Lawrence Looks for Treasure

Part 2 - Chapter 34

34

After an hour or so of biking, I could see Camp Okanagan in the distance. The sky was overcast, making Camp seem grim. I wasn't biking to get there, or not to get there. I was biking just to bike. The weather was humid and my going was slow. I didn't think much, though I paused often for snacks and water.

Eventually, I arrived at the front gate. The gate was like I remembered it: a wide, metal job that looked like it was used to fence cattle. I hid my bike in the woods and locked it to a tree. I needed to be quiet and stealthy. It was a private ground, after all, and I wasn't a camper anymore. Then, I hopped the fence and made my way down the path.

As I travelled inward, I noticed that Camp was better kept than when I was a camper. The grounds were tidier and the path was paved. The grounds used to be wild, the path rocky as hell.

The first building I passed was the infirmary. Pine needles were scattered all over from nearby pine trees. I stopped and stared. I felt nostalgic. It wasn't the site of the building that did it, though. It was the earthy, evergreen smell. It brought a flood of memories.

One time, the flu went around. Me and a bunch of other kids had it so they quarantined us in the infirmary. We survived off chicken soup and ginger-ale, thrived off it, even. We watched Stand by Me over and over. Ema was there, too. I think it's every boy's dream to be quarantined with a pretty girl like Ema.

Another time, I faked like my arm was broken so I wouldn't have to swim. The pool was freezing, you know. And when I went to the infirmary, the doctor believed me. He put a sling around my arm and sent me to town for X-rays. My cover was blown when the results came back negative. But the doctor still let me wear the sling. It was our little secret.  

I thought about how sheltered we were as children. Spoiled, really. Made to believe we could be anything. But my thoughts were interrupted by a low rumbling from above.

I looked up. The sky was painted thick with dark grey clouds. Thunder, I thought. After two weeks of the greatest heatwave our town had ever seen, it was finally going to rain.

Then I heard another rumble behind me. A different rumble. On instinct, I turned around. A car was backing into me. I jumped out of the way. The car continued backing up, right into the woods. It fell in, got stuck, and couldn't pull out. Who was the moron driving that thing? I was on edge. First, the moron could've hit me. Second, if I wasn't found out already, I would be soon. Thank god, neither of those things happened, or, I guess they both did, but in a convenient sort of way.

The car hit me, but it was going slow enough that it pushed me over rather than cause any damage. And, as for the driver, the person who got out of the car and found me, well, that was Max. No big deal.

Max was cool. He was our age, an old bunkmate, too. We were closer with Max when we went to camp. Now, not so much. When we stopped going to camp, Max stuck around. He did the job that kids who should've left a while ago did. Jobs like driving laundry to the cleaners and back. Max was the man for the job. He would smoke cigarettes, listen to classic rock, eat burgers and drive around.

That's why Max hit me. He was smoking a cigarette and listening to music, and he knocked the damn gear shift in reverse. He didn't even notice. Funniest of all, when he got out, he wasn't at all surprised to see me, the bastard. He just sort of said, 'hey', and we started to catch up. Like he was running into me at a party or something. Funny guy. Very nice, but funny.

'How's your brother?' I asked, after a while. Max's brother was like Max—short, dumb and a face like a bun—but with a worse attitude.

'Oh, not good man.' Max said. 'All he does is sit around and watch T.V. He barely works, a few days a week at most. Otherwise, he's just in his room all day watching T.V. My Mum doesn't know what to do . . .'