Chapter 11

Deborah approached the administrative building and found J.R. there. He was clearly having a tiff with the vending machine. He turned and gave a defeated look to Deborah.

"Need help?" Deborah asked.

"No." He said in a whiny voice. "It just stole my money and didn't give me my chocolate bar."

"I hate that."

"Who doesn't?" He sighed. "What are you here for? Shouldn't you be working?"

"Shouldn't you?" Deborah slung the accusing question right back at him. He didn't have an answer. Instead, he shifted around nervously on his feet. "Anyway, I am here working. Kenny asked me to see if I could fix the phone."

"What's wrong with it?" He asked, perking up like she had mentioned something very interesting to him. "I can fix it. I hate cleaning and lifting and stuff. I'm more of a computer fixer."

"I don't know. If I knew, I'd have already fixed it."

"You think you can fix a phone?" He scoffed.

"Probably." Deborah said, ignoring his superior attitude. "But, I can only know for sure once I've looked at it."

"Can I help?"

"Be my guest." Deborah invited him along. As he fell in line next to her, she was overcome by his pungent stench. It was true. He didn't shower enough. Or maybe it was that he didn't wash his clothes enough. Either way, it was bad.

Looking at the phone in the administrative building, everything looked fine. The cord was plugged in. The phone looked well cared for. However, when she lifted it to her ear, it was dead. "Nothing. It's dead."

"Maybe the wiring is bad." J.R. suggested. "Or maybe it's the fuse."

"Could be." Deborah suggested. "We need to find the fuse box that the phone is connected to, then."

"It's probably somewhere in or outside of the building. It couldn't be far."

"Let's check outside." Deborah suggested, having already glanced around the building and seen nothing that indicated that a fuse box was inside.

As they made their way out of the building, J.R. tried to make small-talk. "So, you have a computer at your home?"

Deborah nodded. "Yeah." She laughed quietly. "You wouldn't believe the begging and the number of chores I had to do to convince my parents to invest in a personal computer for me."

"Oh, I bet I would." J.R. laughed. "I had to do the same begging and chores."

"You have a computer too?"

"Oh, yeah." J.R. said proudly. "I've even made some upgrades to it myself."

Deborah smiled. "What are the chances?" J.R. looked at her puzzled. "I mean, that two counselors at the same camp both have personal computers. That's pretty uncommon."

"No kidding." J.R. laughed. "I bet we're the only students at the entire school with our own computers."

"I don't doubt it." She looked around the building and noticed a metal box on the wall. "There."

They both made their way over to the box. "Bingo." J.R. said. Deborah gave him a thumbs-up. It was the fuse box, and written on a sheet of paper taped to the inside of the cover was a list of all the electronics relying on the fuse. The phone was one of them. "This is it."

"Yup." She affirmed. "But there is a problem."

"What's that?" J.R. asked without having looked thoroughly at the fuse box.

"We've got the box." Deborah started as she pointed to the spot where a fuse should be. "But no fuse."

"It's gone?"

"It's gone." Deborah answered. "This is so weird."

"You mean that someone would steal a fuse?"

"That, but it's not just the fuse." Deborah looked at J.R. with a furrowed brow as she thought. "The propeller and gas are missing from the boat. Plus, Kenny said there's an abandoned car, in good condition, except that it is missing its battery and gas as well."

"Who would take off with these things?" J.R. pondered.

"Exactly." Deborah agreed as she tried to think up a solution to the question, but there wasn't one. No one just steals random parts to things like this. Something odd was going on. "Well, we're not fixing the phone without that fuse."

"We'll just have to let people know that if they see a fuse, make sure to bring it to us."

"Do you think anyone else knows what a fuse looks like?" They both laughed.

"I doubt it." J.R. said through chuckles.

"Oh well." Deborah shrugged and repositioned her glasses properly on her nose. "I doubt we'll need the phone anyway. We're camping after all."