Page 25 of Lady and the Camp
Marcy:How’s Hudson getting along?
With everyone else, great.
Marcy:You better keep your pranks to yourself. She’s going through a rough time.
Yeah, if rough meant limited shopping and relying on other people to bring her swamp juice. Besides, this was my job. I was a freaking professional.
Professional what…yeah, I didn’t know. My expertise involved the outdoors. Not much else. But Hudson was Marcy’s friend, for some unidentifiable reason, so I had to tell her something.
Me:She’s fine
I gathered my stuff and exited the truck when the phone buzzed again.
Marcy:That’s it? Fine? I KNOW you’ve got an opinion. Don’t try that fine thing with me. Make sure you look out for her, okay?
How did I answer that? I didn’t know, so I didn’t. Marcy knew well enough I didn’t text novels worth of explanation. Things were fine. Or they would be, because I’d make them.
Inside the camp office, things were not fine.
Three campers sat on the bench inside the door holding their stomachs. Rena entered from the hall leading to the nurse’s station on the far end of the building.
“These girls have stomach aches from making their own homemade Junebug juice,” Rena explained.
“Points for creativity.” Maggie, standing by, barely broke a sweat. “But we don’t know exactly what went into that ‘juice.’”
“Let’s go, girls.” Rena and Maggie herded the campers to the nurse’s room.
“Hudson, you’re on,” I said without looking at her or Twila huddled behind the computer.
“But the schedule—” Hudson began.
“It changes.” I snapped my fingers. “In an instant. You’ll have to come on today’s hike.”
She sat, motionless. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
I put the coffeemaker in the kitchenette and swung by my office to unlock the secure cabinet. Took out a can of good bug spray from my personal stash and rejoined her in the main area of the office. “Maggie planned to come on today’s hike with the campers. She’ll need to stay with the sick girls in case any need to go home. You’re coming with me.”
She looked at me with a blank expression. “Come with you. On a hike.”
I let out a slow breath and looked at Twila. “You want to explain?”
Twila finished typing. “Oh, Hudson, honey. It’s for supervision. The teen girls go too, but we need another adult out there on the trails. You know, man leading little girls into the woods. Safety. Optics.”
She nodded. “Right. Of course. That makes sense. Is my outfit okay?”
I almost bit back with a sarcastic comment, when I remembered Marcy’s words.She’s had a rough time.I had some sympathy for that, having been through a few rough months myself. Heck, things were still rough. Just because she didn’t look it on the outside, didn’t mean something wasn’t hurting on the inside.
After all, someone as mismatched as an internet star working at a run-down camp had to mean she wasn’t at the top of her game. Whatever that game was.
“Do you have better shoes?” I nodded toward her sandals. Open toe with all kinds of room for scratches and bites.
“I have some casual slide-ons—”
“English?”
“Sneakers. I have sneakers.”
“That’ll do. Oh, and this.” I handed her the can of bug spray. “Put that on outside on the porch and bring back the can.”
