Oak Tree Camp
By: Samantha Meyer
Another beginning of camp. Christina had just gotten off the bus and was looking for her stuff in the huge pile of things. For the last six years Christina had been going to Oak Tree Camp. This was the first year her friends were not going to Oak Tree Camp. They were going to a horseback riding camp. Christina could have gone to any camp in the world, as long it was away from her home in California. Her parents loved to get rid of her for the summer so they could go on expensive cruises and fly to places like Florida and be pampered. Well, she loved Oak Tree more than any stupid cruise. She better go and find out what cabin she was in.
* * *
A few days later after Christina had gotten settled she decided to see if she could go for a walk. So she went and asked her cabin leader Mollie. "Mollie can I go on a walk, please?"
"Of course, Christina. Just be back by dinner."
"OK."
So off Christina went. She had no idea that she was not just going for a walk, but one of the greatest adventures.
As she walked along she decided to go to the friendship tree. When she got to the friendship tree, she sat down. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a thing shining in the light. She got up and walked over to the thing and picked it up. In the quick glance she got of the thing in her hand, it looked like a pair of keys. As soon as she had picked up the keys, something started to rise out of the ground. It was a very little stone about the size of a small softball. On it, it read:
Past Future
Above both of the words there was a key hole. Christina looked down into her hand and looked carefully at the keys. One key was an old key. She could tell because it was a skeleton key. It was also very rusty. The other key was very odd. It looked like a car key, a very odd car key. On the top it read in small letters: flora.
Christina decided to put the old key into the hole that read past under it. As soon as she did everything around her went black. A few seconds later the stone was in front of her again and the sun was shining just as bright as it was before. She turned around and was about to go running back to her cabin when she saw the friendship tree. She tried to scream but she could not.
Where the friendship tree should have been there was a very small baby tree. This was all starting to make sense. SHE HAD GONE BACK IN TIME!!! She sat down and decided to think about what had happened to her. It seemed like the only sensible thing to do. So she did. After a long time she had made up her mind to look around and see if she could find Mollie, so that at least something interesting would happen on this little journey. But she would be sure to try to go home after that. She remembered that Mollie had said that she had gone to this camp since she was 5.
She walked over to the place the office had been in her time. She saw the office, that was a big relief. She had not gone back in time to far. She went into the office. The door did not creak. The office must be pretty new. She went in and asked what cabin Mollie Haun was in. The lady said "Mollie Haun, she's here all right. Meadows A. You know how to get there?"
Christina replied, "Yes I know how. I'll be fine, thank you."
* * *
When Christina reached the top of the hill, she ran to Meadows A. She stopped in front of the door to think. If she just walked into Mollie's room that would be rather odd. She would go as a visiting friend. She would pretend to be looking for her friend. But once she saw Mollie she would get out of the cabin. So she started looking. In the third room she heard someone say "Mollie." She looked in that direction. There was a little girl who looked just like Mollie. Christina ran out of Meadows B laughing. Well she had had her fun. She had seen Mollie as a very little kid. She walked back to the stone and sat down. She decided to put the odd key into the future hole. Everything went black. She was back in her time. She was happy to see the real friendship tree.
Christina never found out what would happen if she used the other key. She decided never to use either key again. Instead she wore them around her neck as a remembrance of that special summer at camp.