Chapter 2 #2
But the kids don’t arrive until tomorrow!
was Honey’s first shocked thought. As she parked, she glanced at her watch, honestly worried that she’d somehow missed an entire day of training.
From her job, she was used to being thrown head-first into challenging situations, but the prospect of having to lead a group of campers before she’d so much as set foot in a cabin herself was still daunting.
As she got out of her car, she realized her mistake. Although they all looked like veritable babies to her eyes, on closer inspection the fresh-faced, glossy-haired youngsters were mostly in their early twenties. They had to be counselors. Her fellow counselors.
Oh dear.
Honey had known, of course, that she was a bit older—okay, a lot older—than the typical summer camp counselor.
But the camp director hadn’t seemed fazed by her age.
In fact, he’d seemed positively delighted by her decades of teaching experience.
She’d assumed she wouldn’t stand out that much amongst the camp staff.
Even in her twenties, she would have been an ugly duckling in this crowd of swans. They all seemed impossibly fit and toned, practically glowing with youthful vitality. Honey swallowed a sudden resurgence of nerves. She’d never felt more out of place in her life.
Well, it was too late to back out now. Looking around, she spotted a cluster of large wooden buildings a little way off. Most of the other counselors were heading in that direction, rucksacks slung casually over their shoulders. That must be the way to the camp office.
Trying to look confident, she fell in behind a group of bronzed, towering young men who looked like they spent their days pumping iron in between modeling shoots.
Most of them ignored her entirely, but a couple did slight double-takes in her direction.
They probably thought she was some kid’s mom, and were wondering what she was doing at camp a day early.
Somewhat desperately, Honey tried to spot someone in the crowd who was closer to her own age than her kids’.
Ragvald had looked to be in his forties, and Moira had struck her as too poised and self-assured to be fresh out of college.
There had to be some other mature counselors here besides herself.
If there were, she didn’t spot any. But to her surprise, there was a kid—not a willowy teen or clean-cut college student, but an actual kid.
The dark, slender boy couldn’t have been older than ten.
He hovered a little way off, occasionally darting out of sight behind some kind of storage shed before reappearing again.
Honey hesitated, looking around at the other counselors. If any of them had noticed the boy, they didn’t feel the need to do anything about it. Still, she couldn’t ignore a child who might need help.
The boy had disappeared behind the building again. As she headed over, she caught a snatch of a low, pleading whisper: “Just let me tell someone. Please , Rufus.”
“Hi,” Honey said, coming round the corner. “What’s going on back here?”
The boy had been crouching on his hands and knees, apparently talking to an enormous pile of firewood stacked alongside the shed.
At her voice, he jumped, shooting to his feet.
A look of alarm dashed across his face, followed hastily by blank innocence.
Honey, who had seen that exact sequence on countless young faces, was not fooled.
“Nothing!” The boy oh-so-casually edged sideways, clearly trying to block something with his narrow body. “Are you one of the new counselors? Do you need help to find the office?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you needed help.” Honey crouched to put herself closer to his level, keeping her body language loose and easy. “My name’s Honey. What’s yours?”
The boy stayed poised on his toes, arms spread a little to block her view. He had a thoughtful, intelligent face, currently somewhat pinched with worry. His dark hair was braided back in tight cornrows. “Finley.”
“Hi, Finley.” Honey offered him a warm smile. “Who were you talking to just now?”
Finley’s turquoise eyes flicked toward the woodpile, then quickly away. “No one.”
“It’s okay. You aren’t in trouble.” Honey lowered her voice, leaning forward conspiratorially.
“I’ve only just arrived, and I don’t even know the rules yet.
So if your friend is doing something that’s against them, I can’t yell at him.
Or you. I just want to check that you’re both okay. You seem worried.”
Finley hesitated, glancing at the woodpile again. Then he sagged.
“It’s my friend Rufus.” Finley stepped to one side, revealing a dark gap between the woodpile and the wall of the shed. “He’s, well… stuck.”
Honey kneeled, peering into the space herself. “Stuck?”
“Not literally.” Finley bit his lip, then said, all in a rush: “Sometimes the world gets too loud for Rufus, and he needs to get away for a bit. He holes up somewhere small and dark and safe until his head settles and he can come back. It’s just how he is.”
“I can understand that,” Honey said gently. “It’s pretty busy out there at the moment, and a big crowd of strangers is intimidating.”
Finley’s tense, defensive shoulders eased down a fraction. “Right. We were heading to meet our friends when a whole load of new counselors barged into us without warning, laughing and yelling. They didn’t mean anything by it, but Rufus got spooked. Now I can’t persuade him to come out.”
Honey put her face closer to the gap, trying to see anything—and bit back a yelp.
Two points of light gleamed back at her, bright and animal.
For an instant, she was convinced she could make out a crouched, staring form of some big cat, like a puma or a lynx—but then it shifted, moving further back, and she lost the half-seen shape in the darkness.
Honey swallowed, trying to hide her shock. “Are you sure Rufus is back there, Finley? And, uh, only Rufus?”
The boy shot her a puzzled look. “Yes, of course.” He flattened against the ground, pointing into the depths of the woodpile, where she thought she’d seen the creature. “He’s right there. Don’t worry, Rufus. This is Honey, one of the new counselors. She’s here to help.”
Must have been a trick of the light. Honey started to reach for her phone to use it as a flashlight, then thought better of it. Blinding the poor kid was hardly going to help his state of mind.
“Rufus?” she called, pitching her voice low and soft. The space behind the woodpile was far too narrow for her to get back there herself. “Are you all right back there?”
No answer.
“He’s fine,” Finley reassured her. “I mean, he’s not hurt or anything. He’s just not ready to turn back yet. Normally, I’d go get Leonie, but Rufus didn’t want anyone to know what had happened.”
“Why not?” When Finley hesitated, Honey added, “You don’t have to tell me. I understand if you don’t want to betray your friend’s secrets.”
Finley paused a moment longer, head cocked to one side as though listening to something.
“No, it’s okay. Rufus doesn’t mind if I tell you.
His parents weren’t sure he was ready to come to camp this year.
Because of, well, this.” He waved a hand at the woodpile.
“Rufus doesn’t want anyone to think he can’t cope. That he shouldn’t be here.”
“Director Zephyr told me this was a camp where kids could be themselves. That means all kids. If Rufus needs to get away sometimes, that’s just part of who he is.
He doesn’t have to hide it.” Honey sat back on her heels, deliberately not looking in the direction of the woodpile.
“Rufus, is it okay if I wait here with you and Finley for a bit? It’s a bit too busy out there for me too at the moment. ”
The slightest breath of sound came from behind the piled logs.
“Rufus says that’s fine,” Finley said, though Honey hadn’t distinguished any words. He cocked his head to one side, regarding her curiously. “Do you really not like crowds, too?”
“Actually, I don’t normally have a problem with them.” Honey wrinkled her nose, jerking her head to indicate the loud chatter still drifting from the parking lot. “But that crowd is a bit more intimidating than I expected.”
Finley’s eyebrows drew together. “Why?”
She supposed that to a nine-year-old, everyone over the age of twenty was equally ancient. “Well, I’m a lot older than most of the other counselors. And I expect a lot of them have worked here in previous years. They already know each other, while I’ve never even been to camp before.”
“You don’t have to be scared,” Finley said. “All the counselors that I’ve met so far have been really nice.”
“I’m sure they are. But that doesn’t stop me from being nervous.
” She was very aware of the intent, listening silence from the darkness.
“In my head, I know that I’ll make new friends and soon settle in, but my heart’s not so sure.
And that’s okay. It’s normal to feel worried about doing something new, or scared that you won’t fit in. ”
Finley sat down next to her, hugging his knees. “I guess I’m a little nervous too. It’s our first year as well. As campers, I mean.”
“I thought you looked a little young to be a counselor.” She didn’t add that as far as she was concerned, the counselors looked too young to be counselors. “Why are you and Rufus here so early, Finley? I wasn’t expecting any kids to arrive until tomorrow.”
“My parents are wildland firefighters with the Thunder Mountain Hotshots, further up the mountain.” Finley gestured at the looming peak of Thunder Mountain.
“So are Rufus’s mom and dad. Zephyr lets hotshot crew kids come to camp early, since our parents might get called away to fight a fire at any moment.
There’s four of us here this year. Me, Rufus, Estelle, and Beth.
We’ve been here for the past couple of weeks, helping to get the camp ready. ”