Patiently Alice Read Online Free PDF Page B

their silence that they were awed. One little kid, sitting between Andy’s knees, had his head tipped back about as far as it would go, one finger pointing toward the sky, trying to count the stars. But his other hand was wrapped around Andy’s thigh in a death grip.
    Connie Kendrick was sitting on a log with a blanket around her shoulders, and when everyone was seated, she just started singing very softly, and one by one, those of us who knew the song joined in: “Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah…”
    When the song was over, Jack Harrigan—as tall as Connie was short—told an Indian legend aboutthe Big Dipper, but I noticed that nobody suggested ghost stories around the fire.
    Then a little boy’s plaintive cry broke the spell: “I wanna go home,” followed by a sob.
    Now, a sob around a campfire on the first night away from home, we discovered, is like smallpox in a crowded tent. The cry was immediately followed by a whimper somewhere else, and then I heard Kim give a tearful gulp.
    But Connie was ready. “Okay, campers,” she called in a loud voice. “What’s the Overlook cheer?” And everybody began to yell:
     
    “Clap your hands,
    Stamp your feet,
    Our Camp Overlook,
    Can’t be beat!”
     
    “What?” said Connie. “I can hardly hear you. Is that the best you can do?”
     
    “Clap your hands,
    Stamp your feet,
    Our Camp Overlook,
    Can’t be beat!”
     
    we all shouted, the children loudest of all, as much to drive the homesickness away as tofrighten any creatures that might be lurking around.
    We sang funny songs next—“Do Your Ears Hang Low”—and then Jack did an imitation of a clown who keeps trying to open an umbrella and hold his pants up at the same time. The kids shrieked out their laughter. Even Kim was giggling in my lap. She was fingering a lock of my hair, twisting it around and around, and I could feel her body shake when she laughed.
    I noticed Richard Harrigan smiling at me across the campfire, and suddenly I felt very self-conscious. My hair was wet, my pajamas wrinkled, my Reeboks untied, and a new guy was smiling at me in a warm sort of way. I smiled back. Then I realized he was smiling at all of us, not me alone. Maybe he was feeling the same way I was, that it was just nice to be with friends. Or maybe I was fooling myself and missing Patrick more than I liked to admit. The cool star-filled night—I could almost feel Patrick’s arm around me, the way I’d snuggle up against his shoulder. I found myself still missing him at odd moments, wondering where he was and what he was doing. But then it passed, and here I was, cozy in my pajamas and jacket, sharing a campfire in a new place with new people.
    Jack went over the schedule for the following day. Then Connie sang a lullaby that she saidNative American mothers sometimes sang to their children, and she told us to go softly back to our cabins and that a bell the next morning would announce breakfast.
    Quietly we retraced our steps and, after one more trip to the toilets, crawled into bed by the light from our flashlights. We didn’t want to turn on the overhead light because it would break the mood.
    We had no sooner got everyone in her bunk than Josephine said she had to go to the bathroom again. I put on my shoes and we went to the toilets.
    Ten minutes after I got her in bed the second time, she said she had to go again. I figured this was a bid for attention. “I guess the next time you have to go the bathroom, Josephine, Mary will have to take you,” I said.
    “Josephine, shut up and go to sleep,” came Mary’s voice in the darkness.
    After that the cabin grew quiet.
    Tired as I was, I couldn’t fall asleep right away. There were too many things to think about: Dad and Sylvia back home; Estelle’s remark in the showers; homesickness for Lester, for the gang; my self-doubt about how good an assistant counselor I would be; Elizabeth and Pamela both likingthe same guy; not being in the same cabin with either of