Everyone else still has their eyes pointed at the ground, searching for the stick.
“What’s wrong?” I ask again.
Olivia scrunches up her nose. “The sharing stick,” she mutters under her breath.
I try to make sense of those three words in conjunction with her uneasiness. “You’re concerned that the sharing stick is lost?” I ask, trying to puzzle out why this would bother her.
“No!” she whispers. “I know where the sharing stick is.”
I glance around near her feet but don’t see anything. “Where?”
Without turning her head, she shifts her eyes toward the fire, then back to me. Her exaggerated movements are funny, despite her obvious discomfort, and it’s all I can do to hold back my laughter. Then I realize what she’s trying to tell me.
“Olivia. Did you throw the sharing stick in the fire?” I hiss out, not wanting anyone to overhear. But I can’t stop the loud snicker that comes out of my mouth.
“I didn’t mean to!” Olivia murmurs, the corners of her mouth quirking up. “I thought it was a regular stick!”
“A regular stick with tassels on it?”
The smallest nervous giggle escapes her lips. “I did think that was a little weird—”
Silent laughter shakes my shoulders as I try to catch my breath.
“What do I do?”
I wipe the tears from my eyes and look at her. “You have to tell them.”
Olivia frowns. She nods decisively and stands up, clearing her throat.
“Um, Linda?”
The camp director straightens from where she’s literally digging a hole in the dirt in her search for the sharing stick. Does she think someone buried it?
“Did you find it?” Linda demands.
“No, not exactly. But I do know where the sharing stick is.”
“You do? Where?”
Olivia winces. “In the fire. It must have gotten mixed in with my bundle of kindling.”
Linda chuckles. “What?”
Olivia’s mouth is set in a line, and she squeezes her eyes shut. “Unfortunately, I’m serious. The sharing stick is in the fire.”
Linda’s face goes slack. I can tell she’s trying to maintain composure. “You’re saying that the Camp Prairie Star official sharing stick, that has been a part of camp tradition for thirty years, is burning up as we speak?”
Olivia shrugs. “Or already ashes. Wood that old would probably burn quickly.”
I choke back a laugh.
Linda takes a step away from Olivia. She opens her mouth and closes it again without saying anything.
Olivia rushes to add, “But hey, it’s okay, I’m sure we can find another stick to be the new sharing stick. I can start looking now!”
Linda sinks down onto the log bench. By now, the other counselors are whispering to each other, passing the news that Olivia tossed the sharing stick into the fire from person to person until everyone is staring at her with heated expressions.
“She burned the sharing stick?” someone whispers.
