“You alright?” Roger asked.
“What the hell was I thinking? Me, a girl from Brooklyn, pretending to like the great outdoors and other people’s children and wild animals. I was supposed to be on a Greek Island this summer, drinking ouzo on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean.”
“If I’d been with you, I think I would’ve peed myself—or outright fainted,” Abby said.
“You know what they say: You don’t need to run faster than the bear, you only need to run faster than your friend,” Roger said.
“Roger!” Maggie elbowed him.
Roger chuckled. “What? Too soon?”
“I’m just so happy to have you sitting here with us right now. Could you imagine the call Jack would’ve had to make toRonnie? ‘Hey, Ronnie, so, your kids are fine but your wife, well, she was eaten by a bear.’” Maggie hugged herself.
“‘Now that your wife’s incapacitated, I’ll send you a bill for what you owe.’” Roger was on a roll.
“You know what keeps running through my mind? Remember how pissed I was when Jack told me I always had to carry my radio with me, even on my morning walks? Even though I ended up not using it to call for help, I was glad I had it with me.”
I needed to change out of my wet clothes and wash the stink of fear from my body before waking my bunks for breakfast. Abby walked back to the cabin with me.
“I guess it makes sense that Jack told us not to mention the bear sighting to the counselors, and especially not to the campers. No need to alarm anyone,” I said.
“You know, Lori, you are so naive,” Abby said.
“What do you mean?”
“His real motive is to avoid campers writing home about it. Could you imagine dealing with all the parents calling to make sure their kid wasn’t attacked by a bear?” Abby said.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that.”
Di was still in pajamas when we walked into our cabin. “Do you guys ever sleep?” She looked me over. “Are you sick? You look a little pale.”
“I met up with a bear on my morning walk.”
“You can’t be serious,” Di said.
Before I could comment, the radios gave off an awful squeal before Jack started talking. “All’s clear. Repeat, all is clear. Please start moving your campers to breakfast.”
15Decisions
Isaw Jack outside the office, and instead of avoiding him I went to speak to him.
“Jack, thank you for telling me to carry my radio with me on my walks. I was happy to have it this morning.”
“You know, Lori, in the short time you’ve worked here, you’ve become the biggest pain in my ass.”
I thought he must be teasing me, so I laughed.
“Everything’s a joke with you. Do you ever take anything seriously?” Jack’s voice was getting louder.
“What are you talking about?” I stood there, completely confounded.
“I know that you rearrange the schedules, my schedules, that I work on all winter to guarantee everyone has fun. Who do you think you are, that you can change things without asking me first?”
I had no idea what he was talking about until I remembered how last week two of the Cubs bunks had been scheduled for gymnastics and the other two for softball. But everyone wanted gymnastics and I had cleared it with the head of gymnastics so all four bunks could do it—but I’d forgotten to inform the softball counselors. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the two women had gone to ask Gilda, as head of programming, why the Cubs hadn’t shown up, and Jack had happened to be with her.
He had immediately radioed me. “Lori, why aren’t Cubs one and two at softball right now?”
“Oh!” I began, “All the girls wanted to do gymnastics . . .”
