Page 53 of Wilderness Search
Chapter Fifteen
Willa and Aaron arrived at the camp just after sunset. The bonfire on the shore of the lake sent sparks into the sky, the wood snapping like twigs underfoot. They heard the buzz of conversation as they crossed the grass toward the shore, high children’s voices soaring in the clear evening. The scent of woodsmoke perfumed the air, and a cool breeze raised goose bumps on Willa’s bare arms, making her reach for the sweater she had brought.
“Did you go to camp when you were a kid?” Aaron asked.
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
The memory came to her clearly—a summer when her two best friends were going to a sleep-away camp for two weeks. While she stayed home.
“One year I wanted to go,” she said. “But it wasn’t possible. I didn’t even ask my dad.”
“Because you knew he couldn’t afford it?”
“I have no idea. But if I left, who would cook dinner for him and my brother, or do the laundry, or pack his lunch?” She shook her head. “Looking back, I can’t believe I saw my father as so helpless. Surely he would have found a way to look after himself and Gary while I was away. But I took that on as my responsibility and I couldn’t let it go.”
“He let you take it on.”
“He had a hard time after my mother died. It was probably easier to let me handle some of the things he didn’t have the energy to do.” She didn’t want to think about that sad time, or about how things might have worked out differently. “What about you?” she asked. “Did you go to camp?”
“Boy Scouts. Camp Walla Walla or Winemuka or something like that. Two weeks of canoeing in deep water, archery with arrows with sharp points and dangerous crafts involving leather and sharp knives. All in the hands of preadolescent boys to which everything was a potential weapon. I’m amazed we all survived.”
She laughed. “I think Mountain Kingdom is tamer than that. I didn’t see a single sharp knife or arrow with a point in my visits here.”
They reached the edge of the bonfire. A trio of girls were roasting marshmallows. Willa recognized Juliet, her purple cast covered with scrawled signatures.
“If you want a marshmallow, you have to ask Veronica,” Juliet said. “She won’t let you help yourself.”
“Because some people take too many,” a second girl, with black braids, said.
“Boys take too many,” the third girl, a pixie-cut blonde, said, and all three dissolved into giggles.
Aaron touched Willa’s shoulder. “I see someone I need to talk to,” he said.
“Fine. I’m going to get a marshmallow.”
He headed toward a cluster of cabins and she walked over to a folding table where Veronica sat, looking bored.
“Could I have a couple of marshmallows, please?” Willa asked.
Veronica handed her a bent coat hanger with two marshmallows impaled on the end. “I thought you were anurse,” she said. “Are you a cop, too? They told us there would be some cops here tonight.”
“I’m friends with a cop.” She glanced toward Aaron, who stood halfway between the bonfire and the cabins, talking with another counselor, a young man with wire-rimmed glasses.
Veronica followed her gaze. “Lucky you,” she said. “He’s hot. I noticed him yesterday, when they were searching the place.”
“Did they find anything?”
“You tell me.” She shrugged. “I don’t think there’s anything to find. This place is beyond dull. Olivia probably ran away because she was bored out of her mind.”
“Were you her counselor?”
“One of them. And before you ask, I already told the cops she was normal as could be before she ran away. No tears. No moping.”
“I heard she was sneaking out of her cabin for a while before she disappeared.”
Her expression grew sullen. “I don’t know anything about that. I’m not these kids’ jailer. And I have to sleep sometime.”
