Page 44 of Past Tents

I didn’t know what that meant, but there was no time to investigate it because three female students came running over. “Ms. Dalbotten, Mr. Meadows!”

They talked quickly and talked over each other, but the gist of the situation was that their friend Jayne wasn’t feeling well. Jayne was an awesome drummer in the high school band, and I knew she had a lot on her plate.

I popped up from the log and hurried over to the tent where Jayne lay on top of her sleeping bag, face flushed and forehead hot with signs of a fever.

“I really want to stay. Please.”

Clay looked to me, the presumed expert on wilderness first aid, which was certainly not required here. This was simple cold and flu knowledge, but I quickly ran through some basic assessments to make sure Jayne hadn’t spiked a fever from heat exhaustion or an infection.

Walking her away from her concerned friends, I found a quiet corner of the campsite where she could sit on a tarp in the shade. The listless way she slumped to the side and her pink cheeks told me her fever was probably over a hundred, but I still sent Clay to my tent to grab the medical kit I’d brought.

“It’s in the outside pocket of my pack, the gray one right outside the light green tent.”

Clay jogged off toward the tents, and I focused on Jayne’s sad, flushed face. “I know there’s probably a rule that says I need to go home, but...” Her lower lip trembled, and she swallowed back her emotions. “Is there any way I can stay? I’ve been looking forward to this all year long.”

“You want to be with your friends.” I nodded, remembering that feeling in high school of not wanting to miss out.

She shook her head. “I want to be here in the mountains. I need it. School’s been so stressful this year and I just feel like...” She stopped to catch her breath, and she shook her head again. On a long blink, she swallowed hard, and I began to see that there was something else going on with her.

I reached out and put a hand on her knee. “You okay?”

She blinked a few more times, then nodded her head. Her downtrodden expression said otherwise. “Yeah, pretty much. But, you know, this year hasn’t been the best for me.”

I knew a little bit about it because her mom had called the school to let us know Jayne’s dad had moved out. I’d been keeping an extra eye out for her, but she’d seemed to be in good spirits at school, hadn’t changed friend groups, and hadn’t let her grades slip, as far as I knew.

But I also knew kids worked hard to make sure the surface impression they gave hid whatever they didn’t want seen. Just like the battle Clay had fought silently for so many years. Still waters ran deep, and I felt for Jayne, just like I felt for Clay.

“Yes, I know. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

She tilted her head back and seemed to be studying the branches overhead, but when she looked back at me, her eyes were more glassy than they had been a moment before. I felt for her, trying to hold back emotions that probably had little to do with coming down with a fever.

“I just don’t want to leave. Being up here, this is exactly the break I needed. I just want to breathe the clean air up here and clear my mind. I’ll stay far away from everyone, I promise.”

Still sitting, she leaned back on her hands and lifted her face toward the sky. Despite the tree canopy, the sunlight crept through, dappling her face.

I looked up as well, taking in the majestic trunks and leaves. She was right—there was something centering about being out here. I wanted to find a way to let her stay, but Clay and I would need to bend a few school rules, and I didn’t know how he’d feel about that.

“Sit tight a minute, okay? Let me see what we can work out.”

She nodded and I left, intercepting Clay on his way back from my tent and guiding him out of Jayne’s earshot.

He held up my red first aid kit, which was the size of a jumbo bag of chips. “This is heavy. You carried this in your pack?”

“No such thing as too heavy when it comes to safety.” It didn’t weigh that much. The bag was more awkwardly large than heavy, and I’d had to forego an extra fleece pullover in order to make it fit.

“All my sound words of advice and she learns nothing.”

“Hey, I learned a few things. Especially that if you could carry a six-pack up to a lake, I could carry a few bandages.”

I found myself not wanting Clay to see me as the anti-bug scaredy-cat who couldn’t hold her own in the woods. Maybe I’d gone slightly overboard packing some extra instant ice packs, rolls of bandages, and enough water purifying tablets to make Tennessee’s entire water supply safe for drinking. But if my wilderness first aid skills ended up being needed, I didn’t want to come up short.

Clay started to walk over to where Jayne looked slightly less distressed sitting in the shade, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. I wasn’t expecting the zing of awareness when I felt his muscles flex beneath his shirt. His eyes shot to mine and I knew he felt it too.

Removing my hand, I stuffed it in my jacket pocket and tried to ignore the unexpected warmth spreading through my veins.

Maybe I had a fever too. These things could be contagious.

“Is there any chance we could bend the rules and let Jayne stay for the rest of the trip? We can quarantine her from the othersbut at least let her get something from being out here. She did hike all this way, after all.”

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