Here’s the problem with sleeping while you’re also breaking the rules: It goes by too fast. The next thing I knew, I was hearing that wake-up song from all the way down at camp. It was time for Norman and me to make some decisions.
Basically, we had three choices: We could stay put and switch over to tree bark and berries once the sandwiches were gone. We could hit the road in our tricked-out mobile home… if we had one. Or we could go back.
I told Norman it was his call. He said he was ready to face Major Sherwood, so we packed up his stuff and headed down Snake Hill.
“I think I made a huge mistake,” he said while we were walking. “Sherwood’s going to send me home for sure.”
“Don’t worry. You’re not going home,” I said. “We’ll tell him we got lost and had to wait for the sun to come up.”
“That’s not the part I’m worried about,” Norman said.
I didn’t know what he meant, but we were already coming into camp. I could see a whole bunch of people out in the main field. It looked like they were getting ready to start day two of the big man-hunt.
But when we got closer, I saw that something else was going on. It was like there was some kind of giant checkerboard set up.
“What is that?” I asked.
Norman didn’t say anything. He just got this big smile on his face. And then I saw why. It wasn’t a bunch of white squares at all. It was about a hundred books, all lying out and drying in the sun.
“Hey, look who it is!” Georgia yelled out. She came running over and threw her arms around my neck like some kind of pet monkey.