Love and Pollywogs from Camp Calamity (10 page)

“Yes, Mr. Bucko!”

A test? There was a test on our swimming?
Oh, no!
I had to make sure he didn’t get to me today. Maybe I could stay underwater the whole time and he’d forget I was there.

“Great!” he said, peeling off his T-shirt. He was very tan everywhere and covered with a lot of blond fur on his front. I didn’t want to look at his man nipples, but I couldn’t help it. I bet Sister didn’t want to look either!

“We’ll get in the water in just a minute to warm up, but who here knows how to do the dolphin kick?”

I looked around quick. Only a few girls raised their hand. I stuck mine in my mouth and started buzzing down a fingernail.

“I’ve seen people do it, Mr. Bucko, and I’ve tried it, but it’s really hard!” Kimber said.

“Okay, for those of you who haven’t seen the dolphin kick before, let me demonstrate up here first. Let’s have everybody stand up. Arms overhead and feet together. Knees nice and loose. Everyone with me?” He looked around to make sure.

“Mr. Bucko!” My hand flew up again. I trusted Aurora to take care of Kayla, who I knew was gonna want to murder me.

“Yes?” he asked.

“What if you’ve never seen a dolphin before?”

He smiled. “Not a problem. Just watch me.”

“Effie,” Cricket said, “imagine how a mermaid swims. She has that big giant tail and no legs to kick. But she’s a great swimmer, right?”

“Exactly! Thanks, Cricket!” Mr. Bucko said. “Everyone, we’ll try this in slow motion. First move your chest up, and then move your hips back as your chest comes forward … right … good … unlock your knees there …
better … now, thighs back as hips move forward … keep those knees bending as you roll. Imagine a big wave coming right through you.”

This was really hard! But at least it was outside of the water. I hoped everyone would be slow learners and we’d stay on the dry dock until 11:45.

“The main areas to focus on rolling are hips, knees, and ankles,” Mr. Bucko said.

He came around and checked our progress. We all looked pretty silly. “Okay, you’re getting it! Excellent! Does anyone know what swimming stroke uses the dolphin kick?”

“Butterfly!” Kayla shouted.

Figured she’d know.

“That’s the one! And the butterfly is the hardest stroke of all to master. Depending on how well you do with the dolphin kick, maybe we’ll get to that later in the week. Okay!” he said, clapping his hands. “Good work!”

And then he said the two words I’d been dreading to hear.

“Everybody
in!”

L
ake Cachumo is not just big and deep-looking. It is icy cold! It’s like climbing into a Slurpee. I think there might be a glacier in the middle of it. They definitely did not mention that on my postcard, or in the camp handbook! Mr. Bucko probably lost a whole year of hearing from our high-pitched screaming.

He told us that for now we had to stay on the inside of the buoys, which separated the shallow part from the deep part. He said the lake drops off steep after the buoys, and we had to have supervision to go past them. Absolutely no problem with that, sir! Off in the distance was a big platform that we would swim out to, but not today. First he wanted to see how we all did in the shallower part. Excellent plan.

The platform looked like it might be all the way to Hawaii! It was so far away you had to squint your eyes to see it. I didn’t know how anybody could swim that far. It looked like a terrible place to practice diving. How was I ever going to get myself out of that? I wondered if I could get Maxey to sneak out and teach me to swim tonight. Oh, right, that would only work if she was actually speaking to me! Why couldn’t this camp have a nice, regular swimming pool?

After everyone got all the way in the water and got all the squealing out of their systems, Mr. Bucko had us hold on to the dock while we practiced our dolphin kick. After that, he gave us kickboards and let us try it on our own. He said we could play mermaid too and try it underwater.

Nit and Aurora were excellent mermaids right off. I could see them skimming by. In fact, my whole class was pretty good at it. Except Kayla. She couldn’t seem to keep her feet together. Must be connected to the same muscle that keeps her jaws flapping open all the time.

Everyone seemed to want to have their swimming test, because whenever he called out “Who’s next?” everyone raised their hand. I went under and studied the bottom of the lake, in case he was one of those adults who like to pick the kid who doesn’t raise their hand.

I was practicing my dolphin kick, holding on to the kickboard, when I heard someone yelling my name. Really loud.

“EFFIE!”

I lifted up my goggles and turned in circles until I saw Chica standing on the dock.

“EFFIE! HI, I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”

“Hi, Chica!” I waved and started kicking back to the dock. Least, I was trying. I wasn’t getting there very fast.

“EFFIE! COME TALK TO ME!” Chica yelled.

“I’m coming, Chica!” I yelled. My dolphin kick seemed to want to take me in reverse, not forward. “Here I am!” I panted, when I finally arrived.

“I was looking for you, Effie!” Chica said.

“I know! Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Grandpa said I could invite you over to see my room! I have a goldfish!”

“I have a goldfish at home,” I told her. “His name is Bubba. What’s the name of your fish?”

“Mom!” she said.

“You named your fish Mom?”

“Yes! She’s red on top, just like Mom and just like
you
!”

“Really?”

Chica nodded. “Can you come to my room now?”

I turned to look behind me. “I really wish I could, but I’m in my swimming class. Maybe after lunch! I’ll check.”

“I don’t like swimming!” she said.

“How come?”

“I can’t swim! I only know how to sink.”

“Ohhh! Didn’t your grandpa try to teach you?”

“He ran out of patience, he said. Mr. Bucko tried. But he said we would try again another day! I take a lot of patience,” she said. “I’m
slow
at everything!”

“Not at smiling and kindness!” I said, repeating what Mom had told me. “You’re very fast at that.”

She sucked in her breath. “I’m going to go tell Grandpa!” she said with a giant grin. “Bye, Effie! I can’t wait for you to come over!” She turned and ran down the path, her braids flying like kite tails behind her.

Thinking about kites reminded me of Benjamin Franklin and the one he supposedly flew in a storm to see if lightning was electric. I could have told him it is! It nearly cooked my goose a few weeks ago. As I headed back to my class, a sizzling idea of my own came ripping down the skies right at me.

If only I could make it work!

•   •   •

Sister let me go to Mr. Jimenez and Chica’s before chow was even over, since I ended up sitting alone. Aurora inhaled her lunch and then raced over to the boys’ camp for some hoops. Nit ran off to help Ms. Hawkins feed Gypsy, who she could barely stop talking about. They were going to chop up some frozen mice for her lunch. Gypsy’s lunch, that is, not Ms. Hawkins’s.

Sister first tried to get me to go sit with some of the other girls, but they were all over at Kayla’s table. Even though it was only the first day of camp and we hadn’t
even had official mail call yet, Kayla had already gotten a package! Ms. Marshall let her have it early because the writing on the outside of the box said it had to be eaten or put in the refrigerator. Her rich parents had sent her chocolate-dipped strawberries and apricots. She was sharing with everyone who went to her table and made a big fuss over her.

I was happy to be going to visit Chica. Cricket walked with me over to the Jimenezes’ cabin. It was on the other side of the camp, away from all the kid cabins. It had a shady porch that wrapped all the way around it, with hanging baskets of ferns and flowers. Looked like a place where Frank would live. Nothing was broken or worn-out. I knocked on their cabin door, and Chica yanked it open before I even finished.

“Hi, Effie! Come see my room!”

Mr. Jimenez was sitting at their kitchen table pulling the guts out of a toaster. Maybe after camp I could mail him ours from home. It takes about a week and a half to even warm up a piece of bread. He gave me a friendly wave and smile before Chica drug me off.

When I walked into her bedroom, I stood there with my mouth open, trying to take it all in. Chica spun in circles all around me like a ballerina.

“Effie, do you like my room?”

“It’s—it’s—Chica—it’s so beautiful! It’s the best room I’ve ever seen!”

It was amazing! I had expected her to have a pink
princess room. I figured that was why she was so excited about it. I thought she might even have a lot of dolls and we would have a tea party with them.

Instead, it looked like it might be Picasso’s bedroom! Or maybe even Michelangelo’s!

There were paintings everywhere—hanging from overhead wires on clothespins, and on the wall in big, colorful frames. The paintings were of trees and big skies, birds, and lots of faces—faces that looked so real I thought they might start talking.

“Chica!” I breathed. “Are these
your
paintings?”

“Yes! I love to paint!”

“You’re so good!”

Her bedroom ceiling was extra high and had a giant sunroof in it, like our VW Bug. A big splash of light came right through the middle. One side of her room had a black and white polka-dot ladder that went up to a loft, where there was a bed and a bookcase crammed full of books.

“Come up!” she said.

I didn’t need to be asked twice. I scrambled up the ladder behind her and she pulled me up onto her bed.

“Grandpa built everything! He’s so good too!”

“If I had a room like this, I’d never leave,” I vowed. I looked out over it all. She had a giant easel set up in one corner, and a table full of paint and brushes. It was all super tidy.

“Look at all my books!” she said.

I pulled out
Beezus and Ramona
. A lot of the pages were bent, and there were snack stains all over it. Just like my copy at home. “Oh, I love this book!”

“Me too! That’s why we’re best friends, Effie!” She took my hand and swung it.

“Wow, Chica,” I said. “Who taught you how to paint?”

“My mom!” she said. “She went to California to paint the ocean. I stayed here to take care of Grandpa. I promised I would forever!”

What would happen to them both if Camp Wickitawa closed? How could they ever leave this cabin? And what if the camp really got sold to a company that turned it into a big water park? This beautiful room might be underwater. That would be so wrong!

“Where do you keep all your clothes?”

“C’mon! I’ll show you!” She dropped down her loft ladder monkey-style, and I followed. Once we hit the floor, she yanked on the ladder and it opened up to a secret closet underneath her bed loft.

“Awesome!”

“Here’s Mom!” she said. “I almost forgot—”

Right next to her closet was a striped painted pillar with a round glass bowl on it. A big goldfish peered out at us.

“Hi, Mom!” I said, bending over. “She looks a lot like my fish, Bubba.”

“Maybe they could get married and have babies! Or is Bubba already married?”

I giggled. “Nope, he’s a bachelor. Oh! I was so excited that I nearly forgot to ask you something. Remember when you came to the dock and you said you didn’t like swimming?”

“Yes, because I’m a big sinker!”

“Well, I’m not a great swimmer myself, Chica—least, not yet, but I have tons of patience. What if I helped you?”

“Really truly, Effie?”

“Really truly!”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me out to the kitchen. “Grandpa! Can I hug Effie
now
? It’s a special occasion! She’s going to teach me to swim!”

Chica was the easy part. And I really did want to help her. The fact that helping her was going to help me was just a bonus. Now if I could sell my idea to Mr. Bucko without him or anyone else catching on!

I
was nearly in a full-on lather by the time Sister Lucille finally handed me her cell phone during rest period. I took it out in back of the Elk cabin so I could talk without any eavesdroppers. The day had stretched on forever. I really missed having Aurora in our afternoon arts and crafts class, which some kids called farts and craps, but not in front of Sister. We made these pretty cool leather cushions called sit-upons for Singing Spirits Circle. Nit and I made one for Aurora that looked exactly like ours. Then Nit made a tiny one for Gypsy, her
newest
best friend. Between basketballs and birds, I was getting left at the train station. But good best friends are super understanding, and I was trying with all my might to be just that.