Climbing the Walls (OFFICIALLY RESUMED!)

Chapter 30: Liar, Liar

Chapter 30: Liar, Liar
The walk seems to take forever - we don’t speak, at first. Zayn clears his throat.

“He was under Sabrina’s watch?”

“Yup,” I say curtly.

“Where was she?”

“Dunno.” He reaches out and places a hand on my shoulder. We stop walking, his gesture catching me off-guard.

“Stop. You alrigh’?”

Unable to speak, I just nod. He tells me that when he ran to get help, he saw Harry, Sam and Ang coming back down the same path we were currently on. He blurted out that someone was drowning, Sam ran to call 911 and get more help, while Harry and Ang followed him to the wharf.

“Thank God you found Ang... I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do anything.”

“Me either,” Zayn admits while shaking his head doubtfully. We finish the gravel road to the Office in silence, both of us still very much in shock. One of the camp’s large vans is gone, but everything else is silent and startlingly still. We clunk up the steps to the office, and I open the door to look inside.

Patricia sits alone, dabbing at her red eyes with a tissue.

“Patricia?” I ask, stepping inside. When she sees us, she bursts into tears again before standing. She wraps her big arms around us, sobbing “thank goodness he’s alright! Thank Heavens you were there;” stunned, we just squeeze her back.

“Have they gone?” Zayn asks as she releases us.

“They’re on their way to meet the ambulance,” she says, drying her puffy cheeks. “Exactly what happened?”

“Uhhh, well… We were setting up some kids for canoeing, when we heard him.”

“Was he alone?”

“Ye-yeah, I think so,” I say, although I am one hundred percent certain that he was left alone.

“Where was Madeline?” Patricia asks, confusedly looking between Zayn and I.

“She had to run back to the cabin.” A moment passes before she asks slowly,

“How do you two know all of this?”

“It was only me,” I say with a glance to Zayn. “I just happened to bump into Zayn after I overheard Maddie leaving him with Sa - “ I stop short, not knowing if this counts as tattling. No one likes a snitch... But since a child could have died due to her negligence, I let a small sigh and finish, “Sabrina.”

“So Sabrina was supposed to be watching Jeremy?” Patricia asks, with a look in her eyes that I can’t quite pinpoint. I nod before blushing my signature shade of red. Patricia’s demeanor goes from concerned, to angry-upset, in a matter of milliseconds.

“I knew it,” she says, forgetting there’s anyone else in the office. “I knew that, one day, her lack of caring would get us in trouble! Poor, sweet Jeremy! That precious little child could have drowned. How could she be so inconsiderate? And, of course, Gary can’t see the forest through the trees…” She trails off, pressing a hand to her jawline and shaking her head in disbelief. Snapping back to life a few seconds later, she says, “sorry, I’m so sorry. Please, don’t mention that to anyone.”

“Never,” I say. “of course not. Are you going to be okay?”

“Yes, yes. I’m just a bit worked up, is all. We have never had a child drown in all of the years I’ve been here - nothing even close to that, nothing more than a few cuts and bruises! I’ll just go put the kettle on, and wait to hear back from them.”