Ann Martin - Mary Anne And Camp

"Mommy," sniffed Alicia. "What if Mommy comes back for me? What if I'm not here?"

My heart broke for Alicia. She looked so little and scared and forlorn standing there.

"Your mom won't be back until after lunch. This afternoon," said Mal. She held out her arm, and pointed to her watch. "Not until the big hand is on the twelve and the little hand is on the five, see?"

The tears began to well up in Alicia's eyes again. By this time, of course, all of Camp BSC was gathered around us, watching us as if we were a performance of some sort. But some of the campers, I noticed, were also getting restless.

"Will we get to the park at least by dark?" demanded Vanessa.

I said quickly, "I'll tell you what. I'll stay

here with Alicia. You guys can handle the trip to the park without me, can't you?"

"Well," said Kristy. She didn't look happy. Kristy hates it when her plans get changed.

Mal said, "It probably would be a good idea, at least for today."

"Okay," said Kristy. She's stubborn, but when it comes to baby-sitting she knows that being flexible is key.

"Come on, Hannie, you can be our partner," said Karen instantly and Nancy nodded. "Then we'll be the Three Musketeers."

Camp BSC left for the park. Alicia and I watched them go, and then I persuaded Alicia to take a short walk around the barn (but only after I explained to her that we would be able to see Ker mother from the barn, if her mom arrived).

I couldn't remember being four, but I could certainly sympathize with Alicia. I also admired her single-mindedness. And of course, as an experienced baby-sitter, I knew that what she needed was some time to adjust to camp. Once she saw that her mother was going to come back and get her every day, no matter what, she'd be fine.

Everyone returned from the park in high spirits and with big appetites. We sorted out the lunches (Camp BSC requirement: all lunches had to be labeled by name) and

poured out juice and milk. The kids loved eating outside. We all did.

And in spite of the fact that she hadn't gone to the park, Alicia had an appetite to match everybody else's.

After lunch we settled down for a quiet read-aloud storytime. We divided into two groups for reading aloud, and let the older kids choose which stories they wanted to listen to. Jessi and Mal took the four youngest kids, Claire, Alicia, Andrew, and Jamie, inside and read . aloud to them, too, and then settled them down for brief naps.

When quiet time was over, we gathered together all the kids and Kristy stood up. "Welcome to Camp BSC," she said.

Linny Papadakis put two fingers to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Some of the kids applauded.

Kristy grinned. "Thank you, thank you. Applause is always welcome. And we'll all be getting plenty of applause because we've decided on a theme for Camp BSC. We're going to have a circus camp!"

Karen's hand immediately shot up. "Kristy! Kristy!" Karen called, waving her hand furiously.

"What is it, Karen?" Kristy asked.

"Is this a real circus camp?" Karen asked, her blue eyes intent behind her glasses.

"I'm not sure what you mean," said Kristy.

"I've been to a real circus camp," said Karen. She looked around. "We learned about real circus things."

Ricky Torres was nodding and waving his hand at the same time. "Me, too! Are we going to learn about tightropes? Trapezes?"

"Lion taming?" asked Hannie.

"You didn't learn how to tame lions at circus camp!" exclaimed Claudia. I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

Kristy took charge. "How many kids here have been to circus camp?"- "Real circus camp?" asked Karen.

"Karen," said Kristy warningly. "Everybody who has been to circus camp before, raise your hand."

Karen and Ricky raised their hands. So did Natalie, Chris, Hannie, Linny, Nancy, and Bobby. Bobby said, "I didn't go with Karen. I went to another camp."

"Okay, good." Kristy nodded. "I'm pleased to see we have so many experienced circus campers with us. That will make our circus that much better at the end of the camp. I'm counting on you experienced circus hands to help us out."

"Will we have a tightrope?" persisted Ricky.

"We can learn about tightropes," Kristy

said. "We'll figure out what acts we want to do as we go along."

"No tightropes way up in the air," said Karen. "They wouldn't let us have a tightrope in the real circus camp."

"I think circus camp is a great idea," said Becca Ramsey. "Maybe some of us can pretend to be lions and do a lion taming act!"

"Excellent," said Kristy. "I want you to think about all the things you want to do for our circus and come tomorrow ready to write them down. Then we'll decide what we want our circus to have in it.

"Now, let's have a game of freezetag."

Kristy had averted a circus riot. I caught her eye and gave her a thumbs-up signal. Then we all joined in a game of freezetag until the parents started returning to pick up their kids.

The moment the first parent arrived, Alicia froze.

"You haven't been tagged yet," I said to her, since I was standing (frozen) nearby.

"Where's Mommy?" she said. "Where's my mother?"

"She'll be here soon," I promised.

Alicia's lower lip trembled. "I want my mother."

"Alicia," I began.

Alicia's whole face lit up. "Mommy,

Mommy; Mommy!" she shrieked and took off across the yard.

I followed her to make sure everything was all right and watched her fling herself headfirst into her mother's legs.

"Whoa there," Mrs. Gianelli said. She bent down and scooped up Alicia. "How's my girl? Did you have a good day at camp?"

Alicia nodded.

"I'll go get Bobby," I said.

Unlike Alicia, Bobby wanted to stay until he finished the game. With her mother there, Alicia soon wanted to play, too. Mrs. Gianelli stood by me and watched.

"Has Alicia been, uh, separated from you much before?" I asked.

"No," said Mrs. Gianelli cheerfully. "Today was the longest time. I started to come by at lunch to check on her, but then I thought it might make things worse. Did she do okay?"

Claudia, who was standing beside me said, "Her first whole day! Wow. She did super, Mrs. Gianelli. Except she didn't want to go to the park because she was afraid you wouldn't know where to find her if you came back early."

The game of freeze tag was ending since the parents had arrived. Mrs. Gianelli laughed and caught Alicia's hand in her own as Alicia came

running back. "I'll try to explain it to her," she promised us.

" 'Bye, guys,” called Claudia.

" 'Bye, Bobby. 'Bye, Alicia," I said.

" 'Bye," said Bobby. "See you tomorrow."

"Good-bye," said Alicia. She looked up at her mom. "I don't have to come back tomorrow, do I?" she asked as they were leaving.

Claudia gave a little snort. "I don't think Alicia likes Camp BSC."

Logan had wandered over to us and he bumped his shoulder against mine. "Who doesn't like the best camp in all of Stoneybrook?"

"Alicia," I said. "She's having some adjustment problems."

"Standard stuff," said Claudia. "She'll get over it. You'll see."

"Maybe," I said.

Everyone else had joined us and we automatically went to work, cleaning up after the day's activities and getting things ready for the next day. We didn't talk much. We were all a little tired.