Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 4: Queen Bed

The new camp was in the mountains of Northern California along the coast. Redwood trees rose up the way the Douglas fir and Jeffrey Pines had at Camp Fields Creek, creating a blanket of green that was broken up here and there by rolling blond hills of dried, summer grass. Nell tried to imagine it in winter, all green and damp.

The camp was named Camp Morgan, after the first female city superintendent of San Francisco. It had been her idea—based on the suggestion of a droll newspaper columnist—to turn the 600 undeveloped acres and 10 developed wood mill acres into a a recreation area that families from the Bay Area could attend.

Nell forced herself not to think too hard as she drove the Rabbit down I-5, shadowing her mom in the Golf. Her dad had headed down on his own in a U-Haul with some precious items three weeks ago to get settled in, just after Memorial Day. Nell had needed to finish up eleventh grade, taking finals and such. Camp Morgan paid for a moving van, and her mom had been laser focused on packing up the house and training her replacement at the clinic where she'd worked for eleven years, ever since Nell had entered elementary school.

They took two days to get to the location, north of the San Francisco Bay Area, staying in a Best Western hotel just over the California border. There was a restaurant next door and, after settling into their room, the Harte women went over and stretched out at a table. Nell ordered a Diet Pepsi and the chicken fried steak. Her mom had the house salad and some kind of white fish meal that looked healthy and boring. Her family rarely went out to eat. Why should they? Len's mom and her staff cooked decent camp food all year. Whenever the Hartes made their own lunches or dinners, it was like a huge novelty.

Sleeping in the same room with her mom was another rare occurrence. They used to take vacations together, the four of them, to places like Seattle, Vancouver, and little trips to Bend. Big trips to Hawaii every two or three years. And then they'd stay in a hotel room together, Nell and Jamie usually in bunk beds or sleeping in a queen sized bed with one of their parents—such a luxury compared to her narrow twin mattress at home, even if she did have to share with someone.

"A twin bed is good for you," her dad would say. "It'll get you ready for college dorm life. Or the Army."

"Daaad!" Nell would whine. He knew she was a a pacifist, but he liked to get a rise out of her.
That night, she had a queen bed to herself. She and her mom watched some TV, turning it off at 10 p.m., doing some reading. Nell put on her headphones and popped in a tape. At the moment, she was really into INXS, an Australian band her friend Jenny had turned her on to. Two nights ago, her friends had thrown Nell a surprise farewell party, and Jenny had given her this copy of her INXS tape. Parents had been present for the party, so there wasn't any illicit alcohol or pot, only whatever the adults were drinking and smoking. Nell didn't care. She had a couple of house parties back in ninth grade, and they were loud and stressful, so she stopped going.

Nell thought about Len. She missed him and home. She ached, like physically ached. Like she was coming down with the flu.

Pulling out a notebook from her backpack, Nell started a letter to Len. She didn't have much to say. She'd just seen him, after all. Mostly she described driving, having to pump her own gas in California—that had freaked her out, but she'd managed—what she'd had to eat, and the hotel. When she reached the end of the page, she turned it over and wrote a few more sentences before signing it: Luv, Nell.

She skipped to a clean page in the notebook without any of the marks from her ballpoint pen pressing through, and wrote a letter to Jenny. Then she did it all over again, writing to another friend, Tammy.

"Lights out, love," her mom said.

Nell rolled her eyes, but put her things away. She was left-handed, and there was a deep, blue smear of ink on the side of her left pinky finger. She studied it as her mom clicked off the night.
"Good night, Nelly Belly," her mom said in the dark.

"Good night." Before she knew it, she was asleep, dreaming about filling the tank of the Rabbit while a gas station attendant lectured her about taking his job.

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Hi Wattpad fam: This installment is a little early, but I anticipate being on the road Sunday, when I usually post, due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. I'm featuring INXS because Nell mentions it here. The first album my friend told me about is Listen Like Thieves, but Kick is the one that really made me love the band. (RIP Michael Hutchence.) Thanks for reading, and there is more to come soon!