100 Malicious Little Mysteries by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: detective
ISBN: 9781566199223
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Books
Published: 1981-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

Nightmare

by Elaine Slater

One minute the sun was out, and the next it got all gray and dark. I saw lightning ’way far off in the direction we were going, but I couldn’t hear any thunder yet. A wind came up from nowhere and all the leaves on the bushes and trees did a belly-flop.

I looked at Mom, but she was driving perfectly calmly as if nothing was happening. She looked too young to be my mother, and for a second I felt sorry for her, but then I hated her again.

She was taking me to this summer vacation camp, and I didn’t want to go. Gripes, how I didn’t want to go! She’d showed me this brochure and it had a picture of the Director and all the campers posed outside of bunks with their Counsellors. The Director was a bald, beefy guy with a silver tooth, smiling something awful. The Counsellors were great big jerks in white ducks and open shirts. They all looked too damn proud of themselves.

But the kids! I tell you it was the kids who tipped me off. There they were, standing in front of their bunks, their shorts hanging down, their shirts out, their hair practically growing over their eyes. And I’m telling you there was a look of such dumb misery on their faces, it’d give anyone the shakes. One kid in particular — Bunk 9, I think he was — was practically screaming a warning at me out of that picture. “Stay away from here, kid,” he was saying, “this is Hell.”

But my Mom was determined that I got to go to camp. And when Mom makes up her mind!

I begged Dad. I said, “Just look at those faces in the brochure. You can tell it’s a crumby place.”

My Dad has a fierce temper, but still he’s an easier mark than Mom. But this time all he said was, “Your Mother and I have talked about this and you must trust us to do what we think is right for you.”

He couldn’t see those faces like I could, and I was ashamed to tell him the truth. I was scared. Gripes, I was scared!

I tried everything. First I tried persuasion. I argued with them all the time. I told them it was no good sending me there because I wouldn’t stay. I told them they couldn’t make me go if I didn’t want to. Finally I got sent from the table so many times, I decided to go on a hunger strike. I had nothing to lose, I wasn’t getting much to eat anyway. But that didn’t last long.

Next I ran away. I didn’t get far — my bike blew a tire. Then I tried to be as good as I knew how to be, so they’d want me around all summer. I must admit that worked the best. I helped Mom with everything, and when Dad came home I helped him wash the car and mow the lawn. I never even

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