All the stuff in my life that embarrasses me—our ratty old car, wearing hand-me-downs, my plain sack lunches with no fancy cookies or chips—wouldn’t matter at camp. I’d have all the same things as everyone else. I’d fit in perfectly! It would be like driving my whole life through a giant car wash. I’d come out the other end all sparkly clean! And I’d even pay extra to have the car-wash man spray the fancy deodorizer inside.

But so far, it wasn’t like that at all. It was as if my other life had followed me to camp, like a smelly old dog. And nearly everything about camp reminded me of my dad. Even the part about not getting to make phone calls, and sleeping on flat pillows. I really did
not
want to think about him! I especially did
not
want to feel bad about his life in the slammer. I wished I could just brush him right out of my brain.

Aurora came up the trail from the cabin. “Hey, Effie, came to see if maybe you drowned in here! Why are you flossing before dinner?”

I rinsed out my mouth and wiped my face on my sleeve. “Something stuck.”

“Well, c’mon! It’s time for chow and I think I smell cheeseburgers!”

She smiled and hooked an arm around my neck. “And I bet we find out which kid puked! I can’t wait!”

A
s both our cabins headed out to Mess together, Cricket and Phil started singing the “Polly Wolly Doodle” song that we learned during crafts. It was a goofy song, but we all were crazy about it.

It was the same song I’d heard Chica singing the first day, except I’d thought she’d been singing about pollywogs. Thinking about Chica reminded me about my idea for getting out of pro swimming, starting tomorrow. I just had to convince Mr. Bucko. I thought if he agreed to it, Sister would give it a thumbs-up too.

The minute I got to Mess, I looked for Maxey. Coco was in the chow line as usual, Swat was filling napkin dispensers, and there was a zitty kid working at desserts. A girl with a very pointy chest brought in a steamy tray of French fries from the kitchen. Everyone in line cheered. Aurora was right. It was burger and fries night. I hoped Coco hadn’t tried anything tricky, like hiding some of his leftover peas in the burgers!

But I didn’t see Maxey anywhere. If I hadn’t wanted to talk to her, I might even have gloated that she hardly ever got to be out where the action was. Coco kept her in the back a lot.

Nit, Aurora, and I took our trays over and joined the rest of Coyote cabin, who were sitting with Cricket and Phil. The boys were on the other side of Mess, and I could tell they were all riled up. Whatever it was, Donal was in the middle of it. They were all cutting up about something.

“Look,” I said to Nit. “Donal looks like he’s having a blast!”

She squinted in the direction of their table. “I hope they’re not giving him a bad time about something.”

“I’ll go check,” Aurora said. “Here, hold my ball, Ef. Cricket! I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Where is she going?” Drew asked. “Is she going to talk to the boys? Should I go with her?”

“I’ll go!” Naomi volunteered.

“Eat, girls!” Cricket said.

“Anybody need ketchup before we go?” Phil asked.