Ways to Grow Love by Renée Watson

Author:Renée Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547600595
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

BUGS AND GHOSTS

WE END THE DAY at the fire pit with a sing-along and prayer. When we started the campfire, the sun was just setting, but now the sun is gone and the stars look like scattered pearls across the sky. “This will be our nightly ritual,” Ms. Lee says. After we sing and pray, we are dismissed back to our cabins. The trees are only shadows now against the dark sky. The pond has disappeared against the blackness, and I can’t see the rolling hills of trees anymore, but I can feel them. I know that they are looming over us, and for some reason, now that it’s nighttime, those trees feel creepy and are not comforting at all. I keep close to KiKi and Amanda, walking in the middle of them, for extra security.

I wish the walk wasn’t so far from our cabin. And I wish Ray, Aiden, and Logan would stop making random noises as we walk. One of them keeps clicking his tongue like a snake, and someone else keeps hooting like an owl. How did they get so good at sounding like animals? All of their noises mixed with the very real sound from the chorus of crickets is making me want to run back to the cabin and stay inside until it’s daylight.

The whole way back to the cabin, KiKi is complaining about her itching arm. Her right arm has welts because she’s been bitten by mosquitoes and won’t stop scratching the bites. I don’t say, I told you so, but I absolutely did tell her to spray her arms and legs with my bug spray before we left for the campfire, and I absolutely did tell her who cares if it smells like medicine when she told me she didn’t want to walk around smelling like an old person with achy joints.

“Stop scratching,” Lizzy says. “I know it’s hard not to scratch, but you’re going to make it worse.”

“Nothing can be worse than this,” KiKi says.

And just when she says this, a figure jumps out of the woods making an eerie sound. We all start running. Except for Lizzy. Lizzy is calm and cool, and she is laughing, calling out, “I don’t who that was, but it’s bedtime in ten minutes, so I hope you’re making your way back to the cabins.”

How does she know it’s not a ghost? A real ghost who is coming after us because all of us—me, KiKi, Amanda, and Red—are first-timers.

“Ladies, are we okay?” Lizzy asks. She is just a little out of breath because she had to run to catch up with us. “I’m sure it’s just some of the boys being silly.”

We are all breathing hard and walking so fast, the dust is kicking up and the pebbles crackle under our feet like the logs in the campfire flames. When we first started walking back to the cabins, I was between KiKi and Amanda, but now that we’ve been running, we are in a different order. I am beside Lizzy and Red.

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