Interlude
Name: [Max]
Camp Activity: [ ]
Age: [10]
"I- I didn't know."
The car ride is silent.
And it's strange and unusual and Max doesn't like it. The feeling is eerie, the tension so thick he could cut it with a knife.
Max had been in the Camp Mobile (as Gwen so lovingly dubbed it) numerous times that summer and every time the car had been full of noise. It was either David's talking (those long-winded stories that Max usually hated but now longed to hear) or it was his strange tapes, or even just his singing (Max would never admit it, but the red-headed counselor was pretty decent).
However, this time, David was quiet.
Max could see the elder boy sitting in the front passenger seat, looking more ghost than human. There was no light in his eyes or his usual skip in his step. The David he saw now, sitting up front while Gwen drove with his fingers tapping quietly against the window, was like nothing Max had ever seen before. A shell. A husk of the man Max had known at the beginning of the summer.
Max had thought this was what he'd wanted. Isn't that what he he told Neil back when they'd first followed David into town earlier that summer? He had said he'd wanted to see David break; he wanted to watch David's expression go cold and tears well up in his eyes. He'd wanted David to, just for once, feel as Max did every waking day.
Like nothing mattered. Like life wasn't worth living.
But he'd been wrong. Dead wrong. He didn't want to see David like this. Not at all.
It was like David was a candle and someone had blown out his flame. He was eerie, grey, and dead.
"Gwen?"
"Yes, Max?"
They've been driving for some time when Max finally gets up the courage to break the silence.
Gwen doesn't turn to look at him when she replies. She keep her hands on the wheel, both at the top and focuses on the long road before them. The sun slowly sets around them and Max can see the flickering of the streetlights as they begin to turn on for the night.
Max doesn't have a question nor does he have a topic for any kind of conversation.
He just wants to hear a voice.
The car is so quiet and the tension so thick that it's suffocating. He feels like he can't breathe.
"Are you guys…angry with me?"
David responds first. In a low, dead voice he shakes his head and says, "No, Max."
Gwen gives a murmur of agreement.
The car goes quiet once again.
Max watches the trees fly by. They've already gone through town. No they're on a main road but not one Max's recognizes.
There's a feeling of dread in his belly.
He knows they'd never hurt him, but he can't help the feeling of unease that overtakes him. What have I done? Where are we going? What's going on? He can't stop himself. He panics. Why won't they talk to him?
"Will you two say something? Yell! Scream! I don't care! Just do something!"
The two stiffen. Max can see David's hunched shoulders straighten. Gwen's hands grip the steering wheel. The car comes to a hard stop and Max flies forward, his seatbelt the only thing keeping him from catapulting off the seat and into the dashboard.
"Gwen!" David.
"What the fuck, Gwen!" Max.
Gwen takes a deep shuddering breath. David puts a hand on her shoulder but she moves away from his reach. Cars fly past. Drivers yell obscenities and flip birds. Gwen puts her head in her hands and David leans over. Gently he turns the steering wheel, hand over hand. Gwen's foots still on the gas petal, so David's able to slowly steer the car over to the shoulder.
Max watches the two of them. Gwen's shoulders are shaking now as if she's crying, but she doesn't make a sound. David's movements are robotic as he takes control of the car.
Once the Camp Mobile is safely on the shoulder, David opens his door and steps out. He stretches his arms above his head and then rests his hands on his hips as if he were back at camp surveying the lake as the sun rises.
"Gwen?"
She doesn't answer so Max unbuckles his seatbelt and exists the car.
He stands beside David and after a moment of reflection asks, "What are we doing? What about Cameron? What about Camp Campbell?"
"Let's not worry about that now," David replies. His tone is a little lighter now. Some color had returned to his skin.
Max is glad though he won't say so.
"What about Gwen?"
"She'll be alright. This is a lot for her to handle."
"What do you mean?"
David takes a deep breath.
"Her home life's not so good either. I think this is hitting a little too close for her."
Max sighs. "Poor Gwen," he says. He catches himself by surprise, but after a moment realizes that he means it. Poor Gwen.
"She'll be okay. She just needs a minute."
David's not wrong. It doesn't take Gwen long to gather herself. From over his shoulder, Max can see the female counselor through the clouded passenger window. Gwen pulls her head from her hands, shakes her head and take a deep breath.
She nods to herself as if to say Okay, let's do this.
Max can feel a warm tear as it runs down his cheek. Hastily he wipes it away before David can see, but David is still looking out at the trees on the shoulder. Max can see that their pines just like the design on David and Gwen's t-shirts.
"I don't really want Camp Campbell to close down," Max says. The words surprise him, but he means them. "I mean Cameron Campbell is a dick, sure, but…that doesn't mean the camp should be…"
David chuckles.
"I mean, don't tell anyone I said that."
"I won't, Max."
"It's not like I want to be there or anything…"
Before David can answer, Gwen rolls down the window and calls them back inside.
"One moment!" David says and holds up his index finger. Gwen nods and the window is rolled back up. Max can hear muffled music play as Gwen flicks on the radio.
"You guys just gonna dump me on the side of a road or something?" Max asks. He tries to make his tone sound teasing, but he's tired and it comes out a little too softly. A little too nervously.
If he notices, David doesn't comment. Instead he goes to ruffle Max's hair and the younger, for once, lets him. "Why do you have to be so negative all the time?"
"I mean, somebody has gone to counteract all your positivity!"
David laughs.
David's hand goes to Max's shoulder. His hold is firm, but kind. Despite his better judgement, Max's leans into it. Touch wasn't really his thing, but with David (a man without boundaries or personal space most of the time), it felt different. Safe.
"So now what are we going to do, Camp Man?"
"Now," David says with a smile, "Now we go get pizza."