So, my cabinmates didn’t seem so bad, and the cabin was just like the one on the website, so I was trying to find something awful, something to complain about, but the weather wasn’t going to be it either—at least not today. The air was soft, with the breeze barely a breath on my skin. Sunlight trickled through the leaves of the trees overhead, making design shadows on my arms. I had an urge to paint the pattern, it was so pretty. Not that I’ve ever painted, but I can in my mind. And thinking of that made me realize that I hadn’t even thought about being nervous since we set out for the lake. I looked back for Karyn, wondering how she was feeling.
The path was dusty and covered over with boards—to make it easier for wheelchairs, I guess, though mine was doing plenty of bumping. But the boards kept the dust out of the chairs’ gears. Points for that, Green Glades. As we rolled along, I didn’t think I’d ever seen so many shades of green. Must be how the camp got its name. I mean, yeah, we have trees and plants at home, but this was a whole other level. How many shades of green were there in the world? I think I was looking at them all!
As tree limbs swayed, they created their own breeze, cooling us as we headed down the path, which was taking forev—ooh! Ohhhh! If I could stop short, I would have stopped short. Because, wow.
“Campers, I have another introduction,” Trinity exclaimed. “Meet Lilliana. Lake Lilliana!” She grinned like she was introducing her best friend. But I didn’t blame her. The lake was pretty big; I could barely see to the other side. And it was the most gorgeous shade of blue. I’d sort of assumed the website had photoshopped the color—it seemed impossible. But nope. It was the exact same, the prettiest blue I’d ever seen. Actually, it wasn’t just one blue; it shifted from teal, to navy, to turquoise, even to green. The sky above was another expanse of blue—cornflower broken up by feathered white clouds. I wished again I could paint—I’d have a ball with the blues in my palette.
That’s when I remembered Trinity’s camera! I twisted in my chair to get her attention, then tapped, “Take a pic!” Thanks, Mom, for adding camp phrases to Elvira.
“Great idea, Melody!” Trinity said. She lifted her camera, snapped a photo of the lake, then took another one of me, grinning with the lake behind me. Yeah, fine, I was smiling. It had only been a couple of hours, and they already had me with a smile on my face. Then she snapped photos of the four of us, blinking in the sunshine. A white bird suddenly flew past us. Its wingspan was ginormous!
“Wow! A crane!” Lulu cried out as we all looked up. Wait till I tell Mrs. V about that!
Trinity took a pic of us watching the crane fly off—I hoped it would show up. “You know, we’ll have a zillion photos for you by the time you leave,” she told us. “We’ve hired folks to take photos of everybody and every activity while you’re all here. You’ll get a chunk of a photo album when you go home.”
That was cool. Mom and Dad and Mrs. V would love that—so I told Elvira to say thank you. That was one less thing for me to worry about!
I wanted to learn more about the lake, but I was also getting hungry, so I was glad when we turned back toward camp. One of my secret worries when I’m in a new place is always food. Would I be able to eat it? Would they know how to feed me? I’m not fussy, but my mouth needs mushy. I wondered how they planned to do meals—this was gonna be interesting.
CHAPTER 14
Okay, so I got myself all worked up over nothing. The first meal at camp was not the ordeal I expected. Folks here have organization down! It turned out that each counselor had a list of all the feeding details for their camper. Trinity already knew I needed my food sorta soft, and that I had to be fed. Truth? I hate that. I’m practically a teenager—less than a year away!—and having applesauce and blended hot dogs shoved in my mouth like I’m a baby is just plain embarrassing. Especially in front of a bunch of people I didn’t even know!
But as I looked around our table, which was basically just an indoor picnic table, I saw each of my cabinmates had some type of food issue as well. Karyn complained loudly that she was allergic to carrots, so Kim jogged off with her plate.
After she left, Karyn leaned over and whispered, “I’m not allergic—I just hate carrots! It works every time!”
I’ve got to remember that trick!
Jocelyn, apparently, had a thing about condiments. She smelled her hot dog, then pushed her plate away.
“Mustard feels like sand, sand, sand!” she declared. Lulu didn’t comment, but simply fixed another hot dog for her. Jocelyn looked at it, smelled it, asked for ketchup, then ate it with no trouble.
As Trinity spooned blended baked beans, hot dogs (smashed up!), and then applesauce into my mouth, Athena scooted close to me. “Applesauce is magic, you know.” She then chomped down on her apple.
I tapped out, “Explain.”
“You get the best part of the apple, plus cinnamon, and you don’t have to deal with the peeling!”
True that. So then I tapped, “Okay, then, what’s so great about squished hot dogs?”
She tilted her head, thinking, then said slyly, “I can’t tell you—it’s a government secret!” I laughed out loud, already glad she was in my cabin. As she began trying to pull the stem off her non-magical apple, I looked around at the other groups of kids—some girls, some boys. A few were being fed, just like I was. Others ate without help. Yikes—putting together meals for a bunch of kids with various issues had to take some serious planning.
Just as I was feeling almost stuffed, Cassie, the director, popped her head out of the kitchen. “Anybody want ice cream?” she hollered. “We’ve got chocolate sundaes!”