I found my sharkhead flashlight right where Suzie said it might be. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. The morning dragged on. Robbie arrived at exactly nine o’clock. Thank goodness, because I couldn’t wait a minute longer! We packed up the car and said good-bye.
My mom squeezed me tight. “Good-bye, honey. You and Robbie are going to have a great time.”
“Bye,” Suzie said, smiling. “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“Oh, we won’t,” said Robbie. “I brought the bug spray.”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow,” I said to Suzie. “Ta-ta.”
“Or tonight,” she whispered in my ear.
I grabbed Robbie by the arm. “Come on. Let’s get in the car. I want to get going. Let’s not waste any more time here. We’ve got a lot of things to do today!”
We jumped in the car. My dad said his goodbyes, and we were off.
The ride to the campsite seemed to take forever, but we finally got there at about eleven o’clock. Mom had packed sandwiches, and we had just finished them when we arrived.
“Wow! Look at this place,” I said as I got out of the car. “It’s even cooler than I imagined.”
“It’s even better than in the pictures,” Robbie agreed. “Look at the size of that lake. I bet there’s a ton of fish in there.”
“What should we do first?” I said, jumping up and down. “Do you want to go swimming or fishing?”
“Wait just a minute there, guys,” my dad interrupted. “We need to do a little work before we play.”
“Awwww.”
“First things first. We have to set up the tent while it’s still daylight. A good camper never waits until nighttime to set up the tent. Let me get it out of the car.”
“Wait till you see the tent,” I said to Robbie. “It’s brand-new. We got it just for this trip.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. It’s huge. It has enough space for four people to sleep, plus it has two zipper doors, and an extra waterproof cover.”
“That cover must keep the condensation from collecting on your sleeping bag.”
“Uh, English please, Einstein.”
“The cover stops the morning dew from soaking your sleeping bag.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say that?” I said, slapping him on the back.
My dad came back with the tent and set the bag on the ground. “Okeydokey, boys, let’s get all of the tent pieces out of the bag before we get started, so we can see what we’ve got.”
“Boy, there sure are a lot of pieces,” I said.
“That’s what directions are for,” said my dad. “You always have to read the directions first before you put anything together.”
“My dad tells me the same thing,” Robbie whispered to me.
“Freddy, could you please hand me the directions?”
“Sure thing, Dad.” I looked in the pile of tent pieces, but I didn’t see any directions. “What do the directions look like, Dad?”
“What do you mean what do they look like? What kind of silly question is that? They look like paper with writing on it.”
“I don’t see any paper here. Just a bunch of poles and stuff.”
“It’s a small piece of paper with some pictures and some writing on it. I had it out last night….” My dad’s voice trailed off.
“Dad?”
“Oh no!”
“What?”
“I took the directions out last night to look at them, and I think I forgot to put them back in the bag.”
“Are you kidding me, Dad?”
“I wish I were.”
“That’s okay, Mr. Thresher,” said Robbie. “I bet the three of us can figure out how all of this goes together.”
“Yeah, Dad. How hard can it be?”
“I like your attitude, boys.”
“I bet we can have this tent put together in a jiffy.”
An hour later we were still standing in a mess of tent pieces on the ground. “I give up. This is harder than it looks.” I let out a big sigh and plopped myself down on the ground.
“You’re not kidding,” my dad agreed.
“We’ve already wasted a lot of time trying to put this dumb tent together. We’re not going to get to do any fishing or swimming.”
“But if we don’t put it together, where are we going to sleep tonight?” my dad asked.
We had better think of something fast. I was not going to lose my bet with Suzie because we couldn’t put the tent together.
“I have an idea,” Robbie piped up.
Robbie usually had really good ideas. “You do? What?”
“Why don’t we just lay the tent on the ground like a tarp and sleep on top of it?”
“That’s a great idea!” I said. “You are so smart.”
“Good thinking, Robbie,” said my dad. “We can sleep out under the stars.”
“That sounds even cooler than sleeping in a silly tent.”
“I bet you can see a lot of stars out here,” said Robbie, looking up at the sky. “The skies are probably really clear out here without all the city lights. We can do some stargazing. I know a lot of the constellations. I can teach them to you.”
“Awesome! I always wanted to do that.”
“Then it’s settled,” said my dad. “We’ll just sleep on top of the tent.”
“Wait, there’s one more thing we have to do first.”
“Now what?”
“We have to gather some small sticks and pieces of wood for our campfire tonight. If we don’t have a fire, then we can’t cook the fish we catch.”
“Or our s’mores!” I added, licking my lips.
“Why don’t you and Robbie take a little walk that way,” my dad said, pointing toward the lake, “and I’ll go this way. Try to bring back as much firewood as you can carry.”
“OK, Dad. We’ll meet you right back here in a little bit.”
“Just watch where you’re walking, boys, and don’t stick your hands into any holes,” he cautioned us.
“We won’t!” we yelled as we started to run off down the path.
“And don’t bring any critters back with you!”