A Wandering Muse at Camp

"Yeah, he's who got me hooked on code," Avery affirmed.

"Dwayne had a plan, and I need someone to implement it. I remember you being the best junior software engineer your last couple of years here as a camper." Lewis grinned. "And your brother was bragging about your home network setup. I need someone that can do both and on short notice." Lewis explained.

"Why?"

"Dwayne is an adrenaline junky when he's not doing IT, and he got hurt in a rock-climbing accident," Belinda explained.

"He broke both legs and an arm. He's fortunate he doesn't have internal injuries to his vital organs. Dwayne should fully recover, but he won't be able to do IT or teach campers this summer." Lewis leaned forward. "I was hoping that you could be his replacement, Avery. You're good with the campers and sharp as a tack."

"I've never done professional networking or taught before."

"But you've tutored, right?" Belinda queried with a curious expression. "Rebecca likes to brag about her sister, too."

"I'm not sure." The prospect of a summer with dial-up speed internet and none of her friends was not very tempting, but Avery didn't have a lot of choices.

"The position pays well, and Belinda can help you with your internship in the fall."

"I made some calls before we made you an offer. Finally, I called your references. They were all glowing." Nervousness flashed on Belinda's countenance. Counselors had to fill out an application along with a physical and include references. "I have connections to several engineering firms, and I believe I could make a strong recommendation if you can display some of your aptitude."

"I know it's late notice, Avery, and it will be hard work. However, I can promise it'll be worth it."

"What will I be doing?" If Avery had an internship ready for the fall semester, it would alleviate her most significant stressor.

"Maintaining the computer lab and setting up a NAS to back up all our campers' work in the computer lab or the digital photography unit. We need to network the lab even if we still have dinosaur internet speeds." Lewis explained.

"Not from lack of trying to get something better. We would also need you to teach interested campers how to code." Belinda added.

"I don't know," Avery repeated herself.

"Carl will be in next week to help set up the lab and do the grunt work." Lewis tried to sweeten the pot. "He can help you create a plan for teaching code. He did it last summer but will start a career soon, so he can't help us."

"Let me drive into town and talk to my parents." Cell reception was terrible in the valley that the camp was nestled in. "When do you need to know?"

"Tomorrow, or we'll have to cancel many of our tech classes and activities." Lewis frowned.

Canceling classes wasn't something that Avery wanted to see. Camp Winslow was where she learned to code and started working on computers. Avery would feel guilty if her not accepting kept one of the campers from finding their calling. "If I can get more time tonight, I'll drive out and check with my parents. I'm leaning towards yes, though."

"Fantastic!"

Tess -- A week later

Tess didn't see Dwayne's car as she pulled into camp. The man loved his old Bronco, and Tess would've heard something on socials if he had sold it. She wanted to see her mother, but she would likely be hard at work on another grant proposal between morning and afternoon activities. Summer grant writing was all pro bono for their firm. She walked by the archery range and smiled as the counselors tried to get someone on the lineup to hit a target.

One of the outdoor classrooms housed a semi-circle of early middle schoolers and a pair of counselors. Mateo was a good teacher, but Tess gave him a wide berth after last year's lackluster encounter. Tess didn't recognize the new instructors at many other activities. The camp relied on mostly college students and teachers on summer break to make the camp run. That meant a high turnover each summer save for a few lifers that appeared each year, like Dwayne and Mateo.

The tech building loomed large on the horizon as she approached. It was the most prominent and newest building in the camp. Although it was called the tech building, it also housed pottery, painting, leatherworking, basket weaving, and other arts that took up most of the structure. The computer lab was shared with Dwayne and the digital photography studio where Tess would teach classes this summer. She'd also taught dance, but that was predominantly with the younger groups toward the end of the summer.

The lab was dead silent as she walked in, except for the students' occasional keypresses on keyboards. Dwayne and Carl's typical teaching style could be called barely controlled chaos. Laughter and talking were all on display when those two taught. Instead, there was silence and soulless stares at the computer screens. Something's wrong here.

As she turned the corner, Tess saw a tall, auburn-haired lass patrolling the room behind the students' computers instead of Dwayne or Carl. She was gorgeous, but her body language was that of a proctor monitoring students taking a standardized test, rigid and unbending. That wouldn't do for the precocious students who came out to camp for fun and to give their parents a week off. Tess watched for a minute; the woman was stopping and helping the students work on projects, and it sounded like she knew her stuff, but there was no joy or mirth.

Tess silently walked into the class and started to get her camera equipment cleaned up for the first sessions next week. She tried to be quiet as she worked but got a couple of evil looks from the new instructor when she made too much noise. What's her problem? Tess thought but kept it to herself. Whoever this instructor was would spend a lot of time in the same classroom as Tess. It might be a long summer. She didn't need to share a classroom with a stuck-up princess.

An introduction would have at least been attempted if the young woman hadn't left with the class. This new woman wouldn't seem so standoffish if she could break the ice. Tess finished her task and went to see if her mother was done with her next class. She was sitting on the front porch of the old farmhouse that would be Tess's home for three months. At least it had A/C, and her mother promised that the nagging issues with her bathroom were ironed out.

"Tess!" Her mother jumped to her feet and came in for a hug. "I thought you were going to call me when you got in."

"I tried, but you know how terrible reception is here." This would be the fourth summer that Tess was spending out at the camp, and the lack of accessible communication with her friends was her biggest complaint.

"Good excuse." Her mother narrowed her eyes, nodded, and returned to a more affable expression. "How was the flight back?"

"Okay, delayed a couple of hours, but that's normal. The turbulence was a bit bumpy." Tess followed her mother into the house.

"The purple's new. I like it. The tone complements your eyes." Tess's mom was referring to her new hair color. "The new stud on your nose is cute too. Is it a diamond to go with your earrings?"

"A manufactured one. I remember when you scolded me for getting my nose pierced." Tess gave her mom some side eye before grinning. "I probably only have a summer or two to go wild before I have to straighten up my act." She knew the corporate world wouldn't work with her rebellious side, so she would enjoy it while she could.

"And how's your father doing?" Her parents were friendly even if they never married, and Tess's dad moved away when Tess was very young. After 9/11, he enlisted in the Navy and spent twenty years as an aircraft mechanic before retiring to Rhode Island and was now getting into engineering on sailboats.

"Good. He got married this spring, and they're expecting my half-brother around Thanksgiving," Tess explained.

"There's a lot of years difference between you two. I wouldn't want to go through diaper changes and sleepless nights again at my age." Her mom shook her head. Tess didn't inform her that the new wife was a decade younger than her dad.

They talked about Tess's dad and what they had done over their vacation. Tess had lots of photos of lighthouses and sailing ships to show off to her mother. They were still talking when Lewis came in. He was older than her mother by half a decade, but he made her happy and treated her well. Tess hoped he would go ahead and propose, but both were hesitant to ever get married. They'd been dating for five years, and Lewis treated Tess like his daughter. Carl was her future stepbrother and a year younger than her. Tess was sad that he and his girlfriend Molly wouldn't spend much time at camp this year as they were fun to hang out with.

I guess I'll have to befriend some other counselors this year. Tess mused as she listened to stories from camp's first few weeks.

"So, is Dwayne not up here yet?" Tess finally broached the subject at the fore of her mind after a reunion with her family.

"He's not coming this year, babe." Her mother sighed.

"Dwayne fell while rock climbing and got banged up pretty bad," Lewis added. "Broke both legs and his left arm. He'll be alright but will need most of the summer to convalesce."

"We hired Avery in his stead. Don't blame her for him not being there." There was a hint of a scold in her mother's words.

How does she know we didn't get off to a good start? Tess couldn't help rolling her eyes like she was still a bratty teenager. Her mom always noticed the tiniest leaks of body language that could communicate so much. "Okay, Mom. But she gave me the stink eye when I was inventorying the cameras."

"Just be nice to the poor girl. She's quiet until you get to know her, then she's funny and sharp as a tack. You two would get along if you gave her a chance."

"I'll try."

When Tess finally got around to meeting the woman, Avery was gruff and rushed to get back to working on some computer project in the lab. Tess kept watching and seeing the stiff way that the woman worked with the campers. Tess observed for a week before she finally needed to say something. Avery was sitting alone at dinner, reading something on a tablet, so Tess thought that would be an excellent time to approach her without an audience.

"You need to loosen up, Avery." Tess flopped down on the wooden bench across from Avery.

"What? Why?" Avery glared at her, with her book still partially obscuring her face. "Is this because I want a few minutes to myself after a long day teaching? We can't all be happy-go-lucky extroverts like you, Tess." She seemed seriously perturbed.

"I'm talking about your classes." Tess felt she should have retreated, but it was too late, so she feigned absolute confidence.

"What's wrong with them? The campers are learning, and I don't see anyone else volunteering to teach Python." Avery crossed her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, but are they having any fun?" Tess tried to smile, but Avery's reactions were making it difficult. "You can't forget that these aren't a bunch of overachievers. The campers are here to enjoy themselves."

Avery reminded Tess of the type A personality Tess had been before her broken engagement. She worked her tail off and put her head down but realized it wasn't making her happy. The wild hair and the nose piercing were recent additions since she decided against trying to please everyone. She hoped that Avery or any other woman who walked a similar path would wake up before they snapped like Tess almost had.

"What about all the screaming and horseplay in your classes?" Avery was getting very defensive, as if Tess had unwittingly found a nerve.

"My kids are having fun while they learn about photography." Tess closed off her body language, too. "Remember, they're here to have a good time. There's no report card going home to the students."

"Yeah, well, they're going to break equipment. I suppose that doesn't matter if you're the owner's daughter. But someone getting hurt should concern you, too."

Tess ignored the dig. "I'm just trying to help. This is your first summer teaching, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"It took me the entire summer to get my legs under me. I think I learned a thing or two as I did." Tess's first summer at camp was before the change in tact. The students hadn't been the most receptive to rigidly learning photography. She had to let their creativity flow to get them hooked on the lifelong hobby.

"Let me do things my way." Avery grabbed her tablet and tray and then left in a huff.

The following week, the two barely talked as Avery silently worked on projects in the back of the computer room. Tess's mother reiterated that Tess needed to be nice to Avery and give her a chance, but their first real conversation soured her on the prospect of a friendship with the girl. It might have stayed that way without an accident on a photo walk. One of the students was leaning over a rock to get a shot, and the camera fell from her grasp. The strap wasn't around her neck; she needed more maneuverability to capture an image of a lone sunflower sprouting from a rock.

The lens and body of the DSLR looked fine, but the camera wouldn't turn on. The images on the memory card were still good, and the picture snapped just before the camera tumbled looked great. Tess would have to suck up her pride and engage with Avery. Lewis told Tess that Avery was an electronics wizard; if anyone could fix it, it was her.

When Tess walked into the lab, Avery was trying to comfort a sobbing teen. "I'm going to have to try and recover your project off the hard drive, but give me a day."

"I worked so hard on that. Momma was going to be so proud of me." The sixth-grade girl said between tears.

"I have tricks to recover things, but I need time to work on this, Brenda. Let me see what I can do before class tomorrow, okay. It was a really nice game." Avery had a soft, concerned tone of voice. She was displaying more empathy than Tess had seen from her.

"Okay." Brenda didn't appear convinced.

"Why don't you head back out with your friends and let me work my magic." Avery affected her best empathetic smile.

"Okay." Tears were still welling in the girl's eyes.

"You handled that well," Tess said once the middle schooler vacated the room.

"No, I didn't. I was the reason that she started crying." Avery shook her head as she walked the laptop over to her desk. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this."

"You're doing fine. It takes a while to get your sea legs, so to speak." Tess cringed inwardly that her father's love of nautical wordplay was still creeping out.

"I hope so. That girl had a neat project going. It's a petite text game that she had every right to be proud of. I'm removing all the spinning rust as soon as possible." Avery declared as she got out a precision screwdriver set from her backpack.

"Spinning rust?"

"Sorry, I forgot not everyone speaks computer nerd." Avery smiled. It was the first time Tess had seen it, and it was adorable. Tess would try to make that girl smile as often as possible. All it took was a smile to change Tess's mind about the woman.

"I wasn't going to say anything." Tess tried for playfulness. She hoped Avery read it the same way.

"Spinning rust refers to the rotating platters of older hard drives. They're perfectly capable, but the way the students lug them around, something that isn't moving, is ideal."

"Like scratching a record?" Tess was forming a mental image.

"Exactly. The arm that reads the data can hit the metal platters and cause scratches." Avery was a wiz with the screwdriver, quickly opening the chassis and pulling out the drive.

"What are you going to do with it?"

"I already tried some recovery software, but I have one more trick." Avery crossed the room and put the hard drive in the small freezer section of the mini-fridge.

"What's that do?"

"If you freeze it, if I get lucky, you can pull some information off the disk. There's something about the metal contracting when it's cold, but I'm not sure of the exact process. Her program isn't that big, so hopefully, I can save it."

"Does that take a while?"

"Yeah, it needs a few hours to chill down before I try again."

"I hate to add to your workload, but a student dropped their camera, and now it won't turn on. You might be right about me being too Laissez-faire." Tess set the camera on her desk.

"No, you're not. The kids all rave about you, Tess."

"Can you help me?" Tess ignored the obvious comment from Avery. She was terrible at accepting them.

"I'm not sure. Let me try." Avery was opening up as they worked on technology.

Maybe her mother was right about the tall and cute woman. I think she's cute? Tess was shocked by how her body responded to being close to the auburn-haired beauty. A woman had never made her feel like this. She pushed that down to exude confidence again.

"Thank you, Avery." Tess smiled, feeling a blast of hope for the first time since the device dribbled down a rock.

It only took a few minutes for her to open up the camera's body. "You're in luck. The metal frame under the rubber grip bent into a switch here and didn't let the thing turn on. " Avery smiled again. "Just make sure the students don't bounce them off the ground too often."

"I'll try my best."

Avery -- A couple weeks into June

Stirred out of her slumber with a start, Avery sat up in a cold sweat. In a very life-like nightmare, the pained look of the poor middle school student who lost her project was replicated on every camper in her class. It didn't matter that Avery had managed to save the project. The look of despair lingered. After a few rough starts, she was finally starting to connect with the students. Tess's words might not have been tactful, but they had been helpful. She felt terrible about lashing out when the woman was trying to help.

Avery had everything she needed to complete the upgrade of the NAS device and automatically back up all the computers after each class before more spinning rust drives died. That nightmare propelled her out of her lumpy bed. It was past midnight, and the rest of the cabin was still. Using the low light of her cell phone's always on display, Avery slipped on her boots and grabbed her keys. The footwear looked a little silly with the short shorts of her jammies, but it would be good enough to work a few hours on her computers in the dead of night.

Only Avery and Lewis had keys to the tech building. It made for annoying mornings when she had to let other classes and groups in before breakfast was served at the mess hall. They traded off mornings so they could each sleep in. However, it meant it would be a quiet time to get things backed up without a slew of middle schoolers coming in and out of the building for classes as Av tried to set things up.

The tech building was the newest erected on the campgrounds; Lewis's best friend's last task was to finish framing the structure. He volunteered his time to help the camp. Carpentry was how the man had started; even after becoming a general contractor and then a home construction company owner, it let him still get his hands dirty. The materials and his time were his company's significant financial philanthropy outreach. They helped non-profits build and get up to code.

It was supposed to be finished before that summer, but it would be an entire year after the accident to get it completed. Lewis took that long after he lost his leg to recover. Maybe not physically, but he was back on his feet in time for the next semester of classes. Lewis couldn't face the camp again for a long time. Luckily, though, he came back before the place crumbled. He agreed to buy the site with some of the settlement money and help from Jared's family.