Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Author:Chuck Tingle [Tingle, Chuck]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781250874627
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Published: 2023-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

The drive home is spent alternating between blinding hope and certain doom. Every time I settle on one side, the other option pulls me back, until eventually I just can’t take it anymore.

I pull over, idling on the side of the road while I pull out my phone.

The internal debate rages fiercely within me. Do I ignore this completely and hope for the best? Or do I call my parents and get a jump on whatever they might hear through the grapevine? There’s gotta be a way to spin this, but after my recent troubles with the church, it won’t be easy.

Some girls in the congregation are spreading rumors about me.

This angle works, I suppose, and it’s better than nothing.

I call my dad, prompting a single ring before Luke picks up.

“Hey, honey,” he starts, his tone jovial.

“Dad,” I falter. “Hi.”

A brief moment of awkward silence.

“What’s up?” he finally questions. “You gonna be home soon? Dinner’s on.”

His familiar tone immediately puts me at ease as we slip into our well-worn father-daughter cadence. “Yeah. Sorry, I just … I wanted to get your advice on something. There’s a few girls spreading rumors about me. I’m not sure how to handle it.”

“Oh, honey,” my father offers soothingly. “Come right home and we’ll pray on it. Whatever it is, God’s gonna sort this out for you.”

“You’re right,” I offer, unconvinced of how effective that might be but happy to follow along. I’m suddenly wondering if I’ve overreacted. My encounter with Ally could unravel this whole thing, but it could just as easily not.

“Lot of rumors going around these days, you can’t trust ’em,” Luke continues. “You hear what they’re saying about butter?”

“No,” I reply, a little confused.

“I could tell you but I don’t wanna spread it.” My father hits the punchline hard.

This is normally where I’d sigh loudly and get secondhand embarrassed, but his cheerful nature in this tense moment is enough to warrant a full cackle of unexpected laughter to erupt from my throat.

It feels so much better than a single fly spit take.

“Don’t worry, Rose,” my father insists. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”

He called me Rose, I realize. It’s honey or hon, sometimes even Honeysuckle, but never Rose. Not unless I’m in major trouble.

“Seriously, Dad, thank you,” I reply. “I’ll see you soon.”

I pull the phone away to hang up, but in this split second my ears catch something that sets me on edge. It’s the beginning of a phrase, four words yelled to someone else as my father ends the call. I’m not sure what it means, but his tone is as different as night and day. He is shouting at someone, firm and sharp in his demeanor, just seconds after our gentle moment.

“Let me talk to—” he shouts, then silence.

I wait a beat, then finally pull back onto the road. I’m not sure what to make of this, but it’s not enough to turn around. Even if it were, where would I go?

For now, I only have one option.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.