Love and Pollywogs from Camp Calamity (18 page)

“Great!” I fibbed.

“Then we’re swimming next—snip, snip, I love the scissor kick!”

“That’s right. Snip, snip!”

She shot me a ginormous smile and grabbed my hand. Which I really hoped she wasn’t planning on holding the entire hike.

Sister went on about safety rules until we all nearly fell asleep. Stay on the path, don’t wander off, leaflets three: let it be, and all that. If you see any bear cubs, don’t pet them. Ha, ha!

Becca was lugging a big plant book with her, and was going to help Kayla find the plants she needed for her project. Drew had plastic bags for her scat collection. She was going to try to sell some to Marcus, the Booger Boy, after camp. Between Donal’s green urp and Drew’s scat, Marcus was scoring big-time. He’d be stoked.

I noticed Kayla was mostly pointing, and Becca was doing all the picking and labeling. Drew looked hot and bored, and the Issys were practicing a cheerleading routine whenever we stopped on the trail. It was for Talent Night, and it looked pretty dumb.

“Aurora, we need to come up with our Talent Night act!” I told her. “We don’t have anything yet.”

“I know,” she said. “The only thing I’m good at is basketball, though. And cooking big pots of spaghetti.”

“You’re lucky. I don’t even have one talent,” I said. “Least, none that I can think of.”

“You’re a great swimmer!” Chica said.

I blushed. Swell, my one talent is a big fake-a-rooney.

“You’re about the nicest girl at Saint Dom’s, Effie,” Aurora said. “That’s a big talent!”

I wasn’t feeling very nice at all, since I’d just been wishing that Chica would let go of my hand. But I did feel responsible for her. She’d only come on the hike because of me. I’m ten whole months older than her, which in kid time is like ten years. It was kind of like having a little sister.

I wondered if I ever felt too clingy to Maxey, like Chica was beginning to feel to me. I was tired of listening to her
talk. And sing the weenie man song over and over. Then I thought about all the times in my life I’d heard my sister complain, “Mom, can’t you make her shut
up?”

Maxey probably didn’t like it much when I chased her from one end of Mess to the other to try to get her to talk to me.

Was this what it was like to have a little sister? Sometimes sort of nice and flattering, but pretty exhausting, too?

I shot a look over at Aurora. I wondered if I ever felt like a cling-on to her! Or to Nit. I would die to think that they sometimes might wish I would leave them alone. I tried to give them lots of room to grow, like I’d had to do when Aurora transferred over to Sam Houston Elementary. And when Nit decided we should let Donal hang out with us sometimes, even if he was a boy.

The sun was getting hotter and my sunscreen was sweating into my eyes. Which stung bad. I pulled my hand out of Chica’s to wipe my eyes with my shirt. I looked at my watch. We’d been walking for about forty-five minutes already. We’d started on dirt trails, but now we were walking on a paved road lined with trees. There wasn’t much else around.

Sister and Phil were bent over in some bushes looking at something. Kayla and her gang were up ahead a ways. Drew was yelling about finding some raccoon scat. Finally!

“Sister, should we start heading back?” I asked. “I need to have my swim lesson with Chica at four o’clock while Mr. Bucko is still there.”

“Coming!” Sister said.

I pulled Chica into the shade with me. She kept taking her hat off, and her nose was getting red. I reached into my backpack and pulled out some sunscreen. “Hold still, Rudolph,” I said, putting some on her nose.

She giggled and then burst into a chorus of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

There was a loud cry then, and screaming from up the road!

Sister was off like a shot toward it.

“It’s
Kayla!”
the posse screamed.

Aurora and I ran toward them, pulling Chica with us. Kayla was hollering and crying. She’d tripped on a cattle grate, and had one whole leg stuck right down it, all the way up to her butt! Her face was purple from the pain.

Sister tried to help pull her out, but Kayla’s leg was swelling so fast it wouldn’t budge. It was like one of those Chinese finger cages. The harder you pull, the stucker you get. You could tell that it hurt a
lot
when Sister pulled. Kayla sounded like the Weeping Widow we’d heard the other night. Only ten times worse.

“You’re okay!” Sister said. “Kayla, you need to calm down! I’m not going to pull anymore right now, okay? I promise. No more pulling! We’re all going to just relax.” Sister had her arm around Kayla and was motioning for Phil.

She handed Phil her cell. “Call Ms. Marshall. Her number is programmed.”

“That’s the deepest cattle grate I ever saw, Sister! How are you ever going to get her leg out?” Sissy asked.

“Kayla, your leg looks horrible!” Missy wailed.

“Missy! Sissy!” Sister barked. “If you two can’t be quiet, go sit on that fence. You’re not helping here!”

They backed out of the way, and Aurora and I edged in closer. Aurora rubbed Kayla on the back. “You’ll be fine. We’ll get you out.”

Kayla grabbed Aurora’s hand in a death grip. “It
hurts!”

“Kayla,” Sister said. “See if you can just make your leg nice and relaxed. It’s okay. Right now we’re just
rela-a-axing.”

“Sister!” Phil said. “I can’t get any cell service out here.”

I could see the sweat start to run out of Sister’s do-rag on her head. But she kept her voice calm so she wouldn’t freak Kayla out. “No problem, Phil. Why don’t you just move down the road a little bit and try again? Drew, go with her. But stay where I can see you both.”

Chica had been very quiet, but jumped back when there was a noise from inside the grate.

“Uh-oh!” she said.

“Uh-oh
what?”
Kayla yelled.

Chica put her mouth up to Sister’s ear and made a seal around it with both hands. She whispered something.

Sister licked her lips. “Does anyone have a flashlight?” she asked.

“I do!” I said. It was in my backpack.

“Wha-a-at!
What’s down there!” Kayla started crying harder.

“Probably nothing!” Sister said. “But we’re just going to check. Could be a sweet little mouse to keep you company. Keep your leg very still so you don’t kick it by accident, okay?”

“I still can’t get a call out!” Phil yelled.

Sister waved for them to go farther.

I shined my flashlight down into the grate. It was dark and wet, and there was a big pile of leaves or something at the bottom.

“Here, give it,” Becca said. “I’ve got a better angle here.” She took the light and hit the corner nearest her, and then popped up away from it. I saw it the same second she did.

“Red on yellow: kill a fellow …,”
Becca breathed. “Sister, it’s a coral snake!”

W
e all froze.

Sister grabbed Kayla by the shoulders. Kayla was shaking like a wobble-head in a race car. “Kayla,” Sister whispered. “Everything is fine. Snakes are very shy. We’re not going to bother him one bit. We’re all the way over here, and that little guy is all the way over there.”

Big giant drops fell out of Kayla’s eyes. Aurora moved slowly around the back of her, sat down, and put both arms around her. Sister sandwiched her from the front.

Chica turned and ran. “I’m going to get Grandpa!”

Sister pointed at me to stop her because she didn’t want to yell and risk scaring the snake.

Chica was as fast as a mountain goat, and it took me a while to catch her. She was more used to running on dirt
trails than I was. I finally nabbed the back of her hoodie and drug her to a stop. “Chi-ca!”

“No! Let me go! I have to hurry.” She struggled and got free again.

I raced after her. “We’ll get lost, Chica. This won’t help!”

“I know the way! Hurry!”

We pounded over the rocky trails, my backpack beating against me. Chica’s hat blew off but I didn’t dare stop to get it. She was too fast.

I wanted to believe she could get us back to camp. But what if she ran us in circles all afternoon? I hadn’t paid any attention on the way out, so I was no help. I was used to having someone else do that. I started to review all the things I had in my backpack in case we got lost for hours, even overnight! I had plenty of cookies, half a bottle of water, sunscreen—

Chica jumped off the trail and slid downhill.

“No!
Come back, Chica! We have to stay on the trails!”

“It’s a sho-o-ortcut!” she yelled.

When we got to the bottom, I was busted and bruised and my mouth was full of dust. I couldn’t let her out of my sight. If the girl could learn to swim like she could run, I was taking her to the Olympics.

She picked up another trail and I was flooded with relief. For five whole seconds. Before she dove through some more brush and we did another butt toboggan.

We ran and ran and ran. I had no spit left in my mouth and my lungs were on fire.

“Chica! Stop!
Enough is enough!” We couldn’t keep doing this.

I picked up speed and barreled after her. And then I saw it—a glint of blue in the distance. The lake!

“Chica!
I see the lake!”

“I know!” she hollered. And then she started yelling, “Grandpa! Grandpa!” and didn’t let up once until we crashed through some very prickly brush and landed right smack in the middle of Camp Wickitawa.

Mr. Jimenez came tearing out of his cabin.

Chica and I were so winded from our run it was hard to get it all out.

“Sna-a-ake!”

“It’s Kayla! Her leg—stuck—coral snake!”

“Red and
yellow
, Grandpa!”

In less than two minutes, Chica and I were buckled in the front seat of Mr. Jimenez’s pickup truck. I was holding a big jar of grease and some gloves he threw at me.

Ms. Marshall stood by the truck calling 911! Then she blew her whistle three times and Ms. Hawkins, Coco, and Frank all came running.

Ms. Hawkins made me describe the snake again. She ran her hands through her hair. “Lonzo! Pick me up at my classroom,” she said to Mr. Jimenez. “I need to run and get my snake tongs!”

Frank and Coco stayed back to take care of camp, but
Ms. Marshall and Ms. Hawkins rode in back of the truck with some big saws Mr. Jimenez put in. I hoped to God they were for the cattle grate and not Kayla’s leg!

None of us said a word all the way there except for Chica, who pointed out all the directions to her grandpa. I was nuts to get there faster, but I was scared to get there too! What if the snake had bit Kayla, and then came up the grate and got Sister Lucille and Aurora, too! And maybe even Becca! The only survivors would be Missy and Sissy, who Sister made go sit on the fence.

Phil and Drew were probably still walking down the road trying to find a cell phone signal.

“There!”
Chica screamed, nearly blowing out my eardrum.

Mr. Jimenez pulled the truck over before he got to the grate, and cut the engine. “Stay here!” he told me and Chica. I handed him the gloves and grease. He opened the car door quietly and then didn’t shut it.

He and Ms. Hawkins walked slowly toward the grate. She had a big long pair of tongs.

Ms. Marshall motioned for Becca to back away from the grate and come stand with her.

Aurora, Sister Lucille, and Kayla were all wrapped around each other like a big statue. A big statue that wasn’t moving! When Ms. Hawkins got closer, I saw Sister say something, but I couldn’t hear her. I grabbed Chica’s hand and held it tight.

Ms. Hawkins got down on her knees closer to the
grate and peered in. But not too close. She and Sister and Mr. Jimenez were still talking in soft voices. Ms. Hawkins had a small flashlight, but she didn’t go waving it in the snake’s face like we had.

I think Mr. Jimenez wanted to try to grease up Kayla’s leg and slide it out. He opened the jar, but Sister was shaking her head. She motioned to him to back up.

Ms. Hawkins reached behind her for her tongs, and I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t scream. She eased them right down the grate. I squeezed Chica’s hand really hard.

The tongs came up slowly. Dangling off the end was a long, skinny, striped snake, hanging straight as a rope. She had him by the back of his head so he couldn’t turn and bite her. Ms. Hawkins got up slowly and moved it across the street.

We heard the sirens coming! Chica and I flew out of the car and ran over to the grate. Mr. Jimenez was gently putting grease on Kayla’s leg. Kayla had started crying her head off again. Sister and Aurora untangled themselves from Kayla so Mr. Jimenez could work on her. Aurora kept patting Kayla on the back. I didn’t feel jealous or anything. I just felt very, very lucky to know someone as nice and brave as Aurora.

Kayla’s leg was super purpley and swollen! Everyone swarmed around her like buzzing bees. Ms. Marshall rounded us all up so that Mr. Jimenez and the paramedics could do their jobs. I noticed she had giant sweat stains on her shirt. “Kayla’s going to be okay, Ms. Marshall,” I said, and gave her arm a pat. “Don’t worry.”

She let out a giant breath. I think she must have been holding it ever since Chica and I had come tearing into camp. “Thanks, Effie.”