Bible Camp (2 page)

Fear sprang into Gloria’s features.
“Snakes?”

“
Come on, Mary,” Ken said, grabbing
his girlfriend by the hand. “Let’s go find this
caretaker.”

The couple stormed off, taking the
trail next to the counselors’ building.

“
Well, aren’t those two a little
huffy,” Gloria said to their backs.

Lance and Russ laughed and moved off
to the cabins. Even Abby let out a snicker.

***

“
Idiots,” Ken said, pulling Mary
along.

“
Don’t be like that,” she said, her
arm extended to his as she trailed in his wake. “I’m sure all of
them will help out once we get started.”

Forging ahead on the dirt track, Ken
dared a glance back at her. “Are you kidding me? They’re a bunch of
screw ups. I don’t know why you even asked them to come
along.”

“
They volunteered.”

“
Volunteered? Great. A bunch of losers
with nothing better to do.” He faced forward again and continued
on. “I don’t why the church didn’t just hire somebody to come up
here. And I don’t know why they even needed to since there’s this
caretaker.”

“
But we’re here to help,” Mary said,
Ken not seeing her hurt look.

“
Help? How?”

“
We’re saving the church money since
they didn’t have to hire somebody, and we’ll make the place nice
for the kids.”

“
Yeah, whatever.”

They slowed as they came to a
clearing. The woods continued to surround the area as a small yard
gave way to a pale clapboard house that looked as if it might have
been white once upon a time but had faded to a grimy gray over the
decades. Stained curtains hung behind windows, and a front door
stood open behind a torn screen.

“
Holy jeez,” Ken said. “This place
looks worse than the camp.”

“
Go knock on the door,” Mary
suggested.

He gave her a stern look, then let go
of her hand and marched towards the door.

He never made it.

A figure loomed from within the house
and an old man appeared, pushing the screen open before he stepped
out onto a cracked concrete slab.

Ken came up short and almost brought
his hands up into fists. The old man’s intense gaze looked as if he
held no love for the young people before him. Worse yet, the old
man appeared about half crazy what with his gray hairs sticking out
at all angles beneath a holey Fedora that had seen better days.
Also giving evidence to his lack of sanity was the stained white
shirt beneath a dusty black vest atop black pants and tied-up work
boots with nearly as many cracks as appeared in the old man’s
face.

From the back, Mary let out a
gasp.

“
You kids from the church?” the old
man asked.

“
That’s right,” Ken said, taking a
step back. Mary came up to him, taking his hand once
more.

“
I guess this means your preacher
ain’t giving up on the idea of opening the camp again?” the old man
said.

Mary’s voice stuttered as she said,
“The pastor said he sent you a letter with details. You’re Mr.
Tucker, right?”

The man said nothing for a moment, his
harsh glare flowing over the two youths, then he turned his head
and spit off to one side.

“
And you’re an Isaacs girl, ain’t ya?”
he said.

Ken glanced down at Mary. “You know
her?”

“
I know of her family,” Tucker said.
“Been around these parts for years.”

“
I’m sorry,” Mary said, “but I don’t
remember you, Mr. Tucker.”

“
Well, you’re young, and it’s been a
long while since you visited, I reckon.”

“
That’s right,” Mary said. “My parents
used to bring me here when I was a kid.”

Ken huffed and threw up a hand in
frustration. “This little history lesson is fine and all, but we’ve
got work to do. Do you have the keys to the cabins?”

The old man pointed back the way the
two had come. “They’re in the head counselor’s office, hanging on
the wall. I left the main building open for you all.”

“
Thanks.” Ken waved and turned to
leave, tugging Mary along.

“
You know this place hasn’t had any
overnight campers in thirty years, don’t you?” Tucker said to their
backs.

The question jerked Ken to a stop, and
he pulled Mary up next to him. Looking over a shoulder, he said,
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

It seemed impossible, but the old
man’s features grew more menacing, tight, like a skull looking out
from behind a silk curtain. “It means I wouldn’t venture out at
night if I was you all. These woods are a wild place. All kinds of
critters and the like get up to things around here.”

“
We’ll, uh, we’ll take your advice,”
Ken said.

“
And be careful with the fires,” the
old man added, “especially the fires.”

Squaring his shoulders, Ken turned to
fully face Tucker. All this cryptic talk had riled the young
man.

“
What’s all this about fires?” he
asked.

Tucker’s eyes widened as he stared
directly into Mary’s face. “Didn’t you tell them?”

She didn’t know how to answer, so she
shook her head.

Tucker pointed to Ken. “It’s why the
camp has remained closed.”

“
Why?”

“
Thirty years ago, there was a fire,”
the old man said, pointing back toward the cabins. “There used to
be a lake house. Bunch of the counselors were drinking and carrying
on in their heathen ways. They started a fire in a barrel to keep
warm at night, but then they got caught by one of the children who
had been woken up.”

Ken looked to Mary, more than a little
fear in both their faces.

Tucker went on. “Them counselors, they
was afraid the boy would tell on them, so they tied him up and
gagged him. Then they all passed out on their devil’s drink.
Somehow or other the fire got out of hand, and when those drunks
woke up, they forgot about the boy. Saved themselves, running into
the night screaming, but they forgot about the boy..”

“
What ... what happened?” Ken
asked.

“
The lake house was a loss, and the
boy burned, of course,” Tucker said, spitting again. “There’s some
who say he tore loose of his bindings and jumped into the lake to
save himself, but the police never found out for sure. They never
found a body, you see?”

“
No body?” Mary asked.

“
Nope, and some think he might still
be out there, hiding out in the woods, waiting for his chance for
revenge.”

The clearing had become as still as
stone, the day’s heat roasting the flesh of those standing there.
Not a sound could be heard, not even the buzzing of insects or the
singing of forest birds.

Then Ken snickered. “You almost had me
there, old man, trying to scare us off.”

“
I’m not trying to do any such thing,”
Tucker said with heat in his voice. “I’m just letting you know why
the camp has been closed. The old church kept it that way out of
respect, but then you all come along and buy the place and decide
to change everything. Nothing good is going to come of it, I tell
you.”

“
Come on, Mary,” Ken said, turning
away and pulling his girlfriend along. “We’ve got work to
do.”

Mary gave a last sorrowful glance to
the old man, then she disappeared as she was pulled around the bend
in the trail.

Tucker stared in their wake for a few
more moments, then he turned back to the house.

As he neared the entrance, a large
shadow moved within, causing the old man to stop just outside the
door.

“
Don’t you worry about anything,” the
old man said. “I won’t let them harm you any.”

***

“
I’m starting to remember,” Mary said
as she and Ken made their way along the path.

“
What’s that?” he asked as if he
wasn’t much listening to her words.

“
My older brother used to talk about
it,” Mary said. “The fire the old man was telling us about. There
was a kid killed. His name was Tommy something. They called him
Tank.”

“
Tank?” Ken let out a laugh. “Why’d
they call him that?”

“
Apparently he was a big kid,” Mary
said. “My brother said they used to make fun of him, he was so big.
Said it was too bad Tommy didn’t make it to high school because he
would have been perfect as a football player.”

“
Really?” Ken said. “Yeah, I guess
somebody like that would be good for a defensive
tackle.”

Before further words could be shared,
they came out in the circular gravel lot where the vehicles were
parked. Abby still sat on a stump while reading, but every few
seconds she would glare over the top of her book to where Gloria
was rooting around in the back of the Jeep, loud pop music blaring
from the speakers within. Of Lance and Russ there was no
sign.

“
Where are the stupid twins?” Ken
asked no one in particular.

Abby slammed her book closed and
thrust it down onto her knees. “Looking around the cabins, like you
told them, and making a bunch of noise while doing it. Between
their hysterics and the ditzy chick here with her music, there’s
been no lack of noise.”

Letting out a laugh, Ken dropped
Mary’s hand and moved up to the Jeep, slapping the side of the
vehicle.

Gloria let out a squeal and sprang out
of the Jeep. Glaring at Ken, she did not look happy.

“
What was that all about?” she
asked.

Ken kept on smiling. “Just keeping you
on your toes.”

At that point a scream came from
behind one of the cabins, and a moment later Russ came rumbling
into view as if the devil himself were right behind him.

The big youth ran around behind Ken as
if hiding, then pointed back the way he had come.

Laughter was heard first, then the
grinning face of Lance, who approached his friends with something
furry on the end of a stick held out towards them.

“
What is that?” Mary asked.

Russ stuttered and kept pointing.
“It’s a c-c-cat.”

“
A cat?” Abby sprang to her feet. “It
better not be.”

“
It’s not a cat,” Lance said with
another chuckle. He slung out the end of the stick to one side,
propelling the small dead animal into the nearby woods.

Gloria looked stricken and backed away
to stand near Mary and the others while Abby stormed past Lance and
stared into the weeds where the dead critter lay.

Lance tossed the stick to one side and
said, “See? It’s just a raccoon.”

Abby turned on him with hate in her
eyes. “And you killed it?”

Backing away, the tall, skinny youth
held up his hands in defense. “Hey, it was already dead when we
found it on the doorstep of one of the cabins. I just moved it so
it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way.”

Abby still did not look pleased. She
stamped a foot and marched away from the group, heading down the
path to the lake.

Ken smirked and came forward. “Just a
dead coon. Would’ve had to remove it anyway. No big
deal.”

“
That’s what I was thinking,” Lance
said.

“
He ... he was going to put it on me,”
Russ said, his voice shaking.

Concern in her features, Mary placed a
gentle hand on one of the big fellow’s shoulders. “I’m sure he
wouldn’t have done that. Would you, Lance?”

Lance didn’t answer. He just stood
there with a big grin on his face.

Ken laughed, then got serious. “Okay,
everybody. The keys are in the counselors’ cabin, so let me get
them while the rest of you are unpacking.”

He headed to the building and, as
Tucker had told him, the door was unlocked. Ken disappeared
inside.

“
Who the hell made him boss?” Lance
said.

“
Nobody,” Gloria said.

“
We might as well do as he told us,”
Mary said. “We’ve got to unload the cars anyway.”

As packs and suitcases were being
taken from the vehicles, Ken appeared once more, now holding up a
large ring of keys.

“
I’ll unlock the first two cabins,” he
said, walking towards the nearest one. “We’ll split up, girls in
the front building, guys in the next one. Mary and I will take the
counselors’ quarters.”