Patiently Alice Read Free Page A

Leo—Legs is his nickname—have been going together for eighteen months.
    “So what’s up?” I asked her.
    “Legs and I had a fight,” she said.
    “You broke up?”
    “Not exactly. He said he was going to drive out and visit sometime during the three weeks we’re at camp, and I said I didn’t want him to. I thinkhe’s been seeing another girl when I’m out of the picture, and I guess I just want to be free to fool around myself if I meet somebody.”
    “Fool around… meaning…?” I asked.
    She laughed. “Hang out with… kiss…”
    I couldn’t help myself: “Elizabeth’s bringing condoms,” I said.
    I heard the expected gasp at the other end of the line. “Elizabeth?”
    “For Pamela. Just in case. She says anything could happen.”
    She laughed. “She goes around thinking like that, anything might. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that if Legs calls asking for directions to that camp, don’t give them to him. Okay?”
    “Got’cha,” I told her.
    I had just gone to bed when the last call came. Dad tapped lightly on my door. “Al? Hate to disturb you, but it’s your Aunt Sally. Shall I tell her you’ve gone to bed, or do you want to talk with her? It’s only ten o’clock Chicago time.”
    “I’ll take it,” I said groggily, and padded out to the upstairs phone in the hallway. If I didn’t talk to her now, I knew she’d call again the next morning when I was trying to get out the door.
    “Oh, Alice, dear, I just want to wish you a very happy time at Camp Overlook,” Aunt Sally said.She’s Mom’s older sister and looked after our family for a while after Mom died. She and Uncle Milt have a daughter named Carol, a few years older than Les.
    “Thanks, Aunt Sally,” I said. “I’m an assistant counselor, you know. I’m not going as a camper.”
    “I know that, dear. Counselors have a lot of responsibility, and little children look up to them.”
    I wondered why Aunt Sally didn’t give her sermons from a pulpit every Sunday.
    “Meaning…?” I said, knowing very well that Aunt Sally didn’t call just to wish me happy camping.
    “Why, nothing, dear! I think it’s wonderful that you are going to be a role model for all those little children. They’ll want to imitate everything you do.”
    “Thank you,” I said.
    There was a brief silence, and then Aunt Sally said, “Your father tells me it’s a coed camp.”
    Here it comes, I thought. “Yes,” I told her.
    “So there will be male counselors as well as female?”
    “That’s what ‘coed’ means, all right,” I said.
    “Well, as I said to your Uncle Milt, you’re Marie’s daughter, and I know you would want her to be proud of you. Of course, this is the first timeyou’ve been away from home for any length of time, and there are all those woods and hills and valleys and—”
    “Aunt Sally,” I interrupted, trying not to laugh, “are you afraid I’ll get lost?”
    “Oh, no,” she said.
    “Are you afraid I’ll drown?”
    “Not really.”
    “Are you afraid I’ll go off in the woods in a fit of passion?”
    “Why, whatever made you say that?” Aunt Sally choked.
    “Because I can read you like a book,” I said gently. “Actually, I doubt there’s anything you could worry about that Elizabeth Price hasn’t thought of first. But I appreciate your call, and I will really try to have a most magnificent summer, role model and all.”

2
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Into the Wilds
    Gwen’s mother was to pick us all up the following morning. I gave Dad and Lester a hug and went over to Elizabeth’s to wait.
    Liz was not only looking more normal these days—she wasn’t putting purple in her hair any longer—but she seemed more relaxed, if you can ever call Elizabeth relaxed. She saved her hugs and kisses for her little year-and-a-half-old brother, though—just a quick “Bye-bye” to her parents, and that must have hurt. Both Elizabeth and Pamela were having parent problems, and I was glad it was Gwen’s mom driving us to the