The Color War Read Online Free PDF Page A

against one another in a friendly series of Olympic games, not realizing that when the kids went back home, they’d still be competing—just not for trophies. Over the years—fueled by gang rivalries in the off-season—the fight had grown fierce. Blue campers snubbed Red campers in the mess hall. Red campers trashed the cabins of the Blue campers. The staff, in the spirit of sportsmanship, had turned a blind eye; and Raymond and his cabinmates—being among the youngest campers—had been insulated from the battle, until today.
    The games included archery and track and field, a tug-of-war, and swimming races. The winners took home ribbons that were either blue or red, to match their team. Raymond’s cabin had been assigned to the Blue team, and Raymond was being counted on as the star of the swimming relay, just as Melody had predicted. He knew he could win, because he was the best swimmer in the beginner group, and he hadn’t even really given it his all. He wanted to see the look on Melody’s face when he crossed the finish line, the fastest by yards.
    The day of the Color War, the Blue team lost in archery but won the 100-meter-dash. Swimming was scheduled as the last event before dinner, and Raymond changed into his swim trunks in the locker room and stretched, bending at the waist like he’d seen Melody do before she did her daily laps. James came up behind him and clipped him on the shoulder. “Red’s dead,” he sang. “We’re countin’ on you, man.”
    Every camper had been grouped into a swimming heat by ability, and Raymond found himself in competition with an older girl. He walked down the length of the starting dock, from the beach all the way to the cordoned swimming area in the lake. He tested the water with his toes, waiting for the previous heat of swimmers to get out of the lap lanes, trying to catch Melody’s eye.
    She was on the finish dock, fifty feet away. She stood beside the other lifeguard, the one with the strawberry birthmark on his shoulder. Melody gave Raymond a thumbs-up sign, and he jumped into the water.
    Reverend Helm used a cap gun to start each heat. When Raymond saw it, his heart pounded a little faster. He covered his ears, and in his head he could still hear the sound of a real gunshot, how it was so much louder than in the movies and left you so deaf you couldn’t even hear yourself scream.
    He saw the quicksilver flash of the girl’s feet in the lane beside him as she started to move. Raymond pushed off the dock with all his strength, churning his arms as if Melody was standing behind him, adding her power; as if he could propel forward fast enough to shove Monroe out of the way. He kicked and he pulled as his lungs fought for air and the currents made by the other swimmer threatened to sway him. Each time he stretched out an arm, it was a millimeter farther than he’d stretched before, and finally Raymond’s palm cracked down on the plank of the far dock that was the finish line.
    The girl who had been in the lead was just now pulling up beside him. Raymond gasped, his narrow chest rising and falling as the shouts of the Blue team covered his shoulders like a cloak. “The Blue team recaptures the lead,” Reverend Helm announced as Raymond glanced around wildly, trying to find Melody.
    She stood in the path of the sun, so that Raymond had to squint, and even then he could make out only her silhouette. She was cheering, like everyone else. She was leaning back against the lifeguard with the birthmark, whose arms encircled her like a walled city, like she belonged to him.
    It was harder for Raymond to breathe now than it had been when he was swimming. He ducked beneath the buoys that formed the swimming lanes, so that he was in the no-man’s-land of the lake, the part that was not roped off for swimming. He pointed himself toward the horizon, toward the far side of the lake, where he’d never been. Then he began to swim so hard that the muscles in his arms burned and