Chapter 21: Public Announcement

Reed's POV

The camp public address system lives in a gray closet behind the program director's office, and its microphone is the size of a thumb.

Marlene Weatherby stood in the doorway in her fleece, with her whistle in one hand and her red glasses pushed up on her head.

"Eight o'clock," Marlene said. "You have the floor. I've waited my entire career to say that to somebody."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Say something I can cry about on the drive home."

She shut the door, and I put the folder on the shelf.

I had written the announcement three times.

The first draft was four paragraphs, and it read like a legal settlement.

The second was one line long and said "I'm sorry."

The third was on the back of the laminated card, and I had written it in pen, with my hand shaking, at two in the morning.

I pressed the button.

"Good morning," I said. "This is Reed Lindholm. Please stay in the cafeteria. This will take four minutes."

Through the closet's small window I could see the cafeteria on a security monitor, four hundred campers holding breakfast trays.

They were looking at the speaker on the ceiling.

Lucy was at a table by the window, in her sneakers and her camel coat, with a cup of cocoa that she had not touched.

She was looking at the speaker as well.

"I wrote nine rules on the first day," I said. "I'm going to read them back. Then I'm going to correct them."

I turned the card over.

"Rule one. No camper speaks to Lucy Fenn."

Nobody laughed.

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