Someone Like Him by Ann Herrick

Author:Ann Herrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.

Chapter Twelve

The road turned to dirt and got narrower and bumpier. When it seemed to disappear altogether, we stopped.

“It’s getting late,” said Uncle Ned. “We’ll camp right here.”

As we unloaded some of the gear Janelle said, “This is where they want to build that resort.”

“Can you imagine?” said Uncle Ned. “It’ll ruin the place.”

“Mmm,” I said. But I was picturing myself standing on the balcony of a luxurious room, enjoying the view.

“Honestly,” said Aunt Carolee as she helped Uncle Ned pull out a tent. “There are places about twenty miles east of here where they could build, and it wouldn’t do half the harm!”

“Cutting down so many trees to put in roads and buildings could cause a runoff of silt that would ruin that lake,” said Uncle Ned.

I too another look at the lake. It was so big and blue that it was hard to imagine a little dirt ruining it.

“And you can guess how it’d look if the sewage treatment runoff ended up there,” Bret said.

Now that I could picture as a problem.

“Hey, Emily,” Janelle said, “let’s setup our tent over here.” She indicated a small area almost free of underbrush.

“Okay.” I didn’t know what I was doing. So I tried to watch Janelle.

“Yeeouch!” I hit my thumb with a hammer as I pounded in a tent stake.

Bret looked at me with concern. “Are you all right?”

I nodded and smiled bravely, proud that I’d held my scream to the lower decibels.

Our campsite wasn’t the nineteenth floor of the Hilton, but it was close to the lake and near a creek. The sounds of rushing water and birds trilling their songs filled the air. Thick shrubs provided a degree of privacy between our tents. Except for a tilted sign pointing to Restrooms, an old-moss covered picnic table and a rock fireplace were the only signs of “civilization.”

I took a deep breath of air that smelled fresh and wonderful. “So this is the wilderness.”

“Um, I hate to break it to you,” Janelle said. “But, no, this isn’t the wilderness. There aren’t any campsites in the wilderness. This place may be old. Looks as if it’s not even maintained any more. But it is a campsite.”

Before I had a chance to panic about this information, Uncle Ned came over to inspect our work.

“You’ve done a good job putting up the tents,” he said. “There’s plenty of time to go swimming before dinner if you want.”

“Great idea,” Janelle. “I need to cool off.”

She and I jammed ourselves into the pup tent built, supposedly, for two. After carefully coordinating our elbow and knee motions we managed to change into our swimsuits without inflicting any bruises or black eyes. I was dying to tell her how I felt about Bret. But we didn’t have much time, and I thought she might just laugh or something.

“Um, let’s not get our hair wet,” I said. I wanted to look as good as I could for as long as possible. “I, uh, don’t like to sleep with wet hair.

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