Slowly, all of Woodlands made their way to the pavilion in various stages of disarray. Some were sopping wet from the splashdown ride, others carried seedy-looking stuffed animals. Hair was flat against heads, and everyone dragged their feet.
Hazel approached, smiling and walking arm in arm with her camp BFF, Jenna.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“Great, we went on every roller coaster twice!” She grinned from ear to ear.
“What made your mouth blue?”
Hazel stuck her tongue out. “Dippin’ Dots.”
I counted off each meal ticket as my groups slowly trickled in. Jasmine, my least reliable counselor, showed up with three campers.
“Who are you missing?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You had four campers at the start of the day.” When she looked at me blankly, my voice became shrill. “Who are you missing?”
Alexis, one of the campers, said, “I haven’t seen Kaylee since we went on the Loop-de-Loop.”
“Jasmine, where’s Kaylee?” I tried not to sound panicked.
“I don’t know.” She didn’t seem concerned at all.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? You’ve lost Kaylee? You had four girls with you at the start of the day, and you didn’tnotice that one was missing?” I tried to keep my voice level as my stomach twisted.
“She’s probably with her brother.” Jasmine shrugged as if it was no big deal.
“Right, she has a twin brother.” I asked Abby, “Who’s the DL for the eight-year-old boys?”
She flipped through her paperwork. “That would be Jeremy.”
I unclipped the radio from my shorts pocket. “Jeremy, come in for Lori. Jeremy, please come in for Lori.”
“Hey, Lori, Jeremy here.”
“Do you know where Kyle Bloom’s group is?”
“Yep, I’m walking with them to dinner right now.”
“Is Kaylee with them?”
“She sure is.”
“Thank you.” I turned to Jasmine. “You and I will have a conversation later when we’re back at camp.”
“It’s no big deal. She was with her brother.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I was about to tell Jasmine to stand off to the side and wait for Kaylee, when I saw her walking up the hill, happily chatting with Kyle. I wasn’t angry with Kaylee; after all, she was only missing her twin. But I wished I had the authority to fire Jasmine on the spot. What I could do was add her name to the Do Not Resuscitate list so she wouldn’t be asked back.
Zelda tapped me on the shoulder as I counted out five tickets for Genie and her campers.
“Mom, can you come with me to the bathroom?”
“Sure, give me a sec.” I handed the rest of the tickets to Abby, asking her to cover for me. “How’re you feeling? Did you have a fun day?”
“Okay. You told me I had to change the tampon every three hours.”
