Chapter Six: Ava to the Rescue
They followed him back to the camp. Andre told Tasha that they needed to hide in case anyone came out of their tents. Matt put his bear head back on and played the growling sounds. He walked around the Hawk’s Nest, batting the side of the tent with his paw.
Inside, Ava woke up.
“Who’s there?” she mumbled, still half-asleep. Suddenly, she heard growling close by and something hitting the side of the tent. She bolted up and threw back her covers, yelling, “Kacey! Wake up! We’ve got a bear!”
Kacey woke up just in time to hear the bear growl again and slap the side of the tent.
“Oh, no!” she cried, and got out of bed.
“What’ll we do?” Kacey asked. Ava grabbed her cell phone. She turned it on, but it kept searching for a signal unsuccessfully.
“Find something to scare it with!” Kacey yelled, looking through the tent for a weapon in case the bear came inside.
The girls searched frantically, but could only find Emma’s hair dryer and curling iron.
“This will have to do!” Kacey declared, and she and Ava stood shoulder-to-shoulder waiting for the bear to come in.
The growling sound faded into the distance, and Ava said, “I think he’s left!”
“Let’s look,” Kacey said. They stuck their heads out of the tent and saw the bear circling another tent nearby.
“We need to get help!” Ava cried.
“I think we should try to scare the bear off. Let’s go out and make a lot of noise!”
The two girls cautiously went down the steps carrying their hair salon weapons. The bear was busy nosing around the other tent where they could hear screams.
“Come on!” Kacey yelled, and ran in the direction of the bear, waving her arms and yelling,
“Go! Get out of here! Yaw!”
Ava did the same, yelling as loudly as she could.
The bear stopped and turned his head toward them. Next, he ran around the tent, out of sight. The girls followed him cautiously, but when they reached the other side of the tent, the bear was gone.
Heaving for breath, the two girls looked at each other, wide-eyed.
“It worked!” Ava exclaimed.
“Yeah, I guess so!”
Some of the counselors in the tent where the bear had been stuck their heads out.
“Is it gone?” asked Wendi.
“I think so,” Kacey replied, “At least for now.”
“Whew! We thought he would come in here and kill us!”
“Well, it’s safe now,” Kacey said, “You can go back to bed. I don’t think that bear will come back here.”
“Thanks for scaring him off!” They called.
“Bye!” Ava waved and followed Kacey back to the Hawk’s Nest. They got back into their cots and pulled up their blankets. Ava turned out the light and asked,
“You really think that bear won’t come back?”
Kacey had her doubts but didn’t want to alarm her friend.
“No. We scared him pretty good. He won’t be back.”
Ava nodded in the dark and closed her eyes, but it was a long time before she fell asleep.
Andre and Tasha were waiting in the woods, not far from Hawk’s Nest. They had watched as Kacey and Ava scared the bear off, and heard the bear run into the woods in their direction. Andre tried to keep quiet, but laughter erupted from behind his hand covering his mouth. Tasha laughed, too.
“Did you see that?” he asked incredulously. Although he was excited, he kept his voice low.
“That was hysterical!” Tasha replied.
“Those girls were scared! They thought it was a real bear!”
He folded over in laughter.
“Rrrooooarrr!” the bear growled, and scared Tasha from behind, and she jumped.
Jerking around, she saw the bear standing behind her.
“You idiot!” she cried, “You scared me!”
Matt took off his bear head and laughed. He and Andre joked about how scared the girls had been and how Kacey and Ava came out waving a hair dryer and curling iron.
“Hey, somebody just turned on a light over by the lodge. I’d better go,” Tasha said. The guys said they had to go hide the bear costume.
Andre took Tasha’s hand and pulled her close.
“Promise me you won’t tell anyone what we did. Let them think it was a real bear. It’s more fun that way.”
Tasha smiled into his eyes, “Okay.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer for a kiss.
“Hey, knock it off! We need to get out of here!” Matt warned.
Andre let her go and she smiled, “See you tomorrow!”
“Can’t wait,” he replied.
Emma hadn’t been able to sleep. She tossed and turned on her mattress. She tried lying still, but her ears listened intently for every little sound. She thought she heard noises outside.
Leaving the safety of her mattress, she went to the door and called, “Tasha, is that you?”
There was no reply, and Emma became worried. It must have been at least an hour since Tasha went out with Andre. Emma wondered what had happened to her.
She gathered her courage and slid the bolt back from the door. Just to be safe, she flipped on the outdoor light next to the door. Cautiously, she opened the door a crack and peered out.
A chorus of crickets sang in the dark. She listened closer to another sound.
Emma heard footsteps approaching.
“Tasha?” she called, feeling scared and hoping it was her.
“Yeah, I’m coming!” Tasha’s voice replied through the darkness.
Emma let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank God! Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!”
Tasha came in and closed the door.
“We just went for a walk, that’s all.”
“But you were gone over an hour!”
“No, I wasn’t. Besides, it’s no big deal. You sound like my mother.”
Emma was stung by the criticism.
“It’s just that I was worried that something happened to you.”
Tasha faced her with her hands on her hips, “Well, nothing happened, did it? Now let it go, and let’s get to sleep!”
Emma frowned, but followed her friend to their mattresses where they climbed under the blankets.
“Good night,” Emma said.
“’Night,” Tasha replied, but she was already thinking about Andre and the magical evening they had shared.
The next morning at breakfast, everyone was talking about the bear and how Ava and Kacey scared it away.
“Thank you so much!” Wendi cried, “We were so scared!”
“You’re so welcome,” Kacey smiled.
Deena congratulated the girls also, and then asked,
“Ava, would you mind if Wendi switched duty with you? She’s supposed to help out with swimming but she would like to help me with horseback riding. Can you switch with her, just for today?”
“Sure,” Ava shrugged, “No problem.”
“Great! Just report to Andre. He’s the lead swim instructor. And don’t forget to wear your swim suit.”
Ava agreed and said goodbye to Kacey. Kacey was due back at the campfire circle to help out with camping skills.
When she arrived, Matt had the kids sitting in a circle again.
“Today we’re going to learn how to use a compass and mark a trail so you won’t get lost in the woods. I’ll also point out some important plants to recognize--like poison ivy.”
He and Kacey lined the kids up and Matt led them up the paved trail toward the amphitheater. When they stopped to rest at the amphitheater, Matt turned to Kacey and said,
“Hey, I hear you and Ava scared a bear away last night!”
“Oh, yeah, we did,” she admitted.
“That’s pretty brave! Most girls would have run away,” said Matt.
Kacey shrugged, saying, “Well, we’re
not most girls.”
“I can see that,” he said, looking at her with admiration.
“Weren’t you afraid the bear would attack you?” he asked.
“Well, a little,” Kacey admitted, “But I was more afraid that he would attack the girls in the other tent. We just did our best to scare him off.”
“Well, that was pretty awesome. I sure hope we don’t see any bears around here tonight.”
“Yeah, me too,” Kacey agreed, “I didn’t bring any hair dryers with me.”
They both laughed.
At the beach, Ava was in the water, helping Andrew do a back float. At the end of the dock, some campers were jumping off the dock into the water and swimming back to the ladder. Andre was busy teaching a few kids how to do a frog kick.
Bartley was among the kids jumping off the dock.
“I bet I can jump farther than anybody!” he bragged.
“No you can’t!” Pedro argued, “You’re a shrimp, Fartley. You can’t jump farther than me!”
The two boys engaged in a jumping contest, which Pedro won easily. Angry, Bartley said, “I bet I can swim all the way across the lake!”
Pedro looked across the shimmering blue water.
“That’s like fifty miles or something. Nobody can swim that far!”
“I can!” Bartley insisted.
“Yeah, sure. Let’s see you do it, Fartley,” Pedro challenged him.
“Stop calling me that!” Bartley yelled.
“Fartley! Fartley!” Pedro replied.
Bartley gave him a shove and pushed him off the dock.
Splash! Pedro hit the water and scrambled back up to the surface.
“Hey!” Andre called to Bartley, “Stop that, Bartley! You come here right now!”
But Bartley turned and jumped into the lake. Instead of swimming ashore, he headed out into deeper water. If he could swim to the beach at the end of the camp, he could run away and avoid Andre.
“Come back here!” Andre yelled.
“I’ll go!” Ava said, “I’m a good swimmer. I can catch up to him.”
Before Andre could protest, Ava was stroking across the surface of the lake smoothly and swiftly.
Bartley saw her coming and turned to swim away from the beach. But his breathing became harder, like someone was squeezing his chest, and he began to wheeze.
He tried to put his foot down on the bottom to rest, but there was no bottom. He was in deep water over his head. Suddenly, he panicked.
Bartley tried to keep swimming, but the more he moved his arms and legs, the harder it became to breath. He began to cough, gasping for air. He couldn’t keep swimming if he wanted to breathe. He stopped and began to sink.
Seeing the boy slip under the surface, Andre shouted, “Bartley!”
He hoped that Ava had some training in water rescue. Trying to save a drowning victim could end up with both people drowning if the rescuer didn’t know the right moves.
In a few more strokes, Ava was within touching distance of Bartley. She watched as he tried to flail his arms to stay afloat. She could hear him coughing and wheezing.
“It’s okay, Bartley, I’m here. Just relax. I’ll bring you in to shore. Just lay on your back.”
As soon as Bartley saw her, he tried to grab onto her, but she pushed him away. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him around so he was facing away from her. Then she put her left hand under his chin to hold it up while she swam with him behind her. All he could grab onto was her arm. Soon, Ava reached shallow water and stood up. She lifted Bartley up and carried him.
All the kids were watching as she splashed through the shallow water.
“He’s having an asthma attack! I’ll take him to the infirmary!” Ava cried.
Andre waved in reply and gathered the other kids together on the beach. He did a quick head count to make sure the rest of the kids were all accounted for.
Ava reached the infirmary just as the nurse was coming out.
“Bartley is having an attack!” she shouted.
“Bring him inside. I’ve got one of his inhalers here.”
Ava set him down on one of the beds and the nurse helped him take his medicine.
“What happened?” asked the nurse.
“He tried to swim across the lake, right buddy?” Ava asked, “But that lake is too big to swim across, especially for a tadpole like you. Why don’t you stay here and rest a while? It’s almost time for lunch.” Bartley was occupied with trying to catch his breath, and gave no response.
The nurse said she’d take care of Bartley until he was ready to leave.
When Ava returned to the beach, all the kids gave her a cheering welcome, and praised her for her heroic act.
“Okay, everybody,” Andre said, “Go get changed for lunch!”
As soon as the campers left, Andre smiled at her and said, “You didn’t tell me you had life guard training.”
“Oh, yeah, I learned that in a water safety class I took in high school.”
“You’re a great swimmer. Were you on a swim team in high school?”
“Yeah, I was. We were state champs,” she smiled.
“I can see why. I got worried when Bartley tried to grab you. I know what can happen when somebody’s drowning. I had to save my cousin once and he almost made me drown.”
“Well, it’s a natural instinct to try and save yourself if you’re drowning,” Ava said.
“How’s Bartley?”
“Oh, he’ll be fine.”
“Some of the boys told me he was bragging that he could swim across the lake.”
Ava laughed, “Are you kidding? I don’t think that even I could do that!”
Andre smiled back, “I wouldn’t be so sure!”
At lunch, Kacey and Ava shared their experiences about their mornings.
“It sounds like you were a hero,” Kacey said admiringly.
Ava laughed, “No, it wasn’t a big deal. I just swam out there and got Bartley, that’s all.”
“Did he say why he swam so far out?”
“Andre told me that some of the boys said Bartley told them he could swim across the lake, so I guess he was trying to prove it to them.”
Kacey shook her head, “I’m worried about him. He never listens. He seems to want to prove himself better than the other kids all the time.”
“He probably has an inferiority complex,” Ava replied.
“Yeah, maybe. But why?” Kacey asked.
Ava shrugged, “Who knows? Come on, it’s time for us to get back to work.”