Nurse April finished spraying Sid and started on Roddy’s arms. “We want to keep you safe,” she said.
My skin felt a little itchy. Sid and Kelly waved their arms in the air, trying to get the sunscreen lotion to dry.
Other campers were lined up outside, waiting for their turns. When we were all covered in the stuff, Nathan led us to our cabin.
The cabins were spread out along a trail through tall, shady trees. As we walked, I could see the soccer field, and in the distance, the lake, shimmering in the sunlight.
The girls’ cabins came first. The boys’ cabins were deeper in the woods.
The cabins all had name signs above their doors. We passed Cobra, Rattler, and then Black Mamba.
Nathan stopped outside a small cabin with peeling paint and one boarded-up window. The cabin was named Cottonmouth.
“Maybe you noticed,” he said. “The cabins here are all named after poisonous snakes.”
“That’s awesome,” I said. Sid and Kelly agreed.
Of course, Roddy made a face. “It’s creepy,” he muttered.
We followed Nathan into Cottonmouth. It was just big enough for two bunk beds and two dressers. A poster of a big brown iguana hung between the two bunk beds. Two bulbs hanging on cords from the ceiling were the only lights.
“Can I have a bottom bunk?” Roddy asked. “I toss and turn a lot in my sleep.”
“No problem,” I said. “I’ll take the top.”
A couple of junior counselors walked up to our cabin with our bags piled on a cart. Nathan told us to grab our bags and put our stuff away.
Roddy tugged at Nathan’s shirt. “Did you know kids call this place Camp Slither?” he asked.
Nathan laughed. “No. Never heard that one. Pretty good.”
Roddy didn’t give up. “Well, did you hear any stories about a giant snake that lives in the lake?”
Nathan laughed again. “Do you believe everything you hear?”
“No,” Roddy started. “But —”
“Forget all those scary stories,” Nathan told him. “We’re here to have fun, right? And to learn about the outdoors?”
Sid and Kelly were staring at Roddy. Like he was some kind of weirdo.
I felt sorry for the kid. He was so frightened. I hoped he wasn’t going to be a pain all summer.
“Hurry. Unpack,” Nathan said. “Then shove your bags under the bunks. First camp meeting is in half an hour. I’ll come back to take you to it.”
He ran off. The screen door slammed behind him.
We started to pull stuff out of our bags. I turned to Kelly and Sid. “You guys been here before?”
They shook their heads. We were all first-timers.
Roddy held up his toothbrush and deodorant. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Didn’t you see it?” Kelly said. “We passed it on the trail. It’s that long building that isn’t painted.”
Roddy let out a sigh. He pulled a flashlight from his bag and placed it on the floor next to the bed.
Kelly picked up a can of Sun-Glo and squirted Sid on the back of the neck. Sid shrieked and dropped the stack of T-shirts he was holding. “Hey — what’s the big idea?”
Kelly laughed. “Sun protection!” he said.
Sid pulled the spray can from Kelly’s hand and let Kelly have it on the front of his shirt. I grabbed another can off the windowsill and sprayed Sid on the back of the neck, too.
We had an excellent spray battle. Even Roddy got into the act. A few seconds later, all four of us were laughing our heads off and dripping with the orange glop.
“Better get changed,” I said. “It’s almost time for the camp meeting.”
I started to pull my wet, sticky shirt off — but stopped.
I suddenly felt strange again. My skin tingled like before, but worse. It felt all prickly.
I gazed at my hands — and gasped. My skin was scaly. It had all these little cracks and lines all over it.
Weird. I scratched the back of my hand. And a long strip of skin peeled off in my fingers!
I glanced over at the other guys. They seemed to be fine. No scratching. No tingling. No peeling skin.
It’s probably just dry skin, I told myself. I decided to ignore it.
Nathan led us to the Meeting Ground. It was in a round clearing in the woods on the far side of the soccer field.
Kids laughed and talked as we crossed the field. Some guys were singing a funny rap song. Heather came running up to me. Her curly hair bounced as she ran.
“How’s it going? What cabin are you in?” I asked her.
“Three guesses.” She rattled her bracelet.
“You’re in Rattler?”
She laughed. “Boone, you’re a genius.”
Sid and Kelly picked up long twigs. They started slapping them against each other in a wild sword fight as we walked. Those guys never quit.
Roddy walked between Heather and me. Kids tossed a red Frisbee back and forth. “Look out!” someone shouted. It bounced off Roddy’s back.
He let out a cry.
He probably thinks he was attacked by a snake! I thought.
But Roddy got it together quickly. He picked up the Frisbee and sent it sailing back to the kids. A nice toss.
“Roddy wants to tell us another horror story about a giant snake that lives in the lake,” I told Heather.
“It’s not a horror story,” Roddy protested. “It’s a legend about Hither Lake. A kid told me it was true.”
Heather rattled her bracelet in Roddy’s face. “Go, Rattlers! Rattlers rule!” she cried. She did a freaky snake dance around Roddy and me.
My sister is totally disturbing.
“What’s the legend?” I asked Roddy.
“This guy told me about a GIANT diamondback water snake,” Roddy said. “The snake is giganto. Really. It’s as big as TWO alligators.”
“Whoa,” I said. “That’s a big snake. And it lives in the lake?”
Roddy nodded. “Its name is Serpo. And it needs to be fed. If it isn’t fed, it crawls out of the lake — and attacks the camp.”
“That’s doo-dah nasty,” Heather said.
We were nearing the Meeting Ground. Kids were sitting in a semicircle near a low white stone wall.
“How do they feed Serpo?” I asked Roddy.
He swallowed. “I know you’re not going to believe this, Boone. But this is what the kids at school told me.”
“Tell,” Heather said.
“Once during the summer, the counselors make all the campers swim across Lake Hither. And Serpo pulls some kids down. For food. That’s how they feed him. And when he’s finished eating the campers, their bare bones wash up on shore.”
Roddy looked so serious, Heather and I burst out laughing.
“That’s not true. That’s from a movie!” Heather said. “Bye!” She ran off across the grass to join some other girls from her cabin.
“I said you wouldn’t believe me,” Roddy muttered.
We followed Nathan to the Meeting Ground. The four of us sat down in the grass.
The low wall curved behind us. We faced a tall black rock, almost diamond shaped. Behind it, we could see a steep grassy hill with a building at the top.
Thick woods surrounded us. Behind the trees, the afternoon sun was starting to drop.
Dr. Crawler came out and stood in front of the rock. He had changed into jeans, sandals, and a green-and-blue sweatshirt that said CAMP HITHER across the front.
“This is our welcome meeting,” he announced. “And so, let me say … welcome! Here at Camp Hither, we want you to have the most fun you can in the great outdoors.”
Someone popped a loud bubble-gum bubble. Kids burst out laughing.
Dr. Crawler’s mustache curled up as he smiled. “I see a lot of you are already having fun!” he said. “Well, things are always popping here at Camp Hither!”
It was a lame joke. But a few kids laughed at it.
Dr. Crawler slapped his hand on the black rock
. “Let me tell you the story of the Meeting Rock,” he said. “We have many stories to tell here at Camp Hither, and this rock …”
I couldn’t hear the rest of what he was saying. His voice was suddenly drowned out by a loud hissing sound.
The sound rose like a siren … loud … shrill….
It seemed to float down from the hill.
Roddy pressed his hands over his ears. His eyes grew wide with fright. “I told you,” he whispered. “Snakes. Snakes everywhere!”
Dr. Crawler kept talking. Didn’t he hear it? Was he just ignoring it?
Roddy jumped to his feet. “What is that sound?” he cried.
Dr. Crawler’s smile faded. He squinted at Roddy. “Wow, you must never leave your house,” he said. “Haven’t you ever heard crickets before?”
Everyone was staring at Roddy.
“It doesn’t sound like crickets,” a girl said. She had to shout over the loud hissing noises.
“I promise you city kids, that’s what crickets sound like,” Dr. Crawler said. “Tell you what. Tomorrow, we’ll all go on a long hike. It’ll be a cricket hunt.”
Roddy sat back down next to me. The hissing sound died suddenly. It just cut out, like someone turning off a radio.
I turned to Roddy and whispered, “It could have been crickets,” I said. “Just ignore it.”
But the sound got me thinking. Was the hill really crawling with snakes? Was Dr. Crawler trying to keep it from us? Maybe he just didn’t want us to get scared on our first day of camp.
Dr. Crawler started talking about camp activities. I kept thinking about Roddy and how scared he was. And I kept waiting for the hissing sound to start up again.
“Our Cabin Wars begin next week,” Dr. Crawler said. He kept slapping the weird-shaped rock as he talked. “It’s cabin versus cabin. I’ll explain the point system later. But believe me, people — Cabin Wars get pretty intense. I mean, it’s take-no-prisoners around here!”
“Cottonmouth rules!” Kelly shouted.
Dr. Crawler laughed.
Kids started shouting out the names of their cabins.
“I told you it gets intense!” Dr. Crawler exclaimed. “And, of course, the big event — the biggest competition — is the swim race across Lake Hither.”
I saw Roddy shiver. And I knew he was thinking about Serpo, the enormous snake at the bottom of the lake.
When the meeting broke up, I ran over to Nathan. He and two other counselors were pulling candy bars out of a backpack and passing them to each other.
Nathan turned when he saw me. “Sorry. You’re too late. None left,” he said. The other two counselors wandered off, chewing loudly.
“I don’t want a candy bar,” I said. “I have a question. Tell me the truth about the hissing.”
Nathan shrugged. “Yeah, I heard it, too,” he said. “I think it was just the wind or something. Catch you later.”
He called to the other counselors and went running after them.
The wind? Was Nathan totally clueless? Or was he hiding the truth from me?
That night, just as I was getting used to the lumpy, hard mattress … just as my eyes were closing … the hissing started up again.
* * *
Next morning, Roddy woke me up with a shrill wail of horror. “SNAKE!” he screamed. “Ohhh, help me! SNAKE!”
I jerked straight up in my top bunk — and smacked my head on the ceiling. Pain shot down my body.
I dropped to the floor and glanced all around. I didn’t see a snake anywhere.
“SNAKE! SNAKE!” Roddy screeched.
Was he having a bad dream? I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. Kelly and Sid hurried up beside me.
“Where?” I demanded. “Where is the snake?”
“It’s … it’s inside MY HEAD!” Roddy cried.
Roddy’s whole body shuddered and shook. He pointed frantically to his ear. “It’s INSIDE me!”
I grabbed his head and tilted it to get a better look inside his ear.
And saw something green wiggling around in there.
Carefully, I lowered my thumb and forefinger to Roddy’s ear — and pinched them around the wriggling green thing. Gently, I tugged it out.
“Oh, gross!” Sid cried.
Kelly let out a low moan.
I stared at the fuzzy caterpillar between my fingers. “How did this get in your ear?”
Roddy was still shaking. Tears rolled down his face. “It … it must have crawled in while I was asleep. I … thought it was a snake.”
“Just a caterpillar,” I said. I tossed it out the cabin window.
“Sick,” Kelly said, scratching his ears. “That was way sick.”
“I don’t want to think about it ever again,” Sid said.
“Ooh, my ear still itches,” Roddy moaned. “Hey, Boone — what if it laid eggs in there? What if, in a few weeks, a million caterpillars hatch inside my head?”
“I don’t think caterpillars lay eggs,” I said.
A few minutes later, Nathan came to make sure we were awake. He was surprised to find us already getting dressed. He made us spray ourselves with Sun-Glo before we could go to breakfast.
We had egg sandwiches on English muffins in the mess hall. Not too shabby.
I saw Heather at a table across the long room. I walked over to her. “Did you sleep?” I asked her.
“Diggety diggety,” she said.
The other girls at the table laughed.
“Did you hear the hissing?” I asked.
“Diggety diggety,” Heather repeated.
“Did you hear there’s a two-mile hike this morning?”
“Diggety diggety.”
I could see I wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. She does this to me all the time. She thinks she’s a riot.
“Diggety diggety to you, too,” I muttered. I went back to my table and had another egg sandwich.
Dr. Crawler had promised us we’d hike, and that’s what we did. The counselors led the whole camp along a dirt trail that twisted through the trees.
It was pretty awesome. I walked with Nathan, Sid, and Kelly. I made sure I kept ahead of Roddy. I wanted to enjoy the forest. I didn’t want to hear or think about snakes or caterpillars crawling into anyone’s ears.
We didn’t see a single snake. We saw some amazing birds. Two bright red cardinals perched on a low tree limb right above our heads. They stared down at us as if daring us to come closer.
We saw a lot of chipmunks, some fast-running field mice, and brown rabbits. The rabbits froze on two legs and stood as still as statues, waiting for us to pass.
Sid kept snapping pictures with his cell phone. He stopped suddenly when we saw a family of skunks cross the path up ahead.
We all stopped. There were five skunks walking in a single line. The mother walked in front, and four little ones followed.
“Keep downwind,” Nathan whispered, waving us back. “Keep downwind.”
I guess he meant, “don’t let the skunks smell you.” I froze like everyone else. No one moved or talked till the skunk family was long out of sight.
Then we all started talking and laughing at once. And everyone kept repeating, “Keep downwind, keep downwind.” It was the joke of the morning.
By the time we got back to camp, the sun was high in the sky. And beating down on us. I was hot and sweaty, almost as smelly as a skunk.
Nathan gathered Sid, Kelly, Roddy, and me outside our cabin. “Swim trunks,” he said. “Get moving, guys. Swim trunks. We need a nice swim in the lake.”
I saw the flash of fear in Roddy’s eyes. But I didn’t care. A cool swim in the lake was just what I needed.
“Swim trunks!” Nathan ordered.
“And keep downwind,” I added.
A few minutes later, the four of us were standing on the shore of Lake Hither. Tall grass ended a few feet from the water, leaving a muddy beach.
The lake was shaped like a perfect circle. The water shimmered so brightly in the sunlight, I coul
d barely see the land on the other side.
A short dock made of wood planks stretched out into the lake. The dock had two rowboats and a Sunfish tethered to it. They bobbed against each other in the gently lapping water.
Two tall stacks of black inner tubes were piled at one side of the dock. I took a step into the water. Warmer than I expected. The cool mud oozed between my toes.
I took another step — and a hand grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back. “Boone — check it out.”
It was Roddy. He pointed to a deep rut in the muddy shore. “I’ll bet the giant snake Serpo made that track,” he said. “Look. He came out of the water. Recently.”
I rolled my eyes. “Roddy, Nathan wouldn’t let us swim here if there was a giant snake.”
Roddy kept staring at the rut in the mud and shaking his head.
Nathan stepped beside us. He hitched up his long gray swim trunks. He pushed his stringy hair out of his eyes and gazed at Roddy. “I’m worried about you, dude,” he said.
Roddy blinked. “Huh? Me?”
“I heard what you said,” Nathan replied. “About the giant snake and everything.” He kicked at the rut until he filled it with mud.
“I’m gonna prove to you how safe this lake is,” Nathan told Roddy. “I’m going in first. Watch.”
Nathan spun around. He took off, running past us. His feet kicked up mud and then splashed water as he ran.
He stretched his arms in front of him and did a surface dive into the lake. We could see him swimming underwater smoothly, going deeper, then rising back up.
He surfaced, maybe ten or twenty feet from us. Not far from the shore. He motioned for us to join him. “Water’s fine!” he called.
Then suddenly there was a big splash. Nathan’s arms shot straight up in the air. He opened his mouth in a terrifying, shrill cry.
“Ohhh … help! It’s GOT me!”
Water flew up all around him — and Nathan shot straight down. His chest slid under. Then his head …
His hands moved over the surface for a second, as if trying to grab on. Then they disappeared, pulled down under the tossing water.
The four of us stood frozen on the muddy shore, not moving, not breathing.
Waiting …
But Nathan didn’t come back up.