Camp Life by Lucinda Maison
Shelley glanced at the new boy seated across from Drew, Dara, and Toby. “Before we get started, we’ve had someone new join us. He’ll be bunking with Drew and Michael. Everyone, this is Jim, and he’s come all the way from Australia.” She smiled and motioned for him to stand.
Jim stood up slowly, raised a hand in greeting as he glanced around the tables, then sat back down. Dara looked at him with interest. Drew and Toby frowned.
Before Shelley could continue, a very tall man approached her, followed by a very short dog. The man wore board shorts with brilliantly colored toucans printed all over them, and a t-shirt picturing a surfer wearing equally loud board shorts, sitting under a palm tree with waves in the background. The dog went directly to Shelley and was busily sniffing her sandals. Drew, Toby, Dara, and Jim all stared at the dog. It had a muscular little body, thick, stubby legs, and ears a jackalope would envy. Little tufts of hair served as eyebrows, a trim beard framed his nose, and what looked something like a lion’s mane of coarse brown, black, russet, and white fur ringed his thick neck.
“Wow,” someone said. “What IS that?”
“Do you think it’s some kind of terrier?” Dara whispered. “Or maybe a...well, I don’t know,” she trailed off, cocking her head at the dog.
“He’s built like a tuna,” Drew commented. “All muscle...with a beard...and eyeliner,” he finished, noting the thin, dark rings rimming the dog’s soft brown eyes.
“I think he’s a bitzer,” Jim spoke for the first time. All three of the others raised their brows at him in question. “A...a mongrel dog...mixed breed,” he explained.
“Yeah, but of what?” Toby asked, continuing to stare at the dog.
Shelley broke off her low voiced conversation with the man. “We have a new member of the team here at Camp Life, not new to us, but coming back to us after a surfing trip to Costa Rica...and still dressed for it,” she said, motioning at the toucans. “This is Cal and this,” she said affectionately, gesturing toward the dog, “is his friend, loyal companion, and unofficial camp mascot, Rocket J. Squirrel, better known as “Rocky”.”
“Hi, good to see all of you,” Cal said, his gaze including everyone at the tables. “Rock, say hello.”
The dog gave a soft woof, then grinned with open jaws, tongue lolling, large white teeth glistening. Everyone laughed.
“If you’re wondering what kind of dog he is, like most people do, I’ll give you a hint. He is part mini schnauzer. The first person who correctly guesses the rest will receive a reward. “What should it be, Shelley?” he asked, turning his head toward her.
“Not having to listen to your jokes,” she responded without hesitation. “This is a warning to you all: this man tells the worst groaners you’ve ever heard.”
“That’s harsh,” he said, folding his lips and shaking his head. “It just takes a finely tuned sense of humor to appreciate my jokes. Let’s let them be the judge.”
Shelley groaned before he could say the first word. Cal looked at her patiently until she held up a hand in defeat.
“OK,” began Cal, a happy smile lightening his rather stern-looking features. “I got this one off the internet, so I don’t know who thought it up. He cleared his throat portentously. “Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar. One says, “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first replies, “Yes, I’m positive...”
Toby laughed, someone else groaned, and most of the others continued to stare blankly at Cal.
“Ba dump bump...maybe you guys need time to warm up. I haven’t given up, though.” Shelley groaned yet again. “You’ll get more chances to laugh because Rocky and I will be around throughout your stay here.” Cal waved a hand in farewell and walked away toward the volleyball court. Rocky did a 180 and trotted after him, impossibly large ears flicking back and forth like a horse shooing away flies.
Shelley was unsuccessful at suppressing a grin as she watched the pair head down the hill. Turning back to the tables, she clapped her hands together once. “Alright, time to get started. Here’s what I’d like you to do. Think about something that you’d really like to see happen in your life. As I said before, it can be something you’d like to have, something you’ve dreamed about doing your whole life, or something you believe is impossible to achieve, but you still want it....Think about it, talk about it with each other, help each other come up with an idea of what is wanted. Go ahead and do that, and when you’re ready, when you have whatever it is clearly in your mind, you can start creating your treasure map.” She held up a piece of blank paper. “This is a tool...or this,” she added, holding a bar of sculpting clay in her other hand, “or that,” she pointed toward the paints. “Take your idea, look at it from every angle you can think of. Decide whether you’d like to draw or cut out pictures and words from magazines or shape it in clay or all of the above. Everything you can think of that is connected to this thing that you want, put them into your artwork, into your treasure map.”
“To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, I’ll show you a treasure map I did for myself last year.” She picked up a shoebox from the table behind her and held it out to show everyone. There was no lid and one of the long sides had been cut away, so it looked like a mini-diorama. Toby glimpsed a couple of crude clay figures, Playdoh of different colors rolled into tiny balls and spindles spilling out of a miniature basket, and some unidentifiable shapes that reminded him of something he made in first grade. He looked up uncertainly at Shelley, who smiled her understanding.
“I know, my artistic talent hasn’t progressed since grade school,” she commented. Everyone nearest her, those who had the best view of her work, smirked. “Since you probably haven’t a clue what this represents, I’ll explain.” She paused and glanced down at herself. “I made this treasure map about 6 months ago. This figure here..” she pointed to the larger of the two shapes that looked sort of human, “this is me at the time I created the map”.
“Oh, now I see your curly hair!” one of the girls exclaimed, then was immediately embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...” she blurted.
Shelley laughed. “It’s OK. You didn’t hurt my feelings. That stuff sticking out around the head is supposed to be my hair. I realize it looks more like the fuzz inside of an artichoke, but I know what it really is, and that’s all that counts.” She patted her curls ostentatiously and batted her eyes. This time, everyone laughed.
“Anyway, that’s me, how I was. This other one, this skinnier figure with the artichoke hair, that’s me as I wanted to be.” She looked around the tables, making eye contact with everyone. “I have a squatty body. No matter what I do, I will not look like Cameron Diaz. But what I realized back then, back when I started this, was that I could have a healthier body, I could be the best squatty body I could be...It wasn’t about losing weight, although that was certainly part of the goal. It was more about changing what I did, my behavior, to support my body in health. I essentially wanted to become more “me”, not “me” covered up with extra layers and focused on things like my next plate of fettuccine alfredo instead of the things in life that were truly meaningful to me.”
She frowned in thought. “I’d been on diet after diet in the past, sometimes losing a few pounds, sometimes not, but always gaining the weight back, often more than I lost in the first place. I didn’t ever want to diet again. So I imagined what it would look like if I were the weight that is best for me, with a healthy, strong body. I thought of all the details I could, what I would look and feel like, what I would be eating, what I’d be doing, everything.” Shelley held up the diorama. “And this is what I saw, what I envisioned.”
“You see, I always knew what needs to be done to lose weight. It’s a very simple formula - burn more calories than you take in. You don’t need any magic pills or fat-busting machines, just eat right and move more. Easy, right?” She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. And I wasn’t interested in just losing weight. I wanted to be healthy,
The kids watched her soberly. “Keep doing that for 20 years or so and you’ll probably look like I looked and feel like I felt. So I added color to my treasure map, color for the things I wanted to eat. I put in activities I thought I’d enjoy. I used to jump rope competitively and hadn’t touched a rope in years. This little green and white snaky shape is actually a speed jump rope. I also love being in water, grew up with a swimming hole practically in my backyard, but I’d never used the pool here, only the hot tub, and I stopped doing even that when I got so big.” She pointed at a rectangle of blue with a purple blob in the middle. “This is the pool, with me in it. And these over here are handweights, and a fitness ball over by the mirror. There’s more, but I think you’ve got the picture.”
Shelley drew herself up. “I kept looking at my treasure map, adding stuff when I thought of it, and pretty soon, things started happening that took me in the right direction. Color crept into my diet. How’d those peas get there? I wondered.” She laughed. “Ron came up to me one day and asked if I wanted to meet him at the pool before breakfast for a morning swim. My first thought was “Are you nuts? Swim when I could be sitting with my feet up, having a cup of coffee, and reading a good book? I opened my mouth to say thanks, but no thanks, and what came out was “OK”. Her disbelieving expression caused the kids to snicker.
“I know, I didn’t get it, either. Well, I went to the pool the next day, because I promised I would, and then for some reason, we kept doing it and it became a new routine. To my very great surprise, I found I liked getting in an early swim. Then one day, I was digging around inside the barn and found an old tack box, but instead of tack, it had a deflated basketball, a Frisbee, and of all things, a speed cable jump rope. It was like finding a nugget of gold in my Cheerios!
Her happy smile turned rueful. “The first time I tried to jump, I lasted about 20 seconds. When I was competing, I could jump about 200 times in a minute.” Shelley shook her head. “It was pathetic. REALLY discouraging. But I picked up the rope again the next day and I jumped for a minute. I did that several times a day. I kept increasing the amount of time I jumped and gradually, my speed increased, too.”
“Can you really jump 200 times in just a minute?” Toby asked.
“Not anymore. I think I’m doing about 120 now, which is 110 more than when I started...and my legs don’t feel like jelly when I’m done! Anyway, a lot has happened since I first made my treasure map, and it just keeps happening. Somehow, opportunities keep presenting themselves to me to get healthier and have fun at the same time. Some things I planned, like actively paying attention to what kinds of foods I was eating and how much and when...other things, like Ron inviting me to swim, those types of things just starting coming my way. I am so happy with the way my body is now, with how I feel...See what you can come up with for yourselves, what would be important to you. I’ll walk around the tables while you’re working on it. If any questions come up, just ask.” She gestured at the art supplies and strolled over to one of the tables to talk to a girl who had raised her hand.
Drew looked across the table at Jim, then stuck out his hand. “Hi, Jim. I’m Drew. This is Dara and Toby” he nodded at the others.
“Drew. Dara. Toby,” Jim repeated. “Good to meet you,” he said softly, his Australian accent distinct.
Dara and Toby murmured greetings, then Toby blurted “Have you been to the Australia Zoo, Steve Irwin’s zoo? I’ve always wanted to go there. I’ve been to the San Diego Zoo and a few others, but I’d really like to see Steve Irwin’s zoo,” he said in a rush, looking hopefully at Jim.
Jim smiled at him, brown eyes warm and friendly. “Yeah, I’ve been a number of times. It’s a great place.” His smile faded. “Even though Steve isn’t there anymore, they’ve done a fantastic job with the exhibits and shows and the like.” He glanced down at the table, then back up, his face brightening. “That’s what I’ll do my treasure map on today. Not the zoo, but working with animals, sea life in particular. I want a job that takes me out on the ocean. What about you three?” he asked, head cocked to one side in question, a fringe of streaky brown-blonde hair falling over one brow.
No one said anything for a moment. “Dara’s going to be in the Olympics,” Toby offered. Jim looked impressed. Drew looked at Dara, noticing that while she smiled, it was a tight smile, not the one he’d witnessed when she was having fun, like at the campfire or in the car with his sister. “Is that what you want your treasure map to be about, Dara? The Olympics?”
She started to say “Of course”, but nothing came out. Her eyes dropped down, searching for something to say. All she could think of was writing stories, but she didn’t want to tell them that. She never told anyone about that.
“You don’t have to say,” Jim interjected quickly, noticing her hesitation. “I’ve done these before, actually. My mum showed me how.” He paused. “She told me I need to be honest and fearless when I do a treasure map, because it’s not about what you think you can get or what you should do, it’s about what you want, whether or not you think you can get it.” He wrinkled his nose. “I know that sounds like a load of ...,” he caught himself and continued “...confusing, but it’s really true.”
Drew laughed shortly. “I don’t think it sounds like a load of confusing,” he joked, glancing at Jim with a smile. “I think it makes sense.” He turned towards Dara. “I know you want to go to the Olympics. But I’ll bet there’s a lot of other things you’d like, too.”
Dara looked up and nodded slowly. “OK,” she finally said, the faint worry lines still evident between her brows. Drew continued to look at her for a few moments, then turned to Toby.
“How about you?”
“Well,” he said, drawing the word out, “what I’d REALLY like to be is Harry Potter, although I know I’m an incredible geek for saying it,” he added sheepishly.
“Are you joking?” Jim asked incredulously. “We’d ALL like to be Harry Potter!”
“Or Hermione!” Dara chimed in.
Toby grinned. “Since there can’t be two Harry Potters, what I’d like is...I know!” he exclaimed. “We, my family that is, always take really fun vacations. This year we’re going to Mexico and I’ll get to swim with dolphins!” Jim made an envious sound. “Last year we went to San Diego and saw the zoo and Sea World and a bunch of other stuff. But my dad’s already said he’s starting a new project next year and we’ll have to take a vacation closer to home.” He sighed. “But I want to see Australia Zoo. I don’t want to wait, I want to see it now. Well, next year, anyway.” Toby slapped the table in front of him. “So that’s it, my map will be about going to Australia Zoo.”
“Way to go, Tobe!” Drew laughed. As his laughter faded, he gave a short sigh. “I’m not sure what I want my treasure map to be about. I have to think about this some more.”
Shelley strolled up to their table, rested a hand lightly on Jim’s shoulder and asked them all how it was coming along. Drew and Dara both shrugged, and Jim a
She laughed. “I take it you’re having a hard time coming up with something?”
Drew nodded emphatically and Dara gave her head a small shake. Shelley tipped her head curiously, holding eye contact with Dara. “Does that mean you have an idea or ...” she let the question trail off.
Dara swallowed. After a pause, she inhaled deeply and said hesitantly, “I do have an idea. But it’s...it’s something I haven’t told anyone else about.” She looked gravely at Shelley. “I’m not sure I want to tell anybody.”
Shelley nodded. “What would happen if you didn’t make a treasure map about this thing? How do you think you’d feel?”
Dara’s jaw hardened. “I wouldn’t like it. I mean, I don’t want to give this...this thing up. But I’m afraid to...I’m afraid of what people would say if...” She heaved a sigh. “See, I can’t even talk about it!” she finished.
She thought Shelley would try to get her to say what it was or at least talk her into agreeing to do a map about it. Instead, Shelley asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
Jim, Drew, and Toby had been listening with much interest. At this point, Jim kicked Toby sharply under the table, pointedly drawing some construction paper toward himself. Picking up a pair of scissors, he frowned with great concentration at the royal blue sheet in front of him, then began cutting out a shape.