Patiently Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Read Free Book Online Page A

what had gone on during the day—when suddenly there came the most terrible far-off scream… then another and another, followed by loud sobbing.
    I think the entire camp was on alert. If we heard a disturbance, our first duty, we’d been told, was to check for fire, and if there was no fire, we were to keep the girls in our cabins until there was word over the sound system as to what we should do in an emergency.
    Gwen and I were on our feet instantly, staring through the screen door, but there was no smell of smoke or hint of fire. There was, however, the sound of running feet and a flashlight coming from the direction of the camp director’s cabin, another coming from Jack Harrigan’s.
    The screams came again, then we heard Doris Bolden saying, “Hey, be quiet now,” and finally, as we all gawked, our girls gathering behind us at the cabin door and windows, we saw Doris and Virginia and Connie and Jack all coming back from the campfire circle, Virginia crying loudly. They dropped Virginia off at Pamela’s cabin, but Doris was escorted to the camp office.
    When we’d got our girls settled down again at last, Gwen and I whispered together outside ourcabin, trying to figure out what could have happened.
    “You don’t think Doris would hit her, do you?” Gwen whispered.
    I shook my head.
    Obviously, however, something terrifying had happened. It wasn’t until the next day that we found out. Pamela told us.
    As punishment for pushing a girl down in the shower, Doris had taken Virginia out to the campfire circle. She’d told Virginia that she was to sit alone on a log and think about how she could control her temper in the future and that Doris would be back for her later.
    Doris had not actually left. She had gone back in the trees to keep watch over her, but Virginia had panicked, terrified at being alone at night. She would have preferred “getting smacked,” she’d told Connie between sobs.
    In Connie’s office Doris had been lectured and almost let go. The whole idea of camp, Connie had said, was to get city kids in tune with nature, not to scare them with it, and with that punishment, she had set Virginia back even further than she’d been when she came.
    But because Doris was well liked by the other little girls and had not actually left the child alone, it was decided that she would stay here on probationand apologize to Virginia, which she did. She had gone back to their cabin, Pamela reported, where Virginia was still sniffling and, in front of the other girls, had told Virginia that she had made a serious mistake in making her think she was alone out there in the dark, that she would never have left her alone unwatched.
    Doris assured her that it would not happen again but that if Virginia continued to hit other girls, she would have to sit in the director’s office for a long time-out and would miss the next movie as well.
    That seemed a fair punishment all around. Doris kept her job and her dignity, Virginia received the apology and the warning she deserved, and the rest of the assistant counselors got a lesson in discipline.
    “It’s like walking a tightrope,” Tommie said. “One step to the left, you’ve gone too far. One step to the right, you haven’t been assertive enough.”
    “It’ll take every single bit of patience I’ve got,” said Gwen.
    “And you’d better not have your mind on anything else, because you need to concentrate totally on your girls,” said Pamela. She sighed. “Maybe that’s a good thing. It’ll keep me from worrying about Mom and what she’s up to.”
    Nobody spoke for a moment. Then I asked, “Sowhat’s going to keep us going for the next two weeks?”
    This time Elizabeth and Pamela both grinned. “Friday night,” said Pamela. “Assistant counselors’ night out!”

5
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Gerald
    Gwen and I tried not to have favorites among the Coyotes because they were each needy in a different way. Kim needed all the reassurance she could get, and Ruby seemed