Sports Camp

by Rich Wallace

  He wasn’t scared anymore. Being on this path tonight felt comfortable; he knew the way now. There was nothing more to dread. Friday night’s race would be his breakthrough.

  Something broke the water with a splash, and Riley turned his light toward it. Nothing remained but a spreading ring of ripples. Probably a bass. Maybe the one he’d hooked.

  Way back up the hill he could see a line of flashlights moving toward the cabins. The basketball game must have ended. Barry had invited some guys from Cabin 1 over for a poker tournament, but Riley didn’t care about missing it.

  He was almost to the end of the lake now, but he was in no hurry to head back. He climbed atop a large flat boulder that jutted a few feet into the water and spread out on his back. He shut off his flashlight and looked up at the stars.

  There were millions of them. He lay on that rock for nearly an hour, just looking at the constellations. Somewhere nearby Big Joe must be resting. Riley felt comfortable being in his presence. Two creatures out here alone, not bothering anybody. Just being self-reliant. Independent.

  Suddenly an intense streak of light caught his eye. A shooting star. It made a rapid arc, then burned out as quickly as it had appeared.

  Riley remembered what Shawn had told them about the Perseid meteor shower, which occurred in mid-August every year. Apparently it was under way.

  A second meteor appeared a few minutes later, smaller than the first. Every few minutes Riley would see another one, usually lasting no more than a second.

  Cool, he thought. Everybody else is missing this.

  Shawn had said the shower would be most intense after midnight, but Riley wouldn’t be staying up that late. A few more minutes; that would be plenty.

  When he got up to leave, the moon was higher in the sky and the natural light was nearly enough to see by. But he decided to make the full loop around the lake instead of heading back the way he came, and it was still pretty dark in the woods. So he used his flashlight.

  He crossed the bridge and walked faster. He wanted to tell Tony and Eldon to get outside and see the Perseids. They’d appreciate it. Maybe some of the others would, too. Maybe even Patrick.

  As he rounded a turn, he realized that he was nearly to the point where he’d taken the baton in that relay race. This was the hill where Eldon had started to falter, leaving Riley with some ground to make up on the three runners ahead of him.

  Riley started jogging, carefully lighting the path. When he reached the top of the hill, his heart was pumping; it was as if that race was going on all over again.

  He ran down the hill where he’d stumbled in daylight, this time keeping his balance and beginning to move faster. There was better visibility as he came off the slope, just a bit of light from the boat house across the way.

  The flashlight felt like a baton in his hand. He imagined those other runners just ahead of him straining and puffing while he felt so fresh. He burst out of the woods and began climbing Olympia Hill, pumping his arms and nearly sprinting already, feeling like a champion, feeling stronger than he’d ever been in his life.

  He was running faster than he had in that relay, but it felt almost effortless. Past the top of the hill; he’d finish this race now. He’d take on that final sprint to the mess hall.

  After the work of climbing the hill, this flat stretch felt like nothing. Riley poured it on, top speed all the way until he reached the dark space beyond the finish line.

  He walked now, sweating and breathing deeply. He raised his arms overhead, feeling triumphant.

  Slowly he made his way back toward the cabins. A few lights were on, and he could hear some kids laughing. Three or four guys were gathered around a campfire outside Cabin 2.

  He stopped near the Larry, scanning the sky again. He waited a couple of minutes but didn’t see any more meteors.

  Down the hill Lake Surprise was lit by the moon. It looked deep and cool and peaceful.

  A great home for a giant snapping turtle. And a great place for a swimming marathon.

  Riley looked forward to both things connecting.

  Two more days. He knew he was ready for anything.

  CAMP OLYMPIA BULLETIN

  Thursday, August 12

  FORTUNES CLAIM HARDWOOD CROWN

  Inside Strength Makes the Difference

  It was Dawkins over Rios in an exciting and combative basketball final last night. Kelvin Dawkins dominated the boards and scored 18 points as the Fortunes held off the Fighters, 41–37. Johnny Rios continued his hot hand, pouring in 21 points in a losing effort.

  Earlier in the day, Cabin 3 claimed third place over Cabin 1, 33–30. Vinnie Kazmerski scored 14 for the Threshers.

  Who’s Got the Edge for the Big Joe Trophy?

  It’s too close to call. The Cabin 4 Fortunes have taken an 8-point lead over the Cabin 5 Fighters, 91–83, but the Cabin 3 Threshers are right behind with 82. The Threshers will battle the Fighters in today’s softball final, so those standings might be changing significantly.

  The water-polo semis are late this afternoon. The Fortunes and Threshers go head to head for one spot in the final, with the Tubers and Sixers vying for the other.

  Quote of the Day

  “This is the most exciting race for the Big Joe Trophy I’ve ever witnessed,” said counselor Shawn Pearson, who is in his second season on the Camp Olympia staff.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  A Quick-Rising Storm

  Riley and Tony swam frantically toward the player with the ball, but the opponent deftly flipped it back to one of his teammates. Vinnie and Hernando sprinted in that direction, but the Cabin 4 players were very effective at keep-away.

  Only seconds remained, and the Threshers were trailing by a goal.

  “Get the ball!” shouted Barry.

  No kidding, Riley thought. But Cabin 4 had controlled the action for several minutes.

  Riley and Eldon had moved up from the defensive zone, putting six Threshers on the attack. But when Kelvin Dawkins tossed the ball into an empty corner of the playing area, their fate was sealed. Riley and the others swam back toward it, but the whistle blew before they got there. Game over.

  Riley climbed out of the water and sat on the dock in disbelief. It all seemed to be coming apart.

  They’d just lost the water-polo semifinal, capping a horrible day for Cabin 3. They hadn’t even been close in the softball final earlier in the day, dropping an 11–2 nightmare. Riley’d struck out three times.

  “We stunk!” said Barry, staring out at the lake.

  “We got trashed,” Patrick said, shaking his head.

  “Losing to those guys, of all people,” Barry said. “The biggest jerks in camp.”

  Riley looked up as Tony took a seat next to him. “Maybe we should get some more eggs,” Tony whispered. Then he grinned.

  Riley didn’t dare laugh. He’d played poorly in the water-polo game, too, although Barry had let three goals get past him in the second half.

  Kelvin and a couple of other Cabin 4 players hopped out of the water in front of Riley’s team. “Looks like that trophy’s gonna be ours,” Kelvin said, flexing his muscles.

  “We’re still mathematically alive,” Barry said defiantly. “We scored big points for that second place in softball, and we can salvage third in water polo tomorrow.”

  “Sure,” Kelvin said. “Third place is right where you guys belong.”

  Barry stepped closer to Kelvin and stared him straight in the face. “I’m talking about first place, my friend. You haven’t sewn up anything yet.”

  “You better call the Ghostbusters,” Kelvin said as he started to walk away. “No way you can overtake us by yourselves.”

  “We’ll see,” Barry said, turning to his teammates. “It’s not over yet.”

  “Yeah,” said Vinnie. “Anyway, I’m starving. It’s dinnertime.”

  “How can you think of eating after a loss like that?” Barry asked.

  “Still gotta eat.”

  “Not me,” B
arry said. “I’m too agitated…. What’s on the menu?”

  “Chicken,” said Hernando.

  “Real chicken?”

  “Of course not. Some chicken-like substance in gravy.”

  “Okay,” Barry said. “I’ll eat. But I’m calling a team meeting for tonight. Nine-thirty at the trash barrel. Don’t be late. This is crunch time.”

  Riley walked up the hill with Eldon and Tony.

  “Can we really still win this thing?” Eldon asked.

  Tony shrugged. “If we all swim out of our minds tomorrow night, maybe. I mean, we’d have to do much better than we did in qualifying. But it’s possible. We sure didn’t help our cause today.”

  They’d dragged a fallen tree trunk out of the woods and set it near the barrel, so Riley sat on it with Eldon, Kirby, and Diego. The others stood around the fire or sat on the ground. Barry stood behind the barrel and stared silently at the flames for a while before speaking.

  “What bothers me the most,” he whispered, “is letting Cabin Four get away with that nonsense they did to our cabin last week.”

  “They’re jerks,” Hernando said.

  “Yeah, they are,” Barry replied. “We had the perfect retaliation planned, but then Maynard intervened.”

  Barry looked from face to face. Vinnie and Patrick nodded sternly.

  “It was a brilliant plan,” Barry continued, “but there are forces at work in this camp that are beyond human understanding. For some reason, those forces didn’t want us to get revenge at that time. I’m at peace with that. These things happen for a reason.”

  “Amen to that,” said Vinnie.

  Riley squirmed on the trunk. He could feel the heat from the barrel, but he was too low to see the flames. The sky overhead was as clear and starry as the night before.

  “Losing to those guys today was a big setback,” Barry said, “but I’ve studied this carefully. As long as we win the consolation game tomorrow, we’ll still be very much in the hunt, no matter what happens in the championship. It’ll all come down to the swimming, and I’m expecting Tony and Vinnie to have outstanding races. If Colin and you others can pick up a few points, then we might just pull this off.”

  Riley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Eldon caught his eye and smirked. They were “you others,” but Riley didn’t mind that he hadn’t been mentioned by name. He didn’t need any more pressure.

  “The sweetest revenge is victory,” Barry said. “That’s the message. Straight from Maynard and whatever other spirits had a hand in all this. If we win that Big Joe Trophy, those Cabin Four guys can kiss my butt.”

  “You said it!” Vinnie shouted.

  “You’re the man!” added Hernando.

  “I am,” Barry said. “We are. Tomorrow night we’ll be champions.”

  They all stared at the barrel for a minute before Patrick asked, “Meeting over?”

  “Meeting over,” Barry said. “But this fire’ll be burning for a few hours if anybody wants to stick around.”

  Vinnie and Tony and some others wandered off. Riley and Eldon and Diego stood and stepped up to the barrel. Barry put his hands in his pockets and looked at the sky. He pulled a small bag of M&M’s from his pocket and passed it around. Riley took two red ones and a green one and popped them into his mouth.

  Barry swept his hand in the direction that Vinnie and Tony and Colin had gone. “I’m glad they took off,” he said. “I didn’t want to disturb them, but something happened last night that might be repeated. I wouldn’t want to freak them out about swimming across the lake.”

  The bag came back to Barry and he emptied the last of the M&M’s into his mouth, then tossed the wrapper into the barrel. He slowly chewed the candies, then cleared his throat.

  “I couldn’t sleep last night—too keyed up about today’s games—so I walked down by the lake. It was way after midnight, probably one or one-thirty.

  “I was past the boat house, headed for that extra-dark area where the light can’t get through the treetops. There’s no sound at all; everybody in camp is dead asleep and there’s not a single light on anywhere. I stop walking and just look out at the lake. There’s not even a ripple of a wave. Everything’s still.”

  Barry looked at his arm and scratched a mosquito bite, then went back to staring into the fire. He nodded very gently a few times, as if pondering what to say next.

  “I don’t know if any of you guys ever heard this—they keep real quiet about it around here—but maybe forty years ago a canoe tipped over in that lake at night. It was one of those quick-rising storms like we had a few days ago, and these guys—they were just a little older than we are—got swamped by a wave. Or by something. Or someone. I think it was Maynard. They were way out in the deepest section, fishing for bass. A couple of hundred yards from any shoreline.

  “Nobody wore life jackets back then. And these guys couldn’t swim. Nobody even knew they were out there; it was before this was a camp. It was just a lake in the woods.

  “So, needless to say, they all disappeared. The canoe washed up on the shore, but nobody ever found a trace of those guys. Not a sneaker or a skull or anything.”

  Riley swallowed hard. Barry caught his eye and looked down.

  “So I’m standing there last night, minding my own business, and I see this very faint blue light coming toward me from the lake. It’s three separate lights actually, but they’re not lighting anything up, you know? Just these forms floating toward me above the surface of the water. And as they get closer, I see that it’s three people, and they’re moving really slowly, but they’re frantically stroking with their arms and churning their legs, as if they’re trying to sprint as hard as they can, but they’re barely getting anywhere.

  “But they do keep moving toward me, clawing at the air. And as they’re getting closer, I can tell that they’re kids—kids our age—and they’re choking and gasping but not making a sound.

  “It’s those drowning guys, desperately trying to get away from the lake and failing. They get twenty yards from shore, and then they vanish. I see the blue lights sinking under the water and a bigger violet light rising from below. And when I get a clear look at it, it’s a guy with a giant hole ripped through his throat.”

  Barry bit down on his lip and slowly shook his head. He started to speak, then stopped. He looked around the circle, first at Eldon, then at Kirby, Diego, and Riley.

  “Yeah, Maynard. And those three kids,” he said, his voice dropping again to a whisper. “They must be stuck there, constantly trying to save themselves and never quite making it. Forty years those kids’ve been struggling. Can you imagine that?”

  Riley’s mouth was hanging open and his lips were dry from the heat. He licked them and shivered, then inched closer to the fire. Nobody said anything for a long time.

  “Think Big Joe ate ’em?” Eldon asked.

  Barry shut his eyes quickly and nodded. “Why not? They were dead, right? Might as well make a meal out of ’em. They had no use for their bodies.”

  “Not even a trace of them, huh?” Diego asked.

  “Not even a trace.” Barry stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “Any of you guys want to wander down there later … Well, maybe it’s a once-a-year thing. Who knows? I ain’t going back, but … that lake is a powerful place.”

  Riley nodded. No one seemed eager to go down there, and he certainly didn’t need to. He yawned. He was tired. They all were. But nobody moved. They stood by the fire for another half hour, just watching as it burned down to the embers.

  CAMP OLYMPIA BULLETIN

  Special Edition

  Dinnertime

  Friday, August 13

  DAWKINS NAMED CAMP MVP

  All-Stars Selected in Major Sports

  Johnny Rios, Danny Avila, Lionel Robertson, Tony Maniglia, and Vinnie Kazmerski have each nabbed spots on two all-star teams along with the camp’s Most Valuable Player, Kelvin Dawkins of Cabin 4.

  Dawkins led his team to the basketball and wat
er-polo titles. Earlier in camp, he won his section of the swim-marathon qualifier, helped his cabin to victory in the tug-of-war, and was a high finisher in free-throw shooting.

  The Stars

  Softball Basketball Water Polo

  1B: B. Monahan (3) G: Rios (5) Goalie: Rivera (4)

  2B: Rios (5) G: Dawkins (4) Forward: Dawkins (4)

  3B: Castillo (4) F: Avila (5) F: Alvarez (1)

  SS: Maniglia (3) F: Shields (1) F: Kazmerski (3)

  P: Avila (5) C: Robertson (6) F: Maniglia (3)

  C: Robertson (6) Defense: Singh (2)

  OF: Kazmerski (3) D: T. Hiller (6)

  OF: Sullivan (2)

  OF: Medina (1)

  Cabin 4 Holds Lead; Fighters Poised for Victory

  Cabin 4’s second major championship of the season this afternoon vaulted them into the lead for the Big Joe Trophy. The Fortunes knocked off the Tubers to win the water-polo championship, 3–1. But with only the swimming marathon remaining to be contested, second-place Cabin 5 has an excellent chance to claim the overall crown.

  Based on the qualifying races, Cabin 4’s only realistic hope for big points tonight is Kelvin Dawkins. Cabin 5 has a couple of contenders in Danny Avila and Johnny Rios.

  Cabin 3 sits in third place after winning the water-polo consolation match this morning. With five qualifiers for tonight’s swim—more than any other cabin—the Threshers have an outside shot at the title.

  Defending champion Duncan Alvarez of Cabin 1 is the favorite to win the individual championship.

  Big Joe Standings

  Cabin 4 146 points

  Cabin 5 138

  Cabin 3 122

  Cabin 2 79

  Cabin 1 70

  Cabin 6 62