Miss Bottomly shook her head in disbelief. “It’s amazing you made it back safely.” She narrowed her eyes. “But you should never, ever, have gone out in that canoe on your own. Especially in a storm in the middle of the night.”
“I just didn’t think there was time to wake you up,” Sophie said meekly.
“As for you, young lady...” Miss Bottomly studied Ginette severely.
Ginette’s hand shook as she rubbed the dreidel. She frowned with worry, then glanced up at Miss Bottomly with big, frightened eyes.
Sophie remembered her promises to Ginette. She sat up straighter and nudged her chair closer to Ginette’s. “I promised Ginette that nothing bad would happen to her. That’s the only way she’d agree to come back here.”
“Bad?” Miss Bottomly said. “Of course, nothing bad will happen to either of you. That you got back here safely is the main thing. But you must promise never to do such an unwise and dangerous thing again.”
“Don’t worry,” Sophie said. “You have my word on that. I promised Ginette that you’d help her. Can you find out about her little sister, Miss Bottomly? Like, where she is? And can you find out about her aunt, too?”
“I’ll make some phone calls later this morning when the rest of the world has woken. Now, let me see those feet of yours, Ginette.”
Ginette lifted her feet out of the bucket of warm water. Miss Bottomly tenderly patted them dry and inspected them. “Your cuts don’t look too bad.”
“Not hurt so much,” Ginette said.
“Maybe not now, but they’ll be sore later. It’s important to keep them clean. Let me bandage them up for you. And here are some clean socks and a pair of running shoes from the lost-and-found that should fit.”
After Miss Bottomly gently applied dressings to Ginette’s bleeding toes, Ginette carefully pulled on the socks and the white canvas shoes. She nodded up at Miss Bottomly. “Nice shoes,” she said. “T’ankyou.”
Miss Bottomly smiled and patted her head. “You’re welcome, dear. Now I imagine that you two would like to go to bed, maybe after a nice hot shower?”
Sophie nodded. “Yes, please.”
Miss Rosy arrived with a stack of dry clothes. Sophie held her breath, expecting that she would tell Miss Bottomly about the Star Girl comics, but she didn’t say a thing about them. Maybe she hadn’t even noticed them in the dark. Fat chance. They were right there under her clothes in her suitcase.
“The girls are ready for a hot shower now,” Miss Bottomly told Miss Rosy.
“Righto,” the counsellor said cheerfully. “Just follow me, girls.”
Sophie tied her towel on a little more securely and slipped on her running shoes. They were wet and cold. She and Ginette followed Miss Rosy along the path to the washroom cabin.
“Should I wait for you?” Miss Rosy asked at the door.
“No,” Sophie said. “We’ll be okay.”
“When you’ve finished showering, come straight back to the cabin,” Miss Rosy said, yawning. “If you don’t mind, I don’t think I’ll wait up for you. I need another hour’s sleep before the whole gang wakes up.”
The washroom was empty and still lit by the flickering oil lamp. Sophie hung her towel on a peg and turned on the shower. The warm water felt amazing, spraying on her head and streaming down her back. Her skin tingled all over.
“Boy, this feels so great,” she said through the cloud of steam. “Come on, Ginette. What are you waiting for?”
Ginette untied her new shoes and pulled off her socks. She hesitated a moment, still clutching her towel tightly around her shoulders. Finally she shook off her towel and hung it beside Sophie’s. She stood up straight, held her head high, and stepped into the shower with her eyes closed.
Sophie swallowed a gasp. Long, ugly scars covered Ginette’s entire thin body and arms. Angry purple marks disfigured her back and her bottom, and her front, as well. Sophie’s heart lurched and pounded and her stomach clenched. What a terrible life that skinny little girl must have had! No wonder she was so scared and mad all the time. Water sprayed into Sophie’s eyes. She closed them and turned away.
“Nice,” Ginette murmured, water splashing down her scarred back. “Hot water very nice. Very nice.”
Sophie tried to smile. She didn’t mention the scars. She couldn’t even look at them now. She let the warm water beat against her back for a long time until she stopped trembling, until the tears stopped running down her face. Then she turned off the taps.
After drying and pulling on dry shorts, a blouse, socks, and sandals, Sophie blotted her eyes and blew her nose. She followed Ginette back up the trail to cabin four. It was still raining, but not as hard as before. Ginette was limping in her new shoes, but after what she had been through, it was quite amazing that she could walk at all. Sophie thought Ginette must be the bravest person she’d ever known.
Except for the gentle swishing of rain on the roof, the cabin was quiet. No one was stirring. Even Miss Rosy was snoring lightly from behind her screen.
For once Sophie was glad she had the bottom bunk. She didn’t think she would have had enough energy left to climb to the upper bunk. She crawled under her blankets without even taking off her sandals and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
THIRTEEN
It was afternoon when Sophie awakened. A lovely, amazingly sunny afternoon. Sunlight streamed through an open window and hit her face. She blinked her eyes open. The rays felt warm on her cheek. She stretched her arms over her head, rolled out of bed, and glanced into the upper bunk. It was empty.
“I hope Ginette hasn’t escaped again,” she muttered to herself.
No one else was in the cabin. Mounds of clothes were on the bunks and on the floor. Even Miss Rosy’s cubicle behind her screen was untidy.
Sounds of kids screaming and laughing and splashing down by the dock drifted up to the cabin. Sophie skinned out of her clothes and pulled on her bathing suit. It was still damp from yesterday’s swim. She shivered slightly as she grabbed her towel and dashed out of the cabin and into the sunshine.
Sunlight was bouncing off the waves in the cove. It looked as if the entire camp was there. Sophie raced down the hill to the flagpole. The water looked so much friendlier in the sunshine.
“Hey, Soph!” Elizabeth yelled up to her. “Come on in! Water’s great!” Even Elizabeth wasn’t complaining about getting wet.
Sophie tore down the ramp and leaped off the dock. The shock of the cool water closed over her head and made her gasp, but she soon got used to it. She splashed and kicked though the shallow water in the cove. She was amazed at how good the water felt compared to how cold it had been the night before.
“Hi there, Sophie!” Miss Rosy called out. “Glad you could join us.”
Sophie smiled up at her as she swam back to the dock.
“So where have you been?” Elizabeth asked as Sophie pulled herself up onto the dock.
“Slept in,” Sophie said.
“So did Ginette. What have you two been up to?”
Ginette was watching Sophie. “I’ll tell you later, Liz,” Sophie whispered, shaking her head. “Maybe.”
“Humph,” Elizabeth snorted. “I thought we were supposed to be friends. Why can’t you tell me now?”
“Just can’t,” Sophie said. She knew how much Elizabeth liked to know every last detail about everything.
“Hey, let’s all jump in together!” Elizabeth yelled, turning away from her. “All cabin four, up onto the dock,” she directed, as bossy as ever.
Sophie followed the other girls from her cabin to the edge of the dock. She stood next to Ginette, who was wearing a bathing suit! The girl also wore the string with the dreidel around her neck and a long-sleeved black shirt that covered her ugly scars. Her toes were plastered with white adhesive bandages.
Ginette actually grinned at Sophie. Then her whole face lit up as she gave Sophie a small red ball with a golden yellow star through it.
Sophie’s legs went weak. “My
Star Girl Super Bounce Ball!” she cried. “You found it!”
Ginette nodded and smiled wide. She had a space between her two front teeth like Sophie did.
“It stuck under dock there,” Ginette said, pointing to the edge of the dock.
“Thank you so much!” Sophie wanted to reach over and hug Ginette hard, but she didn’t. She just grinned and jumped around.
“Come on, you guys!” Elizabeth called. “We’re all jumping into the water together.”
Ginette stood next to Sophie in a line with the other girls at the edge of the dock. Sophie held her Star Girl ball so tightly her fingers cramped.
“Let’s say our cheer, then all jump in together at the end,” Elizabeth directed. “One, two, three, four. Oh, we’re cabin four.”
When they got to the “we’re rotten to the core” part, they all leaped into the water.
Sophie jumped in, too. Bliss! This was a perfect day! Summer camp had to be the best.
Then the bell clanged, and Miss Bottomly was standing at the flagpole.
“I wonder what’s up,” Miss Rosy said. “Come on, girls.”
Sophie snatched up her towel and followed the other girls trooping up the ramp and gathering around the flagpole.
Miss Bottomly waited until everyone had settled down. “Thank you for gathering so quickly, girls. I have an announcement. It looks like we’ll have a beautiful evening tonight, so we’ll be able to have our campfire. And we’ll have a special talent contest. The winners will receive beautiful gold owl pins like this one, plus a hundred extra points for their cabin.”
The girls strained forward to see the gold pin glinting in the sunlight.
“We expect every single one of you to participate in the contest,” Miss Bottomly said. “You can tell a story, dance, sing, or do whatever kind of performance you like. In the past we’ve found that the best ideas are usually group efforts. You’ll have the rest of the afternoon to plan and practise. So now I’ll leave you in the hands of your able counsellors.”
There was a rustling as girls whispered to one another. Excitement filled the air.
As Sophie trailed the girls back to their cabin, she squeezed her Star Girl ball and thought about what she could do for the talent contest. Since her brother, Arthur, was not around to play his harmonica, she couldn’t sing. Not all by herself. She would die of embarrassment in front of all those girls.
“Did Miss Bottomly find out about your little sister for you?” Sophie asked Ginette as she caught up with her.
Ginette nodded. “She at special school, boarding school for children who not hear so well. Jericho School? And they understand her talking there. And they give her new dreidel.”
“That’s wonderful, Ginette. What about your auntie?”
“Ma tante Lise, she in hospital. Very good care, Miss Bottomly say.”
When Ginette smiled at Sophie, she looked like an entirely different person. Not grouchy or crabby at all. Her blond hair fell in wispy tendrils around her face, and there was even a bit of pink colour in her pale cheeks.
The girls sprawled around the cabin. Elizabeth sat next to Sophie and smiled at her. Sophie smiled back, remembering that she was her friend.
“So what should we do?” Miss Rosy asked them, her pencil poised over her notebook. “Any ideas?”
“What did Miss Bottomly mean by a group effort?” Brenda asked.
“That’s when everyone in the cabin does one thing together, like putting on a play,” Miss Rosy said.
“That sounds like fun, but we’d have to think of something really interesting,” Betty said. “What story could we do?”
Elizabeth twirled around like a ballerina. “I could do a dance from Swan Lake,” she said. “I know most of it now.”
Sophie groaned inwardly as she remembered the talent contest Elizabeth and she had been in last Christmas. Elizabeth could be such a show-off.
“Hmm,” Miss Rosy said. “That would take care of one of you.”
“Maybe Sophie could do it with me, like a duet. I could show her the steps.”
Sophie shook her head. “But I can’t dance.”
“Maybe Margaret could do it with me then.”
“And we could wear silver crowns and be princesses,” Margaret said haughtily.
“But what would everyone else do?” Miss Rosy asked.
Ginette was fiddling with the string around her neck. She took out the wooden dreidel and pulled the string from its top, then spun the dreidel on the floor.
“That’s an interesting toy, Ginette,” Miss Rosy said. “Can I look at it for a sec?”
Ginette reluctantly held it up for Miss Rosy to see, but she wouldn’t let it go.
“It’s a dreidel,” Sophie explained. “It’s really special because Ginette’s father carved it for her and her little sister. She doesn’t want to lose it.”
Miss Rosy examined the top more closely.
Elizabeth sniffed. “What’s so special about that? Can’t he just carve another one for them?”
Sophie shook her head. “He died, you see, in the war. He fought in the underground resistance movement in France.” She looked around the cabin. The girls were all staring at her expectantly. Ginette nodded at her, so she went on with Ginette’s story. “He sounds very brave. And Ginette’s mother, they haven’t found her yet, so Ginette has to look after her little sister now.”
“France? Is that where you used to live, Ginette?” Betty asked.
Ginette nodded at Betty. “You tell more,” she whispered to Sophie.
Sophie sat up straighter. “Yes. But during the war, she and her little sister had to hide out in the country in a barn with their mom, and they didn’t have any food or anything. But some soldiers found them and put them into a place called a concentration camp. The adults and kids were separated, and they lost track of their mom. Even at the end of the war, they couldn’t find her. Ginette and her sister were sent to another camp called a refugee camp with a whole lot of other kids until their relatives could be found. And all the time Ginette and her sister stayed together and kept the dreidel.”
A hush had fallen over the entire cabin. The girls shook their heads and stared at Ginette and Sophie, riveted. Even Elizabeth and Margaret were mesmerized.
“But how did she come to Canada?” Betty asked.
Sophie glanced at Ginette.
“Ma tante Lise,” Ginette said.
“Right, her Aunt Lise,” Sophie said. “Ginette and her sister came here with their aunt to live. But she got sick and couldn’t look after them, so Ginette’s little sister was taken away and Ginette has been really worried about her. She promised her mother and father she would always look after her. But this morning Miss Bottomly found out that Ginette’s sister is safe and sound in a boarding school.”
“What about the dreidel?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, yes, the dreidel,” Sophie said. “Her sister needs it to fall asleep. It’s like her good-luck charm or a teddy bear. Miss Bottomly said that a woman at the boarding school gave her another one.” Sophie gripped her own good-luck charm, her Star Girl ball, tighter.
“So what’s going to happen now?” Brenda asked, eyes big with wonder.
“Miss Bottomly is still making some phone calls,” Miss Rosy said. “I’m sure we’ll get everything sorted out.”
“But where will Ginette and her sister live?” Margaret asked. “If they don’t have any parents or any other relatives or anything?”
Sophie drew in a quick breath. “I know!” she said. “Ginette could come and live with me and my family for a while. I’m sure Maman and Papa would agree, especially now that my grandmother’s gone back to her farm in Manitoba. I have a big room all to myself and Ginette could share it.”
“Are you sure, Sophie?” Miss Rosy asked.
Sophie nodded. “Maybe we could ask Miss Bottomly to call my parents. If they say yes, Ginette could come home with me at the end of the week. That is, if Ginette would like that?”
Ginette looked up at Sophie with wide eyes. Then she smiled her gap-toothed smile and nodded eagerly.
Miss Rosy said she would speak to Miss Bottomly.
“I didn’t know there were kids that didn’t have families left after the war,” Elizabeth said. “Nobody told me that.”
Margaret shook her head. “I didn’t even know there were any kids in the war, period. I thought it was just soldiers fighting.”
“Me, too,” Peggy said.
“Hey, I just thought of something,” Miss Rosy said. “How about we act out the story of Ginette’s dreidel for the contest tonight?”
“Yes, let’s!” Elizabeth squealed, clapping her hands. “Oh, that’ll be really good.”
“What do you think, Ginette?” Miss Rosy asked. “Could we use your story to act out tonight?”
Ginette stared at the floor for a moment, then gazed up at Miss Rosy. “I like that.”
“Could I be your little sister?” Betty asked her. “I should be because I’m the shortest.”
Ginette nodded. The girls gathered around her, and she sat up straighter.
“And I could be your mother,” Elizabeth said. “I could do my swan dance for you.”
“And I could be your father,” Margaret said, lowering her voice to sound like a man. “I’d like to be a soldier for the underground resistance and march around and be brave and everything.”
“Okay, okay. Hold your horses. Let’s write all this down.” Miss Rosy scrambled for her pencil and notebook. “When should we start your story, Ginette?”
Ginette looked thoughtful and fiddled with her dreidel.
Sophie said, “How about when Ginette’s dad carved the dreidel and gave it to her and her sister before he left to fight in the underground? What do you think, Ginette?”
Ginette nodded and smiled at her.
“Then we could tell about when the girls and their mother have to hide in the barn, but they’re found and arrested and taken to the concentration camp,” Miss Rosy suggested.
“Oh, this is going to be so good,” Margaret squealed, bouncing on Miss Rosy’s bed.
It didn’t take them long to get the whole play planned out.
Sophie's Friend in Need Page 10