There Can Be Only One #7

While Daryl swept and mopped, Phil saw that the tanks, gaskets and fixtures of the ice cream machine were washed and reassembled. They were soon finished and were able to spend the remaining time before lights out as they pleased.

The night air cooled Phil’s neck and forehead as he watched for Debbie on the dimly lit campground. There were campers milling around and children running everywhere in the growing darkness.

He finally found her walking one of the main footpaths. They greeted each other at the same time. Phil matched his pace with hers as they walked together. Their hands occasionally brushed, and Phil took the opportunity to take her hand in his.

She immediately stopped walking and turned to him with a soft moan. She leaned into him and rested her temple against his chest. Her hair smelled faintly of strawberry shampoo.

Debbie lifted her face up to his and he met her lips with a kiss. He felt such a chemical surge in his body; he could have thought he had started to absorb another quickening. He didn’t begin to convulse, but it was a powerful feeling in a different sort of way. The feeling maintained itself as they stood together on the path. She ran her hands up the sleeves of his shirt caressing his arms.

About that time, camp leaders were calling out that curfew was now in effect as two young boys began pulling the rope to ring the camp’s bell.

Someone took it upon himself to try to separate Phil and Debbie, but Phil insisted that he would walk Debbie back to her campsite. It wasn’t very far away, and all too soon they had to say goodnight.

At his first opportunity the next day, Phil found Debbie. As soon as he took her hand, she began to cry. She told him of a boyfriend back home. She felt so guilty about wanting to be with Phil and what had happened last night that she was determined to call her boyfriend and tell him what had happened.

Since she had a boyfriend at home, Phil suspected that he should leave Debbie alone and not pursue a relationship with her, but he saw that she still wanted to spend her time at camp with him. His feelings for her were still strong, but he decided to try to just be her friend and find a romantic relationship with someone else.

It seemed funny that he would start a conversation with a pretty girl that afternoon and find that she was interested in him, too.

Camp employees were required to attend at least one of the chapel services a day during camp weeks. The one Phil had decided to attend was getting started, so he invited the girl to come with him.

The two of them occupied a place toward the back and while they sang in the service, Phil took sidelong looks at the girl singing beside him. She was brunette and lightly freckled. She smiled easily, especially with her wide blue eyes. Unfortunately, she could carry a tune in a bucket, and this grated a little on Phil’s nerves.

He was pretty sure his relationship with Debbie was about to fade, so this girl was a convenient possibility for easing his loneliness. After losing so much in his life; most of which he couldn’t distinctly remember, he was going to attempt keeping both relationships going for as longs as he could.

His sense of losing so much of his past was strong. He instinctively knew he had lost two precious parents and a rich family life that he didn’t know how to recreate. He realized that was exactly what he was trying to do.