by Lisa Grace
Seth waves his imaginary sword, grabs me around the waist, and swings me around.
“Stop!” I laugh.
“You asked for it.”
The kids on the beach start hooting and hollering for Seth as we make our way down to them.
Mr. Z is gathering all the kids down by the relay flags. Half of them are stripping down to their suits. Others are slathering sunscreen on, horsing around, or awaiting instructions. Mr. Z. grabs everyone’s attention by saying, “Update on Casey. She’s fine. They’re keeping her at the hospital overnight for observation. Good job Seth, Megan, and Jackson. You really pulled together as a team and that saved that little girl’s life. I’m proud of you.” He claps his hands together. “Now let’s have a race.”
After swim, we head up to lunch. Seth and I grab some sandwiches and sodas. It’s too nice of a day to eat indoors. I quickly scan the room looking for Carrie, but she’s nowhere in sight.
“Want to go down to our place and eat?” Seth asks.
“Great idea. I’d love to.”
We head out with our lunch. The day is beautiful. A light breeze keeps blowing hair into my face. I wish I’d brought a hair tie. I want to tell Seth about Zadok, but I’m afraid he’ll think there’s something wrong with me. How do you tell your boyfriend that one of your camp counselors is an angel? Especially since Seth’s never noticed anything out of the ordinary about him. How would I bring up that I see Mr. Z. glowing? How do I tell him about the evil things I’m seeing too? What if Seth stops treating me normal and all he wants to do is talk about what I see or worse yet, if he doesn’t want to be with me anymore because I’m too strange? Or what if he doesn’t believe me? I can’t risk it. I just have to hope he notices something. If he does, then I can bring up what I know.
There is a safer topic I can discuss. We sit on the dock and watch an eagle circling, hunting for fish on the far end of the lake. We eat our sandwiches, sitting so close our legs are touching. I throw one of my legs over his, swinging them together just over the water. I ball up some bread and throw it in the lake. Perch and sunfish rise up to the surface to eat it.
“I think one of the girls here is bulimic.”
“Great topic for lunch,” Seth says.
“Oh yeah. I guess it is kind of gross.”
“So who is it?” Seth throws out a dough ball much further than mine.
“I don’t know yet. I only saw her shoes. They were pink.”
“Well that certainly narrows it down.”
“If I find out who it is, what should I say to her?”
“Hmm, what does one say to a cookie tosser? What’s up?—Lunch?”
I hit Seth, “Stop. It’s not funny.”
“I guess you should probably tell one of the adults and let them handle it. Megs, whoever the cookie tosser is, she’s going to need help. Professional help. You aren’t going to solve her problems in the next few days.”
“Well I can try to talk to her, if I can find out who she is.”
Seth stands and holds out his hand to help me up. I don’t let go once I’m up. I know Zadok is out there watching me. Having a guardian angel at moments like this is a little irritating. I look up at Seth. He’s looking down at me. I can sense that he wants to kiss me and I long to kiss him. Seth lowers his head to mine. I lift my face to him. Seth puts his hands on my hips and draws me closer. I lay my hands gently on his chest. Our lips touch as a flash of darkness in the trees catches my eye. We both hear a branch snap and look back into the woods. Seth and I see a deer and its fawn bounding out of sight deeper into the woods. I shiver. Seth puts his hands on my arms and rubs them, our romantic tension broken.
“It’s okay, it’s only a deer,” Seth says. Except it’s not okay, because just past where the deer were, I see something evil, watching us, watching me. I know Seth can’t see it, but I get an uneasy feeling—it knows I can.
“Let’s go back. I have to do a couple of things back at the cabin,” I say. I avoid looking back into the woods where the evil thing is hiding. I grab Seth’s hand, “Can you walk me back?” I try to sound playful, not scared. I silently ask for protection. It’s too soon. I’m not ready to deal with my gift yet. Just a few minutes ago, I desperately didn’t want Zadok around and now I hope he is.
When I get back to the cabin, all the girls are in. I feel better having them around. Tynekwa, Tasha and Allison, my three musketeers are in my arts and crafts class. Today, we’ll be making wallets, purses, or belts out of leather piece kits. They’re discussing what they like best. I avoid looking out the windows, afraid of what I might see. I’m glad to have the girls walk me to the crafts room.
Class goes by fast. Afterwards, I head over to help cook dinner. Mr. Steve is in charge of dinners. Tonight is spaghetti night. I’m put to work boiling the noodles. The kitchen quickly gets hot. With sauce, frying meat, and garlic bread going, the temperature soon rises to an uncomfortable level. I’m glad we’ll be having another weenie roast tomorrow night. As I stir and sweat, I look around quickly at the other kids feet, but “pink sneaks” isn’t here.
Thankfully, we set everything out in less than half an hour. As the dinner bell rings, I go outside the kitchen door, craving the breezy fresh air. I’m careful not to look at the woods, but I am actively looking for Seth. The air outside is cool compared to the heat of the kitchen. Out front, I spy Carrie walking to the dining room with some of the kids from her cabin. I run over to join her. I’m still spooked from what I saw in the woods. It must be a dark angel in some form. I plan to talk to Zadok about what I saw as soon as dinner is over. I know it can’t hurt me without God’s permission, but seeing something like that is just plain freaky.
“Carrie,” I ask, “did you find out who, I mean, where she got the shoes?”
Carrie gives me a funny look. “Why didn’t you just ask her yourself?”
“What do you mean?”
“This morning at breakfast. Paige was sitting right with us. Anyway, she got them last year. She doesn’t remember where.”
Paige is “pink sneaks”? I’m shocked. Somehow, I didn’t think it would a junior counselor. Especially not someone like her who seems to have it all together. I’ll have to get her alone and ask her. “Oh, well thanks for asking.” I change the subject. “So, how did arrow hunting go?” I ask trying to keep a smirk off my face.
“Fine,” Carrie smiles, “Robby is really nice when he’s not joking around. I think Paige likes him and there’s always a group of the younger girls following him.”
“I call the younger girls his fan club. He is cute, and always willing to play; no wonder they all have a crush on him.”
“He’s a good friend to have,” Carrie says, “I’m enjoying hanging out with him.”
“Have you seen Robby and Seth?” I ask.
“I think Mr. Timmons has them taking the canoes out of the boat house and cleaning them for our trip to the dam tomorrow.” Carrie says.
“Oh, is that tomorrow?” I’d forgotten. You have to be strong enough to paddle to the dam and back. Each canoe only holds three campers. All the canoes are florescent orange so everyone on the water knows we’re from camp. Also, the bright orange canoes make it easier to find someone if they get lost or lag behind. On the trip we stop for lunch at the dam, rest a little bit, then head back. All the campers are required to wear a life vest in case of tipping. Junior counselors and older get to sit on floating cushions in case they have to swim to help a camper. Everyone tips on purpose or by accident. Either way, you’re going over and out at least once. It’s a lot of fun.
The only bad thing you have to watch out for is the kingsnakes. They’re not poisonous, but they are surprising. The kingsnakes like to hang over the water from the tree branches. Usually, at least once a summer, someone gets a snake dropped into their canoe. The trick is to stay away from the trees. But the newbies don’t know that.
I decide to head down to the boathouse, maybe I can help.
Sure enough Robby, Seth, a
nd Mr. Timmons along with Mr. Davis, are carrying the last of the canoes down to the beach. I head up to the boathouse to carry the rest of the life preservers down. The dust in the boathouse makes me sneeze. I hear some scuttling in a nearby corner coming from behind a pile of canvass covers. I look up as a cheeky little chipmunk gives me a warning chirp.
I answer, “Thanks, I’ll be careful.” He gives me a couple more chirps then heads under some boards. Seth walks in just as I sneeze again.
“God bless you,” he says.
“I love it when you catch me doing something graceful like sneezing my head off.”
Seth comes up and helps load my arms up with preservers. “You’re cute no matter what you do.” He puts his hands on my shoulders and lightly touches his nose to mine. He gazes into my eyes as we smile. He lets go and then carries the remaining preservers out.
When we walk down to the beach, Mr. Davis is busy hosing out the insides of the canoes to remove the spider webs.
“You kids can go up to dinner. We’ll finish up,” he says. Robby comes trotting up to us, waves, and continues past us. Seth and I slowly walk up to the mess hall, enjoying our few minutes of private time.
“I think I found out who the bulimic is.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
“Not yet, ’cause I’m not sure. I’m going to talk to her. If she’s the one, maybe I can convince her to get help. She’ll have to tell an adult. She’ll probably hate me and won’t want to be friends anyway.”
Seth reaches out and takes my hand, “Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing. It could be worse to do nothing.”
“You’re right. Thanks for listening.”
“Well, it’s easier to listen to you than to Robby burping the alphabet.”
“At least I know where I stand,” I punch him on the arm.
We reach the hall and go in to eat. After we get our food and sit, I look around for Paige. Luckily, she’s sitting at a table with Robby, Carrie, and his growing fan club. I decide to follow her after dinner. As Paige gets up to leave I ask, “Seth can you clear my tray? I’ll meet up with you later.”
“Sure, I’ll see you at the campfire.”
I head out after Paige, trying not to be too obvious that I’m following her. She ducks in the bathroom and I hear retching as soon as I open the door. Paige comes out of the stall and sees me at the door. “I think we better talk,” I say.
“I just wasn’t feeling well, I’m better now,” Paige says.
“I know that’s not true. I’ve heard you the past few days. I think you have a problem. We need to talk.” I stand in front of the door, blocking her exit.
“Really? It’s none of your business,” Paige pushes past me out the door. I put out my hand to stop the swinging of the door and follow.
I chase after her, “Paige, please, just for a few minutes.”
Paige stops and turns around to face me, “Look, I’m just dieting to lose a few pounds. I’m going to stop soon, so it really is none of your business. Why don’t you go find a way to sneak around some more with your boyfriend and leave me alone.” With that, she runs off in the direction of her cabin.
“Well that went well,” I say under my breath. Now what do I do? I need to try and talk to Paige again. This is a problem I don’t need. I wish I could just ignore her and her problem. I’ve got my own to deal with. But I can’t. What if she gets worse and I didn’t do anything to help her? I have to try. Real life is just as messy and real as seeing angels. Her bulimia could hurt her just as much as these evil supernatural things can hurt me and others too. I decide to attempt to talk to her one more time tomorrow. If that doesn’t work, I’ll need a new game plan. The diners are leaving the mess hall in small groups. I go back to the dining hall and peek in looking for Zadok. He’s not there. I search the rest of the building, no luck. I run into Kayla and Bri and head back to our cabin with them. I glance casually at the woods and see the dark presence again. I think it’s following me. How does it know I can see them? My heart sinks to my stomach. It is watching me. Please God, send Zadok back my way soon. I really don’t want to deal with this on my own. I hope he’s going on the canoe trip with us tomorrow. I can’t stand the thought that the dark thing might be in the woods the whole way down the river. Back at the cabin I grab a jacket, a flashlight, and ask, “Can you girls wait for me?” Bri jokes, “Sounds like you’re afraid.”
“Yep, that’s me, afraid of the dark,” I quip. They think I’m kidding. As Bri and Kayla wait for me, I leave a light on in the cabin. We always return from the campfire in the dark with our flashlights. I know it’s silly, but it does make me feel safer having a beacon of light to come home to. I don’t want to be alone in the dark with that thing. I’m still too freaked out by what happened at the lake.
Zadok is with a group of young boys on the dock fishing. I excuse myself from Kayla and Bri, and run over to him.
“Did ya catch anything?” I ask as I walk out on the dock.
“We’ve caught three bluegill and a sunfish!” One of the boys says excitedly. He opens a bucket to show me his catch.
I look at him and smile, “Wow, you’re doing great.” I turn to Mr. Z. and ask, “Can I speak to you alone for a few minutes?”
Mr. Z. says, “Sure, let me get one of the junior staff here to help the kids.”
I see Jada, one of the junior staff like me, down on the beach. I’m about to call out when Mr. Z. says, as if reading my thoughts (which I know he can’t do), “Someone who’s not afraid to bait a hook or take a fish off the line.”
“Oh,” That narrows the list of prospects down. I see Toby coming down to the beach from the boy’s cabin area. I wait until he’s within shouting distance and call him over. Zadok hands his pole over to Toby. We walk over to stand in front of the boathouse. Knowing we could be interrupted at anytime I blurt out, “I know what the question I need to ask is, but now I’m seeing a dark presence. It’s mainly staying in the woods. It did grab at me in the lake and I think it knows I can see it. What can I do about it.? I’m scared.”
Zadok nods, pursing his lips, “Okay, first things first. Of course you can see ‘it’. You know you can see spiritual forces. But what you’re forgetting is that they’ve always been there, even when you couldn’t see them. Remember the devil, his angels, and demons walk about the Earth looking for those who are spiritually weak. They want to steal their beginning faith from them. A camp like this is one of the best places for them to stay. Many of the kids here are perfect targets. It’s a perfect hunting ground for them. Unclaimed souls. It’s trying to scare you to keep you from your purpose. For those that can’t see them, they can use fear and doubt. Because you can, those tools may not be working so well. Some physical manifestations maybe another tool they’re using.”
“Yeah, but this is freaking me out,” I say.
“Well, you are capable of learning to live with it,” Zadok says matter-of-factly. “So what’s the question?” Zadok asks.
“And you expect me to get used to them touching me, just like that?”
“You don’t have a choice.”
I’m angry and frustrated. It’s so unfair. I wipe a tear away from the corner of my eye. Zadok just waits. His eyes warm with concern.
I take a deep breath and calm down.
“You said you knew the question?” He asks gently.
I nod and take another breath, I think I can talk now without crying, “How can I use my ‘gift’–wait I can say this better, what does God want me to do with my special talent?”
“Congratulations, Megan you asked the right question.” Zadok answers and smiles.
I wait. “So what’s the answer? What does he want me to do? What can I do except freak myself out?”
He smiles, “You must find the answer to what can you do with your gift.”
“You’re kidding, right? Find the answer? By myself? Isn’t that why you’re here? To tell me the answers?”
He stops and looks me in the ey
es. His concern is evident, “Everybody gets to make their own choice in this world. Some get more than one chance. Use your time and your gift wisely.”
He walks back to the campfire signaling my time today with him is done.
Deal with it and find the answer myself? I thought angels were supposed to help! I groan. This is too hard. Why can’t Zadok just tell me? I didn’t even get to ask if he’s here to protect me like a guardian angel kind of thing; but if he is, wouldn’t I have more than a few days to ask him questions? At this rate, I’m not going to learn the things I need to know before I leave camp.
What’s going to happen when I’m in a more populated place? Am I going to see these evil things everywhere? I remember from science class that germs are everywhere, but we can’t see them. I’m grateful I can’t see them. Can I just pretend they’re like germs? I don’t know. But what happens when one speaks to me? I know God’s totally in charge, but I’m still just trying to deal with my new scary reality.
Seth and Robby are walking down to the campfire with a bunch of kids. I’m not going to worry about it anymore tonight. I’m just going to enjoy being with Seth. I’ll have more time to think about everything on the canoe trip tomorrow.
Seth says as he approaches, “You look upset. What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “Nothing I’m fine.” I can’t talk to him about what’s happening to me. I lie, “I’m just fighting a headache. I’ll be fine. It’s almost gone.” I plaster a smile on my face and reach out for his hand. Seth and I manage to have a nice evening with the kids at the campfire. He picks me up and even gives me a piggyback ride.
We take any chance to touch that can’t be deemed “off-limits” because it’s too romantic.
As the adults call for everyone to turn in for the night, Seth says, “Let me walk you back.” He motions for Robby to take his kids and I hear kissy sounds and cat-calling aimed our way.
The girls romp ahead up the trail. The light from the flashlights bouncing off the path and the trees as they draw closer to the cabin and further away from us. I hear the girls giggling and talking all the way.