“Falcons, you have your canvases,” she announced. “There are no rules. Do your thing!”
Trinity had set up plastic jars of paint all around the table—cherry red and bluebird blue and the purple of real sweet grapes. Jade green and candy yellow. Sage added bright pink for Athena. And double jars of orange, since that was our color!
“Now go for it,” Trinity told us. “There is no way you can be wrong here. Creation is never neat! Be a messy Matisse! Let the mess begin!!”
We hesitated. Jocelyn lined up all the jars in a perfectly even row, looked at me, shrugged, then dipped one fingertip into the red paint. Karyn reached for the blue, paused, switched to yellow, paused, then, with a teasing smile, grabbed the pink… but before Athena could begin to protest, Karyn handed it to her in triumph. Athena laughed and laughed. She dipped her entire hand into the pink, and all the walls of hesitation came crashing down.
Trinity had prepared small paper plates with a big plop of color in each for me. I went for the green first, and I gotta admit—globs of paint felt good! I smooshed my hands into its silkiness. Then I looked at my crocodile-colored fingers, and, because my hands already kinda wobble on their own anyway, I turned to Jocelyn like I was a fierce green dragon. She did the same—one hand red and the other grape-colored—and for the first time since we arrived, she flat-out laughed.
We crammed our poster board with a kaleidoscope of colors. Jocelyn’s paper began to fill up with different-sized ovals—each one perfectly symmetrical. Then she filled each one with three more perfectly shaped ovals. And then each of those had three. Whoa. I almost couldn’t paint myself because I wanted to see how many ovals she could cram onto her paper.
As for Athena, she looked like she had bathed in cotton-candy pink paint. There was more paint on her hair than on the paper.
One of my hands dripped with purple and blue; the other with lime green and a bit of random red. I smooshed them around on the paper, but sometimes I missed the paper completely! I’m not sure what I ended up creating, but it didn’t matter.
The finished project was a gloppy mess, and so was I, but no one cared, and no one tried to fix or change anything. Splashed in a dozen shades of color, we stopped first at the huge industrial sink in the corner of the room to clean up before leaving. As Trinity ran a wet paper towel over some paint on my forehead, I thought, One day I hope to be able to do stuff like this by myself.
Paint from my hands mixed with the paint of the other girls, down the drain. Best mess ever!
CHAPTER 16
I couldn’t believe how fast the day went. It was already time for dinner. Trinity explained that we’d eat in shifts every day. So I guess half the camp was there. I counted eight other wheelchairs besides Karyn’s and mine. Cool. But the food? This was the most disgusting-looking dinner I’d ever seen! We all stared at our bowls in horror. It was some kind of broccoli mash-up—a deep avocado green—like Penny’s Play-Doh after she’s mixed all the colors together. One purple Tshirted boy at a table across from us made a loud, deliberate, gagging noise, and we all cracked up.
Athena asked, “Uh, does this come in pink? I think I might be allergic to whatever this is.” That made everybody laugh some more.
It seemed like no one dared take a first bite. But I was really hungry, so I got my brave on and nodded to Trinity. She held a spoonful out to me. I did a quick survey—other kids were about to be fed too. Okay, then. Let’s see if this broccoli-hooey stuff was as gross as it looked. I swallowed the first bite, and I immediately thought of Mrs. V, who always told me never to judge things by how they look. I hated to admit it, but this stuff was the bomb!
“What do you think?” Trinity asked.
“Not bad,” I tapped. Then I gave her a big green smile. “You gotta give this recipe to my mom!” She couldn’t spoon it in fast enough. Even Jocelyn ate it without complaints.
By the time we finished, the sky was beginning to darken and an uneasiness came over me. What would it be like to sleep in a strange wooden bed? I’ve only ever slept in my own bed—maybe Mrs. V’s a few times. What if I had a bad dream? Dang! What if I had to go to the bathroom? What if I missed my mom and dad and Penny? I felt tears pricking at my eyes. Good thing Mom wasn’t here. She’d whisk me right home!
But before I had the chance to say anything, Trinity clapped her hands for our attention. “Okay, my Fiery Falcons, are you ready for Fire Time?”
Fire what? Despite our confusion, our counselors shouted, almost in unison, “Yes! Fire Time!”
Karyn looked over at me and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “I’m outta here! They said try one day. I did. Tomorrow, after swimming, I’m gone.”
We stopped by our cabin to quickly finish unpacking. Athena had clearly brought the state of Ohio’s entire supply of pink clothes. Jocelyn—yay—was a sneakerhead like me.
Trinity informed me she had a very fashionable sweatshirt for me. Well, for all of us. She handed out the brightest orange sweatshirts in the universe. Seriously. But we all looked the same, and it was camp, and we were gonna have fun, right? Right. So I let Trinity tug it over my head, and we rolled and bounced and thumped over to the fire pit. It looked pitiful at first. But ha-ha, so did dinner. The fire area was stacked with logs and branches, and others were also rolling or walking up to… whatever this turns out to be!