Camp Lore - 11. Chapter 11

The other thing none of the other waiters realized is Brian had a car. When he said he’d been driving all over the place to stay with friends, he hadn’t mentioned that the car came with him to camp.

We discovered that after breakfast on Sunday, when Brian pulled on a ripped T-shirt and dirty shorts and got out his tools.

“What are those for?” Greg asked.

“Sanding, mainly. A little fill-in. Some fiberglass.”

“On what?”

“My car.”

We waited for him to explain.

“Sorry. I thought you’d seen it.”

It was parked behind the bunk, on the opposite side from the basketball court. We looked at it first through the screen windows but were all soon outside.

It was about twenty years old, a convertible VW bug, primer grey, with the roof and back seat gone.

“It’s one of the newer ones,” Brian half-apologized. “Not a classic, like the early batch. But it’s better rigged.”

“How?” Dan asked.

“More dependable engine. More reliable wiring – the old system was a joke.”

“I saw it but thought it was one of the drama counselors’.” Paul said.

Their cabin was right behind ours.

“Nope. Mine.”

“Nice,” Jim said.

“Hardly.” Brian laughed. “But it will be. Someday.”

“How’s it run?” Steve asked.

“Pretty good. For a Volkswagen.”

“Meaning?”

“It shakes like a roller coaster at sixty-five.”

We all laughed.

“But you won’t be stingy with it now?” Steve went on.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll let us take it for rides.”

Brian needed to think about that.

“Well, I’ll drive you wherever you want. But I gotta go, too. That’s the way it’s insured.”

We understood.

“Sounds fair.”

“That’s terrific.”

Brian grinned. “Good. ‘Cause I was afraid you’d think I was being a jerk.”

“Hey, we know how much insurance costs,” Jim admitted “It’ll kill you.”

“It’s the reason I don’t have a car,” I said. “Not that I could drive that one.”

“Why?” Brian asked.

“Stick.”

I was afraid everyone would laugh. But no one did. Brian just grinned.

“We can fix that.”

He looked around.

“Though I’ve got a feeling I’ll be running a driving school.”

And everybody grinned.

“This is just cool,” Paul said. “This is gonna be the best summer ever.”

Except when my turn to learn came, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. The other guys seemed to pick it up pretty quickly, some faster than others, and some needed repeated practice. But they were all soon driving up and down the camp road. One of them would sit in the driver’s seat, and Brian would sit beside him. If one or two of the other guys came along, they kneeled or crouched in what should have been the back seat.

My lesson was after dinner,. Some of the guys were shooting hoops, and others were playing cards. Brian was kind of dancing to music only he could hear and seemed to have more energy than he could control. Finally, he said, “Come on. Let’s go for a ride.”

“It’s almost time for Rec,” Nate told him.

“We’ve got fifteen minutes.”

“Linden’s not gonna like us driving on the camp road, with all the kids walking.”

“We’ll go in the other direction.”

“Toward the girls’ camp?”

“Yeah. We won’t go far.”

“We’ll get in more trouble that way. You know there’s an invisible line at the camp border. Cross it, and Linden appears.”

Brian shook his head.

“The first week I was here, I drove all over the place. I went everywhere, and Linden didn’t care. He doesn’t even know my name.”

“That was before camp opened. It’s different now.”

Brian looked at me.

“Whose side of the bet do you want?”

I wanted to learn stick but also didn’t want to piss off Nate.

“If I don’t go, there’s no bet,” I pointed out.

“No... no... I’m in,” Nate said. “I’m being a fool – but what the hell?”

“Great,” Brian said. “Though now, we have twelve minutes.”

“He’ll have ten left over,” Nate predicted.

Nate was wrong. Most things, I learn pretty quickly. But some have to creep up on me – slowly set in. Brian talked me through the process patiently, as I’d watched him do with some of the other guys. But something didn’t take.

He was sure I’d simply drive away, cleanly. But the first half dozen times, I immediately stalled. Nate quickly lost patience and began offering semi-useless suggestions. Brian ignored them and offered encouragement.

“Slower,” he said. “Keep your heel off the floor. Your foot needs to plunge, not hinge.”

I tried again. Concentrating. And stalled again.

“Plunge,” Nate coaxed quietly.

“Let’s do this tomorrow,” I said.

“Good idea,” said Nate.

“Nah,” Brian contradicted. “We still have five minutes.”

And he reached across me and turned on the headlights.

Of the next six tries, I stalled all six. But by maybe the eighteenth, I’d lurched all the way to the main road – maybe a hundred feet – and had turned in the direction of the girls’ camp.

“We gotta go back,” Nate insisted. He turned to Brian. “And one of us needs to drive.”

I started to open the door.

“One more shot,” Brian said. “Uno.”

And I closed it.

“No. No. No!” Nate warned. “That’s Linden’s Jeep coming down the road.”

True, there were headlights ahead. But I didn’t know how Nate knew they were Linden’s. I gunned the engine and promptly stalled. Brian sat laughing. Nate wasn’t pleased.

“Evening, boys,” Linden was saying before I knew it. He’d left his Jeep and was standing on Brian’s side of our car.

Brian and I greeted him politely. Nate was suddenly gone.

“Little late for a drive,” Linden went on.

“I was just teaching Rob to shift,” Brian explained. “We were heading back when he stalled.”

“Again,” I put in. “Seems I learn things slowly.”

I tried not to sound pathetic and pointed out the position of the car on the road. Fortunately, it was turned towards the boys’ camp.

“I supposed I could believe that,” Linden said.

“It’s true,’ Brian assured him.

“But truth’s a funny thing,” Linden went on. “For example, right now, I seem to be talking with two of you. But I’ve got the strangest feeling we’re not alone.”

He walked a little further along Brian’s side.

“Why, Nate. Did you lose something?” he asked.

“Yes – my brain,” Nate answered, straightening up. “And it’s sure not around here.”

“Then maybe you should park the car,” Linden said, once again to Brian, “and quickly walk down to Rec. You can see the girls later. In the Canteen.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” I said.

“I’d let someone else drive,” Linden suggested. And he disappeared towards his Jeep.

“I told you we wouldn’t get in trouble,” Brian told Nate, as he replaced me in the driver’s seat. “Why’d you even think that?”

“Because I’ve got experience,” Nate said. And he laughed. “Believe me – we got lucky.”

Brian accepted that and drove us smoothly to the bunk. He seemed to do it without thinking.

“What do you want to do about the bet?” he finally asked.

Nate seemed to consider.

“Well, since there was nothing riding on it, there was nothing there to lose.”

“Good point,” Brian admitted.

“Besides, there’s a good chance I was protected by being with the two of you.”

“St. Brian,” I suggested.

“Don’t push it.”