NO EASY JOB
“Is everyone ready for the nature hike?” Mom asked.
Brady rose on his tiptoes “Yes!” Then he whispered, “Will we see any bears?”
“Let’s hope not,” Tori said. “I didn’t sign on for any bear hunt.”
“Well, I did,” I said. Then I chanted, “I’m going on a bear hunt.”
Sam joined in, then Brady. Soon we were all walking and singing about going on a bear
hunt. Even Tori joined in. And when she did, Brady said to her, “You’re silly.”
Tori stopped singing and looked down at him.
Then Brady smiled up at her. “I like silly.”
Brady stretched out his hand to her and Tori took hold of it. Together they began again, “I’m going on a bear hunt.”
Walking through the woods may not sound very interesting, but Mom and Abe both knew a lot about plants and birds and they made it like a treasure hunt. Mom must have pointed out eight different woodpeckers. Maybe she had more in common with Uncle Leo than she wanted to admit.
Before we knew it, Chief announced, “We’d better return to the campsite and get started on dinner. I can almost taste those perch.”
“How are you going to cook them?” Yolanda asked.
“The best way,” Chief said. “The only way—fried.”
“You can take the boy out of Louisiana,” said Mom, “but you can’t take Louisiana out of the boy.” Mom and Chief grew up in Piney Woods, Louisiana, population 492. And both our grandmothers believed in the same cooking motto: If it ain’t fried, it ain’t cooked.
It would have been a perfect day, if Nicole hadn’t gotten sick. Just as I was heading to her trailer window, Chief yelled, “Piper! Piper Reed!”
I knew that tone. It was not the Piper Reed, you are an outstanding camper tone. It was not the Piper Reed, don’t tell your sisters, but you are our favorite kid tone. It was the Piper Reed, you’re in trouble tone. But I had no idea why. I swung around and saluted. “Yes, sir?”
“Get over here.”
I rushed to where Chief was standing next
to the ice chest. It was open and it was empty.
“I thought I told you to put the fish in the ice chest.”
“I did. I mean, Stanley did.”
“What do you mean Stanley did? I asked you to do it.”
Stanley stood by, studying the ground, his eyes darting about as if he was following an ant.
Chief folded his arms across his chest. “The fish are gone, Piper.”
My face burned. “Stanley, didn’t you put the fish in the ice chest?”
Stanley slowly raised his chin. “In? You said in? I thought you said on the ice chest.”
Chief started scouting around the campsite. I decided to help him. Maybe Mrs. Austin noticed the bags of fish on top of the ice chest and put them in theirs. But as I was about to go ask her, I found a plastic bag caught on a lower tree branch. An empty plastic bag. Then Chief found the other one. There had been only two bags, but he kept searching, brushing the ground with his hand.
“Just as I suspected,” he said. “Raccoons.”
“What?”
“See.” He pointed to their tracks on the ground.
“Get off the bus!” I’d never seen raccoon tracks. “Can I take a picture of them?”
Chief frowned. I guess finding something as cool as raccoon tracks didn’t matter when the raccoons ate your dinner.
Sam trotted over to us. “Did the raccoon eat my fish?”
“Of course, Sam,” I told her. “They didn’t know you were special.”
Stanley didn’t say a word. He just dug his heel in the dirt.
Brady walked over and squatted for a closer view of the tracks. “I want to eat fwied fish.”
Stanley moved away from all of us like he was trying to disappear. He walked toward the dock.
I took off after him. I was looking forward
to Chief’s fried fish and hush puppies, too. But I felt sorry for Stanley. Now I was going to have to work extra hard to build him up.
When I met him on the dock, he was throwing stones into the water.
“I’m really sorry. I guess I messed up big this time.”
“It’s okay, Stanley. You didn’t mess up big. You only messed up by one word. On and in. In and on. They sound so much alike. And really you only messed up by one letter.”
Stanley looked up at me. “Gee, Piper. You’re a good friend.”
I’d had a lot of friends in my life, but I never had any of them tell me that. I was trying to make Stanley feel good about himself and he surprised me and made me feel good.
Mom joined us on the dock. “Stanley, please don’t worry. This means we’ll have Just in Case Stew tonight.”
“Just in case?” I asked.
“Just in Case We Don’t Catch Enough Fish Stew. I bought ingredients to make a batch.”
Although I guess in this situation it should be called Just in Case the Raccoons Eat Our Fish Stew.
Mom and Yolanda cooked some ground beef in a big pot. Then they added vegetables—corn, beans, peas, carrots. I hated to admit it, but dinner smelled delicious. Fishing and hiking were like swimming. They made me hungry. And even though we didn’t have fish, Chief still fried his famous hush puppies.
After dinner, we fixed s’mores with chocolate bars and toasted marshmallows and graham crackers. At least raccoons didn’t eat marshmallows.
This was the best camping trip ever. I’d
almost forgotten about Halloween. “Hey, what about tomorrow?”
“What about tomorrow?” Mom asked as if she had no idea, but I could tell she was just teasing. “Is there anything special going on tomorrow?”
“Halloween!” Brady and Sam said together.
I hoped Stanley didn’t ruin Halloween. If
Stanley couldn’t do a simple task like putting fish in the ice chest, I don’t know how he could get through Halloween without messing up something. I had other things to worry about though. I still hadn’t figured out what my Halloween costume was going to be.