“Becca!” The pitch of my mother’s screams hurt my ears, but somehow she also sounded far away. “Call 9-1-1, Dan!” And then she added “NOW” after a few seconds.
What had they even been doing home? They were supposed to be at that fundraiser dinner. I was supposed to have enough time. I wasn’t supposed to hear the shaking in her voice or feel how her body trembled as she dragged me out onto the floor.
Looking at her now, trying to push that memory away, I wondered if they were even the same person. We sat in the car, her in the driver's seat, waiting for the other to be the first to speak. Her face looked as if it were made of stone. Her long, pointed jaw clenched, her thin lips pursed, her eyes focused straight ahead with her grip so tight on the wheel that her knuckles were white. I noticed the wrinkles along her the edges of her eyes and by her mouth that I hadn’t noticed before. Had I done that? Had I sprinkled the gray throughout her dark hair too? Hair that had once resembled mine.
“You should get going, Rebecca.” She finally said, not looking at me. She hadn’t called me Becca since that night.
“I…” I what, though? What was it I wanted to say to my mother? “Thanks for bringing me.” I eventually settled on. It was more than dad had bothered to do.
“I still think this is too soon.” Her voice cracked a bit, but she still didn’t look at me. “I mean it has only been…”
“Six months.” I nodded. We had this same conversation about fifty times over the past five months. “Dr. Neill said it would be good for me.”
“I am starting to think she is a quack.” My mother said and I tried to hold in my chuckle. I am sure she didn’t mean for this to be funny. She didn’t like the idea of a therapist, but after everything, she didn’t really have a choice.
“You met Daisy.” I said to her. “She seems really great and she promised she would look after me.”
“I know…”
“And if anything starts going wrong I will give you a call and you can come and get me.” I told her. “Daisy was on board.”
“I know.” My mother sighed and looked over to me, her face not softening. “You just have a tendency to…”
“Campbells!” A high-pitched voice echoed through the car, followed by a loud knocking on the window. My mom would have probably gone through the roof of the car if she hadn’t still been wearing her seatbelt.
We both looked over to the drive seat window to see a middle aged woman with her golden hair tied back in a tie dyed banana. She was smiling brightly at us through the window. My mom didn’t return it, but did roll down the window.
“Welcome to Camp Arcadia Falls, Campbells.” Daisy said and turned to me. “Are you ready for a great summer, Becca?”
“You hadn’t mentioned how far out in nowhere this place was.” Mom said, before I even got the chance to answer Daisy’s question.
“Isn’t it great?” Daisy asked, her smile never faltering. “It gives our campers and counselors the opportunity to learn and enjoy nature. With everything they know being online now days, it is nice to remind them what is just outside their door.”
My mom was silent. Daisy didn’t know the details about my situation, just that my therapist recommended something along these lines. Apparently her and Dr. Neill were friends from school. But I could tell that my mom was trying to figure out if this nice woman was trying to imply something about me or not.
“I think it's great.” I said, before my mom got the chance to say whatever it was that she was going to say. “Being away from the Internet and social media is just what I need right now.”
I said this more for my mom than I did for Daisy. And my shoulders relaxed when I saw my mom nod and glance at me, her features now a bit softer.
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“This will be beneficial for you.” She was saying this for herself, not for me.
“That is a great attitude to have, Becca!” Daisy said. “Sadly, that isn’t the reaction I am expecting from most of our campers when we explain that we have no towers out here and no wifi.”
“How will she call?” My mom asked, panic creeping back into her voice.
“We have a landline for the campers to use. Each have a day, but Becca is free to use it if she feels she really needs to.” Daisy explained. “And the thing that really blocks the cellphones out here is a jammer. It is just easier to tell the children it is because of no towers.”
“Okay.” My mom nodded, taking in a deep breath. She turned to me. “And you are sure?”
“Yes, mom!” I said and unbuckled my seatbelt.
My mother and Daisy helped me drag my luggage across the camp to a cabin near the lake. My mom hadn’t been planning on getting out of the car, but Daisy apparently had paperwork for her to do. Daisy pointed out the bathrooms and some of the activities as we went along.
The sign outside of the cabin read “Cabin Cetus” and had a picture of a large snake like monster rising out of a body of water.
“That’s…” I searched for the right words that weren't disturbing. “Interesting.” I said to Daisy, motioning to the sign.
“All the cabins have mythological names.” Daisy explained, smiling at me. “I figured the kids would like that with the falls being named Arcadia.”
I didn’t want to point out that the kids probably wouldn’t like seeing an ugly sea monster in water with our cabin being by the water. Instead I followed her into the cabin. The room was filled with bunk beds. Two sets were on either side, a four shelf cabinet at the end of each one and a pull out drawer under the bottom bunk. There was a round tablet with chairs around it, which I am assuming could be used for card or board games. Then there was a door right across. So apparently I would only have eight campers in my cabin.
“Your room is straight through here.” She guided us through the room to the door at the back.
The room was a good size. It had a bed on the far wall, a dresser and a closet, which hadn’t been in the other room. I also had a desk and a chair. She sat the bag she was carrying down on the bed and opened her arms.
“This is your home for the next eight weeks.” She said. I looked to my mom and she seemed to be about ready to puke. Nature wasn’t her thing and I had never really tried it before, so I could see how she thought I might be hating this.
“I will be fine, Mom.” I said, though I wasn’t sure if that was the truth. I had never been to camp as a kid. But I knew I had to get out of my town this summer. Away from the whispering and the pointing and away from the constant messages on social media.
“Come on, Mrs. Campbell.” Daisy placed a hand on my mom’s back. “Why don’t we go finish up some paperwork while she gets settled in.”
“You want to stay here?” My mom asked me, rather rudely ignoring Daisy.
“Yes.” I told her again. “Mom, I need this. I need to be away from everything at home. I will be fine and safe here, I promise.”
She walked over and wrapped her arms around me, crushing me to her body. I knew that she worried. She might have seemed like a hardass, but she worried so much.
“Make sure you call as soon as you can.” She whispered into my hair.
She walked behind Daisy as she led her back out of the room. She paused before they walked out and turned.
“And Rebecca,” she said, her features hard again. “Make sure you behave yourself here.”
Ouch. Daisy might not have caught the coldness of that comment, but I knew what it meant. She didn’t want to hear that I had done something crazy or something else that might embarrass her, even if we knew nobody here.
I just nodded and she followed Daisy out of the door.
I walked outside after putting some of my things away in the cabin. After seeing the monster on the sign, though, I decided to walk away from the water and along the edge of the woods that seemed to surround this place.
Even though it was mid-day and the sun was shining brightly, I couldn’t see very far into the woods. The trees were that close together and the trunks were thick. I saw some of the other cabins along the way, but didn’t pay attention to many of the signs.
A light melody floated through the air, though it sounded like a whisper. Was someone playing a flute? I walked toward the sound of the music, trying to find the source. It was so lovely.
As it grew louder I realized that it sounded like it was coming from the forest. I took a step closer, closing my eyes, trying to concentrate on the sound. A twig snapped and the sound of movement broke my concentration.
My eyes snapped opened to a tall shadow like figure standing a few feet in front of me in the woods. It was still for a moment, it’s shoulders broad. And then it began to move toward me again.