Chapter Five - The dock
Cabin Nine was calming down, but not quite still yet. The first night of everyone there was now drifting towards sleep for everyone. There were many still whispering inside in the many small cubicles, as everyone was either in bed , or heading off to bed right after a small gab session with someone..
Mandy lay in her little cubical room, propped up against a pillow with a book. She could hear the others in the cabin talking away, boys were the main topic. She watched at the shadows going past her closed curtain for a few moments, as some girls were still moving around. She just turned her eyes back to the page she was reading, and dove back in.
Lori’s voice suddenly came from behind the thick white curtain that was her door. Mandy looked up at the shadow on the curtain when she heard the voice, and seemed to break a small smile with it’s appearance.
" You still awake, Mandy?" The voice of Lori called out, her voice almost musical in the way it did.
The dark haired girl made sure that she was covered up with the blankets and called out to the girl enter. With a bouncing step, the girl stepped into the small space, a large smile painted over her face. The girl stood there, dressed in a ‘Lisa Simpson’ print nightgown and some really crazy looking bunny slippers. The girl’s bubbliness seemed so out of place, considering it becoming late in the evening.
" How did you enjoy your first day back here at good ol’ Pawa?" The girl asked, bubbly.
" Guess it was good..." The girl replied truthfully.
The girl’s bubbliness quickly faded a little bit, as she heard the tone in Mandy’s voice. Raising a eyebrow, Lori give a questioning look at the girl in the bed.
" Guess it was good?" She asked, after a moment.
" Yeah." Mandy nodded.
" That was not a sign being excited or nothing..." Lori said, with a sigh. " Your usually the one who is the most excited about being a Camp."
Mandy fingered the blanket on the bed as she looked at Lori. She could tell that the girl was sort of saddened a little by her feelings she had shared towards camp. The dark haired girl shrugged her shoulders, as she could not help how she felt... it was what it was.
" Guess I’m not quite into Camp this year..." Mandy admitted.
" What is wrong with camp?" The girl inquired.
Mandy sat herself up a little better in bed, making really sure that she was fully covered up as she did.
" Guess Camp does not have the mystique it once had for me..." She started to explain. " Most of my friends from other years are either, gone or are not coming to camp any more..."
" Well, It’s like that every year, ya know..." Lori came back with, her eyes showing that she had seen that also. " But I think that is pretty much a normal thing...it gives us a chance to actually come back and make some new friends every year." She stepped a little more inside the small cubical room. " It happens a whole lot."
Mandy looked at the girl’s face, as she spoke. She could see that Lori was trying to help her out with this. Mandy sighed, and tried to explain a little more.
" Some of it has to do also with what happened the last time I was here..." Mandy said flatly, her mind flashing back to the incident where she had been attacked by Raven. " It seemed too much changed now... Lacy has moved away, CC passed away.... With everything else that has gone on, Pawa does not feel like what it had."
" You know other people... others that you have met also over the years? Have you seen any of them?"
" I have not seen too many of some of the others... Other than Zack." Returned Mandy, flatly. " Could I ask if you have seen any of the others?"
Lori’s face went a little somber, as she looked at Mandy.. She was thinking over the words of her friend
" No, I have not seen many..." Lori admitted, with a slight sigh coming out. " But I have seen lots of people that I recognize from past years.... and I made some new friends even last year."
" I noticed that too..." Mandy said, agreeing with that wholly.
" Your also have seen people you know sort of... Get to know them too." She then suggested, her perkiness returning. " Have some fun with that... Pawa is a great place to be, you know that as well as I do! You can’t just mope around all the time, and lock yourself away because you don’t want to interact with people.."
" I’m moping?" Said Mandy, seemingly a little shocked at the girl’s blunt observation of her.
" Face it Mandy... you are moping." Lori said, without a flicker of hesitating to say it. " The only way you can cure that moping attitude of yours is to just have some fun...just do it."
As much as Mandy did not want to admit that Lori simplified look at life was right... the girl was so right. She nodded her head and looked at the girl.
" I guess I am not in the right frame of mind this year." She admitted, her mind drifting to the image of CC in her mind.
" I know that CC passed away and the trial of that girl who attacked you was a real downer thing..." Said Lori, showing that she was understanding of that. " But you are needing to let things go of it all and just let yourself have some fun."
Mandy just nodded and agreed. Perhaps she was letting everything get to her. She was here to honor the wishes of CC... as if CC knew she needed to do what Lori was saying. CC would be the first one that would kick her in the ass, metaphorically speaking, to get out there and have some fun here at camp.
She smiled, as she realized just why CC was wanting her to return to camp so badly. She wanted her to go on.
" I think your right..." Said Mandy, her energy level, and mood, was rising. " I need to have a little fun."
" You think I’m right, dont’cha?" Asked Lori, giggling away as she looked at her friend.
" Yeah... you are." Nodded Mandy. " Guess it is time to have a little fun."
Lori giggled hard, her face turning beet red. She looked at the dark haired girl in the bed and smirked
" I’m right... Wish other people knew that..." Giggled Lori.
" Does it help that I know?" Said Mandy, as she could not help but start giggling along with the even shorter than her girl.
" A little.. If I could convince my two pain in the ass brothers that I am actually right sometimes.." Said the girl through the laughing. " That would be better!"
" Good luck with that..." Mandy said, her humor now peeking out from the cover of her now dissipating mood.
The two looked at one another, and the rain of laughter billowed out of them to fill the little cubical room. The laughed so hard, they did not care if the others in their cabin thought they were going a little nuts.
After calming down a few minutes of laughter, the two girl’s talked for a little while longer, then Lori left to go to bed. Mandy felt better about camp now... more than she had since arriving early this morning. She layed back and had to smile... perhaps camp was not too bad... even without people she was close to. CC was wanting her to move on, and not lament away for her and what they had. She had always said that to her.
Mandy took the picture down of her and CC, and looked at it for a moment. The image of her and CC warmed her heart, as she looked at it. CC, even in death, had a way of shaking her out of her doldrums and setting her life on a better path... that was one of many reasons why she loved the girl.
" I promise that I will have some fun, my goth girl... That was why you wanted me to come back here so badly, isn’t it?" Mandy whispered, looking at the image of CC on the glossy paper in her hands.
At that moment, it felt like CC was right there in the room with her, nodding her head slowly and giving her that her with a ‘I told you so’ face. She smiled to the picture, knowing now that it was the reason that the goth girl wanted her to come back here so badly, and made her promise to do so on the day that she died.
She kissed the face on the picture and felt the love she still had for the girl in black welling in her heart. CC may be gone, the girl’s unconditional love for her still seemed to touch her no matter what.
She set the picture back and turned off the light. Snuggled into the blankets, she felt the cozy warmth envelope her naked form with a soothing hold. Almost instantly, she had fallen asleep.. her mind was not as heavy with things finally.
******
It was very early in the morning, still hours away from the sun’s rising. Mandy awoke to the stillness of the cabin, for a second unsure of why she had come out of her sleep..
She groaned, realizing that it was her bladder that had awoken her so suddenly thins night... again.. She giggled at herself, knowing immediately that her bladder’s nighttime call was because of the three very large glasses of fruit punch that she had drank at the campfire meeting they had every night.
" I should not have done that." She told herself giggling, feeling almost as if she was sloshing right then..
Knowing that she would not be able to put her self back to sleep until she had delt with this problem, she slipped herself out of bed. The girl quickly threw on her robe over her bare body, thankful that she had brought the article of clothing home for just this occasion. On her tiptoes, the girl began to leave her little hole in the wall room and try to be as quiet as she could be while exiting the cabin.
She found the night time air outside to be still and very warm, feeling almost muggy on her skin. She headed towards the bathroom cabin that was not very far away, fiddling with the pack of smokes she had tucked into one of the front robe pockets. She began to remember the good times of going to have a cigarette with CC in the middle of the night that summer they met... and that brought a smile as she walked through the darkness.
Now feeling much better after getting rid of what was left of that blasted fruit punch, Mandy left the bathroom cabin and started to head for the little spot where she always was smoking. As she went, she suddenly had spotted something at the far end of the dock at the boathouse, a little glow of red light. She eyed the little pointy of light, curious at why a light would be out here so lat at night.
She saw the small little light in the darkness moving and bouncing, tracing little paths in the darkness. It was quickly obviously it was someone else, who was out this late having a smoke as well. She smiled and decided to head out to the moving light, thinking that it was better to have smoke with someone, taking Lori’s suggestion of meeting other people to heart for the reason to do it.
She neared the light, and her heart nearly skipped a beat. She found standing at the end of the long dock, dressed in a very flimsy purple nightgown and puffing away on a cigarette, was the unmistakable Miss Ashfield.
She felt a wave of nervousness and uneasiness flood her, her mind already flashing reminders of the unsettling stares and constant looks she had gotten from the very tall yet strikingly beautiful woman the couple of times she had already been around her. She started to turn on her heels, thinking of just heading to her spot to have that smoke before returning to bed, and to avoid the woman in the process.
The voice of the woman suddenly came out of the darkness, it’s sultriness hanging on the breezeless air.
" And what are you doing out of bed so late, Miss Mandy?" It asked her, but without any tightness that would note it as anger
Mandy felt her breath stop in her throat, as she found that she was caught being there. Her mind seemed to go blank, her speech centers seizing, not expecting the woman to have seen her in the first place.
" I just have been to the bathroom..." She blurted out, then regretting telling her that.
The woman turned and looked at the girl, holding the smoke so daintily in her hand like some movie star from the golden age of movies she had seen. Mandy felt a little sharp breath leave her lips as the woman faced her full on. The woman in the nightgown was very pretty, and to her surprise she could see that the material of what she was wearing was very sheer, even in the low light of the moon.
The girl could clearly see that the woman wore nothing underneath the soft purple material. Large well rounded breasts could be seen jutting out and rising with ever breath she took. The woman’s nipples could be seen poking out visibly in the dimness. Mandy noted the woman’s waist was very slim and sleek, her soft curves were of a woman that was definitely in her prime. The surprised girl’s eyes could not help but notice that the woman’s private area was covered with a smattering of soft blond hair that seemed to be cut very close and in the shape of a heart, and drew her gaze down the woman’s legs that came out from under the nighty to show off their long leanness in all of their glory.
Mandy averted her eyes, and looked up at the woman’s face. She felt so uneasy with the woman dressed so provocatively and being out in the open like this, but it also was making her insides begin to twitch and react as the fact that lady beauty did not pass her. The girl in the bathrobe focused in on the woman’s face while making sure to clutch her robe opening at her neck tightly in her free hand, her mind already screaming at her to get out of there as fast as she could.
The woman looked at the girl, a smile of being rather pleased with the young gal being there painted on her face.
" Did you come out this way for a smoke by any chance?" Miss Ashfield asked calmly, her voice had a hint of knowingness.
" Uh, yes... Ma’am... I was going to have one..." Mandy blurted out, dispite herself.
" Normally, there is no smoking in camp, you know..." The woman said, then adding. " But because I smoke myself, as this cigarette tells you... I have a tendency to look the other way, if smoking is in private."
" Yes ma’am..." Mandy said, not really knowing what else to say to the provocatively dressed woman.
" Then stand with me and have one..." The woman offered with a smile. " I do not mind the company of a lovely girl like you."
Reflexively, the girl pulled out her pack and retrieved one of her cigarettes. She lit it with a nervous hand, as she noticed the woman staring at her while she did so. She took a long pull from the newly lit smoke, and tried to think of a way to get away fast... without being rude. That might not work out so, and she knew that.
Miss Ashfield looked at the girl, her eyes seemingly now tracing every line of Mandy’s thin features.
" You seem to be a little nervous, girl..." She commented, looking her right in the face. " Are you, Mandy dear?"
" Just feeling tired..." Said Mandy, through a plumb of smoke. " Long day."
" You should relax... your are at camp." Suggested the woman, stepping to stand beside the girl.
Mandy froze, as the woman now stood only a foot away from her, looking at her with those same smoky looking eyes. The woman reached out her arm, and placed her non-smoking hand on her shoulder, almost a lightly as a feather landing on the ground.
" Such a very obviously pretty girl like you needs a chance to relax out here... in the great outdoors.... to get away from the hustle of the big city..." She whispered, as she fingers massaged Mandy’s robed shoulder, then reaching up to cup her cheek. " Just don’t let things get in the way of just having that simplest of pleasures..."
Mandy was not quite sure of what she was sensing at the moment, other than the fact the woman’s touch seemingly was too friendly for her comfort. Miss Ashfield’s intentions seemingly were nothing but harmless, but something by the way the woman massaged her shoulder, then touching her cheek and coupled with the way she was talking to her... something about it felt not quite right.
Instinctually, Mandy smoothly stepped away from the woman. Now with more than four feet between them, the dark haired young girl seemed to be keeping her eyes firmly locked on to the scantily clad woman..
Miss Ashfield just stood there in silence, but seemed to be almost a little perturbed by Mandy’s reaction and then her movement away from her. The woman smoothly took a pull off of her smoke and leaned against one of the dock pilings, but she said nothing for a moment as she stared at the girl.
Mandy felt her uneasiness now really growing deep inside of herself, and made a firm decision.
" I... I should get back to my cabin..." Mandy stammered, flicking what was left of her smoke into the waters that flowed under the dock. " It is getting very late, and I do need to get some sleep."
Miss Ashfield nodded slightly, shifting herself against the wood she leaned against. She snuffed and held the smoke gracefully in her hand.
" If you need to ever talk to someone, Mandy..." Began the woman, her provocative eyes looking right at the young one, her eye contact was very strong. " Don’t even hesitate to come to me...My door will always be open for talking or hanging out, at all hours of the day... or night."
" Yes, Ma’am.." Mandy said, hearing something that hung in the woman’s voice, something that made her even more nervous as it hit her ears.
Mandy turned and hurried off up the wooden planks of the dock, wanting nothing more that to put some space between her and the woman. She listened as she hurried off, and noted that she could not hear the woman’s footsteps behind her to signify that the woman was following her.
The girl took the main trail from the boathouse, the one that would lead her straight up to her cabin, her bare feet now moving a little faster than a plain walk. She was not sure if the woman was doing anything wrong, but it had felt like the woman had been hitting on her... and that made even the thought of it very uncomfortable. She hoped that she was reading too much into it, and she was completely wrong, and just headed back to her warm bed in the cabin for sleep.