Janice Carter - Her Kind Of Hero

Just then the front door of the lodge swung open. “Hey, Matt, you got here in good time for a...” Sandro faltered, taking in Dana as she climbed out of the car “...change.”

“Yeah, traffic was okay. Sandro, this is Dana Sothern. Dana, Sandro Garcia.”

The two nodded at one another. “Dana’s going to be helping out for a couple of weeks.”

“Helping out?” Sandro looked sharply at Dana, clearly taking in her designer boots and jeans. “Here?”

Matt caught the tone, and from the slight flush in her face, Dana did, too. Only days ago, he and Sandro had carefully gone over the staffing schedule for the camp’s dry-run weekends. That was before Dana’s call, so Matt hadn’t included her. “I’m going to give her a quick tour first. Maybe she can make up the beds in the cabins?”

Sandro shrugged. “Sure. Whatever you think.”

“Is Maria coming in today?”

“No. Her son’s sick so she may not make it tomorrow either. She’ll let us know later today.”

“Okay. By the way, Kristen is expecting us at about four o’clock to get ready for the board meeting.”

“Right. Well then, I’ll go rustle up the bedding stuff.” He nodded briefly at Dana and headed toward the two cabins on the far right of the lodge.

Matt looked at Dana. “Maria’s kind of an office manager. She does a lot of our administrative work part-time,” he explained. When she simply nodded, he said, “Guess we might as well start with the lodge, then.”

“Sure.”

Matt hadn’t expected enthusiasm, but mild interest would have been nice. He led the way inside, hoping the visual impact of what they called the Big Room might rouse something in her.

“As you can see, this entryway is really part of a hall that runs all along the front of the lodge. That side on the left leads to our offices and the staff washroom. To your right is the coat area.”

She looked at the rows of hooks and racks for boots and shoes without comment.

“The hall on that side continues to the staircase leading to the second story.”

“What’s up there?”

“Five bedrooms and two bathrooms. The staff who aren’t supervising in the kids’ cabins share a room, and I get my own, since staff shift around a bit but I’m always here.” He stopped, feeling a bit unsettled by her passive gaze.

Clearing his throat, he said, “Okay, and straight ahead is what we call the Big Room.” He turned around and walked ahead into the main part of the lodge. The central wood-paneled room with its massive stone fireplace flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows never failed to stir his pride. They’d all worked hard to make this room special. The Big Room always drew gasps of wonder from the kids, with its sprawling couches, chairs and cushions. Matt knew the room was bigger than some of the apartments the kids lived in.

Dana walked into the center, slowly taking it all in. “Nice. Did this furniture come with the place?”

“A lot of it was donated but we did find some bargains at thrift shops.” There was a slight twitch of her nose at that and Matt felt his face heat up. Sure, some of the pieces were obviously well used, but personally he thought they added to the charm of the room.

“Some of it was left behind,” he went on, determined to ignore her lack of interest, “like that sideboard on the far wall.” He pointed. “The door next to the sideboard leads to the dining hall and the kitchen is just off that. There’s a Ping-Pong table over there in the far corner.”

She followed his gesture with her eyes, then turned to face the opposite end of the room. “Is that a reading area?”

“Yeah. We call it the library. Those bookshelves made that section a done deal when we reconfigured the room. Much of this space had already been set up for multipurpose use.”

“How did the previous owners use this place?”

“I think it was a very large summer home for someone originally, but I heard that the couple who willed it to the town set it up as a lodge.”

“People came here for a vacation?”

Clearly not her kind of getaway place, Matt thought. “It’s smaller than most vacation lodges but yes. The offices down here were also used as bedrooms, I believe. Plus, there was one sleeping cabin and the outdoor washroom buildings.”

“So, people didn’t have their own bathrooms.”

“It was an affordable place for families. Everyone needs an escape from the big city in the summer,” he said, seeing her flush as she picked up on his implied gibe. “The tables across from the library are for quiet time or rainy-day activities. People have donated a number of board games and jigsaw puzzles.”

She gave it a cursory glance before saying, “The offices. Are they for all the staff?”

“Basically. Kristen, Sandro and I share the largest one. Then there’s one that the rest of the staff can use. It’s got a couple of desks, two computers and a landline. Maria uses it as her office, but anyone can check email on the second computer.”

“Though people probably use their cell phones. What’s the reception like here?”

“It’s good. We’re not far from the town, but we don’t have Wi-Fi. Besides those two rooms, we also have one we call the sick room.”

“Do you have medical personnel on staff?”

“Unfortunately, the budget doesn’t extend that far. We do have a board member who’s also a nurse practitioner and she’s available for a few hours when the camp is running through the summer.”

“What kind of liability insurance do you have?”

This was the lawyer speaking now, Matt thought. “We’re covered—don’t worry.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow that he ignored.

“Okay, well, let’s put your backpack in my office and then we’ll check out the cabins and the grounds. You can change your shoes, too,” he added, hiding a quick smile.

By the time they’d made it to the new sleeping cabin, Matt guessed that Dana might bow out of her offer to help. If so, he’d go with his plan B and have the new worker at KidsFirst take over for Dana on the weekend. But he didn’t feel like letting her off the hook just yet.

Her smile when she took in the freshly painted girls’ cabin with its new windows and screens was refreshing, but it disappeared when he showed her the broom-closet-sized room that would be hers.

“Not much storage space,” she commented, staring bleakly at the two-drawer chest between the two cots.

Matt laughed, “You’ll only be here on weekends, Dana. And as I told you, this weekend is a short one. Just Saturday night, so you’ll be supervising on your own. Plus, there’ll be fewer girls.”

“I was thinking of the two people who’d be in here all summer,” she snapped.

He wanted to tell her that wasn’t her concern but had to admit she had a point. He surveyed the room. Maybe there’d be just enough space for one of those DIY wardrobe kits. “Well...I’ll get Maria to check into that.”

As irritating as her observations were, Matt knew he and the team hadn’t worked out much in the way of staffing for the summer. Then the cabins, each with a full complement of twenty kids, would need two night supervisors. The problem was, now that the town was reviewing the lease agreement, things were up in the air. It was a stressful situation, but Matt knew he needed to be patient.

“Shall we walk down to the lake, or would you rather do that after you’ve made up the beds?”

Dana glanced at the stack of clean linens on one of the new bunk beds. “A walk would be nice.”

Matt figured he could do that job himself if necessary. He paused outside the cabin, inhaling deeply.

“The air is different out here, isn’t it?” Dana said as she came up beside him.