The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

8

No. Not quicksand.

There’s no such thing as quicksand. I remembered that from some science book I read in fifth grade.

I lowered the flashlight.

“Ohhhh.” Mud. Thick, gooey mud.

My sneaker sank deep into the ooze.

I pulled my leg up with a groan-and nearly toppled over backwards.

It’s just mud, I told myself. It’s disgusting-but it’s no big deal.

But then I saw the spiders.

Dozens of them. The biggest spiders I ever saw.

There must have been a nest of them in the mud.

They were crawling over my shoe, crawling up the leg of my jeans.

“Ohhhh. Yuck!”

Dozens of spiders clung to me. I shook my sneaker. Hard. Then I began batting at them with my free hand.

“I hate this caaaaaamp!” I screamed.

I beat some spiders away with the flashlight.

And then I had an idea.

I mean, why shouldn’t I pay Briana and Meg back for what they did to me?

They embarrassed me in front of the whole camp. And I hardly did anything to them.

I emptied the batteries from the flashlight. I took a deep breath. Then I bent down-and scooped a bunch of spiders into the flashlight.

Yuck. I felt sick. I really did.

I mean, can you imagine-me handling spiders!

But I knew it would be worth it. Soon.

I filled the flashlight with the squirming, black creatures. Then I screwed on the top.

I stepped over a fallen tree trunk. Found the path. And carrying the flashlight carefully, I eagerly hurried to the cabin.

I stopped outside the door. The lights were on inside the cabin.

I peeked in through the open window. No. No sign of anyone.

I crept inside.

I pulled up the blanket on Briana’s bed. Then I emptied half of the spiders onto her sheet. I carefully pulled the blanket over them and smoothed it out.

I was pouring the rest of the spiders into Meg’s bed when I heard a shuffling noise behind me. Quickly, I pulled Meg’s blanket back into place and spun around.

Jan stepped into the cabin. “What’s up?” she asked in her hoarse, croaky voice.

“Nothing,” I replied, hiding the flashlight behind my back.

Jan yawned. “It’s Lights Out in ten minutes,” she said.

I glanced at Briana’s bunk. I’d left one corner of the blanket untucked. Briana won’t notice, I decided.

I realized I was grinning. I quickly changed my expression. I didn’t want Jan asking a lot of questions.

She turned and pulled a long white nightshirt from her dresser drawer. “What did you sign up for tomorrow?” she asked. “Free Swim?”

“No. Canoeing,” I told her.

I wanted to be in a nice, dry canoe. Not flopping around in the dirty lake with fish and other slimy creatures.

“Hey. Me too,” Jan said.

I started to ask if she would be my buddy. But Briana and Meg came strolling through the door.

They saw me-and burst out laughing.

“What was that wild dance you were doing at the campfire?” Briana teased.

“You looked as if you had a snake down your back or something!” Meg declared.

They laughed some more.

That’s okay I thought. Go ahead and laugh.

In a few minutes, when you climb under your covers, I’ll be laughing.

I couldn’t wait.