Chapter Eight - Sounds from the gloom
There was a hint of calmness that was falling over Camp Pawa as the sun dipped behind the edges of Lake Pawa’s calm waters. The evening was bringing a slim respite from the days chaoticness.
The day had been amazingly busy as every councilor at the camp showed what the camp had to offer the campers, and made plans with the children to set up the first full day in between scheduled activities. The kids seemed so jazzed with everything, but now as night fell... they were running out of gas finally, much to ever councilors relief.
Night fall had found Mandy was on what they called ‘walk’ duty inside of Cabin Nine. It was her job to just hang around in the main area, in the wide hallway area just outside the cubbyhole rooms... to see if any of the girl’s needed something or had some sort of question and to keep the peace.
The ‘walk’ was a boring task as a whole, one that Olivia had happily bestowed on her as the junior in this partnership... but Mandy found that this task was really helping to be distracted from the memory of the hateful altercation she had with Allen earlier in the day. His words were the most despicable and offensive ever spoke to her, and that was including the actions and other things that Isis had done to her the last time she was a camper here. Different people, same prejudiced attitudes
She had calmed herself down so as to do her work to the best of her abilities, but still found herself troubled by Allen’s acidic words. She also was worried about Alison being with that type of person, after hearing his words for herself.
She hated what the girl had did to her, more than anyone else in her life, but you cannot shut off the feelings for someone. This man was filled with hate, anger and chauvinistic venom to the tent power... and the fact that Alison had chosen him like that made her so confused yet filled her with a rage she did not want to feel. She was still hoping that dispite that bastard of a man’s attitude and obvious hatreds he held like a weapon, Allen would end up treating Alison right. She was hoping for that, but in her heart she knew the horrible truths, Allen would not.
She hated the fact that she was torn by these emotions, but all she could do was do what she had came here to do. She came here so she could be the best damned councilor Camp Pawa had ever seen, or getting as close to that as possible. After all the time she was here as a camper, she wanted to give a little back. She smiled, as the memories did bring her a little piece of joy back... and the good feelings she had still with CC and all.
A tall blond haired girl wearing a satiny pink nightgown poked her head out of her little room and looked right at Mandy. She giggled a little nervously, which made Mandy look over and stay her mind.
" Miss Mandy..." She said politely, shifting on bare feet against the coolness of the wooden floors.
" You need something, Mercedes?" Mandy asked
The girl, who seemed to be a little shy, nodded.
" Do we get shower times every morning?" She asked.
" We do... time permitting." Mandy informed.
" Ah..." Said the girl, smiling brightly as it seemed another question was snot very far off in the girl’s mind. " How long do we have in the showers when we go?"
" Ten or fifteen minutes or so... depending on things and whether or not we are running late for breakfast..." The young councilor said, adding with a smile. " Because our cabin here is really close to out facilities cabin, we are going to be usually the first cabin in there."
" Cool!" The girl said more than happily, popping herself back into the room with a smile so big.
Mandy could not help but giggle at the girl’s exuberance. It seemed that her answer had made the girl happy to hear it. She turned to overlook what was going on, watching the campers in various states of bed readiness go between room.
All of their campers seemed to be a nice bunch, and that was making Mandy feel more relaxed with things. The day had gone smoothly, and for the most part they all got along. Mandy smiled a little broader still, happy that everything had gone as smoothly as she could have hoped for.
Two loud voices suddenly broke the low murmuring of the cabin’s peacefulness, shouting with very ’colorful’ language that was growing in volume. Mandy already knew that it was the start of an argument coming from the other side of the room, and it had developed quickly into a very furious one in seconds. She knew the voices already.
Mandy shook her head and sighed, she already had delt with the two girls who were involved in the arguing twice already. Olivia had warned her of Ashley and Annette McCabe when she had pointed out the names on their list of girls they were going to have this year..
They were identical twin red heads who were known for sharp tongues that were always at the ready for one another. It seemed as if the sisters lived and loved to argue with one another at ever chance. The McCabe girls always did, Olivia had explained, but had assured Mandy that no matter how heated the arguments got... they never would come to blows no matter how heated.
Olivia came in to the cabin at that moment, caring a stack of towels that was nearly over her head. The senior councilor looked at her younger councilor as she was making her way to one of the cubbyholes. She could hear the voices ringing through the cabin with fire.
" Let me guess... it’s the McCabes who are at it again?" Olivia smirked.
" Um, Yup." Said Mandy, hurrying to try and defuse the situation brewing in the second last room on the left before the front door. " Sounds like something has pissed either one of them off."
" Pissed off...Now what are those two jawing about?" Sighed the older lady, hearing the swearing escalating with each passing second.
" Dunno yet." Said Mandy back, as she hurried into the room in question.
Olivia chuckled and hurried over as well, after setting the towels down on a shelving unit beside the doorway of the cabin. She was sure that Mandy could handle it more than well, but she wanted to see what the dispute was all about. She knew, that ninety percent of the twin’s squabbles were petty at best... and she usually got a giggle out of the two figuring that out, and how they reacted when they did.
This was just how it always went with the McCabe girls at the best of times. Olivia had the girls for two years already, now this was the third year in a row... this was old hat to her.
******
It was almost ten o’clock, and Cabin Nine was silent and still. Every camper had layed head to pillow, and they were off asleep. It was so peaceful and quiet, the first day of Camp Pawa was now in the books.
Olivia stood in the middle of the cabin area and smiled.
" Day one... scratch one off the ol’ calendar." She said, looking at Mandy. " We survived the invasion here."
" It was... interesting" Mandy said.
" Never a dull moment around here during camp..." Chuckled the woman, looking around into the dimness of the place, "You did well."
Mandy broke a small grin of her own, and took a long breath. She knew she had done well, and all with things going on. She nodded her head, feeling pride in it.
" Go off for a smoke there, kid... Hell have a couple and take your time..." The older woman said. " You deserve it.. I will keep watch over out girls for a bit."
" You sure?"
" Go already." Said Olivia, in urging the girl, pushing the younger lady playfully towards the door.
The short young woman nodded and hurried off, after retreating to her bunk area to grab here pack. Olivia just waved, then sat down on a stool next to where her and Mandy slept at night, her time for ‘walk’ was now.
The smoking area out at the councilor’s lounge was empty on this warm night. Mandy was glad, needing a little solitude for the short time that she was going to be there. She lit up one, and felt herself relax a little as she took a seat. It had been hours since she had snuck one.
The night was quiet, except for a noise she kept hearing coming from a ways of. Mandy tried to ignore the noise, sounding like some animal, but she was curious at it as well. She stood up, knowing there was no dangerous animals in the area except for a few snakes, and went to look for the source.
She found the noise was coming from the parking lot on the other side of the lounge area. She looked around at the cars, the single flood lamp overhead they had there lighting up the area well. She stepped around a few cars, her ears trying to figure out where she was hearing the sounds from.
Her eye caught a motion in one of the cars near where she was standing and looked over. She saw a guy and a girl inside of the car, both were obviously naked and making very wild love in the front passenger seat of a old grey and very rusted Pontiac. From how the car bounced and shimmed, they were not holding nothing back.
Mandy could see a slim bodied girl who was straddling a man in the seat, and was bouncing like she was possessed with her light skin glistening with a heavy sheen of sweat. Mandy could see the girl’s small but very well developed breasts bouncing against the man’s chest all the while the two kissed intensely as their love making sounds could be clearly heard from where she was.
Mandy felt herself blush as she chuckled, the two in the car had no idea they had just been spotted. By the amazingly animalistic sounds that were coming out of that car, it was very clear that they probably were way too preoccupied for that. She felt a little tug on her heart, as the memories of her love making with Alison flowed back, but she let that go... tonight was the night for those two lovers, and that was more than alright.
The girl turned and went to leave the two lovers to their little rendevous, when the two turned their head. Mandy gasped, as the faces were clearly visible. It was Allen and Alison inside of the old clunker.
Mandy felt her whole body go numb, her smoke fell from her now nerveless hands to the gravel at her feet. Alison’s eyes turned and caught onto her’s.
" Oh god!!" Her mind said over and over again, as she could feel the girl’s gaze having a cold and clammy hold of her heart- and squeezing whatever she had left, out of her.
The brainy girl seemed to be blank faced for a second, then had a very calculating smirk come over her small face as she began to bounce on Allen’s lap again with slow and determined motions.. making sure that Mandy was seeing everything in minute detail. Allen also turned his head and looked over. He saw the long haired young woman standing there and gave an disturbing smirk, then his cold laughter could be heard echoing through the car window. Alison’s laughter joined the man, and the sound of it was deafening.
With out another word, Mandy whirled around and ran away from the parking lot. As she turned the corner of the building next to the parking lot, she could still hear this malicious laughter coming from the two inside of the car... it’s sound mocking her as she raced away into the night.
Mandy suddenly knocked into something as she ran past the administration building, the thing was bore down with her as she crashed to the ground. In her haste, it seemed like she had knocked someone over, as the thing was moving and talking. She looked down, wanting nothing more than to give an apology and get out of there.
Alexis was the one who she had bowled over in her fleeing from her waking nightmare. The tall woman seemed not to be angry, as she saw who it was they had taken her off her feet.
" Don’t know if I needed that... to fall for someone like this is very unusual indeed..." She said, chuckling as they moved from the heap they had crashed into.
Mandy mumbled a very quick apology while getting to her feet, and began to leave as soon as the woman had regained her standing position. A hand stopped her from going any farther.
" Hey... what’s wrong?" Miss Ashfield asked, seeing how the girl only wanted to get away.
" Nothing...." Said a very unstable voiced Mandy, her body shaking as she stood there.
" You sure of that?" Asked the woman, seeing the girl and her very pale face in the moon’s light.
" I am alright... just in a hurry..." She blurted out, as she fidgeted under the woman’s worried stare.
The woman shook her head, as her open hand kept the girl right where she was. She eyed Mandy for a second, and took a breath in.
" That is the worst alright I have ever heard in my life..." Alexis said back, not buying it for a second. " You body is shaking like a leaf in a windstorm here, you are looking at me with such a wild look... what is going on with you?"
" I need to go and relieve Olivia of watching the kids.... I promised her that I would...." Said Mandy, almost bumbling her lie. " and I am late in doing so... Sorry for knocking you down, Miss Ashfield..."
Mandy did not even finish her sentence and simply hurried off without answering the lady with the truth of the matter. In a flash, she was swallowed up by the darkness as she headed back to Cabin nine.
Alexis was stunned by the girl’s behavior. It was not like the young lady to be rude, and even though it did not seem like it ... it was. The question was why was the girl running off like a scalded cat. She snuffed and just stood there.
" I think it is time I talk to Olivia... then her.." She told herself, remembering how the new councilor Allen had talked to Mandy earlier. " Something is really not right here, and not just because of that idiot either."
Just then, a police car appeared out of the gloom from the direction of the entrance road to the camp and stopped near where Alexis stood. A tall and willowy policewoman that was dark tanned stepped out and quickly walked over into the light that was being thrown by a grounds light.
" Sorry about the wait you had to endure here, Miss Ashfield... we had a emergency on the highway a few miles away, and I had to respond to it." Said the officer, pleasantly.
" I understand..." Said Miss Ashfield, focusing on the officer.
The woman in the uniform straightened her hat a little as she looked at the very tall and stately head of the camp..
" You had phoned us because of some concerns and questions surrounding things and people that in your camp?"
" I did." Alexis said, straightening up to her full height. " It was something that I could not just simply ignore what I seemed to be seeing."
" Then that is why I am here, Ma’am." The officer said.
Alexis took one more glance in the direction that Mandy had ran, then went back to the officer in blue standing near her... as Mandy had already vanished and probably was back at her cabin by now.
" Did you look up that information for me then? The report I had given to your superior about yesterday.?"
" That is why I was sent here, Ma’am... we have found things that seemed to have matched up with" Said the policewoman, holding up what appeared to be a large white file. " To make sure of this... I have brought you a few things for you to look over in this matter.. along with out chief’s notes."
" Do you think I might be crazy with these very odd speculations I have seen?" Alexis asked.
" When it comes to the safety of all one hundred and twenty five of these kids in your charge... no." Said the officer bluntly.
Miss Ashfield seemed to relax with the woman’s words. She nodded as if she was calming herself down from all of this.
" Then lets go into my office behind us, officer..." Alexis said, motioning to the administration cabin. " I can look through these things in there...In some ways, I am hoping that I’m wrong... that I have seen far too much into all of this."
" I will walk through it with you..." Assured the tall and pretty lady cop. " If there is something there, something very tangible....lets hope that you have brought it to our attention in the nick of time."
" And if not?"
" It never hurts putting the needs of all of these young boys and girls before worrying that you might be wrong or ending up looking rather foolish... To be cautious is the right thing to do." Comforted the officer.
" That was my reasoning behind bringing this to the police." She said back.
" Then lets just work on this, and we’ll go from there."
Camp Pawa’s head nodded and then the two woman headed into the head office, leaving the night to fall silent in the clutches of the darkness... and to be broken by only the songs of crickets in the grass. The darkness had to be left anyways... it would never reveal things that humans never knew of.