Camp Sacred Heart by Andrew Pyper

Author:Andrew Pyper [Pyper, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443422284
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

The next morning is Saturday, the end of the month and the last day of camp. I wake up to find that Laurence has already packed his bag and left his bunk. Looking around, I see that the other boys in the cabin are gone too, and the sound of coughing buses from across the playing field tells me I’m late.

I run down to the gravel road where the buses rumble next, to each other, surrounded by boys shouting for no reason, worked up for the ride home. I start to look for Laurence but the Captain suddenly comes up before me and I can’t move around him. I didn’t see where he came from but there he is, blocking my way, his mud-covered Wellingtons a foot away from my sneakers: He is speaking to me, in a voice entirely unlike the authoritative tone he used for the sermons in the Chapel in the Trees. Now it is soft, fatherly, permissive.

“Don’t worry, David,” the Captain bends and says in my ear. “You never really lose your friends. You never really lose anyone.” I realize that this is the closest I have been to him, an opportunity to look at his red and whiskery face. Close enough to see that his lips are cracked, that he has tiny red veins networked through his nose.

“But then, I know you’ll be all right,” he goes on. “You have courage.”

I work up a half-smile, having no idea what he meant. Then a shock of fear bolts up my spine: Did he know about Laurence? The Captain places his hand on my shoulder. His touch is firm and oddly necessary, as if I would topple over or disintegrate altogether if he weren’t keeping me in place.

“I mean your name: David. You really should read the Bible,” he says, but mildly, without consternation. “David and Goliath.”

“Yes,” I say although I don’t know the story, only recognize the names.

“A boy called David,” he says mistily, squeezing my shoulder with his thick-knuckled hand. “You’ll see,” he nods with certainty before turning around. “Read the Bible. It’s full of stories.”

Then his back is to me and he’s limping away, his cap tilted on his head and his body sloped over itself, lowering into the ground.

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