A spiral of blue-gray smoke arose from the campfire near Evergreen Lodge. The hamburger and hot dog smells from Camp Seagull’s first cookout began to fade. Now that the day was nearly over, the first day of camp was fading, too.
Benny pulled his stick from the fire. On the end was a melted, golden brown marshmallow. He slid it between two graham crackers and a piece of chocolate. “Yum,” he said after tasting his s’more treat. “Cookouts are my favorite.”
“So are breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Henry kidded.
Jessie and Violet laughed at Henry’s joke, along with the campers nearby.
“I’m glad Kim let us sit together for dessert,” Violet told Jessie.
“Me, too,” Jessie said. “Here, you can have my s’more. I’m full from our cookout,” Jessie said. “Are you having fun with the Seals?”
Violet stared into the fire. “I’ll like camp better when I can go on nature walks or start making pottery. Kim is upset with our cabin because of my trunk. She said I lost points for our team.”
Jessie frowned. “Well, be sure to mention that since Henry and I are both Dolphins, our team will lose twice as many points for leaving our trunks behind. Ginny was a little upset, but she asked Mr. Pines to bring them to camp tomorrow morning when he drops off the day campers.”
Violet wriggled her toes to warm them near the fire. “I’ll still lose for cabin inspection. Kim’s cross with me.”
“That’s just her way,” Jessie said. “She’s probably upset that Rich and Ginny changed the Olympics from sports to a lot of other activities. Don’t worry. You’ll help the Seals win with your crafts and the way you help other campers. Oh, listen,” Jessie said, “it’s the bugle tape again.”
“I have a few announcements before Henry takes down the flags for the night,” Rich began. “Counselors, remember to walk your campers to the dock at seven-twenty. Mr. Pines will have the ferry ready to bring the day campers back to Dark Harbor for the night.”
Benny was glad to hear this. “I like camp,” he said to Jessie, “but I like seeing Grandfather ‘s’more.’ ”
“Good one,” Jessie said, laughing at Benny’s joke. “Uh-oh. S’more bugle music is coming on. Let’s stand up for Flag Ceremony.”
Henry walked over to the flagpole and lowered the camp flags as the campers watched quietly. When the flags reached the bottom of the ropes, everyone cheered for Henry. He carefully folded the flags for the next day and brought them to Evergreen Lodge.
Jessie’s and Henry’s Dolphins gathered near one another to walk back to their cabins. The sun slid behind the mountains. The wind picked up and whistled through the pine trees.
“Have you seen Lizzie?” Jessie asked Sarah, the Senior Counselor. “She keeps disappearing on me.”
“I saw her with Kim walking to the Bogs — you know, the camp bathrooms,” Sarah said. “Go ahead with the other girls. I’ll make sure Lizzie gets to the cabin.”
“Brrr. I’m an ice cube,” Benny said as all the Dolphins made their way through the woods.
“How are we going to stay warm in the cabins when it’s so dark and cold?” a girl named Daisy asked Jessie.
“At lights-out, we’ll close the shutters and the doors and get under the covers,” Jessie said. “The cabins are small. Our body heat will warm them right up.”
“Not my body heat,” Benny said. “I’m going to be at Grandfather’s hotel in a big old bed with lots of quilts.”
“Sssh,” Henry said. He didn’t want his overnight campers to start thinking about the warm beds they left behind at home. “Our cabin will be snug and warm.”
“And dark,” one little boy said as the groups walked deeper into the woods. “The lights from Evergreen Lodge are getting far away.”
“But the light from my flashlight is right here,” Henry told his group. He turned on the big flashlight Mrs. McGregor had given him to keep in his backpack. “See?”
The flashlight helped the children find their way through the woods. Unfortunately, the light made the children see shadows everywhere, too.
Daisy stayed close to Jessie. “I wish you’d brought your dog, Watch,” she said as everyone huddled near one another on the walk to the cabins. “Look. Now Seal Rock looks like Monster Rock again.”
Jessie and Henry looked out over the water. They didn’t say anything right away. Indeed, now that evening was coming on, the dark, smooth rock did look like the back of some giant creature in the water.
“It’s only the mist and the ocean moving,” Jessie said in her soothing voice, “not Monster — I mean, Seal Rock.”
The Dolphins weren’t far from their cabins when they heard a branch crack in the woods.
“Ooooh! What was that?” Benny said. “Did a tree fall down?”
Jessie stepped ahead. “Watch my campers, Henry. I’ll run ahead.”
Jessie found her own flashlight. She walked quickly for about ten feet. She noticed a broken tree branch close to Cedar Cabin. She dragged it off the path and walked back to her campers. Jessie shined her flashlight on the damp sandy path. Daisy, still nervous, was right by her side.
“Look!” Daisy screamed.
The other campers screamed, too. They grabbed on to Jessie’s arms and legs.
“There, there, girls. Why are you screaming?” she asked her jittery campers.
Daisy pointed to the ground in front of them. “Footprints! Monster footprints!”
Jessie looked closely at the ground. She wanted to believe Daisy’s eyes were playing tricks. Then she saw what Daisy saw — huge claw prints, nearly a foot wide, one in front of the other.
Jessie’s mind raced. She needed to stay calm for her Dolphins. She waved her flashlight around the nearby woods. She saw two pairs of eyes flash back. But they weren’t monster eyes, unless the monsters were wearing Camp Seagull T-shirts. The figures ran off into the woods.
“Somebody played a silly trick on us so we’d scream,” Jessie said. “Sarah says one team does that at the end of the week to make the other team lose points. But it’s not supposed to happen the first few nights. Our monster didn’t come from the ocean but from Camp Seagull.
“And we won’t scream again,” she went on. “We just have to find the monsters who played the trick.”
When the girls arrived at their cabin, Sarah was waiting. “I didn’t find Lizzie. I thought she caught up with you. So it was you guys screaming outside. That’s what Kim said, anyway. She just raced in here to remind me to take away points for screaming.”
“Was she wearing a camp T-shirt?” Jessie asked.
“We’re all wearing camp T-shirts,” Sarah answered with a laugh.
“I wish we weren’t going to lose points for screaming,” Jessie said. Then she cheered up. “I just thought of something.”
A couple of girls pulled on Jessie’s sleeves. “What? What?” they asked.
“If we find the person who made the monster footprints, that person’s team will lose points for scaring people,” Jessie said. “Not that we’re scared — right, Dolphins?”
“Right!” the Dolphin girls cheered. |