Where Secrets Lie (12 page)

“
You want to meet me by the shed after you get settled in?”

“
Yeah, sure,” Lara said.

“
Wear something you won’t mind getting paint on. We have to repaint the blazes, and that can get kind of messy.”

Katie followed Patty to her office, and they used the outdoor entrance.

“
Have a seat, Katie.”

Patty gestured to the chairs that faced her desk. Patty sat behind her desk and leaned back in her chair.

“
I wanted to make sure it was all right with you that Lara assists you with the trails. I know you haven’t had much time to get acquainted, but if you’re unsure about working with her I want you to tell me.”

“
She seems nice,” Katie said.

“
Yes, she does, but it’s unusual for us to have a counselor in training we haven’t spent time with before. It makes it harder to determine what tasks she’s best suited for or who she’ll get along with. Since you don’t have a full counselor working with you this year, I want you to come directly to me if you have any problems.”

“
Ok, but I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”

“
Just don’t hesitate if you do, all right?”

”
All right.”

“
Good, I won’t keep you any longer then.”

Patty stood up, and Katie left the office feeling a little uneasy. Just what kind of problems was Patty anticipating?

~

The shed was a log cabin like the rest of the buildings, and from the parking lot, it looked like an extension of the auditorium. On its side, facing away from the parking lot, were two sliding aluminum doors that opened wide enough for two cars to drive through. It was spacious enough inside to house at least four cars, but the only vehicle that was ever parked there was a large riding mower Patty used to prepare the meadow for softball. The remaining floor space was packed with rows of shelving units piled with tools and supplies for maintenance and grounds keeping, as well as the equipment for the various camp activities.

All the counselors received the combination to unlock the padlock on the doors, and Katie was in the process of pulling the doors open when Lara walked up.

“
Perfect timing,” Katie said.

They entered the shed.

“
So what are we looking for?” Lara asked.

“
Small cans of paint, brushes too. If we’re lucky, they’ll be in the same area. It’s not always very organized in here. People just put stuff wherever they want.”

They scrounged around for a while before Lara found some paint. Katie walked over to her and checked the labels.

“
That’s most of it,” Katie said.

“
How many do we need?”

“
Five, we’re missing green. We won’t be able to finish all the trails today anyway, so if we don’t find it soon we’ll just look for it tomorrow.”

Lara gathered up the four pints of paint and followed Katie as she went up and down the aisles.

“
Maybe we should make the green,” Lara said. “We have blue and yellow already.”

“
Good idea, if we can find an empty can.”

“
Can’t we just mix the colors as we swipe it on the tree?”

Katie laughed. “Seriously?”

“
Sure. Why not?”

Katie was still laughing. “Paint sucks into tree bark pretty fast. The colors won’t mix. They’ll just overlap.”

Lara was laughing too. “Ah, c’mon, let’s try it. The worse that could happen is we’d have a blue and yellow striped trail instead of a green one. That’d work, right?”

Katie turned to her with a pint of green paint in her hand.

“
Oh well, so much for experimentation,” Lara said.

Katie smiled and started looking through the shelves again.

“
We still need brushes.”

“
I thought you saw them,” Lara said. “They’re over there.”

She motioned to the aisle they had just left and lost her grip on the paint cans she was holding. They all tumbled to the floor. Katie suppressed a laugh.

“
Hey, don’t hold back on my account,” Lara said and began to pick up the cans.

“
At least they didn’t pop open,” Katie said.

She went to the aisle Lara had pointed to and grabbed paintbrushes and zip lock bags.

“
What’re the bags for?” Lara asked.

“
To keep the brushes in after we’re done with that color. I brought some wet paper towels to put in with them. Otherwise, by the time we get back they’ll be all dried up and impossible to clean.”

“
Wow, you have done this before.”

“
I learned that one the hard way.”

They left the shed, and Katie closed the doors and replaced the padlock.

The first trailhead was about twenty yards from the shed and was marked by a signpost that listed the five trails, all of which branched off the main trail within half a mile. Each trail was two and a half to three miles in length, and there were connector trails that joined their endpoints together, so you could hike out on one trail and return on another.

The white and yellow trails curled around opposite sides of the mountain and maintained a steady elevation while the red and green trails rambled upward. The middle, blue trail consisted of wide, mild curves and steep terrain, which ended at a small waterfall that flooded into a large pool of water several feet deep. As the water exited the pool to make its way down the mountain, it split up and found different paths. In doing so, it meandered next to or across the other four trails at depths that ranged from ankle to knee deep.

When they reached the first fork in the main trail, Katie veered to the right. Within a few yards, they reached the trailhead for the blue trail, and they left that paint can and a brush there. Ten yards farther, they reached another fork that had the trailheads for the yellow and green trails. They left those paint cans with brushes at the beginning of each trail. They went back to the original fork and, this time, veered to the left and came upon the trailheads for the white and red trails. They decided to go out on the white trail and return on the red.

“
Which do you want to do first,” Katie asked, “paint the blaze or carry the supplies? We can trade off later.”

Lara took the white paint can, and Katie pulled a church key out of her pocket and handed it to Lara so she could pry the paint can open. They put the lid in one of the zip lock bags, which Katie carried along with the unopened red paint can and the remaining brush.

Although the blazes from last year had faded, they were still visible, and they just painted over them. Each blaze was the width of a 2” paintbrush, and about four inches long, so they did not take long.

“
So how many years have you done this?” Lara asked as she painted the first blaze.

“
You mean the blazes?”

“
Yeah.”

They moved on to the next blaze.

“
Just last year when I was in training. But I’ve been hiking these trails for years as a camper.”

“
Why did you want to be a counselor?” Lara asked.

“
Mostly so I could spend the whole summer here. When I was a camper, I only came for one session, and I always had so much fun, I wanted to stay longer.”

“
Is it just as much fun when you’re a counselor?”

“
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it’s different. You don’t have as much freedom, but I still really love it.”

“
I always wanted to go to camp,” Lara said.

“
Then why didn’t you?”

“
Oh, my mother thought it was too tomboyish, which just means she couldn’t relate to it and didn’t want me to either.”

“
Wow, that sucks.”

“
I did talk her into letting me go camping with a friend once though, and I loved it. That’s when I told her I wanted to go to camp, and she went berserk.”

“
But didn’t you say it was her idea that you train to be a counselor?”

“
I know, crazy, huh? I guess she couldn’t find anything else that’d keep me out of town for the entire summer. It was either come here or go to my grandmother’s, but then she’d have to tell her why.”

By now, they had finished several blazes, but this time Lara had too much paint on the brush, and it dripped down the tree.

“
Oh, hell, now what?” Lara asked.

“
Just leave it, a few drips don’t matter.”

“
Shouldn’t I try to wipe them off?”

“
No, they’ll just smear and look even worse. Don’t worry about it.”

“
Ok.” Lara finished with the blaze.

“
So why’d your mom want you out of town?”

“
Oh, I think she’s hoping the rumors will die down if I’m gone for a while.”

Katie wasn’t sure if she should ask what the rumors were about, so she stayed quiet.

“
It’s all right, I don’t mind talking about it.”

“
Ok,” Katie said. “What rumors?”

“
I’m surprised Patty didn’t tell you. I know my mother had a long chat with her and told her all about it before I got accepted into the program.”

“
No, Patty didn’t say anything about rumors.” That must be why she was so concerned about them having problems though.

“
I was friends with this girl at school. Everyone thought we were best friends, which we were, but then they started saying that we were more than just friends. We never did find out who started saying it or why, but eventually the teachers got wind of it, and one of them called our parents.”

“
Uh oh.” It was never a good thing when teachers called your parents.

“
Yeah, but the real problem was, it wasn’t just a rumor. It was true.”

“
Does your mother know that?” Katie had no issues with someone being gay, but she knew that other people often did, especially parents.

“
Oh yeah, I told her. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I knew I was never going to date boys, so I figured what the hell. She might as well know now.”

“
That was gutsy.”

Lara laughed. “Or stupid, I haven’t decided which.”

Katie just smiled, but no way did she think it was stupid. On the contrary, she found Lara’s openness impressive.

“
I’m guessing this isn’t going to be a problem for you then?” Lara asked.

“
No, of course not.”

“
Most of the kids at school didn’t care either. They loved gossiping about it, but none of them were mean to us or anything. It was our parents who couldn’t handle it.”

“
What’d your father say?”

“
Oh, I doubt my mother will ever tell him. They got divorced when I was three, and he moved to Seattle with his new wife. They have a couple of kids, but I’ve never met them. I’ve seen pictures though.”

“
So you never see your Dad?”

“
Nope, he just sends cards.”

“
That must be really hard, I can’t imagine not being able to see my Dad.”

“
It’s hard to miss what you’ve never had.”

“
I never thought of it that way. What about your girlfriend? What did her parents say?”

“
They totally freaked out. They told her not to worry because they didn’t believe a word of it, but the idea of anyone else believing it made them crazy, so they transferred her to a private school. They said that way she wouldn’t be burdened by the ‘stigma’. Then they rented a beach house in California for the entire summer and took off.”

“
Did you even get to say goodbye?”

“
Oh yeah, we both cried, and she said she’d miss me, but I think that she was secretly glad it was all over. I don’t think she ever got over the shock that she fell for a girl.”

“
How about you? Were you shocked that you fell for a girl?”

“
No, I always knew I liked girls. I guess that was the biggest difference. She never wanted anyone to find out, but I knew I’d have to face it someday. I mean, it scared me, but I knew I couldn’t avoid it forever.”

“
Yeah, I guess not.”

They reached one of the places where the creek pools. It was completely shaded by trees, and there were rocks strewn throughout the water. Katie left the supplies on the bank and stepped out onto the rocks.

“
I love this spot,” she said and navigated her way across the pool.

“
It is beautiful. My dog Beau would just love it.”

“
You have a dog?”

“
Yep, he’s a golden retriever, and he loves to swim. If I brought him here, I might never get him home.”

“
Wait until tomorrow when we hike the blue trail. If you like it here, you’re really going to love that. It’s a way bigger pool, and the water’s much deeper. Beau’d be in heaven.”

“
Sounds like it.”

“
I always wanted a dog, but my mom is allergic. At least that’s what she says. I think she’s really just allergic to the mess they’d make.”

Lara laughed. “I think my mom let me get Beau because she felt guilty that I didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Do you have any?”

“
Yeah, an older sister. She’s cool.”