Chapter Three - Simple words can hide unknown shadows
Mandy made a face and turned her head. It was true, the coffee at Camp Pawa was as bad as she remembered it... even worse by her standards today. She looked at the sugar container to her right and debated about piling more into the steaming dark liquid in her mug. It would be futile in the long run, she thought, because it already has four tablespoons full and it had done nothing for it.
Olivia saw the face Mandy had made after taking a sip of coffee, and could not help but give a very hearty chuckle.
" I see by your reaction... our ‘acid’ has far surpassed expectations from previous years..." She said.
" It’s way more horrible that I even had remembered it to be..." Said the young lady, giving another sour face.
" Has not changed in all the years I have been here..." The senior Councilor commented, adding as she eyed her own mug with a suspicious stare. " This year it seemed to be a little more stronger though..."
" I guess that I could lube my car with it instead of drinking it?" Mandy said through a great amount of laughter, while trying not to think about the lingering aftertaste of the coffee which was just sitting on her tongue.
" Don’t think that would be a great idea.... it just might burn through the sidewall of the motor itself." The older councilor came back with.
" That just might be a possibility that it really could melt the block of a car.... judging from this sludge." Said Mandy, giving the stuff in her mug a second glare and a even heartier laugh. " It might be a good industrial cleaner though..."
Olivia could not help but give a rather large snorting sound through her laugher. She looked at Mandy, and shook her head while she pointed at the mug.
" I hate to think what this stuff could end up doing to the lining of our stomachs then."
" I’ll pass on that thought for now." Said Mandy eyeing her drink, before breaking down and dumping a little more sugar in. " I need the caffeine buzz."
The two laughed even harder, as the older of the two also took her turn in dumping a little more sugar in to the coffee of hers, clearly also hoping to make the coffee a little more civilized. By the looks on either Olivia’s or Mandy’s face when they took a long sip, sugar was futile at best.
Olivia began to talk to another senior councilor next to her, so Mandy just sipped on her now overly sweetened yet still intensely strong coffee. After a few hours of working on the different program schedules for most of the afternoon, Mandy found it nice to have a seat and have a coffee finally. If she could only stop her mind whirling like this to enjoy the break, it might feel a whole lot better.
Here it was for Mandy, her first day as a councilor and she could not stop thinking about Alison and this odd phone call she might have had. This was just adding to all of this secretive things that her lover was doing, and topping off the odd ways she has been acting lately. This really did weighed on her.. and the fact that she had half assed noticed that it had been going on a long time did not help, it told her that she had passed these things off for all of that time. She now finally had noticed.
Mandy hoped that she could slip away for a time, and clear all of this up so she could get down to her work in earnest. She had not even seen the girl since they had gotten their cabin assignments when they had arrived here. She sighed, as she had no idea when that could be done at the moment, but she knew that she would have a time before the camp was invaded by the raucous campers slated to arrive the day after next. The camp had a ton of work to get done, and not long to finish it in.
She took the mug with her overly sweetened java and headed out to the where she had been shown the smoking area for the councilors was. As she left, Olivia paused from her discussion and reminded her that their break would be over in about fifteen minutes, and they had to attend a first aid refresher courses before supper. Mandy nodded and hurried to have her cigarette, knowing very well that the fifteen minutes left would not be long enough time for her to have that talk with her lover.
She hoped that a smoke not only would help her calm a little, she thought a little fresh air for awhile would improve the coffee as well. She had to help herself really try and focus on her job for awhile... personal problems needed to be settled on personal time, that was her mom’s favorite saying..
The young woman found that the breezeless air had warmed up a little as she took a seat in one of the wood chairs. Seeing the warm sun now out and smiling down, this late afternoon had became a very pleasant summer day. She lit one of her smokes and sat back into the tall back, letting herself listen to the constant tin of chatter that came out of the inside lounge area behind her. Taking another drag, she was obviously still hesitant to drink her coffee, even out int the quiet.
Miss Ashfield came out of the lounge area a few minutes later. With a smile so bright, she took a seat next to Mandy. The younger lady looked over at the very tall lady and smiled, as this was the first time she had see Miss Ashfield since the day she had left camp years ago..
" Busy day one, isn’t it?" The woman asked, lighting her own smoke.
Mandy nodded, she agreed with that statement.
" As a camper, we never realize all the work that it takes to make this place run..." She said. " Now that I am a councilor, I really see what goes on even before as campers, really goes on."
" You noticed all of that, once the shoe was on the other foot?" Said the still very pretty woman, smoothing back her long locks of gold. " We do more than show up to wait for you as kids... "
" Yeah." Nodded Mandy.
The lady chuckled and looked ast the girl.
" It has been such a long time since you have seen this place, eh?" Miss Ashfield said.
" It has been almost four years." The younger councilor said.
" Considering that you and Alison are in University... it has been many years since you have been a camper..." She agreed, with a musical giggle. " So... you’re the one who is going in into be a Pediatrician, right?"
Mandy shook her head and giggled at the lady’s query.
" I am the one going in to law... I’m going to be a Legal Advocate for special interest groups some time..." Corrected the girl, adding. " Alison is the one who after another five years, will be a Pediatric specialist."
" You two have both grown so much... I can see how the both of you have..." The lady said, with a wide smile on her angular face. " It’s almost like I feel like some sort of proud parent or something.... with the two of you doing all of this."
The young councilor smiled, as the woman’s pride made her so good just to hear it. Mandy gave a shy smile at the head of Camp Pawa, not really knowing how to respond to such a heart-felt comment.
" Thank you, Miss Ashfield."
" You are an adult now, Miss Thayer..." Said the woman, her voice showing a sternness that was clearly in a humorous way. " Since you work here now, and are not considered to be a teen any longer... to you, I’m Alexis."
" All right then... Alexis." She said, feeling the pride well up in her. The pride to be recognized as an adult... or at least a little more of an adult.
The two went silent for a moment, each taking a drag of their smokes. Alexis looked over at the girl next to her.
" So... you and Alison are still together." Said the woman with a little bit of a singing tone to it.
"Four years also..." Mandy said back, with a hint of tightness.
" Four years.... I only have had a relationship once that long.... That is so nice to hear." Commented the woman, seemingly dreamy. " So being together that long... does it mean that you are both into your second year in school then?"
" Third year..." Smiled the long haired girl.
" Third year... I am truly impressed here." Alexis said, lifting her own mug in a gesture of saluting the young woman." I did not know what year you both were in..When I had talked to Alison earlier today, she never told me any of this."
Mandy blinked and tried to stay calmed. This was the second time she had to hear something about her girl from someone else other than Alison herself
" When did you see her last?" She asked, trying not to tip off that she was desperate to hear this question answered.
Alexis only paused for a second to take a drag from her smoke.
" Saw her coming in to the room with the public phone room in it earlier... she had a call come in from the city." Said the woman. " Guess because of that Phone call, she had no time to explain things to me anyways."
" A phone call?" Asked Mandy.
" Yeah... I was the one who answered it. I called her to the phone and transferred the call over..." Smiled the head of the camp, seemingly trying to read the odd look that was on Mandy’s face at the moment. " You did not know?"
Mandy shook her head.
" I have not talked to her since this morning, when we arrived." She said.
" She been probably busy, she is with our resident obsessive compulsive Councilor Debbie. The way Debbie works, I am guess that Alison will tell you when she gets the time too, I guess..." Alexis said, adding. " It seemed like now real emergency or anything close to it... It was only her sister phoning for her anyway."
To the surprise of the Administrator, the reaction coming from Mandy was one of franticness and confusion smashed into one very unique expression. She eyed the girl, hoping to hear why she seemed like this.
The younger councilor shook her head quit hard, and Alexis gave a confused glance.
" What..." The tall woman said, watching that odd expression morph into another one.
" That can’t be her sister..." Snapped the younger girl.
" That was the one who was phoning..." The lady explained, a little perplexed with the girl’s reaction. " The woman on the other end told me that, and had said that she only needed to talk to Alison briefly."
Mandy glared right into her boss’s face and locked eyes... eyes that show the obvious signs of someone that was in total disbelief.
" She only has two younger brothers in her family... she does not have a sister!" Mandy said sharply, the side of the hand that had the smoke in it slammed down hard on the arm of the chair.
" No sisters?" Said a very surprised woman, seeing the anger that flowed across the girl’s face.
She has not even a single aunt either" Nodded Mandy.
" Are you sure of that?" Alexis asked in reflex to what she had just heard.
Setting her mug down, the very upset girl threw her burning smoke to the gravel under the chairs. Mandy stood there, her body trembling under a huge mixture of emotions that were all wanting to come out at once.
" I have went out with her for four years.... I know her entire family!!" She said loudly, shocking the camp boss with it’s fury.
Without another word spoken, Mandy stormed off with anger flashing through her entire face. The young girl turned the corner of the lounge cabin, and turned in the direction of the main part of the camp. With her anger fueling Mandy, she was out of the sight of Miss Ashfield in seconds.
Miss Ashfield watched the girl storm off, not even taking her mug of coffee with her. Unable to hear the girl’s heavy feet anymore, She took a deep breath in and shook her head, her reaction to all of this was total surprise. Alexis took a puff from her smoke and kept looking at the corner that the girl had turned.
" I think that a whole lot of shit is going to be hitting the fan here..." She thought to herself.
She did not know what Alison was up to, even if their was just a communication problem. The not having a sister thing was something to think about, and saw the reaction of Mandy was normal for a situation like this... all she knew was to let Mandy deal with it, because that was Camp policy on Administrator/councilor relations.
Alexis did admit to herself, that she was still worried about Mandy, and whatever was going on in the first place.