Camp Kumoni Ch. 38 by Anistasia Allread Assisted by Nick B “Wha . . . What, hap . . . Ow, my head.” Josh muttered. “Quick, get me a rock . . .”

“What are we going to do?” Samantha posed. “We can’t just leave him here.” Erika eased her up to a sitting position.

“It’d serve him right.” Rachel sneered.

“I’ll go get Director Hobbs.” Erika volunteered.

“She won’t do anything.” Rachel spat. “That asshole . . .” she said, pointing to the unconscious jock, “tried the same thing with another girl last summer. His daddy donated a bunch of money and the whole issue was ‘forgotten’.” She used her fingers visually place the last word in quotes.

“We can’t let him get away with this.” Erika stated. “How about the cops? One of us could call the police.”

“They’ll want proof.” Rachel countered. “Do you want to have some Doctor checking out your privates?”

Thoughts of her nightmare the other day, flashed through Erika’s mind. “No.”

“Then we’ve got to take care of it ourselves,” Rachel sighed. “. . . and in a way that he won’t soon forget.”

The two girls looked at one another.

“Just how hard did you hit him? He’s still out.” Erika said, finally breaking the silence.

“Good. Just hope that he stays out until we get him back to camp.”

“We . . . could just stick him out in the lake face down.” Samantha spoke haltingly, breaking her silence.

“And kill him?” Erika shook her head. “I won’t be a party to murder.”

“We need to embarrass the crap out of him.” Rachel voiced. “What could we do that would humiliate him as much as a rape would to one of us?”

“We could ‘plague’ him.” Erika said. “It worked on Eric . . . I mean me.”

“What does that mean?” Rachel asked for details.

Erika quickly detailed the horrible experience that Eric had to endure at school.

“It would humiliate him, but it doesn’t seem to go far enough compared to what he has done.” Rachel paused. “Let’s get him loaded into the boat. Then Samantha and You can row him over to the camp.” she instructed.

”Why do we have to do it? What are we to do with him then?” Erika inquired.

“What about you?” Samantha added. “Where are you going?” The two of them looked at Rachel.

“I’m going to run back to the cabin and figure out something to tell Phoenix to explain why we aren’t back by curfew. While I’m there, I’ll grab the duct tape.”

It took all three of them to lift the dead weight of the jock over the side of the boat. He rolled against one of the benches and let out a moan. Erika jumped in the boat and pulled in the mooring line. She rolled Josh over on to his stomach and using the mooring line, tied his hands behind his back. The whole time, silently thanking her mother for insisting that Eric be in cub scouts when he was younger.

“Meet me on the shore next to the tree that Phoenix took us our first day.” Rachel instructed.

“What about the boat?” Samantha asked. “Won’t Todd be expecting it back?”

Rachel paused to think a moment. If you can, unload him at the tree and Samantha,” She looked at the cheerleader. “You’ll have to take the boat back and tie it up. If Todd or someone asks, just tell them Josh had to use the bathroom, and couldn’t wait.”

Erika helped Samantha into the boat, and seated the oars into their locks as Rachel shoved the row boat off the beach. Their eyes met. “Hurry!” She pleaded.

As soon as they were clear, Rachel sprinted towards the trail that would take her to the camp and the cabin.

Erika pulled with all of her might on the oars, using her legs and back as much as she could to pull the boat through the water.

Samantha sat on the bench opposite of her. She looked haggard in the diminishing light. The makeup that Tricia had so carefully and lovingly applied was like dark rings around her eyes.

The cheer leader began to shiver. Erika thought it was the cool breeze at first, but then her shivering became shaking and then she began crying.

Not yet. Erika thought. We can’t react yet.

“Samantha.” she said getting the girl she loved to look at her. The hollow dead eyes of her love drove a stake through her heart. She had seen those ghostly eyes before. The memory of Summer’s vacant look caused her to shudder. She shook the memory. Now wasn’t the time. “So much for spending the summer without getting beaten up, huh?” She meant it as a joke and tried to smile, but there just wasn’t any heart in it.

They were going to have to do this right, or Samantha would start down that twisted, lonely path into depression. “If he wakes . . .” Erika waited until Samantha looked back at her. “Hit him in the head hard. If he starts making too much racket, we’ll have to use the oar to quiet him again.”

Samantha just looked blankly at Erika, her teeth chattering, and her lips trembling.

Erika looked over her shoulder to see where they were in relation to their goal and altered their course with a few quick strokes of one oar, then again put her back and legs into pulling towards their destination.

Samantha mumbled something, but between the openness of the lake, and her shaking, Erika missed it. She looked at the cheerleader questioningly.

“Thank you, Erika.”

She didn’t know how to respond. No one ever thanked Eric for anything before, well except his mother, but it wasn’t the same as this. Erika smiled weakly, trying to instill some courage into her friend, her love.

The bow of the boat scraped up against the muddy bank. The jolt of the sudden change in momentum caused Josh to stir and moan. He tried to move his hands but couldn’t. Samantha nearly jumped into the water. She scrambled over the oars and on to the shore.

“Wha . . . What, hap . . . Ow, my head.” Josh muttered.

“Quick, get me a rock.” Erika instructed. Samantha just stood on the shore, frozen in place, looking as if she was about to bolt through the trees at the next word uttered from Josh.

Erika groaned with frustration. A rock would probably do too much damage, and Samantha was in no shape to be a party to that kind of brutality. She looked frantically for something hard to hit Josh with. The oar was too big to swing in such a tight area. She lunged forward and struck Josh hard across the side of the face. Pain shot up her arm. She had never connected a punch like that before. Her hands were not used to such violence. Pushing the pain into the back of her head, she looked back down at the jock and sighed relief. He was unconscious, but more importantly, quiet again.

“Hurry up, Rachel.” Erika swore to herself, while straining her ears to hear for movement coming from the bushes. She looked over at her friend. “Come on, Samantha. I’ll need your help to get him out of the boat.”

For a moment, Erika thought Samantha was going to turn and run. To her relief, the blonde, slowly put one foot in front of the other and was soon standing by the edge of the boat.

“You get him under his arms.” Erika instructed. “I’ll get him by the legs. That way, if he comes to, he won’t be kicking you.”

The two tried twice to pull him free from the boat, but were unsuccessful. Erika dropped his feet and hopped out of the boat and pushed Samantha gently to one side. “We’ll each take an arm.”

The two girls had just gotten him from the boat and on the grass when Rachel came barreling through the bushes. “The boat!” she hissed.

Erika turned and saw the boat slowly drifting out into the lake. The lack of weight and the movement caused by pulling Josh out must have set the boat adrift.

Rachel tossed a couple of things at Erika who barely caught them as the athletic girl sprinted out into the water and grabbed the boat, before it had gone far enough to have to swim for.

Erika found herself holding a roll of duct tape, a pocket knife and some lipstick wrapped in a towel. She pocketed the lipstick and knife, and dropped the towel.

Erika tore a piece of the silver tape and smoothed it tightly over his mouth. “Help me turn him over,” She asked of Samantha.

Once on his stomach, Erika wrapped duct tape around Josh’s forearms, binding them together. Once that was accomplished, she untied the rope from his wrists then taped his ankles together.

Rachel brought the boat back to shallower water and climbed in. “I’ll take this back. Keep him quiet. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

It seemed like an eternity, but ten minutes later, Rachel re-emerged from the bushes. “Where’s the pocket knife?”

Erika fished it out of her pocket and handed it over. Rachel took the knife, opened it up and knelt beside the bound body of the jock. She pulled the collar of his shirt tight and using the knife, cut the shirt from his body. Once the shirt was a rag in the grass she started on his pants.

“This son of a bitch will never try that shit again.” Rachel cursed. “Ever.”

---

The clock radio started pumping out music with a heavy bass drum. Erika groaned, turned towards the wall and pulled her blanket over her head. She winced as parts of her body protested. The side of her head ached from the blow that Josh had landed. Her fist hurt as well. Striking a semi-conscious person on the side of the head bare knuckled, definitely wasn’t the most brilliant thing that she had done in the past few days.

“Come on, Erika, we need to see if we can cover any bruises so that no one will tell.” Samantha prodded.

“Can’t we just stay in bed this morning?” Erika pleaded.

“This,” she waved “is for Krystal as much as us. Come on.”

Erika threw off her blankets and slid out of bed and followed Samantha bleary eyed into the bathroom. She shut and locked the door, before looking in the mirror. A close study of her face revealed that other than needing to shave, she had a nice purple bruise along her hairline on the side of her head. She poked at it tenderly, and winced from the pain that it had produced.

“How bad is mine?” Samantha inquired. “I’m afraid to look.”

Erika looked towards the voice and quickly looked away.

“That bad?” Worry filled Samantha’s tone.

“No.” Erika waved a hand in her direction. “You’re going to the bathroom.”

“Yeah, so?” Samantha yawned, paused and yawned again. “Oh, sorry, I forgot.”

“I hope you have enough makeup to cover up the bruising on your face.” Erika looked back at her own face in the mirror. The bruising being just at the hairline would be fairly easy to cover up. She could probably get away with just wearing her hair down, and with her long bangs, it would probably just look like a shadow.

“No wonder my jaw hurts.” Samantha’s face joined Erika’s in the mirror. She lightly touched the blue discoloration on the side of her face.

“You’re lucky he didn’t break it.”

Samantha pulled her coverup out of her bag and went to work on disguising the physical marks on her face.

“What are you going to do about those?” Erika inquired pointing out the marks on Samantha’s wrists.

“I don’t know. It’s not like I can wear long sleeves. Maybe I can find some bracelets.”

“We could tear up some fabric and make bracelets, or something.” Erika shrugged.

“You turning into Julie Andrews on me?” Samantha pictured the cabin’s curtains being turned into play clothes. She winced after smiling at the thought. “What could we use that would not be missed?” Samantha pondered. “Our blankets and pillow cases aren’t fashionable enough. A white pillow case wrapped around our wrists would look like we were trying to be an ‘Emo’ cutter, or something.”

“Do we have any fabric left from our camp shirts that we modified?”

“That’s an excellent idea.” Samantha practically exclaimed.

A knock sounded at the door. “Come on in there. Stop hogging the bathroom.” Dani mumbled in an irritated tone.

Samantha put the finishing touches on her coverup and opened the door to trade places with her short cabin mate. Dani, rubbing the weariness from her eyes looked up at the two girls suspiciously.

“Rachel.” Erika sidled up to the athletic girl. “Samantha and I need to catch up to you guys on the trail. We have something we need to do.”

“Like what?” Rachel inquired in a low tone. “You’re not going to go check up on him, are you?”

“No. We need a few minutes to cover up the bruises on Samantha’s face and wrists.”

“He left bruises?”

Erika nodded.

Rachel muttered to herself through locked teeth. Erika thought she caught a few swear words.

Erika broke into Rachel’s private tirade. “Can you give us your scissors?”

The athletic girl nodded.

---

Erika shuddered. A cold chill went down her back as she and Samantha jogged past the location of the previous night’s incident.

“Just keep going.” Erika urged her friend as the cheerleader’s steps faltered. “Don’t let him get into your mind and control you.” She looked over at the white face of Samantha. “Just remember, we took care of him last night.”

“But what is to keep him from blabbing?” Samantha worried.

“What? He’s going to admit to trying to rape you, to explain it away? I don’t think so.”

“What if he does? Or what if they make him? What if the camp finds out that I . . . That I was . . . you know?” She bit her lip.

“I think the camp will be talking more about how we punished him than what he did to deserve it.”

“The camp will know?” Samantha looked down at the lavender wrist bands that the two of them had cut from one of Erika’s camp shirts.

“And they’ll know that he didn’t get away with it.” Erika reminded her. “No one will mess with Columbine cabin for a while.” She smiled viciously at her friend. “Come on, who’s going to mess with girls wearing lavender wrist bands after this?” She held her own wrist, wrapped in lavender up, and flashed a devious smile.

“What If they send us home?” Samantha continued her wallowing.

“That’s not funny.” Erika sobered. “Especially since, it would be hard for me to explain to my parents, how I came to have breasts.” She looked down at her chest.

“I have no idea what my parents would do.” Samantha sighed. “I should have known better.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong!” Erika stressed her words. “Besides, they would probably cloister you in a convent, especially after what happened with Summer,” she muttered, more to herself than aloud.

“What?” Samantha stopped and glared at Erika forcing her to stop as well. “What happened to Summer?”

Erika felt a different kind of chill run down her spine. This time it wasn’t a chill fearing for herself, but fearing for her loved one. Erika scanned the area around them. They needed a place to sit, and have a talk. A talk that was long overdue.

Erika took Samantha’s hand in hers and led her down the path looking for a private, comfortable place. She found a small rise that was covered in a lush, carpet of thick moss. She sat down in the spongy bed and pulled Samantha down with her. “What do you know of Summer’s death and the events leading up to it?” Erika asked.

“My parents wouldn’t tell me much. Just that she was depressed and decided that she couldn’t live with her pain any longer, so she took her own life.”

“That’s all?” Erika asked incredulously.

Samantha nodded. Her face had gone white, making her coverup stand out against her pale skin accentuating the bruise instead of hiding it.

Erika sighed. “Why do I have to be the one?” she asked the tree tops. She took Samantha’s hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I can’t believe they haven’t told you.”

Samantha looked at her expectantly.

“Samantha,” Erika looked her friend in the eye. “A few months before Summer took her life, she . . . “Erika swallowed a large lump. “She was raped.”

“What?” Samantha’s mouth was agape in disbelief.

“She was on her way home from clubbing in a rougher part of town. You know how much she liked that harder, rawer music. Apparently, someone slipped her something–probably a Roofie. She said she didn’t remember a whole lot before waking up on the pavement in a parking lot.”

Samantha’s bottom lip began to tremble.

“I won’t go into the gorier details.” Erika decided. “Let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty.” Tears were breaking loose in both of their eyes. “A month later, she found out she was pregnant.”

“Pregnant!?” Samantha was horrified.

Erika nodded. “She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t tell your parents about the rape; she was too ashamed and embarrassed. Besides, your parents aren’t exactly like Juno’s.”

Samantha nodded in understanding.

“She kept it from everyone.” Erika continued. “I didn’t find out until after.”

“After what?”

“When she was about six months along, she miscarried.” Erika could feel Samantha’s hand tighten in hers. “It was horrible. They had to go in and scrape the uterus and everything. She still hadn’t told your parents anything, even after that. How else could she add to her embarrassment, her shame? Not only did she get raped by someone she couldn’t remember, but then she couldn’t carry the baby to term.”

“Oh my God, Summer.” Samantha sobbed. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“How could she?” Erika asked. “She couldn’t tell anyone, and she made me swear not to either. How could she tell you? You were the good child; the Sandra Dee of the school.” Erika pulled Samantha’s head to her shoulder and gently rocked her and stroked her hair. “The hormone crash after losing the baby must have been too much for her. She became more and more depressed. More and more distant, even with me. “

Erika held the cheerleader tight. Under different circumstances, she would have found this position quite desirable. But this was nothing but raw emotional pain. Eric had the last year and a half to digest and grieve over the loss of his best friend. It still hurt thinking about her. Erika could therefore understand how painful this process was for Samantha. As if in response to her thoughts, Samantha held Erika tighter.

“Did your parents tell you where or how she died?” Erika sniffed.

“They told me she died through carbon monoxide poisoning.” Samantha’s shoulders shuddered with another sob.

“Is that all?”

Erika felt Samantha’s head nod against her shoulder. “Do you want to know the details, or stay in blissful ignorance?”

Samantha didn’t answer. One hand unwrapped from Erika and wiped the salty tears from her face then regained its former hold on her.

“It’s okay, Sam.” Erika tried to comfort her friend. “I won’t tell you, and you don’t have to know.”

“But I want to know.” Samantha pleaded. “My parents won’t talk about it. They won’t talk about her. It’s as if they have erased Summer from their minds. I don’t want to forget her. I’ve already forgotten so much,” she wailed. “I can’t even picture what she looked like anymore, without seeing a photo. . . I’m forgetting my own sister.” She pulled back and looked at Erika. “Please tell me. I need to know. I know it will hurt, but I need to know. No one else will tell me.”

Erika swallowed. She wiped her own tears with her new wrist band. “Where is your sister’s favorite place?” she asked.

“Clearwater Falls.” Samantha answered without pause.

Erika nodded. “She drove there with a bottle of Jim Beam and a bottle of sleeping pills. She rigged a hose to the exhaust pipe and directed it back into the car. From what I was able to hack from the coroner’s report and the tox screen of her blood, she drank most of the alcohol with the sleeping pills and right before she fell asleep, turned the car on. She didn’t feel anything.” Erika assured.

The two held each other for comfort as they poured their souls out. Erika’s diaphragm was beginning to hurt from all of the crying. She could only imagine the pain Samantha was feeling at this moment. Yes, the last few months of Summer’s life was horrible, but to keep the details from their remaining daughter, to keep her wondering for more than a year? What pain the blonde must be feeling. What anguish she had to be dealing with.

Slowly Samantha’s sobs slowed. Although her eyes burned, she was out of tears. The fact that she was out of tears for her sister seemed to make her heart ache even more. Her chest felt as if some giant was squeezing it, attempting to crush the life from her body.

Samantha looked up at her dark-haired friend. She was so beautiful. He was so beautiful. How could anyone at school treat Eric the way they did? How could Eric, for all of the abuse he’d gone through remain so warm, so loving, so tender hearted? No wonder her sister confided in this person; this wonderful, caring individual who needed to be loved.

Samantha’s brown eyes stared into Eric’s gentle blue ones. She raised her chin a bit and leaned forward.

Eric was taken in by Samantha’s blood shot, but warm, luminous brown eyes. Her cheeks still wet with tears; she was never so beautiful. Samantha lifted her chin and shifted, gently raising her face towards his and ever so lightly their lips met in a heartfelt embrace.

---

To be continued . . .

** Juno is a reference to a recent movie about a teen girl getting pregnant and deciding not to abort, but to give birth and give it up for adoption. Her parents don’t ‘freak out’ about the situation, but calmly help her in achieving her decision.