Summer Camp Mystery (4 page)

“So are breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Henry kidded.

Jessie and Violet laughed at Henry’s joke, along with the campers nearby.

“I’m glad Kim let us sit together for dessert,” Violet told Jessie.

“Me, too,” Jessie said. “Here, you can have my s’more. I’m full from our cookout,” Jessie said. “Are you having fun with the Seals?”

Violet stared into the fire. “I’ll like camp better when I can go on nature walks or start making pottery. Kim is upset with our cabin because of my trunk. She said I lost points for our team.”

Jessie frowned. “Well, be sure to mention that since Henry and I are both Dolphins, our team will lose twice as many points for leaving our trunks behind. Ginny was a little upset, but she asked Mr. Pines to bring them to camp tomorrow morning when he drops off the day campers.”

Violet wriggled her toes to warm them near the fire. “I’ll still lose for cabin inspection. Kim’s cross with me.”

“That’s just her way,” Jessie said. “She’s probably upset that Rich and Ginny changed the Olympics from sports to a lot of other activities. Don’t worry. You’ll help the Seals win with your crafts and the way you help other campers. Oh, listen,” Jessie said, “it’s the bugle tape again.”

“I have a few announcements before Henry takes down the flags for the night,” Rich began. “Counselors, remember to walk your campers to the dock at seven-twenty. Mr. Pines will have the ferry ready to bring the day campers back to Dark Harbor for the night.”

Benny was glad to hear this. “I like camp,” he said to Jessie, “but I like seeing Grandfather ‘s’more.’ ”

“Good one,” Jessie said, laughing at Benny’s joke. “Uh-oh. S’more bugle music is coming on. Let’s stand up for Flag Ceremony.”

Henry walked over to the flagpole and lowered the camp flags as the campers watched quietly. When the flags reached the bottom of the ropes, everyone cheered for Henry. He carefully folded the flags for the next day and brought them to Evergreen Lodge.

Jessie’s and Henry’s Dolphins gathered near one another to walk back to their cabins. The sun slid behind the mountains. The wind picked up and whistled through the pine trees.

“Have you seen Lizzie?” Jessie asked Sarah, the Senior Counselor. “She keeps disappearing on me.”

“I saw her with Kim walking to the Bogs — you know, the camp bathrooms,” Sarah said. “Go ahead with the other girls. I’ll make sure Lizzie gets to the cabin.”

“Brrr. I’m an ice cube,” Benny said as all the Dolphins made their way through the woods.

“How are we going to stay warm in the cabins when it’s so dark and cold?” a girl named Daisy asked Jessie.

“At lights-out, we’ll close the shutters and the doors and get under the covers,” Jessie said. “The cabins are small. Our body heat will warm them right up.”

“Not my body heat,” Benny said. “I’m going to be at Grandfather’s hotel in a big old bed with lots of quilts.”

“Sssh,” Henry said. He didn’t want his overnight campers to start thinking about the warm beds they left behind at home. “Our cabin will be snug and warm.”

“And dark,” one little boy said as the groups walked deeper into the woods. “The lights from Evergreen Lodge are getting far away.”

“But the light from my flashlight is right here,” Henry told his group. He turned on the big flashlight Mrs. McGregor had given him to keep in his backpack. “See?”

The flashlight helped the children find their way through the woods. Unfortunately, the light made the children see shadows everywhere, too.

Daisy stayed close to Jessie. “I wish you’d brought your dog, Watch,” she said as everyone huddled near one another on the walk to the cabins. “Look. Now Seal Rock looks like Monster Rock again.”

Jessie and Henry looked out over the water. They didn’t say anything right away. Indeed, now that evening was coming on, the dark, smooth rock did look like the back of some giant creature in the water.

“It’s only the mist and the ocean moving,” Jessie said in her soothing voice, “not Monster — I mean, Seal Rock.”

The Dolphins weren’t far from their cabins when they heard a branch crack in the woods.

“Ooooh! What was that?” Benny said. “Did a tree fall down?”

Jessie stepped ahead. “Watch my campers, Henry. I’ll run ahead.”

Jessie found her own flashlight. She walked quickly for about ten feet. She noticed a broken tree branch close to Cedar Cabin. She dragged it off the path and walked back to her campers. Jessie shined her flashlight on the damp sandy path. Daisy, still nervous, was right by her side.

“Look!” Daisy screamed.

The other campers screamed, too. They grabbed on to Jessie’s arms and legs.

“There, there, girls. Why are you screaming?” she asked her jittery campers.

Daisy pointed to the ground in front of them. “Footprints! Monster footprints!”

Jessie looked closely at the ground. She wanted to believe Daisy’s eyes were playing tricks. Then she saw what Daisy saw — huge claw prints, nearly a foot wide, one in front of the other.

Jessie’s mind raced. She needed to stay calm for her Dolphins. She waved her flashlight around the nearby woods. She saw two pairs of eyes flash back. But they weren’t monster eyes, unless the monsters were wearing Camp Seagull T-shirts. The figures ran off into the woods.

“Somebody played a silly trick on us so we’d scream,” Jessie said. “Sarah says one team does that at the end of the week to make the other team lose points. But it’s not supposed to happen the first few nights. Our monster didn’t come from the ocean but from Camp Seagull.

“And we won’t scream again,” she went on. “We just have to find the monsters who played the trick.”

When the girls arrived at their cabin, Sarah was waiting. “I didn’t find Lizzie. I thought she caught up with you. So it
was
you guys screaming outside. That’s what Kim said, anyway. She just raced in here to remind me to take away points for screaming.”

“Was she wearing a camp T-shirt?” Jessie asked.

“We’re all wearing camp T-shirts,” Sarah answered with a laugh.

“I wish we weren’t going to lose points for screaming,” Jessie said. Then she cheered up. “I just thought of something.”

A couple of girls pulled on Jessie’s sleeves. “What? What?” they asked.

“If we find the person who made the monster footprints, that person’s team will lose points for scaring people,” Jessie said. “Not that we’re scared — right, Dolphins?”

“Right!” the Dolphin girls cheered.

Jessie’s cabin soon sounded as if it were filled with chipmunks. The Cedar Cabin campers were settling in.

“There you are,” Jessie said when Lizzie finally showed up for the cabin meeting. “We had a bit of excitement in the woods. Somebody tried to scare us, but we didn’t get scared — not too much, anyway. Right, girls?” Jessie asked. “Come on in, Lizzie,” Jessie continued. “Leave your sneakers outside, though. They’re all wet and sandy. And next time, stay with our cabin group, okay?”

Lizzie stepped on the porch to remove her sneakers. When she came back, she stood in the doorway barefoot. The other girls arranged themselves on the beds and the floor close to Jessie. Lizzie stayed where she was.

“Okay, Dolphins, let’s talk about some ideas you might have for the Big Idea Medal,” Jessie began. “I’ll write down your ideas. After that, we’ll vote on one to give Ginny and Rich.”

“I know,” Daisy began. “We could have Be Nice Days. We would put slips of paper with our names on them in a box and choose one every day. Then we all would do nice things for that person on her day.”

“Or at lights-out time, I could sing my favorite song,” another girl piped up. “That’s to help anyone who can’t fall asleep. My mom does that. Is that good, Jessie?”

“It sure is. I’ll write it down on my list.”

Jessie found a notepad and began writing the girls’ suggestions.

“Can we write down sharing chocolate?” a girl in pigtails asked.

The girls giggled, even Jessie.

Lizzie Pines didn’t giggle, though. “Food is not allowed in the cabins,” she told everyone. “Junior Counselors have to know the rules.”

“Lizzie’s right,” Jessie said. “No chocolate or any food in Cedar Cabin. Thank you, Lizzie.”

“Where’s your trunk?” Daisy asked when she noticed Jessie only had a backpack on her bed. “Didn’t you bring one?”

Jessie felt her whole face get red, even her ears.

Before Jessie could explain what happened, Lizzie interrupted. “The Aldens left their stuff at the ferry. Cedar Cabin is going to lose points.”

“What about your pj’s and teddy bear?” Daisy asked Jessie. She double-checked that her own pajamas and teddy bear were right there.

“I’m really sorry I let you girls down by forgetting my trunk,” Jessie said. “But maybe I can help make up for it. While I was listing your ideas, I thought of a way to combine all of your suggestions into one super Big Idea.”

“How?” some of the girls asked at the same time.

“Me and My Buddy could be the name for all of your ideas,” Jessie said. “One camper who’s good or strong at something helps another camper who isn’t. Since everybody’s good at something, and everybody needs a little help at other things, we all get to help our Buddies or have a Buddy help us.”

After the Dolphins added more ideas, Jessie tapped her pencil against the wooden beam over her bed. “Hear! Hear!” Jessie began. She read off the list: “ ‘Teach Someone to Make Her Bed. Teach Somebody How to Do Something Hard. Help a Friend to Not Be Afraid of the Dark.’ ”

Jessie kept writing until her girls couldn’t think of anything else. “Those will all be part of our Me and My Buddy Big Idea.”

The chattering started up again as the girls talked about who could be Buddies for each other. They didn’t notice that not everyone was still in the cabin. A few minutes later, they heard a knock on the door.

Ginny stepped into Cedar Cabin. “Inspection.” She began to look around. She noticed how tidy everything was. All the trunks were shut. All the beds were made. All the sand and cobwebs had been swept away.

“Nice work, Dolphins,” Ginny said. “Except for Jessie’s wayward trunk, I’m giving you full points for a perfect cabin.” Then Ginny noticed everything wasn’t quite perfect in Cedar Cabin. “Goodness, Jessie, where’s Lizzie?”

All eyes turned to Jessie. She got up from her bed and ran to the porch. “She was here just a second ago.” Jessie looked down. Lizzie’s sneakers were gone, with Lizzie in them!

“I’ll need to talk with you about this,” Ginny said. “I’m in a bit of a rush, but I’ll wait here a few minutes while you go find her. Check the Bogs first.”

Jessie headed to the girls’ bathrooms. When she arrived, several of Kim’s Seals were busy filling a water bucket with soapy water. Violet spotted Jessie in the mirror.

“Kim told us we have to wash down the cabin floor,” Violet explained. “She said we didn’t have any good activities for the Big Idea. I guess she wants us to get lots of points for making our cabin super clean. We have to hurry.”

“Sorry,” Jessie said. “Did you happen to see Lizzie in here?”

Violet nodded. “Not here, but she was in Birch when we all came to the Bogs. Want me to get her?”

“No, I’ll go,” Jessie answered.

Jessie stopped by Birch Cabin. Kim looked up. “If you’re looking for Lizzie, she left for the ferry.”

Jessie got to the point. “We need to talk with Lizzie about not coming here without telling me. If we both talk to her, we can explain that the groups have to stay together for safety reasons.”

“Fine,” Kim said. “But I can’t help it if she wants to be in my group and not yours. Anyway, she went to see her brother and her dad. It’s not a big deal.”

But it did turn out to be a big deal. When Jessie came back to Cedar Cabin alone, Ginny stepped onto the porch. “Jessie, it’s time for the day campers to go back to Dark Harbor. Camp Seagull isn’t just about the Olympics. It’s also about responsibility. Lizzie is your responsibility.”

Jessie looked down at her flip-flops. First her trunk was missing. Now one of her campers was missing. “I know. She already went to the ferry. I . . . uh . . . guess we’ll meet her there.”

Ginny’s face grew very serious. “After the ferry leaves, ask Sarah to watch the cabin. Then please take some time to go over the rules about knowing where your campers are at all times. It’s our most important safety rule.”