Love and Pollywogs from Camp Calamity (20 page)

“This is Kappa, but that’s not his real name. His official name is Nine-Banded Armadillo. As you all already know, some mean college boys painted
Kappa
on his back. It’s a good reminder to all of us that when you do something mean, even when it’s over, it doesn’t wear off for a long time. Ms. Hawkins said it’s a metaphor and a good one to remember.”

I showed everyone his special features, which are called
scutes
. They’re the layers of bone that cover him. People usually call it armor. I was very gentle holding Kappa, and he stayed calm because he’d had a nice big breakfast of ants and was ready for a nap.

When I was nearly done with my report, Sissy raised her hand. “Why don’t armadillos have armor on their bellies, too? Maybe if they did, they’d survive getting hit by cars.”

I thought a moment. I rubbed Kappa’s soft underbelly. “I’m not really sure, but I think it’s so their hearts don’t get covered up. You don’t want bone over that, even if it could keep you safer.”

It was like what Frank told me about my heart the day we had hot chocolate. He didn’t want me to have armor over the place inside that was about my dad. Even if it did hurt to think about it.

Nobody else asked me any other hard questions after that, and before I sat down I added, “I’m donating all the
rest of my camp spending money to Ms. Hawkins so she can afford to keep rescuing armadillos and other animals. If any of you have leftover money, you might want to do that too. Thank you.”

Ms. Marshall clapped when I was done. She said that she really liked how I combined my study of the species with my concern for their humane treatment. She even suggested that I might want to submit my report to
Ranger Rick
magazine! And then she even told everyone about my idea for having retreats and camp reunions for grown-ups at Camp Wickitawa. She said she really liked the way I thought about the “greater good.”

I just might get my Christmas card from Ms. Marshall after all!

After class, I went and sat in a shady spot at the lake and had my rest period while all the girls had their swimming class. I studied everything they did, especially the super-good swimmers like Mary Peters and Mary Paul. Nit was pretty good too. Aurora was the
worst
swimmer in class! But she didn’t seem to know it. Or maybe she did, but she didn’t care because she was having so much fun. She never could keep her head down in races. It made her slow. In basketball they’re always yelling “Heads up!” and now she couldn’t break the habit.

I usually spent that time by the lake writing postcards to Mom that I didn’t mail because she wasn’t home to get them. But today I had my mind on Talent Night. Nit, Aurora, and I
still
didn’t have anything planned! It was hard
to think of something we could all do together. It was easy to see what their talents were. I might end up with the matchmaker talent, but I wouldn’t know that until after camp, when Mr. Bucko and Ms. Hawkins had their date. That is, if I passed my swimming test the next day!

I opened my notebook to where I’d started a list of Talent Night ideas.

On the inside cover, I’d taped all the secret messages from my flashlight in the order that they’d come.

I didn’t know what they meant exactly, or who they were from, but they made me feel really good. It was a tiny little pep talk from my flashlight. A girl sure needed one of those now and then.

•   •   •

I sat Chica down on the dock as soon as she arrived on Friday afternoon. Mr. Bucko was there with me. “Chica, I need to tell you something that I should have told you right from the start.”

She could tell from my voice that it was something I felt bad about. She gave my hand a pat. “Don’t be sad, Effie!”

“Chica, I don’t know how to swim. I’m sorry that I made you think I could. It wasn’t honest.”

She looked at me puzzled for a second and then smiled. “That’s okay, Effie. You’re still my best friend!”

“But,” I continued, “Mr. Bucko is going to teach us
both
how to swim today! We almost know how!” I ticked off on my finger. “One, we know how to stay in the water even longer than an armadillo, right?”

“Right!” she said.

“Two, we learned that you don’t hold your breath when you swim, right?”

“No! We blow bubbles!”

“Exactly, and number three, what do we do with our legs and feet?”

“Snip, snip! We love the scissor kick!”

“And number four, I’m going to show you something really fun that Mr. Bucko showed me yesterday. It’s called the Root Beer Float.”

It’s really called the Dead Man’s Float, but I told Mr. Bucko that’s a terrible name for kids who are worried about drowning. He said I could change it.

“I love root beer floats!” she breathed. “Teach me that one too, Effie!”

“Chica, remember when you told me you couldn’t learn how to swim because you were ‘slow’?” I asked.

She nodded. “Slow at everything.”

“You’re not! Look how fast you learned all these different things.”

She caught her breath and held it a second. “I wasn’t slow, was I, Effie?”

I shook my head. “And you sure weren’t slow learning
how to paint,” I reminded her. “You’re already as good as any grown-up I know!”

She blushed and bit back a smile. “Grandpa says it’s not nice to brag. But I wasn’t slow when I ran to get help yesterday either!”

I laughed and gave her a quick squeeze. “You were extremely speedy. My legs are still sore from trying to keep up with you.”

“I guess sometimes I’m slow,” she said, “but sometimes I’m very
fast!”

“I’m the same way. Everybody is! Now get in the lake, speedy,” I said.

We got in the lake and she watched me lie on top of the water on my belly, arms out, for a long time. No sinking. Then I showed her how I could do it on my back, too. Still no sinking. It was like a miracle.

We did it together front and back. I showed her how from her belly she could lift her head up a tiny bit, take a breath, and then lay it down and blow bubbles.

“I’m blowing root beer bubbles!” she yelled.

For the last part of the class, Mr. Bucko has us go up on the dock and practice the crawl stroke. Chica was so into it, she forgot all about drying off.

Kind of like how I’d forgotten about altitude sickness.

Mr. Jimenez came down to the dock in time to witness Chica in the water putting her stroke and kick together. It was extremely splashy, but it was
swimming!

I was super proud of her! And of me, too. I made it
half the distance between the dock and the ropes. I told Mr. Bucko he better make some restaurant reservations for his date with Ms. Hawkins.

“I didn’t see you swim all the way,” he said, teasing like he didn’t think I’d be able to do it.

“I still have tomorrow!” I said.

T
alent Night ended up being pure, plain fun! I think they should rename it Silly Night, so a kid doesn’t worry about it for two months like I did. We all laughed so hard we could hardly stay in our chairs. Even the staff were wiping their eyes.

Aurora had remembered this crazy skit called “The Dancing Zits” that one of her cousins had done at some music camp years ago. We were desperate for an idea by that point. We picked out some silly music and asked Kayla if she wanted to be our Squeezer. She couldn’t do her ballet dance that she’d planned because of her busted ankle. She sort of acted like she was doing us a big favor, but I could tell she had a blast with it. During our dance onstage, she squeezed a load of mini-marshmallows out of
Nit’s mouth, and black olives out of Aurora’s mouth. I was the biggest hit when she pressed my cheeks together and long green gummy worms popped out of my mouth. All the girls were screaming and covering their eyes, and the boys were howling in hysterics. We ended up getting second place at Talent Night!

First place went to Donal and Bryce, who did the funniest ventriloquist act ever. Bryce sat on Donal’s lap as his dummy named Mr. Donabryce, which is their two names put together. Mr. Donabryce wore a tie and a fake mustache. He flapped his mouth open and closed while Donal told funny jokes about Texans. He hardly moved his lips at all!

When Donal used his dummy voice, he didn’t have much of an accent. He sounded just like a regular boy. I hope his accent won’t wear off for a few more years. I realized I really like it. They got a giant round of applause, and would get breakfast in bed the next day, served by Matt and Jeb. Donal was going to love that. But even more than that, I think he loved having Bryce to pal around with. I hoped when we went back to school they’d keep being friends.

Swat came and helped me clean up the stage before Ms. Marshall came on. The Dancing Zits had been a very messy act! “Hey, Iced Tea! You guys should have won first place. You three were so good! The green gummy worms were genius. Maxey thought you were the best Dancing Zit!”

“Really?” I said. That was shocking. I figured she’d be hiding under the kitchen sink, totally embarrassed to be related to me.

Ms. Marshall climbed up the stairs to the stage and I hurried off, sweeping up one last runaway marshmallow and an olive so she wouldn’t fall and break her ankle too!

I joined Aurora and Nit where they were sitting on the floor. All the girls in our cabin were sitting in one long row. As soon as I sat down, they started a whisper chain, and it was headed my way. They were all biting their lips in excitement. Nit got a big grin when she heard it, then leaned into me. “Everyone in Coyote thinks you’re going to get Outstanding Camper because of teaching Chica and lots of other things. They’re all saying good luck!”

Oh,
no!
How funny … I didn’t want it. It wasn’t right for me to get it. I hadn’t offered to teach Chica because I was generous. And … I didn’t want to be outstanding anymore. I wanted to be the Instanding Camper of the Week. A normal fit-in kid.

Ms. Marshall tapped the microphone to get our attention. “Girls and boys, what a terrific week we’ve had! I’m proud of every one of you. You’ve each mastered some new skills and made some real contributions to this week’s experience.”

I could tell Ms. Marshall was going to be talking for a bit, so I reached into my backpack and pulled out my flashlight. I gave it a little shake and heard the familiar rattle of a new message inside. It was always exciting! I
unscrewed the bottom as quietly as I could and pulled the note out.

I hoped they would! I passed it so Nit and Aurora could read it too. Aurora gave me a thumbs-up. Nit squeezed my arm.

“Well,” Ms. Marshall was saying, “I could go on and on about how much I’ve enjoyed you all, but I know that what you really want to hear is who will be this year’s
Outstanding Camper of the Week
.

“In our history of Outstanding Campers, we’ve chosen boys and girls for many things—for remarkable work in our science and nature curriculum, for leadership, for noteworthy physical achievements, and for being inspirational campers. We have found one such camper here with us this week.

“On behalf of the staff of Camp Wickitawa, I am pleased to announce that our next Outstanding Camper of the Week is …”

She looked right down at the row where Nit, Aurora, and I were sitting! I held my breath. Well, maybe I didn’t deserve it, but I could still see my photograph—

“Miss
Trinity Finch!”
she announced.

I got to my feet and jumped up and down with my hands raised over my head. YES!

Aurora jumped up next to me and started clapping and cheering like crazy. Our whole cabin did!

“Trinity, come on
up!”
Ms. Marshall hollered through the noise.

Nit was frozen. She looked like she’d just seen the Weeping Widow. I pulled her up and drug her all the way to the stage. Ms. Marshall came and got her from there. I stood at the bottom of the steps grinning. I was so happy for Nit! Until just a few months ago everyone thought she was a really weird kid—even me. Now she’ll be a celebrity forever.

Ms. Marshall laughed into the microphone. “As you can see, we’ve surprised her!”

Nit nodded, flapping her jaw like Mr. Donabryce, the dummy.

“Trinity has had a very busy week, like you all have. But she has made the time to make a significant contribution to the science and nature center. Her many hours of volunteer work there each day feeding and caring for the animals, and even shoveling up after them, has allowed Ms. Hawkins to spend more time with you girls and boys. And Miss Finch’s comprehensive report on the peregrine falcon will be added to the science and nature center’s permanent collection.”

Donal stood up, whistled, and cheered. “That’s brilliant, Nit!”

Ms. Marshall made a motion to someone standing near the stage curtain. We all craned our neck to see who it was. Ms. Hawkins and Gypsy came out together. Nit finally smiled. She made her special
kek-kek-kek
noise,
and Gypsy hopped right onto her hat. We all cheered at that.