Days passed and the heart of camp was
in full swing that summer. Tera and Ruby, now called Jewels, sat on
the rock over-looking the rest of camp, their campers playing
together nearby, and surveyed the camp goings-on below. Trip appeared
outside the dining hall, walking up to a young first year junior
counselor, a young girl named Andrea, and put his arm around her in a
long, slow hug. Jewels (or Ruby) glanced over at Tera and raised her
eyebrows suggestively. Tera returned the look and then leaned over
and whispered in her friend's ear:
“Little flirt, isn't he?”
Jewels nodded and then studied Trip far
below. She turned to Tera and whispered back:
“Wonder what Jess thinks of that!”
One of Jewels' campers, a young
pre-teen girl of 11, looked up at them and then down the hill towards
Trip and Andrea.
“That counselor is with all the
girls,” she pointed out. Tera and Jewels looked at each other and
nodded, stifling their giggles in agreement. The following day was
their first day-off of the summer, when they as Junior Counselors
would be able to go into town, do laundry, eat real food and not that
of the camp variety, and spend the night in town frolicking about as
only youthful teens can. Jewels was not looking forward to watching
Trip and Jess flirt with and touch each other in front of her.
However, the time spent away from camp, exploring the town with Tera
was something to look forward to and would be a welcome and pleasant
distraction.
The next day, in the late morning, off
the went into town, secured in the small white camp bus powered by
the head counselor, Gadget, so named for his likeness to the famous
cartoon Inspector. On the bus-ride over, Jewels noticed that whereas
Trip and Jess sat side by side, they did not seem as attached to one
another as previously mentioned. Trip seemed bored and stared around
at the other counselors, picking up bits of conversations and tossing
in idle jokes where he could. She also noticed that other female
counselors vied for his attention just as eagerly as she herself
secretly did. She hid her head back down into her song-journal, her
pen wobbling with the rocking of the bus as she allowed the words to
flow from her heart to the page.
They rumbled into town and he deposited
them in front of the town's only grocery store, instructing them to
meet him there at 4:00, before heading back into camp for a few
hours' work. Their own head counselor, who ran the junior counselor
programmed, sat herself down with her coffee and sandwich and
released them to their frolicking about.
Jess hugged Trip and then walked over
to join Tera and Jewels on their town adventures. Trip headed off
with Geoff to grab a bit to eat together. Jewels noticed that Andrea
trailed close behind them and she wondered just what Jess thought of
that. For her part, Jess seemed not to notice.
Later at their campsite for the night,
Jewels sat on an abandoned large tree stump over-looking the dry
river bed. The clattering voices of her happy friends mingled with
the wind behind her. Her journal lay before her on her lap, her pen
poised waiting for the muse to breeze through her.
“Standing on a precipice of my life,
this journey I am on, I could dwell here, wallowing in the pain of
your good-bye, or I could turn towards the love radiating from those
who await me with open arms and open hearts,” she wrote and
surveyed the words on the page. Someone came up behind her and she
turned, not closing the journal. Trip stood by the tree-stump and
looked her over. Was she to be a flirtatious interest to him now?
“Can I sit here too?” He asked.
She shrugged and he sat beside her, his shoulder barely touching
hers. She didn't try to move away and noticed neither did he.
“Are you sure that Jess won't mind
this?” She managed to ask.
“Why would she?” He shot out. “I
mean, all we are doing is sitting anyway.”
She nodded and looked out towards the
dry riverbed, setting the journal on the stump and pulling her knees
to the chest. Dusk was fast approaching, she could hear the crackle
of the fire behind her and the laughter of the other counselors
mingled with it.
“We're kind of on a break anyway,”
he announced to no one in particular, to the breeze, the dry
river-bed, to his own hands before him on his lap.
“Oh, I see, I mean, okay then,” and
then after a moment, she turned her head slightly and looked at him
out of the corner of her eye. “You okay with that?”
He looked at her fully in the eyes and
was taken in by her honest, frank openness. A swelling warmth filled
him just sitting by her and he felt as if he truly knew her without
speaking, as he was known. He smiled slightly and nodded, allowing
the warmth to overwhelm him.
“Okay then,” she smiled back and
they remained looking at each other eye to eye, both wondering, Was
this it? Was this the moment I'd been waiting for? Would he finally,
does she really? The night was dark now, in full strength of its
summer beauty. The crickets played their tiny and tinny violins as
the full moon began its ascent into the sky. Trip and Jewels stared
up at it, together side by side. Jewels shivered in the coolness of
the breeze and Trip, ever so slowly, placed his arm about her
shoulders to warm her. She giggled softly.
“Hmm?” he asked, nudging her with
his shoulder.
“This reminds me of that one campfire
song,” she said, giggling. “Just a boy and a girl in a little
canoe, with the moon shining all around.”
“And as he applied his paddle, he
said, 'you better kiss me or get out and swim,” Trip continued.
“Just a boy and a girl in a little
canoe, with the moon shining all a, the boy swimming all-a, the girl
padding all-around,” She ended the song.
He shook his head and said, “That's
not how it ends.”
“So, what she gets out and swims?”
Jewels asks playfully. He studied her, her face streaked with the
dirt of camp similar to his, her hair pulled back in a messy pony
tail, her eyes bright with the glow of the moonlight and he thought
he had never seen anything so beautiful before. Without thinking, he
let the moment overtake him, delaying any sense of second guessing,
screwing up all his courage, he leaned over and kissed her lips. She
responded by kissing back, letting her lips open slightly, his tongue
slipped inside. For a moment, they enjoyed the taste of each other's
mouths. Then, he leaned back, yet still close enough to feel her hot
breath upon his face.
“That's how it ends,” he smiled.
“Is it now?” Jewels asked,
hopefully. Before he could answer, their head counselor, Rainbow,
called to them that dinner was ready. He pulled away, stepped down,
and she followed him back to the brightness of the glow of camp.
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