Day 21—Friday

It was second period and I had volunteered to untangle a mess of life vests by the kayak hut when I saw Earl zip by in his golf cart at a speed I didn’t know it was capable of. He didn’t even bother to steer around the soccer field. He just hit his horn twice as a warning to the Goldenrod girls scrimmaging there and plowed through. Even the swim counselors on the dock stopped what they were doing, hands lifted to shade their eyes, and watched Earl zoom by.

Jaida A and Jaida C said, “Something’s wrong,” at the same time, but neither of them added jinx or laughed.

Jordana was already far out on the water in her kayak, drifting in a small patch of sun, her eyes closed, her paddle resting across her lap.

“What could be wrong?” I asked, hustling over to the Jaidas, who were ankle deep in the lake.

We all watched Earl and his cart get smaller as he whizzed off the field toward senior camp and then entered the narrow trail through the woods that led to one place only: the riding ring.

My stomach folded over itself as I watched the wheels kick up dirt and disappear into the thicket of leafy woods. Carly had horseback riding second period today. The humid air suddenly shrink-wrapped itself around me and I couldn’t breathe. The Jaidas felt it, too, because without any of us saying a word, we dropped everything and ran.

I reached the trail first and flew down it so fast the mosquitoes had no chance of getting a piece of me. I burst out of the woods to find the cart parked outside the fence and Earl and Holly inside it, bent over someone on the ground.

I saw Eliza with a huddle of young girls at the other end of the ring. The girls were whispering and watching while Eliza held tightly to the reins of a brown horse. The horse couldn’t have looked more bored if it tried.

The only sound was Earl’s walkie-talkie spitting static, and then Brenda’s voice: “Did you arrive? Over. Do you need backup? Over.”

I knew from the process of elimination.

From the buckle and twist in my gut.

From the dry swell of my tongue that wouldn’t let me swallow.

I knew the way you just know.

It was Carly.

When Earl and Holly eased her up to a sitting position, a yelp of pain soared through the quiet like an archer’s arrow. It pierced me in the chest and made me want to run toward my friend and away from her at the same time.

From everything Chieko had told me about Eleanor Roosevelt, I was sure that Eleanor would choose toward.

It occurred to me right then that Vera would, too.

I hopped the fence and ran to Carly. I reached her just as she was finding her way to her feet, Earl under her left shoulder and Holly lifting her by the waist.

“It’s her shoulder,” Holly rushed to say before I touched Carly. “Something’s wrong with her right shoulder.”

Carly’s face looked like all the color had been drained out of it, and a line of sweat painted her upper lip. Her helmet was still on but was twisted, squishing loose hairs onto her damp forehead and cheek in that way I knew she hated.

“Take my radio,” Earl instructed me, “and tell Brenda to meet me at the lot. Tell her she’s taking Carly to the hospital.”

I fumbled to get the walkie-talkie off his belt, and I fumbled to press and release the right buttons to get my message through.

Holly settled Carly into the golf cart and supported her against the jolt of Earl starting the engine. Carly’s eyes were closed, her left arm clutching her right tightly against her stomach. Streaks of tears lined her cheeks. Earl drove slowly at first, gliding carefully over the roots and bumps on the wood trail, and then floored it once he hit open flat field. I chased after the cart but couldn’t keep up and lost sight of them as they veered around cabins through the camp entranceway to the parking lot.

The Jaidas caught up with me after another minute, and Jaida C put her arm around me as we walked back to the beachfront. “She’ll be okay.”

“What happened?” I still didn’t know.

“Eliza said she was jumping and fell off the horse,” Jaida A answered.

“Or she was thrown,” Jaida C added. “Eliza wasn’t sure because she didn’t see it happen. She just heard her hit the ground.”

I shuddered as I pictured it. “Was she riding Rowdy?”

“Yeah,” Jaida A said. “Her favorite.”

“Not anymore, I bet,” Jaida C said.

From a distance, we saw Earl return from the parking lot. He parked his cart in its usual spot in front of the main office and went inside. We waited, staring hopefully at the building as if it would answer our questions and calm our fears. And because we were all lost in our own thoughts about what had just happened, we jumped completely out of our skin when the bugle suddenly rang out, screeching its end-of-activity song to let us know it was time to return to our cabins and get ready for third period.

“Are they ever going to fix that junky thing?” Jaida A grumbled, grabbing two paddles from the sandy beach and walking them over to the storage rack.

“In your dreams,” Jaida C answered, lifting the pile of still-tangled life vests.

Jordana pulled her kayak out of the water and flipped it over to drain. “How come you guys never came out? The water was so flat and perfect just now.”

Jaida C helped Jordana carry her kayak to the hut and started to catch her up.

I picked up a small canoe paddle half-buried in the sand and slammed the end into the ground. I wedged it to the side and flicked a softball-sized chunk of damp sand toward the lake. The sand chunk hit the water with a hollow plunk and left a big divot on the beach, deep enough to twist an ankle.

I started to trudge back to Yarrow but then turned around, grabbed a handful of sand, and tapped it back into the hole, smoothing it out with my foot. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.