The daily sheet listed the one morning activity as prepping for that afternoon’s carnival. The sun was relentless, and shade was at a premium. The cabins felt like saunas, so all the girls were outside trying to stay cool. It was going to be a long day.
Gilda handed me a bag of white T-shirts and one set of colored Sharpies.
“What are these for?” I asked.
“The campers are supposed to decorate the T-shirts and wear them at the carnival. This year’s theme is superheroes.”
“This is supposed to keep them busy all morning?”
“That’s what the bosses say.”
“Can you explain to me how one case of twenty-four markers is supposed to keep forty-eight campers entertained? And let’s be real, no one uses gray or brown.”
“I wish I had more.”
“You’d think for the price of enrollment they could afford to buy three more packs,” I said.
I headed to the Cub cabins with my meager supplies. Fortunately, most Cubs had brought their own art materials with them: gel pens, crayons, and, of course, Sharpies. After I explained the project, the girls went about getting ready for the carnival and were finished in less than an hour.
Tetherball was popular, and there was a lineup for the swings. Some girls drew, read, or polished their nails in clusters, either on the porches or under the few trees dotting the hill.
I parked myself outside in the middle of the bunks so I could easily be found. Lying on the hill, my arm covering my eyes, I was close to falling asleep from a combination of fatigue, boredom, and heat, but I had to pee. It was too hot to trek all the way back to my cabin, and I certainly didn’t want to use the toilets in the bunks. The one time I’d walked inside a stall I gagged from the wet seats and toilet paper on the floor. My default was the OD shack. It was close, clean, and private. While washing my hands, I noticed a spigot attached to the wall. I rummaged through the piles of junk strewn in the corner of the adjacent room. Underneath random lost and found items was a garden hose. Hmmm. I untangled it and hooked it up to the spigot, and when I turned the knob, water sputtered out.
Unraveling the hose, I pulled it into the sunshine. Placing the nozzle on the grass, I went back inside and turned it on full blast. I walked as far as I could toward the hill, held the hose high, and placed my thumb over the nozzle so that water sprayed out in a beautiful cold arc. Within seconds I had throngs of giggling girls running through the DIY sprinkler, cooling off.
Gilda’s office abutted the OD shack. “I heard shrieking, so I came by to find out what was going on.”
“Everyone was so hot and lethargic, I thought this would shake things up a bit,” I said.
“Did you ask Marilyn or Jack if you could do it?”
I felt dread in the pit of my stomach. “I need permission to make sure the girls are having fun?”
“You shouldn’t, but if you look up micromanager in a dictionary, you’ll see a picture of Jack.”
“I’ll worry about him later.” I turned my attention to the happy campers slipping and sliding in front of me.
The sheer joy on their faces was infectious. Within half an hour, all of Girls Camp was exhilarated and soaking wet.
I had to stop so that everyone had time to change into dry clothes before lunch. As I wrapped the hose around my arm, I saw Zelda and Tara, her camp BFF, walking back to their cabin.
“I wish my mother was as cool as yours,” Tara said.
I looked over my shoulder to see Zelda’s reaction. She seemed to be digesting what was said. “Yeah, I’m lucky.”
My heart soared.
The radio crackled as I placed the hose back in the corner. “Lori, come in for Jack; Lori, come in for Jack.”
The dread I had let go of earlier instantly returned. “Lori here.”
“I want to see you in the office ASAP.”
“On my way.”
I took a deep breath, confident in the knowledge that I’d done nothing wrong.
When I walked in, I was met by the chill of the air conditioner against my wet clothes and an apologetic look from Nicole. Both made me shiver.
