Patiently Alice Read Online Free PDF

the wooden walls of the shower house, though, our little campers hesitated, their towels wrapped tightly around them.
    “C’mon, before the water gets cold,” I called, testing it with one hand. I didn’t want to tell them it was barely warm to begin with. “Last one in is a rotten egg!” I couldn’t help smiling to myself, because I could remember when Elizabeth and Pamela and I used that line, only then we said, “Last one in is a virgin” and felt so sophisticated!
    The younger girls gave in first—Ruby, then Josephine, and finally Kim. But the older girls hung back. We noticed the same reluctance from the girls in Elizabeth’s cabin. We tried to be casual about it and sat down on a bench at one end. Tommie Lohman, Elizabeth’s cabin mate, was atall thin girl with light brown hair and very long legs. She had an easy, languid way about her that gave the impression she was in no hurry to see what the next day or month or year would bring.
    At last all the Coyotes and Bunnies were standing in a line under the showers, hitting the soap dispensers with the palms of their hands and lathering up, eyeing each other furtively while they scrubbed.
    Gwen and Elizabeth and I were listening to Tommie’s funny account of all the things she’d forgotten to bring, when suddenly Latisha yelled, “She’s lookin’ at me!” and pointed to a girl in Elizabeth’s cabin.
    “Tend to your own bathing, Marcie,” Elizabeth told the freckled girl.
    But a moment later Latisha complained, “Now she’s lookin’ at me back there !”
    “Latisha, your body’s no different from anyone else’s, so cool it,” Gwen said.
    “What if the boys come in?” asked Estelle warily.
    “The boys have their own showers on the other side of camp,” I told her.
    “But what if they peek?” asked Ruby.
    “Then we’ll dunk their heads in the toilet,” said Gwen, and the girls screeched with laughter.
    At some point Josephine got Ruby’s washcloth by mistake, and when they traded back again,Estelle jeered to Josie, “Ha-ha! Now you got nigger water on you!”
    “Estelle!” I said, surprised, and the other girls covered their mouths in shock. They all turned to see what we would do.
    “You watch your mouth, girl,” Latisha warned Estelle, her eyes menacing.
    Choose your battles, our counselor’s handbook had said. Some issues are worth addressing immediately, and some can be saved for later. I decided not to make a big issue of it on our first night here in camp.
    “I hope I won’t hear that word again, Estelle,” I told her. Gwen said nothing, and I knew she was waiting for the right time and place too.
    When the girls were clean and back in the cabin, we counselors bathed alone, in record time. By then there was no hot water at all, and I was grateful for my flannel pajamas. It’s cold in the mountains! Then, when the path to the showers had grown quiet, we heard a soft bell announcing the campfire. We all put on our sneakers and jackets and—just as Connie said—like deer coming out to cross the meadow in the moonlight, we walked silently out in the field, where logs had been placed in ever widening circles, and there was the smell of smoke in the air.
    I had thought that this would be the highlightof the day. I had thought that these city kids, some of whom had never even heard a cricket chirp, would really go for the brightness of the stars, the sound of frogs and hoot owls and katydids.
    Wrong. They were terrified half out of their minds. These kids, who were used to shouts and sirens, were petrified by the stillness of night in the mountains. This time not only did Ruby and Kim cling to us like Velcro, but Mary frantically reached for my hand, Josephine attached herself to Gwen’s pajamas, and even the indomitable Estelle stayed as close to us as she could get. Only Latisha walked on ahead, but she leaped whenever something rustled or croaked.
    The boys weren’t quite as obvious in their terrors, but I could tell by