Dear Zack,
Tonight I’m going to kayak to Dead Man’s Island. Here’s why it’s called Dead Man’s Island. Two hundred years ago, two explorers canoed to Dead Man’s Island together to collect samples. But when they got there, one of them murdered the other and left the body there! When he started to canoe back, the ghost of the dead man haunted the area around the island and made him lose his way. A few days later, an empty canoe came to the shore. The sand on Dead Man’s Island is red because of the dead man’s blood!
Now get this. I am going to kayak there by myself in the middle of the night to collect red sand for Color War.
Gabe had woken up so early, he finished writing to Zack before the siren even went off. The air was cool and crisp, and a wavy patch of orange light shone through the bottom of the window. He reread the first line of his letter: Tonight I’m going to kayak to Dead Man’s Island.
He didn’t have to. He could back out. Like Nikhil said, it was just one item in a long scavenger hunt list, and chances were no other team would have it, either. Or he could let C2 or another older kid go. C2 had offered. But Gabe had said he would do it. And he’d said it with such surety. He hadn’t even flinched. At least, he hoped he hadn’t.
It’s just kayaking, he thought. But it wasn’t just kayaking. It was kayaking by himself in the middle of the night, in the pitch black, to somewhere he had never been and wasn’t supposed to go. Somewhere that was haunted. C2 had given him a map and a compass. But there wouldn’t be any lifeguards on the dock watching and ready to jump in and save him. And there wouldn’t be any counselor to count up the kids and notice that he hadn’t come back.
According to the map, Dead Man’s Island was small and perfectly circular. It was just around the bend in the lake, through a narrow inlet that was hidden by clumps of trees that hung over the water, and just beyond a round area marked Lily Pad Lagoon.
Gabe didn’t think the legend could be true, and he didn’t think he believed in ghosts. But he also didn’t think he wanted to kayak there alone at night and find out.
But there was no other way to do it. He couldn’t go during the day, because he had the water sports competition instead of regular swim time. And anyway, he’d get in trouble if he tried to go with lifeguards watching, since you were only allowed to kayak in the marked area. That was also why he couldn’t go during free time: The lifeguards would be there. The only time was after lights out. And there was no one to go with him. Nikhil was good at kayaking, but there was no way he’d even consider something as unsafe as this. Wesley would love to go, but he was terrible at kayaking. C2 or one of the older kids could go with him, but that would mean admitting he was too scared to go alone. A couple of other boys from his bunk had offered too, but the more Gabe thought about it, the more he felt that he needed to tackle this alone. Of course he was scared. But why? He’d just go there, get a cup of red sand, and come back. No need to even get out of the kayak.
Above him, Wesley wiggled onto his side and hugged the inside of his sleeping bag. He murmured, “You can do it.”
Gabe nodded. I can do it, he thought. Zack will think I’m so cool. He had to; there was nothing geeky about an adventure like this. He’d be going back to the noncamp world soon, becoming Zack’s brother for real, and he wanted to fit in in his new family.
And here at camp, kayaking to Dead Man’s Island would make him a hero on his team, and it would impress C2. He knew what Zack would think of C2—C2 had skipped two grades and thought science was fun. But he wondered what C2 would think of Zack. Gabe wouldn’t want C2 to see Zack’s letters, that much was sure. He didn’t know whose opinion was right—or whose he should care about more.
Well, he thought, kayaking to Dead Man’s Island will impress them both.
The silence of the morning was cut by the blare of the wake-up siren, and the boys began to stir. Ready or not, today was the day.