In the first chapter we met the gang at Camp Winnatuka. The fearless Tabitha swore there were monsters just north of Lake Anatoga. As always, Rufus didn't believe her. Meanwhile Fres stayed quiet, and Henry didn't quite know what to think. Last we heard, Tabitha promised she could find a map that would lead them to the monsters. Now dear reader, on to chapter two.
For the next few days, the four of us canoed and learned how to make a bow and arrow, and Tabitha showed me the biggest totem pole I'd ever seen. It had a bear face on the bottom, a whale above, and at the very, very top there was the raven.
"If you think you're drowning in the lake you need to look at the raven," Tabitha told me. "If you can see him you'll be OK."
She'd disappeared that afternoon after she and Rufus had another argument about the map.
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
We didn't see her again until dinner time, when she cleared our plates off the table in the back of the cafeteria and slapped down her map.
There was that purple splotch and those three words just north of Anatoga Lake: There Be Monsters.
"What does it mean?" Fres asked.
Rufus looked at her. "It means there's monsters there," he said, pointing out the window to the lake.
Fres shook her head. "No, I mean, what does it mean for us?"
We heard the other tables laughing, talking, and chewing Cassandra's terrible broccoli, but we were silent.
"Either there's no monsters there, so we shouldn't go. Or the monsters will eat us, so we shouldn't go," Rufus said.
I looked at Fres for just a second and we both looked down at our plates.
Nobody said anything else until lights out.
I fell asleep for a minute, just a minute, when I heard a sniff. Then a snort. Then something that sounded like popcorn popping in slow motion. Then a buzzsaw. Then a bear eating a train.
I opened my eyes. I was on the bottom bunk in the middle of the room, and everyone in my cabin was having a snoring contest.
I don't remember getting out of bed but I guess I did, because the next thing I knew I was staring out the window.
I saw the raven. I saw the lake. And I saw three small shadows.
The cabin door squeaked and for just a second everyone stopped snoring, and then I stepped onto the beach.
"Hi Henry," Fres waved.
"Fancy meeting you here," Tabitha smiled.
A wind rolled down the beach and I shivered in my pajamas.
"What do you think you're doing?" Rufus asked.
"What I was born to do," Tabitha told him.
"You're not allowed to go," Rufus said.
He was talking to Tabitha, but I answered.
"We have to go," I said.
"Why?" Fres asked me.
"Because Tabitha's our friend, and because none of us have ever seen a monster."
"I saw a spectre," Rufus offered.
"No you didn't!"
"Shhh!" Fres and I chorused.
"I promised auntie this wouldn't happen again," Rufus told me.
I wanted to tell him we'd be OK, but at that moment I wasn't sure what to say.
Our bare feet made soft sounds on the canoe floor. The moonlight danced on the lake like a million stars.
The warm water lapped against my feet, and then my ankles. I pushed the canoe, then pushed it farther. And then I jumped in.
It was time to find our monsters.
PART TWO
This is the second part of a four-part original camp story. The story continues with part 3 in the May 19 issue of Kids Biz.
