Thomas Tryon - The Night of the Moonbow

“Cripes, leave him alone, Phil, why don’t you?” he protested. Phil whirled on him belligerently.

“Listen, toad-face, you better button up if you know what’s good for you. And what are you looking so bug-eyed at?” he demanded of Wally, who had been standing by the door.

“Nothing,” Wally murmured and climbed into his bunk.

Phil was staring at Leo’s hand. “Cripes – look!” he exclaimed, pointing. “He’s got Tiger’s knife! Where’d you get it?”

“Tiger gave it to me. He wanted me to have it.”

“Liar! You stole it!”

“The heck I did!”

“Why would Tiger give you his knife?” Phil stuck out his hand. “Give it to me,” he demanded.

When Leo refused, a scuffle began as Phil tried to wrest the knife from him. Failing in his attempt, he called for assistance. Dump jumped up and pulled at Leo, who, turning quickly, got an elbow in the mouth. In another moment a figure had appeared behind them, an arm reached out, a hand seized Phil by the scruff and pulled him away.

“All right, boys,” said Fritz Auerbach brusquely, “that’s enough of these strong-arm tactics. We don’t want any fighting today.”

Phil struggled in Fritz’s grip. “Let me go.”

“I’ll be happy to – after you return Leo’s property to him.”

“It’s not his! It’s Tiger’s!”

Coming in behind Fritz at the doorway, Wanda spoke up. “It was Tiger’s. Now it’s Leo’s. That’s how Tiger wanted it.”

“Who asked you?” Phil said, rudely. Fritz was about to take him to task when Reece came into view on the path. “All right, what’s all the racket about?” he demanded, joining the group. “Don’t you guys know we just had a funeral service around here?”

“Phil is bent on keeping Tiger’s knife,” Fritz explained. “But Tiger wanted Leo to have it.”

Reece eyed him. “How do you know? Did Tiger say so?”

“No, but Leo told me-”

“Oh? So you’ll take his word, then?”

“He’s not a liar. I believe him.”

“It’s true!” Leo cried. “We talked about it the night before he – he said – since he was going home – he -he-”

“Be quiet,” Reece ordered. “Phil, give him back the knife.”

Phil drew back in outrage. “No, I won’t! He can’t have it.”

Reece repeated the order in stronger terms. Cowed, Phil grudgingly handed over the knife, which Leo took and held behind him. Turning, Phil deliberately jabbed him in the ribs. “You really are a crummy little spud, you know that?”

“All right, you guys hop it over to the lodge and wait for me,” Reece said. “I want to talk to you.”

Obediently the boys trooped out of the cabin, all but the Bomber, who lingered in the doorway, waiting for a word with Leo.

“Hey, that means you, too, Jerome!” Phil snapped from outdoors. Reece fixed his eye on the Bomber, who nodded, then turned to Leo.

“I gotta go. I’ll see you after, huh?”

He left the cabin, bringing up the rear as the others followed behind Phil and disappeared along the path to the lodge. Reece turned his attention to Fritz, who was examining Leo’s bruised lip.

“They just won’t stop, will they?” Fritz said.

“They would if they weren’t given provocation. And while we’re on the subject, what are you doing around here anyway? I thought I told you to keep out of my campers’ business.”

“They were ganging up on Leo again.”

“Sure, I know, everyone’s always ganging up on ‘poor Leo.’ ”

“But they were,” Wanda insisted. “Look what they did to him.”

Reece waved an impatient hand. “Yes, take a good look at him. If it weren’t for him and his damnable spider Tiger Abernathy wouldn’t be being carried out of here in a box. He – he-”

He broke off, then turned and marched out. The others watched him go. Wanda turned to Leo. “You’d better come with me, while I put something on that lip of yours.” She was halfway out the door when she encountered the Hartsigs. There was an awkward shuffling of positions as Wanda stepped aside for Joy, who stood in the doorway, her eyes sparkling with fresh tears.

“What is it? Why was Reece weeping? What did somebody say to him to upset him like that? Fritz, did you say something?”

“Nothing that mattered, Mrs Hartsig. I was thinking, however.”

“Thinking what?” She teetered on her high heels. “Exactly what do you mean?”

“I was thinking that Reece will soon be going into the air force.”

“Yes? We know this.”

“And I was thinking how fortunate Camp Friend-Indeed will be when he has gone. I myself will be very glad to see the last of your son.”

“What? What are you saying?” She clutched fiercely at his sleeve. “How can you say such a thing? Especially after all his father has done for the camp? After all Reece has done?” Fritz looked her in the eye. “What has he dorie, Mrs Hartsig?” he asked quietly.

“How can you ask such a question? He’s done everything, simply everything! He’s set an example, for one thing, he’s given the boys someone to look up to and emulate. Why, wherever they go from here they will take the memory of Reece Hartsig with them.”

Fritz’s shoulders lifted, then drooped. “Let me just say this, please: I consider it just as well for Camp Friend-Indeed that your son should not be back next year. This place does not need men like him among its counselors, no matter how long he has been coming here.”

Joy stopped dabbing at her melting mascara and stared at him. “What nonsense are you talking now, Mr Auerbach?” “He’s thoughtless, your Reece, he’s careless of other people’s feelings. No matter what some may find to admire in his character, flaws are also evident. I would not like to think of campers’ emulating those as well.”

“Everyone has flaws!” Joy retorted, her mouth pulled down in an angry bow, her pale cheeks bedizened with two flaming spots of color. “I’m sure you have your share,

Mr Fritz Auerbach! You should think of that before you go around saying nasty things behind people’s backs!”

“I will be glad to say them to Reece’s face if you wish me to,” Fritz replied with icy formality. “I have said nothing but the truth.”

“What truth?”

“The truth that it is wrong to blame Leo Joaquim for an act he had no part in.”

“If you mean Tiger’s death I suggest you remember that it was Leo’s spider that inflicted the fatal bite.”

“Pardon, dear madame, but that is also untrue.”

“Say, wait a minute, Fritzy,” demanded Rolfe, lunging into the group. “You calling my wife a liar?”

“I am merely trying to point out that Leo is in no way to be held responsible for the tragedy that has happened here. And to. wrongfully blame him is not to be tolerated. I will be leaving tomorrow morning and-”

Rolfe hiked his chin. “Running away, are you?”

Fritz colored. “I assure you, sir, I am not running away at all. I am going to Washington to talk with some Red Cross people who may have knowledge concerning the fate of my family. But while I am gone from this place…”

“Yes? Go on.”

“If upon my return I should learn that Leo has been mistreated or persecuted for any imagined sins, I would then be obliged to go to Dr Dunbar and inform him of the facts.” “What facts would those be?” demanded Rolfe, his heavy arm cradling his wife’s small form against his side.

“For one, the fact that if it weren’t for an act of carelessness on the part of your son it is highly likely that Tiger Abernathy would be alive today.”

Rolfe blinked; the muscles in his face began to work. “What the hell are you talking about? What act?”

“Leo knows. It happened here in this very cabin one afternoon. Reece insisted on inspecting the bite Tiger had from the spider.”