The Fossegrimen Folly Read online

  "Were you scared?" Daniel asked.

  Shy shrugged.

  "That was an awesome ride," Sampson added.

  "Are you staying in your cabin all by yourself?" Daniel switched topics.

  Shy had not thought about that. He didn’t have a roommate. All the other boys had someone to stay with, but not him. He knew he hadn't heard Crutch's name called for one of the cabins, and he instantly he pictured Crutch lying on a hammock in the Raven.

  Shy nodded in answer to Daniel's question, but his anxiety remained. His thoughts lingered on the possibility of Crutch being his roommate. He was relieved when he could hear the distraction of the distinct zip line noise coming from behind him. Sampson pushed past Shy and Daniel, and positioned himself in front.

  "I wonder who got to go next? Who do you guys think?" Sampson turned back towards them.

  "I bet it was Finn," said Sampson. "He’s kind of loud and obnoxious."

  Sampson was wrong. It was Henry that flew through the branches to land in front of them. Shy had decided that he liked Ralph, Henry's cabinmate, because Ralph had seemed a little quieter than most of the other boys. Henry, on the other hand, never stopped talking. Sure enough, they could hear him talking to himself as he came through the trees.

  "Yeeessssss…. Henry-niner-niner you are clear for approach…. Landing gear down…. Thank you for flying Henry Air," he joked as he came to a stop.

  As Henry walked over, still babbling, Shy caught sight of some movement on the far side of the small clearing. The cable ended where it wrapped many times around the base of a pine. As Henry's bar came to a rest against the base of the tree, it began to jiggle. It then slid from the cable and began to rise into the air! Nothing was holding it! Shy was speechless.

  Finally, as it rose further into the air, and back up the hillside, he pointed at the bar and stammered, "LOOK!"

  "Whaaaad up?" Henry answered for all of them as they turned to look.

  "The bar, it just raised itself up and flew off!"

  They looked to where he was pointing, and then looked at each other. Shy could read their expressions. They thought he was crazy!

  "Really… I am serious," Shy pleaded. "See, the bars are gone…. Watch, watch the next one after it stops."

  They could all hear the zipping noise as the cable began to sway and then pull taut. Sawyer came into view, trying not to smile, but not succeeding. He let go of the bar and began to walk over to the rest of the group, but stopped when he realized they were not even watching him. Instead, they were watching the bar as it came to a rest by the base of the pine. Sawyer looked at the tree and back at the boys in bewilderment.

  "What are you staring at?"

  "SHHHHhhhhhhhhh…" came the response from all of the boys at once, with hands raised toward him in a stopping gesture.

  "Just watch," Henry added, not being able to be quiet himself.

  Soon their curiosity was rewarded, and disbelief dispelled. The pulley from the bar lifted off the cable and the device began to rise into the air! There was a sharp intake of breath from Sam, who took a step forward. The bar paid them no mind and began to rise off into the gloom, back up the hillside. Shy swore that he could faintly hear wings beating out a rhythm. The air around the bar began to blur slightly. Shy rubbed his eyes, and the blurriness went away.

  The zipping of another rider on the cable turned the boys' attention back to the landing area. Finn came hurtling through the branches, legs flailing and swinging like he was knocking over some bad guys. Before he could even begin to ask what was going on, Henry updated him.

  "SHHHHhhhh…. Be quiet… we got some magic or ghosts or somethin’ goin’ on over here. They all turned and watched the whole process repeat itself.

  Daniel turned to Shy, "You were right, we didn’t believe you, but you were right…"

  "But what is doing that?" Shy whispered.

  Ralph landed next and quietly approached as the boys watched the process begin to repeat itself yet again. This time, however, Sam had built up enough courage to walk over and wait for the bar to reach the tree. When it did, he grabbed the bar. At first nothing happened, then the bar was yanked from Sam’s hand, and he went flying backward. At that time, Tad zipped into view and landed. While walking over he took in the excited looks and Sampson lying on the ground, by the end of the cable.

  "What happ…" Tad started to ask, but then a look of alarm spread across his face. "You didn’t …. Interfere with the bars being brought back up to the Hive, did you?" He asked accusingly to Sampson, who was now getting up off the ground. Sampson simply shrugged as he dusted himself off. There was a pause when no one said anything. Tad angrily looked around, then he took a breath and his look softened. Henry started to talk, but Tad silenced him by holding up his index finger.

  "Look, I know you guys are wondering what is going on. I told you, I will explain everything tonight, after dinner. Please, until then, don’t investigate, don’t question. Just follow my lead and go with the flow, OK?"

  They all nodded except Sam.

  "Sam?"

  "Huh? OK," he answered.

  "I will smooth this over later," Tad said as he glanced up the hillside one last time. "OK, let’s hit the bricks…. Follow me!"

  As they pushed through the tightly interwoven pine boughs of the clearing to a thin path, they slid into a single file line. Shy was flanked in front and back by the two boys from the Jay cabin, Finn and Sawyer.

  Sawyer stopped in front of him, turned, and asked, "What was going on back there?"

  "I don’t know really," Shy answered. "The bars just flew away."

  Finn bumped into Shy from behind, which in turn pushed Shy into Sawyer. All three almost went down in a heap. Shy caught himself at the last second by catching onto a low limb, but Sawyer landed on his butt.

  "Finn!" Sawyer scolded him.

  Shy nervously watched the rest of the group disappear down the path ahead of them. Shy stepped over Sawyer and hurried to catch up. He heard the other two scramble to follow. Soon the path became wider and eventually opened up to the picnic grounds and a view of the back of the lodge. Dusk was beginning to take control of the sky. Shy noted pink sky off to the West, in the direction of the river. He thought, for the first time since he had arrived, of his mom.

  "Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning," she would always say. He wasn’t really sure what it meant, but he felt a twinge of homesickness in the pit of his stomach. He missed Shep too. From the time he got off the school bus, until he went to bed at night, the dog followed him everywhere.

  Lights began to pop on in the lodge, and he could hear music faintly from inside, as they got closer. When they stepped into the back picnic area, Tad stopped them.

  "When we get inside, our table is off to the left. Head over and sit down. They will tell us when it is our turn to go thru the line."

  With that, he stepped up stairs made from boulders and rocks cemented together, and pulled open a giant screen door. As they walked in the music became louder, and laughing voices filled the air. They walked to the left past an unoccupied long, pine table. It held a sign that said the Lake cabins. The next table’s sign identified the Forest cabins. Sam and Daniel took a seat at the far end, and all the other boys followed suit. Shy ended up sitting between Henry and Sawyer. Ralph was seated across from him, and they smiled at each other because Henry was babbling on about nothing.

  Shy looked at the table. It had names carved in it. Tons of names. As he began to read the names in front of him, he saw a small curl of a wood shaving appear on the table directly in front of him. Had that been there a second ago, Shy wondered. As he stared, more shavings appeared! Lines appeared, carved into the soft pine of the tabletop. A large letter S began to take shape. While he was staring at it, an H appeared. It was as if an invisible carving knife was at work right in front of his eyes. As he stared, a portion of the tabletop began to blur, but cleared when Shy shook his head. Next, a Y appea
red! Shy quickly covered up his newly carved name with his hands, but had to peek again to make sure he hadn’t been imagining.

  A voice sounded through a handheld megaphone. It was the bossy lady that had taken Crutch away after he had taken his spill into the puddle earlier.

  "Attention all campers! Attention! Quiet down now. Gust will come around and pick the quietest tables to eat first. When your table is chosen, please proceed slowly to the food line. We have some wonderful tater tot hotdish tonight! My own special recipe! Now, for those of you who have been here before, remember, no carving on the tables! For the new campers, no carving on the tables! Thank You."

  Shy's hands were almost turning white from pressing them flat to cover his newly carved name. Embarrassment and anger welled up inside him. He was going to get in trouble for this, even though he didn’t do it. It wasn’t fair. He tried to look around to see if the other boys noticed. As he looked at Henry, he noticed H-E-N-R-Y slowly forming on the table in front of him. Shy looked at the carving and looked up at Henry to see if he noticed, but he was too busy trying to convince Finn that Kirby Puckett was the best Minnesota Twin in history. Shy turned his attention to the others, still covering his own name in the pine table with his hands.

  Sawyer must have been hungry because he was watching Gust make his rounds of the tables to decide which would start dinner first. He didn’t see the S-A-W-Y-E-R start or finish. Shy turned his eyes across the table and saw a look of horror cross Ralph’s face, as he covered the table in front of him with his hands. Ralph looked up and his eyes locked with Shy’s. He looked at Shy’s hands and back up to his face. A nervous half smile crossed his lips. He lifted his hands toward Shy, and Shy could see the upside down carving of R-A-L-P-H in the pine. Shy lifted his hands in turn, and Ralph looked at Shy’s carving. Their eyes connected again and they both smiled. Soon the smiles turned into nervous giggling. The two boys tried to hold it in, but the ridiculousness of the situation pushed their laughter out. Shy nodded towards the names appearing in front of the other boys.

  "What do we do?" Ralph asked quietly across the table, still stifling his laughter.

  "We can’t all get in trouble, can we?" Shy responded.

  At that moment Shy felt hands grip his shoulders.

  "I suppose you are the next quietest table," Gust boomed out, "although this young man does not seem to be able to quiet down."

  He had taken his hands from Shy’s shoulders and pointed to Henry. Henry fell silent. Shy looked at the other tables and realized two had been through the line already. He felt his stomach rumble. It was almost eight-thirty at night, he noted on the big clock on the wall. No wonder he was hungry. They had arrived in the buses at what must have been his usual suppertime, now it was well past time to eat.

  "Let’s go boys, get up there." Gust boomed again, and pointed the way.

  Shy waited until Gust walked away before he took his hands away from covering his name.

  On his way up front, Shy spied Crutch for the first time since they arrived. He was sitting at a table with other raucous, gruff, older boys. He just glared at Shy. The sign on the table read, the Cave cabins. Shy was relieved that Crutch would not be his roommate. That one is going to cause trouble for me, thought Shy. It would be best to avoid him if he could.

  He and his tablemates passed the table of counselors. Tad whispered to some of his fellows as they approached, and several turned to look at the group. Shy knew he was probably just being self-conscious, but it seemed that they were only looking at him.

  ***

  The trip back to the cabins after dinner was uneventful, and slow. It was difficult to not trip in the dark on the uneven path back up and down over the rocky hillside. Shy’s mind was occupied with the strange happenings of the day. First, the cabins themselves, high in the trees, on the hillside, were awesome. Then there was the mysterious voice and push that made him jump into the Hive. That was really freaky. There was the zip line and its bars that floated themselves back uphill to the cabin. Then, finally, the name carving on the tables in the Lodge. He wouldn’t have believed these things were real, or could happen, except he had seen them himself! Plus, he had seen Crutch get what he deserved with that little trip he took into the mud puddle!

  Shy’s thoughts then turned to Claire. He saw her momentarily at dinner, and their eyes met for a minute, but she was busy directing the others at her table. It looked like she fit right in; but then, she always had an easy time making friends.

  Eventually Tad led them back to the Elevator, and they rose into the night air as mosquitoes buzzed around their heads. After getting off the Elevator, they waited for Tad to lower it back down. Then they set off like they had done several hours earlier, except this time, rather than going by each cabin, he led them straight to the Hive. Shy watched as first Sam, and then Daniel stepped back, and made the leap into the Hive. Finn and Sawyer went next, with barely any hesitation. Henry followed, but even his running commentary couldn’t hide the fact that he was nervous, and was stalling.

  "Let’s see," he said as he walked up to the edge for a second time. "If I jump with an angle of twenty-three degrees, and a velocity…." He trailed off as he looked down.

  "Come on, man, you can do it!" Sawyer hollered from the other side.

  Henry looked at him, pushed his thick black glasses up higher on his nose, took a deep breath, walked backwards, turned, and began to run. A little yell escaped his lips as he jumped, but he made the other side easily. Ralph was next. He looked at Shy nervously.

  "It was worse for me than it was for you the first time."

  "What do you mean?" Shy asked.

  "I almost didn’t make it. I hate this."

  "I think you can do it." Shy encouraged and offered up a fist bump.

  "Here goes nothing."

  He bumped fists with Shy and then abruptly turned and ran towards the edge. Just before the edge, he started to pause, then overcame his worries and jumped, landing safely and uneventfully on the other side. Now, Shy felt Tad nudge his shoulder from behind.

  "Easier if you don’t think about it. Just do it." Tad urged.

  Shy quickly began to run, before he started thinking and lost his nerve. He got to the edge and jumped, this time with his eyes open! He landed well, and felt the adrenaline rush through his veins.

  They all gathered inside the screened walls of the Hive. There was a stone fire ring in the center, with a fire roaring and crackling. Shy noticed that there was a hole or gap in the roof that allowed the smoke to escape, and it looked like it could be closed when there was no fire. Bean bag chairs lay randomly about the cozy firelit room, along with assorted hammocks to lounge in. The boys piled into their choice, and waited as Tad mixed lemonades for all. When they were all settled, Tad began to pace around the fire ring.

  "I am never sure where to begin when answering your questions. It is pretty unbelievable. I guess I will start with some background. This area of Minnesota has always been wild. You can see from the landscape how ruggedly beautiful it is. It is a very quiet and isolated part of the country. It was originally travelled by French explorers and trappers in the late 1700’s. That is when the lake got its name, Lac Igam. The word lac means lake in French. Igam is the French interpretation of what the Native Americans in this area called the lake. Then in the 1800’s much of it was heavily logged. One of the groups of people that settled in this area was Scandinavians. Do you all know what Scandinavian means?"

  The boys, surprisingly quiet, shook their heads in response.

  "Well, it means people from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark. When they settled here, like most groups of people, they brought their cultural values, language, and their ways of scraping a living from the wilderness. Turns out, they brought something more…. Their myths, legends, and stories. This particular isolated forest, seems to have allowed these myths and legends to grab hold and come to life. I don’t know if it is because it is so isolated or it has some other magical properti
es.… Maybe it's because of the waterfall… Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, it is because children like you still use their imagination. This camp has been full of kids every summer for over one hundred and fifty years. Clancy herself bought it, ohhh, over thirty years ago from her uncle. Anyway, whatever the reason is, I am here to tell you, these things are real."

  At this point, he paused and began to circle the fire again.

  "This land has constantly been surrounded by rumors and legends of strange creatures. Well, I know for a fact that at least some of these are true!" He paused for dramatic effect. "Some of these creatures are kind and gentle, helpful to us. Some are vengeful and nasty. Because of that, rule number one is, we need to stick together. We don’t have many problems with these creatures, and many times you will not encounter them any more than you already have. However, be mindful, be aware, and do not go off alone. Ever!"

  Tad stopped pacing and looked at the wide eyes focused on his words.

  "Now, I am not trying to scare you, but we need to be respectful of the way these creatures view things. What I mean is, follow the rules…. Don’t harass them, like what happened with the zip line bars earlier," Tad looked at Sampson.

  Shy watched as red-headed Sam look back at Tad defiantly, while the counselor just stared with his little quirky grin. Eventually Sam looked away, and Tad continued talking.

  "See, there is something like a sprite that carries those bars back up here for us. Do you know what a sprite is? Think of Tinkerbell from the Peter Pan stories, but bigger. They are called sylphon. They do this job for us because... well, I am not sure why, but you can see that it helps. That it makes our lives easier?"

  The boys nodded all around.

  "Like all of these creatures you may encounter in and around this camp, they do not think about things the same way we do. Even though, during that incident with the sylphon, you were simply investigating something you couldn’t see…. well, they might be very offended. If that happens, they will simply stop doing what they do for us. They will just completely disappear back into the world they come from. Not only will we no longer see them or their gifts, but over time we will eventually forget they are real. They will just return to being a legend. Worse yet, if we really make them mad, they will even play nasty tricks on us. Three years ago, in one of the Lake Cabins, a girl not much older than most of you woke to find her hair tied and woven into her hammock. It took her counselor three hours to free her! There have also been many stories of the fossegrimen of the waterfall, the creature of the lake, the huldra of the forest, or the tricky will-o-wisp. Campers have had run-ins with all of these. Or the trolls…" At this, Tad’s eyes became distant and a slight shudder ran through him as if he had caught a chill.