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One of the back doors opened and then slammed, but James just sat in the car for a moment, taking it all in.
He was really doing it, camping, out in the wilderness, with his kids.
Well, not really in the wilderness. He was on loop B, site 23, and he didn’t even have to turn his head to see the identical picnic table and grill that marked site 24.
He’d passed the only other inhabited site, with three smaller tents and collapsible chairs and clotheslines and… was that a portable kitchen? It had looked like it, with two sink basins and a drying rack and counters for chopping food. All sorts of things he hadn’t thought to bring or even realized that he could. No children’s toys that he could see, though.
So it wasn’t exactly rustic.
But there were trees. Lots of trees. And a little river or pond or something just beyond them. He’d have to look at the map. And tell his kids not to go near it.
He finally opened his door, inhaling the pine-scented air. He could hear the music from the other site drifting over, along with voices raised in some good-natured teasing. Sounded like college students. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too loud when he was trying to get the kids to sleep at eight-thirty.
No, he wasn’t going to worry about that.
This was going to be perfect. Nature and relaxation and family.
“Dad?” That was Dana, already threading her way through the underbrush, touching God-knew-what. Short shorts and flip-flops were no protection for her long, pale legs. “Can I go hiking?”
He scrambled out of the car faster. “No! And come away from there. We don’t know if there’s poison ivy.” Or snakes. Or bears. There had been a warning sign on the way in about keeping all your food in the car.
Dana huffed, but circled back. “What does poison ivy look like?”
James had no idea, except some half-remembered rhyme about three leaves of… something or other. But he had his phone.
He quickly Googled, then held it up to her. He’d been right about the three leaves. Otherwise, it looked like a plant. Shit. The campground would clean it up around the campsites, wouldn’t they?
“If you see anything like that, don’t touch it, OK?”
She rolled her eyes. She’d just turned nine, but she had the teenage attitude down pat. It matched the streak of purple in her long hair, which James had allowed for just this week. “I know, Dad. We saw it at Girl Scouts.”
He bit back the reply that if she’d seen it in Girl Scouts, she wouldn’t need to ask him now. But that wouldn’t get him anywhere. He was working on being less reactive. “Help me set up the tent,” he suggested instead. This was his big vacation.
“Yes!” She raced around to the back, already tossing bags out of the trunk to get at the box.
“Slow down, Dana. I don’t want anything to break, and if our pillows get dirty, we don’t have any way to wash them.”
She was mollified, but only slightly. It took him a few minutes to get the long, heavy tent box out—why had he packed it at the back?—but they were able to carry it over to the sandy clearing together. He let her open the box, crossing his fingers that she wouldn’t lose any parts or destroy the instructions, though she was usually pretty responsible.
Then he went around to the other side of the car and opened the door. “Mikey, we’re here.”
Mikey didn’t look up. Not that he’d expected him to.
“We’re going to turn off the tablet now. That was the agreement.” He started to reach for it, but Mikey yanked it away, deeper into the car where he couldn’t reach it.
“We’re camping, Mikey,” he stressed. “There might be frogs. Or toads.” It was his best offer.
“There’s twelve minutes left in the episode.”
James squeezed his eyes shut. “Twelve minutes. I’m setting my alarm. Then the tablet goes away for the rest of the trip.”
Mikey huffed. Good enough.
He went back to Dana, who was picking up rocks and sticks and throwing them into the woods. Alright. “Where do you think we should put up the tent?”
He looked around, but there wasn’t anywhere that was truly flat. The ground was sort of sandy, with crushed pine needles everywhere that would probably stick up through the tent like sleeping on a porcupine. And there were little rocks everywhere. Was sun or shade better? Or was that going to change throughout the day? He truly had no idea how to decide.
“Here, Dad. That’s why I’m clearing out the bumps.”
