The next morning Marty looked for Lisa at the flag raising ceremony, and she smiled and waved while her cohorts whispered in each other’s ears and pointed, flashing their eyes in his direction. In the chuck wagon for breakfast she saved a seat for him, but he didn’t want to be a spectacle for a bunch of gossipy girls, so he nodded over to a corner table, and she joined him. The cafeteria was decorated with cliché Western-themed wagon wheels, milk cans, and checkered tablecloths.
“Did you miss me?” she asked demurely, with a teasing gleam in her eyes.
“No, I was studying my algebra,” Marty grinned and dodged the hash browns she flicked at him, “Of course I thought about you all night, what do you think?”
“I think you’re cute.” For once, Marty’s sarcastic rhetoric failed him. He could feel himself blushing, and all the girls at Lisa’s table were laughing at him. He didn’t care, as one identifiable thought repeated in the mush of his brain: She thinks I’m cute! The animated Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer flashed on his mental screen at that moment, and it was unsettling.
Marty and Lisa spent all morning in forgettable activities; sharing unforgettable moments together. He got a good look at her when she wasn’t watching, and was surprised to discover how skinny she was. Her jeans were as slender as redwood shoots, and her calico blouse sagged from extremely narrow shoulders. Her arms were long and delicate, with thin, ivory wrists flowing into tiny hands that fluttered like baby doves testing their wings. She had a small, doll-like face with full lips, and enormous eyes full of unspoken promises. Her long, mahogany hair cascaded down her back and reflected the sunlight in a glazed sheen that reminded him of chocolate. Marty sat very close to her in the arts and crafts room, so they could sometimes brush their shoulders together. He made her a lanyard, and she glued a bunch of red hearts on a bottle for him.
There were only two full days left in the cycle, and then it would be time for Marty and Lisa to return to their homes. He was enjoying her casual but deliberate nearness so much, he tried hard to stay in the present moment and savor their time together. Try as he might, Marty felt an increasingly desperate sense that he had to do something to make their fleeting time together memorable. His mind was filled with corny scenes from old movies, in which he swept her off her feet and planted a big smooch on those delectable lips, but they were surrounded by younger children in the arts & crafts room. There was going to be a dance tomorrow night, and he asked if she would be his date.
“Of course I’ll go with you,” Lisa answered possessively, and slipped her arm softly in his as they walked across the camp for lunch. Marty felt ten feet tall, and wrapped his arm all the way around her thin back. She put her hand in the back pocket of his jeans, but wasn’t interested in his wallet. Their impromptu game of walking Twister made it hard to walk, but they managed quite well. As they approached the chuck wagon, a couple of counselors eyed them with amusement, as if they might have to get the hose.
After lunch Marty had to practice for the horse show, which was also scheduled for tomorrow. Lisa and Cathy came down to the corral and watched his riding technique with admiration. Susie was there, preparing for her age group, and whispered conspiratorially, “Is that your girlfriend?” His pert little sister was predictably riding a cute but docile Palomino that had a lobotomy and drooled.
Marty thought for a moment, and replied with surprising pride, “Yeah, I guess you could say that!” Susie made a clown face of joy, then kicked and reined her mount over immediately to inform her entourage of the developing romance. This took much longer than she wanted, because the old pony wasn’t interested in going anywhere quickly. This made Susie very frustrated, and she kicked and flailed in futility until, by the time she got to the fence, she practically fell off her horse telling them the news. They squealed so loud as a group that they startled the normally placid horses, which wasn’t an easy thing to do. Blossom stood sleepily in the sun and put her ears back, as if calculating the number of days to her retirement.
That spark of gossip spread like a brush fire, and clusters of campers whispered furtively to each other as Marty strode past, smoldering with virility. By the time he got back to the Photo Shop, the porch rats were gaping at him with a mixture of awe and envy. Charlie offered him the best chair, but he waved off the lesser rodents and laid in his bunk for a while, away from all the prying eyes. He wracked his brains for ways he might continue to see Lisa after camp was over, but his only recourse was having his mom drive him to visit her in Hillsborough… wherever that was. Or maybe Julie would want to, now that she had a license. Yeah, right. There were no likely prospects for an ongoing affair. It was now or never.
Restlessly, Marty got up and paced around the small room. There had to be a way Lisa could continue to be his girlfriend! Wait a minute – was she actually his girlfriend? He didn’t know – he’d never had one before, and had no idea what to do, but knew he didn’t want to lose her. There was nobody to ask for advice except an older counselor. He thought of Jules and Jane, who were obviously a couple, and at the ripe old age of 19 were likely to know a thing or two about romantic etiquette. They would probably be out at the archery range, where they could get away from the other counselors and share some target practice. Marty decided to try his hand with bows and arrows while Lisa was away from camp horseback riding. It was going to be a very hot day, and he’d rather be at the lake jumping off the rope swing, but he had some important research to do.
Jules and Jane were very pleased by Marty’s confidence, and smooched right in front of him, as if demonstrating an important technique. “Wow, you guys are smoking,” he said, and Jules bowed and thanked him, but then he noticed Marty was pointing behind them to a billowing cloud of gray smoke rising behind the hill! “No, I mean you are literally smoking!”
“Fire!!” Jane shouted to nobody in particular, and ran back to camp to sound the alarm. Grass fires were a serious threat out in these dry hills, and they’d had fire drills the first day but soon forgot about them. Jules collected all the campers from the archery range, counted them twice, and marched them back to the buildings, double time. Marty mentally calculated where Lisa might be on her trail ride, which always followed the same route. She was on the opposite side of camp from where he saw the smoke, so she was probably okay.
“The wind is blowing this way,” he informed Jules worriedly, as the smoke was now drifting past them. When their group arrived back at camp, the counselors were urgently herding the kids into groups around the flagpole, where they could be counted. Marty estimated there were about a hundred and twenty very agitated campers there. The smoke was getting thicker, and becoming a significant concern. One of the older counselors came and announced the fire department was on its way and everyone had to evacuate. The preadolescent anxiety level, which was already hyperactive, went up a couple more notches. Some of the younger kids looked scared, and were being comforted by counselors. Marty and Susie stuck together the way other siblings did. They marched out past the barn into the parking area, where they observed several fire trucks racing up the highway to the origin of the smoke. The campers milled around in a confused state of alarm while a few more fire trucks barreled past them into the camp itself. The mother duck counselors tried to herd them into groups, but naturally the ducklings raced around in panic. Marty was amazed how people could destabilize so quickly when faced with an emergency. He felt excited, but calm and observant, ready to do whatever was needed in the moment. He looked everywhere for Lisa, wanting to be the hero who saved her from the fire. With understandable relief and surprising affection, he finally saw her approaching from the barn with the rest of her riding class. He fantasized about throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and taking her to safety across the road. What was a hero supposed to do?!
Lisa rushed up to him. “Have you seen Cathy?” she asked breathlessly, holding both of his hands.
“No, I’ve been at the archery range,” Marty answered, hoping that sounded important, “We were the first to see the fire.”
He satisfied his gallant urges by talking to her, putting his arm protectively around her thin shoulders, and just being with her for a while. Jules, always one of the more intelligent counselors, brought some snacks out to the parking lot, and Marty assisted with the distribution. The campers all lined up like refugees to get a bag of chips and an apple. This gave them something else to focus on, and lightened the tension considerably as more food came, and cold sodas were passed around. Lisa and Jane attended to the little girls, and Marty stayed to help Jules with the younger boys. It was very hot and smoky, and a few of the kids were coughing, and had to be led to an ambulance parked next to the gate. Full chaos was on the verge of imploding on itself. Some of the local parents were being frantically searching for their kids, who were crossing the road to get away from the smoke, and total confusion reigned.
The police showed up with a school bus, and it appeared as if they were going to start evacuating everyone, until the wind shifted and the smoke suddenly cleared. It was now blowing the other direction, and Marty could see the blackened fire lines on the hills to the east. Several bright fire trucks dotted the hot slopes where brave crews were working to turn the flames away from camp. It was about as near to disaster as a summer camp could get, without actually having to suffer the worst of it. Marty was thrilled that he finally had something to write home about. He broke away from the counselors who were still trying to keep all the groups together, and checked to see how Lisa was doing. She was in charge of distributing sodas to the youngest children, some of whom were crying.
They embraced spontaneously, then pulled back in each other’s arms, with surprised and exhilarated looks on their faces. “Are you okay?” Marty asked unnecessarily.
“Yeah, but I still can’t find Cathy!” Lisa suddenly burst into tears from pent-up fear and confusion. Marty held her close, feeling her tears on his shoulder, and offering meager words of comfort. In a flash, he remembered he got a glimpse of Cathy with her aunt (who was the camp nurse), and he told her so.
“Look, there she is, next to the ambulance!” Lisa smiled gratefully at Marty and broke away to check on her best friend. The smoke was really dying down by then, as the valiant firefighters were gaining the upper hand. The counselors flitted around like hummingbirds, trying to minister to all the needs of the campers. The owners and office staff of the camp paraded through the parking lot, handing out candy bars like bribes, in a vain attempt to make up for the near catastrophe. Soon most of the fire trucks rumbled out from the driveway, and they got a screaming ovation from over a hundred grateful children. The adults clapped and yelled “thank you!” as the dusty but admirable firefighters ascended to heaven on a cloud of smoke.
The campers and staff were allowed to return to camp an hour later, after the area had been thoroughly checked for hot spots. The nearest fire line came within a hundred yards of the back of the hotel building. She acrid smell of burning grass was still sharp in the air. Marty overheard someone say the blaze started spontaneously in a pile of manure at a neighboring dairy farm. Whatever the cause, it certainly made for a memorable experience! The fear and adrenaline turned to exhilaration and relief, and the mood was animatedly festive. The smoked-orange sun was setting behind the blackened hills, but understandably there would be no campfire. For lack of anything else to do, and wanting to be close to one another, nearly everyone gathered around the flagpole as it got dark. Marty and Lisa held hands with ease and mutual affection, and checked on some of the younger kids who had been crying in the parking lot. Susie was back with her friends from the Dress Shop; all of them flushed red with excitement. Soon there were smiles all around, as they excitedly relived the drama, then ice cream cones appeared from the chuck wagon! Marty thought of his mom and sister back at the Rusty Bucket Ranch, and what they might be doing. Like everyone else in camp, he anxiously wanted to call his family, but there was only one pay phone and a very long line already.
Eventually, everyone went back to their assigned sleeping quarters, but nobody slept. It had been a very long day, and certainly more exciting than most. The porch rats spent hours talking about it on the porch of the Photo Shop. The usual curfew was lifted, so kids could use the payphone as long as they needed to, with a jar full of coins provided by the owners. They let the girls call first (naturally), and kept the boys inside so they wouldn’t get into any mischief. When Susie tried to call home, nobody answered, and they wouldn’t let her call Tillie. Marty stayed up past midnight waiting for his turn, going in order from youngest to oldest. The maverick stallions were restless, and arguments broke out about birth dates. Sam, Charlie and Marty were caught wandering across the compound, drawn by the siren’s song of the Livery Stable, where the fillies were kept. Jules cut them off expertly and herded them back to the chuck wagon, where there was still a long line waiting to use the phone.
When Marty finally got to the head of the line, there was almost nobody else around. A sleepy voice answered the phone. It was Tim, but he sounded muffled and far away. He grunted when Marty asked him to tell his mom that he and Susie were okay, and then he said he couldn’t hear him, and either they got cut off, or he hung up. The line went silent, and Marty was vexed. He waited three hours to use the phone for that?! He stood there looking stupid, holding the receiver up to his mouth. “Hello? Hello?” Jules was the last counselor up, and held out his hand for the phone, with an apologetic look on his face. He wanted to get to bed, too. It had been a very long day. All night, Marty stared up at the moon through his window and thought of Lisa, satisfied for the first time in knowing there was at least one person on earth who really cared about him.
