Strawberry Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

entertain all the other kids, those who aren’t lucky enough to come along.
    “Now, if I don’t get into some warm, dry clothes soon, I think I may turn into a snowman! Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to bring along a towel!”
    “I guess these moonlight swims are not part of your normal schedule,” Chris teased. “But it is getting chilly, now that you mention it. Even with this towel that I had the ‘foresight’ to bring along, I’m getting cold. I’d better go back to my cabin and change, too.”
    “Okay. I’ll walk you back.”
    “Afraid I’ll get lost in the dark?”
    “I could certainly use that as an excuse,” said Alan. “After all, I know these rocky paths a lot better than you do. Or I could just be honest and say that I’m having such a good time that I don’t want the evening to end yet.”
    “Well, that’s hard to argue with. Especially since I feel exactly the same way!”
    Arm in arm, Chris and Alan began the uphill climb from the lake to the cabins. They were laughing loudly, wrapped up in their joy over having found someone they could have so much fun with.
    They never even suspected that they were being watched.
     
Chapter Five
     
    The morning of the ten-year-olds’ outing to the Lake Majestic Wildlife Preserve, a sprawling national park over on the other side of the lake, Jake Reed awoke with the feeling that it was going to turn out to be a perfect day. The sun was shining brightly, its heat tempered by the cool breeze that wafted off the lake. The bus was all checked out and ready to go; the afternoon before, he and Alan had spent several hours working on the motor, anxious to make sure that the first outing of the camp season proceeded smoothly. And probably most important, the campers themselves were excited. Although camp had only been in session for a little more than a week, Samantha and the other nature counselors had already given them a good background in birds, trees, and flowers—exactly the kind of thing they would be seeing at the wildlife preserve.
    Jake was whistling as he strode out of the house, waving to Alan, who was up ahead, near the bus. But as soon as he saw the expression on his son’s face, his whistling stopped.
    “Oh, no!” he cried. “What is it this time, Alan?”
    “Somebody decided we could make the trip without air in our tires,” Alan said grimly, gesturing toward the bus.
    Sure enough, the air had been let out of all four of the tires. Not just a little, either; every one of them was completely flat. The sight of the tremendous blue bus standing by the side of the road on four flabby black tires might have been comical if it hadn’t been for the fact that the mere sight of it made Jake Reed’s stomach tighten.
    “Well, we’ll just have to get the hand pump and start pumping.”
    “That’ll take at least an hour. It’s almost eight, and we told the kids we’d be leaving at eight-thirty on the dot.”
    “We’ll just have to explain that we need to make a few repairs on the bus before we can get going.” Jake tried to sound matter-of-fact, but he knew as well as Alan that such a delay—especially where something as exciting as an outing to a wildlife preserve was concerned—was exactly the kind of thing that would be reported to parents immediately, in letters and telephone calls home.
    “I’ll get the pump,” Alan offered. “But first I’ll tell Mom to alert the counselors. Maybe they can come up with some way to distract a few dozen disappointed ten-year-olds.”
    At nine o’clock, Alan and his father were still pumping up the last tire. The campers started arriving, led by their counselors, chattering away excitedly as they anticipated the journey ahead. They’d already been looking forward to it for days. They were armed with binoculars, box lunches, and sweaters.
    “Just in time,” muttered Jake. “I’d hate to have to tell this crowd that we still weren’t ready for ‘em.”
    Alan shared his father’s