The Perfect Summer

by Morgan Billingsley

  As we walked the long pathway to our cabin, all kinds of bugs swarmed around us.

  “Ew! I can’t stay here; there’s bugs everywhere,” Vanessa said.

  “It’s not that bad,” I replied.

  “Here is some bug spray that’s protective for your skin,” said the person who managed the camp grounds.

  “Thank you,” Vanessa replied, quickly taking the spray and covering her entire body with it.

  “Well, I’m Justin,” the camp grounds guide said. “I need to head back to the welcome center, but let me know if you need anything.”

  The kids wouldn’t be here until tomorrow, so I was glad when Dad told us we could chill and relax. Vanessa and I shared a cabin and our parents shared the cabin across from us.

  When Vanessa was done unpacking, she wanted to go explore the camp grounds. I was going to go with her, but then remembered that I had Vanessa’s diary so I let her go alone.

  After she left, I tried everything to get in Vanessa’s diary, but it didn’t open. I was about to try it again, but I heard footsteps coming to the cabin so I hid the diary back in the pillow case.

  “So you’re just going to sit in here by yourself?” Vanessa asked, grabbing her iPhone, which she’d left on her bed.

  “No, just resting as I think about what we’re going to do with the kids tomorrow,” I said.

  “Fine. I forgot my phone. I wanna take some pictures so I’ll see you later,” she replied.

  I figured I wouldn’t be able to get in the diary, so I said, “Wait up, I’ll come with you.”

  We walked around the campsite, taking in the beautiful scenery and just having a good time exploring.

  “You want to play hide-n-seek,” Vanessa asked.

  “Yeah, sure. What’s base?”

  “The welcome center.”

  We played hide and seek for about an hour until Mom called us for dinner. We washed up and went to the bench outside where we met our parents and the other campers for dinner.

  “Bow your heads, please?” Dad said. “Lord, thank you for this food and bless it as we eat. Amen.”

  “Dad, you must really be hungry. I have never heard you say a prayer that fast,” Vanessa said.

  After dinner, Vanessa went to the cabin and slept while the rest of us sang karaoke, played Twister, and Mancala.

  She looked like she was dozing off when I finally made it back to the cabin.

  “You know it’s pretty fun out here in these woods!” I said, shaking her leg.

  “Will you please hush? I’m trying to go to sleep,” Vanessa cried. “You get on my nerves sometimes.”

  “Okay then, good night,” I snapped.

  The next morning, I went straight for the pillow. I was still mad about how Vanessa was so rude to me, so I was determined to get into her diary. I pulled the diary out, then walked very quietly until I reached the stairs. I went to the pond that was twenty feet away. I saw a stick, picked it up, and used it to try to open the diary, but that didn’t work, so then I stomped on the lock, kicked it, and then punched it, but nothing worked. After trying for ten minutes, I gave up and put the diary in my shirt to hide it just in case Vanessa was up when I got back to the room.

  I had just made it back to our cabin when I bumped into our parents.

  “We were just on the way to get you two. Go get your sister and tell her to meet us at the picnic table so we can eat breakfast. We have a lot to do today,” my mom said.

  “Yes ma’am,” I replied.

  When I walked in, Vanessa was already up and dressed.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Waiting to eat, why?” Vanessa said.

  “That’s what I was coming to get you for. Come on.” I managed to slide the diary back under my pillow.

  We made our way out to the picnic table, where we ate and talked.

  “Well, it’s almost nine, the kids are here and that means it’s time to get started,” Dad said. “But first I wanted to talk to the two of you. I know that you girls think that you have it rough. You believe that the move is unfair to you. We want you to know how blessed you are. That is why we want you here.”

  The sound of young children suddenly filled the air.

  “I guess our campers are ready,” Mom said.

  We all looked over and saw the campers heading toward us.

  “Ladies, it is show time,” Dad said. “It is time for us to help the kids have a happy week.”

  After the kids were settled in the meeting area, Dad gave a wonderful speech about being the best they could be. I looked around and saw all of the bright smiling faces. They didn’t care about the bugs or not having cable in their rooms. They were just excited to be at the camp.

  The group Vanessa and I had consisted of five seven-year-old girls. All of the girls lived in an orphanage. After Vanessa and I introduced ourselves, we had them go around the room and tell us a little about themselves. The first girl, a deep-dimpled girl who looked like she could be on the cover of a cereal box spoke first.

  “I’m Sarah. I’ve been in the orphanage since I was two,” she said like she’d just announced the time.

  The next girl followed. “I’ve been there since I was three, when both of my parents were killed in a car crash.”

  “My mommy and daddy died from taking too many drugs,” another little girl added.

  “My mommy died that way, too,” another little girl said.

  I was speechless as they went down the line introducing themselves. All of them had led lives that made my heart sad.

  They asked us questions about what was it like to have a mom and dad or a sister. They asked about our homes, our schools. And they were thrilled to hear that we only shared a room with one person. It was definitely not what I expected.

  That’s how it went every day at the camp. The girls would hurl a bunch of questions at us, before going off to play like they didn’t have a care in the world. Each day the girls told us how lucky we were to have parents and a nice house to live in.

  The last day of camp, Vanessa and I were sitting on the steps of our cabin.

  “You know Teresa, this camp has been a great experience,” she said to me.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean,” I replied. “I feel so bad for complaining about what I have. There are children at this camp that would trade places with us in a heartbeat.”

  “You are right. I am so thankful for what we have and for our parents. I think we owe them a big apology,” said Vanessa.

  “I agree,” I told her. I hesitated, then decided to come clean. “I also owe you an apology Vanessa. I have been trying to break into your diary.” I don’t know why I felt the need to confess, but this whole experience had been eye-opening and I just felt the need to tell the truth.

  “Why would you do that?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, it just seems you have more friends than I do,” I said with a shrug. “I wanted to see what else is going on with you.”

  “Duh, we both have the same friends. That is crazy!”

  “I know, I feel terrible. I won’t do anything like that again.”

  I thought my sister would be mad at me, but instead, she reached over and hugged me. Then we walked back to the cabin together.

  “You know, we need to do something special for our parents,” Vanessa said.

  “I think you’re right,” I replied. “I have just the right idea to make up for our crazy behavior.”

  We stayed up all night thinking up a plan that would show our parents that we had learned the true meaning of being blessed.

  Chapter 4

  Vanessa

  The last day of camp was full of excitement. Each camp group received an award and did a skit.

  Our group was the last to perform. The girls sang, “You Are My Sunshine.”

  Everyone gave our group a standing ovation. The group stayed on stage to receive their awards.

  “I would like to thank our group for helping us learn an important less
on about being nice and appreciating what we have,” Teresa said.

  “Something we haven’t been doing,” I said.

  “We want to apologize to our parents,” Teresa said.

  From the stage we could see the tears welling up in our mother’s eyes and the smile on our dad’s face.

  “We would like to honor them by creating a book club at the church for the girls. We have already spoken to their guardians. They said it’s okay,” I said.

  The girls started screaming and yelling! I knew in my heart that we were doing the right thing.

  “Girls, you have made me and your mother so proud. Look at the expressions on those little girls’ faces,” Dad said after the program was over.

  Each of the girls had huge grins on their faces. They looked so happy, despite everything they were going through. They were definitely an inspiration.

  “Dad, we are real sorry for how we acted,” Teresa said.

  Dad kissed the top of both of our heads. “Hey, it is called growing pains. Just don’t let them happen too often.” He winked.

  Teresa and I laughed and went to join our group.

  We arrived back in Springfield just in time for Sunday service. The people were really nice to all of us. They even made welcome baskets for us. Teresa and I decided to donate them to the book club we were creating.

  “You know, Teresa, I thought this summer would be the worst ever. But I think it may be the perfect summer after all,” I said.

  My twin nodded her head in agreement.

  The End

  A Country Summer

  By

  Morgan Billingsley

  Chapter 1

  Mickey

  When that last bell rang, signaling the beginning of our summer vacation, I felt like I’d just been given a Get Out of Jail card. I had been counting down to this day and was looking forward to hanging out with my twin brother, Max, playing video games, and taking daily swims in the pool my parents had built last winter. You know, just having fun.

  I wasn’t expecting this.

  I mean, in the fun dictionary, a road trip to a country town was nowhere in the book. Yet, that’s exactly what we were doing.

  “Ugh! Are we there yet?” I asked my dad, who was driving our large SUV like a skilled truck driver. My mom was next to him and they were singing some corny old people song on the radio.

  “Mickey, we’ve only been gone an hour. I told you, this is a seven hour drive,” my mom replied, before breaking back into her corny song.

  “Stop, in the name of love! Before you break my heart. . .” they sang. See, corny. Way corny.

  Now, they were taking turns. My dad would sing a line, then my mom would sing the next line.

  I wanted to scream. Why did it feel like we’d already been riding for eight hours? I glanced over at Max. Of course, he was sound asleep, had been since we pulled out of our driveway. Maybe that’s what I needed to do, go to sleep, and when I woke up my nightmare would be over.

  We hadn’t been out of school two days when my mom came and broke the “good news” to us.

  “So, I’ve got a surprise,” my mom had told us over dinner.

  Images of a new PlayStation, or that dog we’d been begging for filled my head. I’d already picked out a name for the dog. Shizzy. I know Max was gonna hate that name, but I was the oldest – by three whole minutes – so I got to choose.

  “What is the surprise, Mom?” I asked.

  I should’ve known something was up the way my parents exchanged glances.

  “Well, we’ve decided to do something different this summer,” she said.

  “Oooh, we’re going to Great Wolf Lodge?” I yelled. I’d been begging to go to the indoor water resort near Dallas for years.

  “Not quite,” my dad mumbled.

  “Disney World?” Max said. “Yay! I wanna go to Magic Kingdom!”

  Ugh, we were ten years old and my brother still got excited about baby stuff.

  “We went to Disney World when we were five,” I reminded Max. “So that’s not different.”

  “Guess,” my mom said.

  My brother and I took turns guessing what the summer surprise was. We said everything from a trip to Hawaii to a foreign exchange student coming to live with us. I can tell you what we didn’t guess. . .this!

  I had heard lots of stories about Sweet Poke, Arkansas, the place my mother grew up, but we had never been there. My grandmother still lived there but she’d been sick, so she’d been in California with my Aunt Nessa. But now, Grandma was better and apparently back home.

  “I don’t understand why we have to go. If Grandma is sick, she doesn’t need us running around,” I whined.

  “Mickey, we’ve been over this a hundred times. Grandma is all better now. That heart attack scared her and she wants to enjoy her grandchildren before she dies,” my mother said.

  “Grandma’s dying?” I yelled. OMG. My summer was now going to be spent with my dying grandmother?

  “No,” my mom quickly said. “She just wants to enjoy her grandchildren.”

  “Well, why can’t she enjoy us over the weekend? Why does she need the whole summer to enjoy us?” I asked.

  “Mickey, I’m not going to go over and over this with you,” my mom said. “You’ll be spending your summer in the country and that’s that.”

  “What did I ever do for this punishment?” I blurted out.

  “This is not punishment, Darling. This is a family trip, plus you’ll get to spend time with your cousins. Your Aunt Nola has kids your age,” my mother stated.

  “So stop complaining,” my dad added. “You’re going to be pleasantly surprised. It’ll be fun.”

  I sulked back in my seat. “Yay,” I mumbled. “What fun. A summer spent in the middle of nowhere. Just what I’ve always wanted.”

  That memory was fresh in my mind because it was all I had been thinking about since I got the news. I let out a big sigh, pushed Max’s leg because he was still asleep, then turned and stared out the window until my eyelids got too heavy and I drifted off to sleep, too.

  Chapter 2

  Max

  I don’t know how long I’d been asleep. Both my sister and I had been up, played on our iPads, argued about which Avenger was the best, then fallen asleep again on this seven-hour journey to my grandma’s.

  And now, we were finally here. Wherever here was. Because if you asked me, we were in the middle of Timbuktu. (I never really knew where that was either but my mom always says it’s like far, far away.).

  We pulled into a dirt driveway and the smoke from the dirt made it seem like we had just driven through a fog machine. I sat up, stretched, and looked around. There was an old, rickety house in front of us with yellow peeling paint and a front porch that looked like it would cave in at any second. There was a large oak tree in the front yard, and tied to it with a long chain was a matted looking German shepherd. OMG, who tied their dogs to trees?

  “Get your sister,” my dad said as he and my mom stepped out of the car. I reached over and shook my sister’s leg. She was still snoring like a pig so I shook harder.

  “Get up, Mickey. We’re here.” When I felt her stir, I slid my seatbelt off and slipped out of the car. As soon as my feet hit that dirt, a woman that looked like she weighed more than my whole fourth grade class came racing toward me.

  “Ooooh-wee, boy, you look just like your mama! I’m your Aunt Nola. Mickey, come give me a hug!” She lifted me up – no for real, she lifted me up like I was a little baby and swung me around as she squeezed me so tight I thought all the breath would leave my body.

  “I’m. . .Max,” I struggled to say as I tried to wiggle out of her WWF grip.

  She dropped me, ruffled my curly hair, and told my mom, “Lois, what took y’all so long to bring him down here?” Before my mom could answer, Mickey eased out of the car. “Oooh-wee, and there’s two of them! Ain’t that just precious?” the woman continued.

  She didn’t pick my sister up and try to suffo
cate her, but she did squeeze her cheeks like she was trying to tear off some skin.

  “Owww,” Mickey said, jerking her head away.

  “Nola, can you let the kids get in the house?” my mother said.

  The woman let out a hearty laugh. “Y’all come on inside. I know you had a long drive and I got some rabbit and pig’s feet waiting on the stove for y’all.”

  Both Mickey and I stopped walking.

  “Rabbit?” Mickey asked in horror.

  “Pig’s feet?” I asked, even more horrified.

  My dad laughed. “Nola, we’re gonna have to ease the kids into this good country eating. They’re not used to that.”

  My parents started getting our suitcases out of the trunk. Neither Mickey or I moved. They didn’t need to ease me into anything. All they needed to do was point me in the direction of the nearest McDonald’s. Shoot, at this point, I’d walk there.

  I was just about to say something else when a Tyrannosaurus-sized mosquito bit me dead on the neck. “Arggh!” I screamed, frantically slapping my neck.

  “What’s wrong?” my mother asked, panicked.

  “A gigantic mosquito bit me!” I screamed.

  Aunt Nola laughed again. I failed to see what she thought was so funny. For all I knew, that thing could’ve been carrying the West Nile and Ebola viruses, a new disease called Nilbola!

  “Chile, let me get the Off,” Aunt Nola said. “These mosquitos ain’t no joke ’round here. They will have a grand picnic on you if you don’t keep yourself sprayed down.”

  She wobbled inside her house and Mickey seized the moment.

  “Mom, like seriously? You can’t leave us here where they eat furry little animals and get attacked by killer mosquitos.” She looked at me. “I mean, look at Max, the color is draining from his face. He probably has some kind of disease already.”

  “Disease?” I asked, scared like crazy.

  “His eyes are puffing up and everything.”

  My hands went to eyes. They didn’t feel puffy, but I couldn’t see them. Mickey could. She was staring at me, shaking her head.