Lakeshore Chronicles 07 - The Summer Hideaway by Susan Wiggs

Author:Susan Wiggs [Wiggs, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-28T01:40:56+00:00

“Mama! You, um, gosh, Mama. I think you wet yourself,” Jane had said in mortification.

A few days afterward, Jane’s father took her aside and said her mother had suffered something cal ed a Nervous Breakdown. She had to go away for a while, to a place cal ed a sanitarium. There, she’d be with doctors and nurses who would help her get better.

As the weeks and months passed, Mama gradual y did get better. Every Sunday afternoon, Jane and her father went to visit her at the clinic in Poughkeepsie. She was nothing like her old singing, piano-playing self, but she could carry on a conversation, dress herself and do her hair.

She tried coming home to Avalon a few times but it was too much for her. Eventual y it was decided that she would stay with her sister in New Haven.

Jane tried never to feel sorry for herself but sometimes she couldn’t help it. When she started feeling the blues, she would slip into a canoe and paddle on the lake for hours, exploring the deep and secret places of the forest-bound water.

Despite the troubles with her mother, there was something irrepressible in Jane that made her look forward to the coming summer. Some days, she even forgot about Mama, which made her feel guilty. When she confessed this to her father, he held her close and said, “It’s al right to live your life, Janie. It’s the only thing to do sometimes, just live your life. Come on now, you can help me hoist the camp flag for opening day.”

As camp hosts, they were never supposed to play favorites, but Jane couldn’t help herself. Last year her most favorite guests of al had been the Bel amy brothers, George and Charles, and when she learned they would be back again this year, she was beside herself. She had loved their adventures together, the Three Musketeers exploring the world, watching out for each other. She was thril ed to know they’d be together again this summer.

“I was so worried, Pa, you know. About George.”

Her father nodded. “Everyone was. If the polio had kil ed him, I think we would have heard.”

She threw her energy into the pul ey to raise the flag. “I can’t wait to see him! I’m so glad he’s al right.”

“Janie, he might not be—”

The tol ing of the camp bel interrupted him, and they both hurried to offer a Kioga welcome to the guests. People arrived in big buses. Because of gas rationing, almost no one took a private car, not even the wealthiest of them.

Feeling grown-up at age twelve, Jane wore a new sailor dress and her best Mary Janes. She had her hair in ringlets, and Mrs. Romano, the head cook, said she looked just like Shirley Temple. She’d worked very hard al day to stay clean.

With her father and the rest of the staff, she greeted guests old and new. When someone asked about her mother, Jane gave the reply she’d rehearsed

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