Crossroads (17 page)

“
It’s not my mom I’m
worried about. You can’t mention a word to Gamma.”

“
Don’t worry; I know how
protective she is of you. A bit too much, if you ask
me.”

“
She’s just old-fashioned.
But seriously, I don’t want her to know. She’ll get really upset
and I don’t want to disappoint her.”

“
What are you going to
tell Gamma? What excuse are you going to give her for not being at
church on Sunday?” Patty asked, worried for me.

“
I don’t know. I guess
I’ll tell her that I’m sick or something, and Mom will have to
cover for me. We just have to be careful and not mention the word
‘camping’ around her,” I said, already feeling guilty for
contemplating the lie I was going to tell Gamma.

“
Don’t worry. I’m not
doing anything to ruin our chance of going camping together. You
turned me down several times before. I know it’s because Gamma
thinks it’s too dangerous, but it’s not. I’ve been so many times,
and I’m in one piece.”

I frowned, wondering if this was a
good idea. “All right then, I’ll go since you took such great
efforts to arrange all this,” I said, debating whether I should be
mad at her or thanking her.

“
Open!” she said with a
huge grin. She placed an oversized box in front of me.

I was hesitant to open it, but I did
as told. It was a dark brown sleeping bag that looked very warm. I
didn’t bother to take it out, knowing I would have to fold it back
into the box.

“
Sorry it’s not new, but
you know how expensive these things are.”

“
Yes, I do. I have tons of
these,” I said sarcastically. “But don’t worry, I promise to take
good care of it, and I’ll return it back in mint condition,” I
said, this time more obligingly.

“
So, are you going to
bring him?” she asked, as curiosity sparkled in her
eyes.

“
What?” She completely
caught me off guard.

“
Michael. Did you forget
about him already?”

She had no idea how much he was
embedded in my head. “No. He won’t be going.” My voice was
low.

“
Oh, that’s too bad.” She
looked disappointed and strolled away.

Several customers walked in, and we
went back to work. We were busy, which was odd for a Sunday, but I
didn’t mind because it distracted me from my thoughts of
him.

Chapter 11

Mom was thrilled that I was going
camping with Patty. We agreed not to mention the word “camping” to
Gamma and that Mom would tell her that I was too sick to attend
church. I felt bad about lying to her, but I knew she would be
adamant that I shouldn’t go. Patty was right. She was always
overprotective; more than Mom ever was. Patty had asked me to go
camping with her several times before and I might have gone, but
Gamma insisted that it was not a good idea. I wasn’t allowed to do
anything that was considered dangerous in her eyes. Regardless, I
obeyed because she was my godmother, and I didn’t want to start a
fight about something that I would eventually be able to choose for
myself.

“
Over here!” Patty waved
her hand.

I tossed a small black duffel bag over
my left shoulder, tucked Patty’s sleeping bag under my other arm,
and casually walked toward her. “Hello,” I said and hugged everyone
standing near Patty.

“
Glad you could make it,
Claudia,” John said with a smile.

“
If Patty snores too
loudly, you can come to my tent.” Chris was flirtatious.

“
That’s not funny.” Patty
frowned while looking irritated. “I don’t snore!” She crossed her
arms.

Something about snoring made females
seem less attractive, and Patty was not going to allow that to
cross anyone’s mind about her. I spoke in Patty’s defense. “You
won’t get a visit from me, Chris. Patty doesn’t snore.” Patty
looked my way with a smile to say thanks.

“
Let’s go! Last one on the
bus does the dishes the first night!” Andrew, our camp director,
joked to get us on the bus.

“
Come on, Claudia!” Patty
linked my arm to hers, pulling me toward the bus. “I hate doing the
dishes.”

“
I’m walking as fast as I
can.” I reshuffled the bag on my shoulder. “I have extra weight on
me,” I said, insinuating that it was her fault.

“
Wimp,” she teased and
pulled me even faster.

“
Don’t forget to take the
front seat,” I reminded her while we placed our things inside the
storage compartment of the bus. Patty knew I suffered from motion
sickness, particularly in the back seat. Being car sick was not how
I wanted to start this trip.

As I climbed the steps, excitement ran
through me. I had never been on a tour bus like this before. Patty
had told me that Andrew rented a Greyhound bus, but I wouldn’t have
imagined it to be this spacious or look so nice. It even had a
bathroom in the back.

“
Here,” she said as she
patted the first seat on the bus.

I plunked myself down next to her,
taking the window seat.

After the last person got on, Andrew
counted heads to make sure everyone was on board. “Twenty and I
make twenty-one. Great! Let’s get going.” He motioned the bus
driver to start moving. He sat at the only empty seat available,
which was right across from Patty. I knew she was thrilled since he
was her secret crush that only I knew about. It was her ultimate
secret, something so sacred to her that I could dangle it over her
head if I were that kind of friend. I could feel Patty stiffen
uncomfortably.

I whispered in her ear. “He doesn’t
know, so lighten up, or he’ll sense something is wrong.”

She nodded and loosened up and even
started a conversation with him. While everyone was having fun
laughing and chatting, my thoughts were elsewhere. Feeling slightly
carsick from the bumpy ride, I placed my head against the window. I
didn’t realize I was drifting off to sleep.

Darkness surrounded me. I didn’t know
where I was. Then out of nowhere, my friend Claudia Emerson
appeared and started speaking to me. “Claudia, why don’t you come
home? I need you. Why did you leave me? Don’t you care?” she
asked.

I took a few steps toward her, even
though the sight of her frightened me. She looked so pale and
ghostlike.

“
What are you talking
about? I am where I belong. This is home,” I replied.

“
No, you’re wrong. You
belong in my world.”

“
I don’t understand.” I
walked right up to her to calm her down, but she snatched both of
my wrists with so much strength that I shrieked in pain.

“
Stop! You’re hurting me!”
She didn’t let go, and the pain was excruciating. I didn’t care at
this point whether I was using good manners to a dead person and I
shouted, “You’re dead! Go away!”

At that moment, Claudia’s face
transformed into an unrecognizable man’s face. His face expressed
intense anger, and if looks could kill, he would have done it.
There was a deep, sharp tone to his voice; it sounded familiar,
almost like Julia’s, but huskier.

“
We’re coming! We’re
coming!” he said over and over. I knew I was dreaming, and I wanted
out. I tried screaming, but I had no voice. Drifting in and out of
a dreamlike state, I fought with every part of my body to get
myself to wake up from this nightmare. He was fading away, but the
image of his face was permanently etched in my head.

Someone was shaking me. “Claudia,
Claudia, are you all right? Wake up!”

“
Patty,” I spoke softly as
I awoke to a few of my friends sitting near me, looking
concerned.

“
We’re almost there. You
were dreaming. Wow! It must have been some wild dream. Everything
okay?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine…thanks,” I
said, feeling self-conscious. I wasn’t fine; the nightmare made me
nervous for the rest of the ride to the campsite. I kept replaying
it in my head, trying to find the meaning behind the dream. Nothing
made sense, and I couldn’t shake the image of the man’s
face.

It took us two hours to get there, and
it was all a blur to me. As I stepped off the bus, the whole
uncomfortable idea of camping started fading away. We grabbed our
gear and headed toward the campground.

The bathroom, with hot showers, was
located on the campground just as Patty promised. There were picnic
tables and tents that looked spacious enough for four campers. I
was happy to see only a few trees and shrubs. I disliked shrubs
because they provided a home for snakes and insects. The weather
was just perfect, not too hot and not too cold.

“
So what do you think?”
Patty nudged my shoulder.

“
Not bad. Not bad at all.
In fact, I may like it here.” I pointed to the tents that were
scattered around the campfire. “Who put up the tents? Or are they
up all the time?”

Patty chuckled lightly. “Mike, the
other camp director and his friends left early this morning to get
the tents ready for us. Believe me, it can take hours to put up the
tents,” she explained, leading the way to ours.

Patty unzipped the front of our khaki
tent, and I followed her in. It was spacious, yet it felt cozy.
Although I knew we were exposed to whatever was out there, like
bears, snakes, and who knows what, being inside the tent somehow
made me feel safe. As Patty placed her bags down, so did I. Then I
copied Patty as she unrolled her sleeping bag, seeing as I didn’t
know if there was a proper technique to unrolling one. After all,
it was my very first time.

“
Here.” She grabbed
something out of her bag and tossed it to me. “I brought this for
you.”

It was a flashlight. It fumbled in my
hands and I nearly dropped it, not realizing how big it was.
Useless thing, I thought, reminded of that dreadful night when one
went right through the black fog. Then again, it did provide some
light. Patty’s flashlight was mega big.

“
You can light the whole
campground with this thing,” I said as I turned it on and
off.

“
That’s the point. It gets
really dark here, but no one can miss you with my flashlight…not
that you would get lost, but just in case you need to use the
bathroom in the middle of the night or something.”

“
You know you’re coming
with me, even if I have to wake you up in the middle of the night,
right?” I asked matter-of-factly.

“
Of course. I promised I
would take care of you. Now let me unpack some of this stuff.” She
reached into her bag again. “Here,” she said again and tossed more
items at me.

“
Thanks,” I said, picking
them up. “Sunscreen…need that…bug spray? Yuck! But I guess I need
that too.”

“
Oh, here, I almost
forgot,” she said and tossed me several packs of
something.

This time I caught them. They were
giant chewy Sweet Tarts. “Oh my gosh! You brought my favorite
candy!” I squealed. Any feelings of irritation toward her for
bringing me camping disappeared. She was always thoughtful, whether
the thoughtfulness was to my liking or not.

“
I had to make it up to
you somehow,” she said, smiling. “Let’s go. We need to meet the
others by the campfire.”

We all gathered around the campfire
while the blue group was getting dinner ready. Andrew gave us some
rules to follow, “Stay in the tents you were assigned. Don’t wander
by yourself, and especially don’t go into that area.” He pointed to
the woods to the left that looked to be about a mile from here. “It
says to keep out, so do as the sign says. Is that clear to
everyone?”

We all agreed. “Yes!”

As I was thinking to myself that I
would never go in there, Marie said it aloud. “I wouldn’t go in
there if someone paid me. It looks deadly.”

Marie was like a perfect doll; perfect
skin, perfect body, perfect clothes, and even her hair was
perfectly silky and shiny. Others made fun of her behind her back,
saying that she practically lived in the bathroom. What she lacked
most was the confidence to be herself. She was very competitive and
had to be the best at everything. Her need to have the last word
irked all of us.

“
I dare you to go in there
tonight,” John teased.