ipanik
Delta Walker loathed her parents.
She loathed her father for leaving - for packing a single duffel bag and vanishing before her seventh birthday, without even pretending to say goodbye.
And she loathed her mother - Louise Walker, Warden of Camp Green Lake - for never letting him forget it. For holding onto her bitterness like it was a badge. For dragging Delta back every summer to the godforsaken stretch of dirt she called "home."
Three months a year, Delta lived in the shadow of a woman who ruled with venom in her voice and rattlesnake venom in her nail polish.
Three months of sunburn, silence, and watching juvenile delinquents dig holes in the dry, cracked earth as punishment for crimes she hadn't committed.
The rest of the year, she got to pretend she was normal. But Camp Green Lake always had a way of unearthing things - even things long buried.