She’s talking low and fast. The lodge is so noisy that no one can hear anyone else unless they really listen. No one is listening now. Sue is close enough to hear, but she’s busy feeding me and Mary and herself.

“What else is on your me-di-cal form?” I open my mouth to a forkful of eggs.

“Oh, all kinds of things. I have bed baths and use a bedpan—showers annoy me and my days of balancing on toilets are done. I must not be compelled to eat any food I don’t like. My photograph may not be taken.”

I make my eyebrow ask why.

“One year my face wound up in the camp brochure over the caption, ‘Smiling through the tears.’ That will never happen again!”

*   *   *

On seeing Denise now, helping with cabin cleanup, it’s hard to connect her with that flailing body. She looks so normal with that shiny black plastic headband over her flip hairdo, a touch of lipstick and blush brightening skin one shade darker than a paper bag. There might be some weariness in her deep-set eyes, something suggesting a human soul who had a bad night, but in all her actions she’s alert, with-it, cheerful. Playfully, she slaps Margie on the back. “She’s the Queen of Clean! Come on, Your Majesty, show us how!”

Somewhere Margie has learned how to make a bed with hospital corners. The others are paying close attention.

“Hey, y’all, we’ve got the competitive edge!” Sara says. “Not a word to the other cabins about our hospital corners, y’all. Margie, be on your guard. My buddy Willie will be all over you looking for information.”

Yvonne, the one-leg amputee, is pushing the dust mop. “Do you think we could win Cleanest Cabin?”

“Sure, no problem, if you want to. In fact, since we have Margie, it’s hardly a challenge.”

“Might as well go for it,” Denise says. “And didn’t he say—What’s his name—the director?”

“Bob.”

“Yeah, Mr. Bob. He said cleanup was fifty percent of Best Cabin All Around.”

“Six-ty per-cent,” I say. I paid attention at last night’s orientation; like all good students, I know the importance of the scoring system.

“And we’ll win Talent,” Sara says. “Count on that. I’ll write the skit. We’ll give it to ’em. Ka-boom! The visitors will go ape.”

“What visitors?” Denise asks.

“Oh, the Jaycees. They raised most of the money to build the camp, you know, and they always show up in force for the last session. And we may even be graced by the presence of our Major Benefactor and Pillar Extraordinaire, the Honorable State Senator B. J. McNeill.