"For me?" Dana took the brown paper bag, stuffed with tissue paper from Stacy. It was only the two of them, something that seemed to be happening more and more often as the summer deepened the forest's green and the lake grew warm as bath water.
"It's your birthday, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Dana was quiet for a space thinking about his mom and dad so far from him on the day he'd been born.
"Open it."
When he unwrapped it, he didn't know what to say. "I don't know what to say."
"Here, let me show you."
"I don't think–"
"Your arms go through here," she began, tangling him up in the contraption of lace and elastic. "And it snaps in the front."
The snap of that snap sounded fatal, funeral, and final.
"Thanks." Dana assayed at last.
"It's like mine. It's padded. But someday I won't be needing that."
"I can't possibly–"
"It's okay," And to prove it, she gave him the biggest warmest hug she'd ever given anyone that was not kin.
That settled it in Dana's mind. He was tangled up in Stacy now for better or worst. He'd have to wear the darn thing everywhere he went, or he'd hurt her feelings. He couldn't stand even the thought of that.
Two days counting, and no one, except Abigail, had noticed anything new about Dana. And all Abigail did was roll her eyes and pat him on the back.
YOU ARE READING
Summer Camp
Short StoryDana, who despite the name, is all boy. Finds himself an unhappy fifteen year-old camper at an Girls' Summer Camp. And there he must remain till summer's end, with his mom and dad out of reach on some exotic island. Will Dana win the trust of a bevy...
