The nature trail was a long and winding path, trailing through the forest behind the high school. Kline and I walked down to the bridge over the creek that afternoon. Technically we were cutting class, but it was late in the year, our grades were in, and it had been a while since anyone had cared where we were during the school day.
"You going to graduation tonight?" Kline asked me.
"Like I'm not gonna be at my own high school graduation," I said.
"With you, you never know."
I laughed, leaning against the bridge railing. "Actually I did try everything to get out of it. I'd rather stay home, but my mom won't let me. She gave me a big speech about how my grandparents were coming for this, and they didn't even get to graduate themselves, what with dropping out of school to feed their families and all."
"Yeah, it sucks ass," Kline agreed. "You skipped out on the prom, too."
"Well, there was a blackout in my neighborhood that night. Someone had to investigate for aliens."
"Find any?"
"No, just a drug dealer. It was unlikely that I was going to get to be prom king anyway."
"What're you wearing tonight?"
I looked down at my Bulldogs T-shirt and jeans. "This, I guess."
"Esther's gonna throw a fit."
"Yeah, well, in another month I won't have to deal with Esther anymore, either," I said. "She'll be off at Harvard or wherever, and I'll never see her again."
"And where are you going next? What do you have planned? You never talk about college."
"To be honest, I never thought I'd make it this far," I said. "For the last year and a half, I been out having adventures. I figured I'd get myself killed way before now. I didn't think I'd live long enough to graduate. World's longest suicide attempt."
"Well, you better start planning ahead," he said. "Cause graduation's tonight, and next year will come."
I shrugged.
"There's still summer camp."
Everyone threw their stupid mortarboards in the air, cheering. Our school, terrified of a lawsuit, had made everyone sign waivers and herded any willing students away from the crowd to throw their mortarboards. I pulled off the stupid robe, dark blue, and dragged it behind me as I walked, wearing the white shirt and tie my mother had forced me to dress in. I'd protested to no avail, my mother stressing the need for formal ceremony and telling me I'd be glad I did in the future. (Decades later, as I approached fifty, I'd still be pissed off about it.)
"Hey, kid. How you doing?"
I looked up. Miss Paula was there.
She hugged me. "I'm proud of you, Lou."
At least someone had said it. I said,"Thanks, Miss Paula."
"I told you. Just Paula now. Calling me 'miss' makes me feel old."
"Okay. Thanks. Hey. You were a really good teacher."
"Thank you, Lou. I appreciate that. If you need help with the next step, whatever that is, you know where to find me. Let me know."
I nodded.
"I will."
I sat next to Mark in the van on the way up to Massachusetts. Mark and I mostly wound up sitting together as we made the trip to Camp Treasure Valley, usually making plots that had very little to do with actually camping.
"I'm working on Orienteering merit badge this year," said Mark. "What're you in on?"
"Got most of the badges I'll need," I said. "I finish the paperwork and I should be an Eagle by October. I'm signed up for Project C.O.P.E."
"What's C.O.P.E.?"
"Challenging Outdoor Physical Endeavors. It's a kind of climbing course with all sorts of problem-solving and stuff. Should be pretty good training for me, actually."
"Oh cool. Hey! Forgot to tell you something!"
"What's that?"
"Remember the other night at the meeting? No, wait, you weren't there, you were out looking for ghosts on the highway. We held the elections for Order of the Arrow."
Order of the Arrow was an exclusive group of Boy Scouts who had gone above and beyond, and were recognized by their teammates. I said,"Oh, right, I forgot about that."
"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I did the math, and I think you're in. I'm pretty sure we elected you to join OA."
"Ah, come on, Mark. Is this the kind of news I need right now?"
"What're you talking about? This is good news!"
"No, it's not. I don't want to be in OA."
"What? Seriously? Everyone wants to be in OA!"
"Not everyone. Not me."
"Rusty wants to be in OA, except he never will, cause he's a jerk."
"I don't want to join these special clubs, man. I just want to do my thing and have everyone leave me alone."
"But you're always out there, helping out and doing good stuff, man. Everyone knows it. It's why we all voted for you."
"I don't do that stuff for rewards, Mark. I just, you know, do it."
"Well, you deserve a reward."
"I'm kind of embarrassed anyone knows about it in the first place."
"What, like nobody's going to hear about the adventuring ghost-hunter?"
"Well, this week I'm gonna be busy with Project C.O.P.E. So I won't be accepting any awards."
I dangled on a net about eighteen feet above the ground. Around me, people were climbing on the ropes course, up in the air and connected by safety harnesses. Down on the ground, the coaches were calling out advice to us.
I unclipped one carabiner from the netting and moved it upward. I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket, which I wasn't supposed to. They were cautious about jewelry and items falling off and hitting people. But there was no way I was leaving my knife behind.
I climbed, working my way up the netting. The next step was a cable, running from one tree to another, about twenty feet away. I reached up for it.
Something came disconnected, and the whole net flipped over. It dumped me, and I plummeted a couple of feet until my harness caught. This left me dangling twenty feet above the ground, swinging by my safety harness.
"Lou!" called Holly, one of the coaches. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah....." I was breathing heavily. "I'm okay. I'm coming down."
I began to climb down the netting. She said,"Wait! You have to complete the course!"
"Are you crazy?!" I reached the ground and unclipped myself from the harness. "I almost got dumped up there. If I die, I want it to be for a reason. I'm done."
I was sitting in front of my tent when Mark got there. He sat down next to me.
"Want a soda?" he asked.
"Sure/"
He handed me a Sprite, and cracked open a Moxie himself. I had no idea either where his family got the Moxie, or how he managed to drink the stuff. He had to have brought a supply from home---Without a doubt, you'd never find it in the camp's trading post.
"Heard you tooka tumble."
"Yeah, the ropes course flipped over today. I was doing pretty good the last couple days, working on teamwork and problem-solving skills from the ground. But then I wound up almost falling off the thing, and I got scared."
"Sure, I'da been scared, too. But forget that---You're in OA!"
"I'm not joining OA. I told you."
"Man, how can you turn down OA?
"Watch me."
"Okay, then. How about helping me with my compass course? I gotta follow a trail of five markers and get to the final one for the Orienteering merit badge. I have to copy the symbol down from the marker. Gonna require a hike across camp. You wanna come?"
"Sure. I'm in."
Mark and I walked along the trail, over the mountain. We were on the other side of the lake, about two miles away from camp. I was beginning to think early evening may not have been the best time to do this.
Mark looked at his compass. "The last marker should be right up there."
"Let's find it and get going," I said. "It'd be best if we could make it home before dark. I don't want to be stumbling around unfamilar trails overnight."
Mark gave me a look. "Didn't you sleep in a tornado last year?"
"I don't have to learn everything the hard way."
We'd found the other four markers pretty easily. Each one was a dark red, painted wood, and had a symbol on it---Numbers, letters, shapes. We'd copied them down into my notebook---Mark had forgotten to bring one----And if we found this last one, he got the merit badge.
We walked to the end of the trail. He looked at his map and compass. The trail looped around at an overlook, a high rocky point far over the lake.
"Should be right here," Mark said.
We started looking around. Most of them had been hung on tree branches at about eye level, so we began there. We circled, looking around the trail, and came back to each other. Nothing.
I looked over the edge. I could see it down there---A red marker, still semi-dangling from the branch that had broken and fallen over the cliff.
"Well, shit," said Mark.
"Thing broke and went off the edge," I said.
"I guess we'll just have to go back to camp and report it."
"No, wait." I took off my pack, and walked to the edge. "I'm going down there. I'm gonna get it."
"Lou, this is exactly the sort of thing you almost fell off during Project C.O.P.E. today. And this time there's no safety harnesses."
"Gotta do it," I said, and swung my feet over the edge. "I have to prove to myself that I can. Be right back."
Carefully, I worked my way down the rocks, free-climbing toward the marker. Carefully, a foot at a time. The rocks were uneven enough that I had plenty of handholds. But if I fell here, at best it was a long ambulance ride home.
One of the rocks came loose, and I slipped, one foot dangling into the air. I held on tight with my hands, and brought my foot back in to place it in a different spot. This one held, and I continued down.
And finally, I was just above the fallen branch. I reached down and caught the marker, bringing it up and tucking it into my jacket pocket. Then I climbed back up to where Mark waited.
"Did it," I said. I pulled out the marker, the letter U painted in white. "I did it. I can do it."
"You allright, Lou?" Mark asked.
I smiled. "I'm better than allright, Mark."
I stood in my fort back home, organizing things. Shuffling a few things around. Kline was standing outside the door, blasting away at bottles with a BB gun. "So summer camp was fun, then."
"It was," I said. "Learned some stuff. Had some new experiences."
"And since you lived through it, what do you figure your plans are when fall rolls around?"
"I've already applied to Lehigh County Community College," I said. "I'm thinking I'll go into education. I liked working with the Orphans last year."
"Cool," he said. "I'm thinking about going into the Army."
I reached into my jacket, and brought out the red marker. I hung it up on one wall of my fort. Kline looked in behind me.
"Isn't that...."
"The marker from camp? Yeah."
"Were you allowed to bring that home?"
"Nope."
Kline grinned. "And yet, here it is."
"I figure I earned it," I said.
