excerpt
IN THE VALLEY, workers in the orchards tied
bandanas across their foreheads to keep the
sweat out of their eyes. Ranch dogs lay in the
shade, sides heaving, tongues hanging. In town,
heat devils shimmered above the avenue, shoppers
slumped along sidewalks and customers found reasons to linger
in the bank’s air conditioning. Up at the lake, as the sun edged
behind the Cascades, chill air slid down the peaks across snow
patches, through the pines, along the surface of the water. Beneath
the overarching brilliance of the late afternoon sky, twilight settled
early on the lake, in the forest, around the cabins. Campers canoeing
or playing on the beach reached for sweaters.
Their faces coppered by the rays of the sinking sun, Pete Torgerson
and Ray Thompson looked down on the lake from the porch of the
head counselor’s cabin. Piping voices drifted up from a volleyball
game, the horseshoe pit, a line of hikers emptying out of the woods,
swimmers splashing, paddlers shouting from one canoe to another.
Near the shore, two of the older boys were passing a football.
“Sure good of you to come up, Pete,” Thompson said. “Lots of
people give money but never show any real interest in summer
camp. Means a lot to us.” A pair of canoes lazed toward the dock.
“I’m going to check on the crafts group. Knot-tying today, You
going to be here a while?”
Torgerson looked at his watch. “Another half hour,” he said.
“Want to get back before we close up. Left the new salesman in
charge of the showroom.”
Libros Libertad 