Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: On My Honor
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Jed taught Ellie's troop about astronomy, pointing out the North Star and assuring them if they were ever lost, they could use that to navigate their way home; Shelly recruited Jed to help the girls earn their Space Exploration Badge; during a late-night trip to the restrooms, Ellie led her partner Angela off the campsite to search for the North Star and prove that her father was right, but when the clouds covered the stars, the girls found themselves lost
Summary: Ellie and Angela scare themselves - and each other - with stories of spirits and missing Girl Scouts as they listen for the spooky sounds that seem to follow them; Shelly has some advice for a furious Jed
"Which one?"
Even the dim glow of the flashlight casting a halo around the three rocky paths that curved beyond their sight, didn't give them a glimpse of familiarity. The wind howled through the thick trees and a scattered lump of leaves and stones began to soak into the crevices as the first few raindrops wet the ground
"I don't know." Ellie's trembling fingers coiled around the base of the flashlight, aiming it to the left. "That way maybe?"
Angela shrugged, but neither moved. Both were dressed in sweats and PJs with only a light jacket and a sweater providing a thin barrier from the cold sprinkle of rain and the harsh breeze that followed. Angela had slipped into a pair of flats for the short trek to the restrooms while Ellie had climbed into her canvas sneakers. Their choice of footwear gave them virtually no traction on the awkward slope of the damp terrain, a fact they quickly learned when they tried to escape their predicament.
Ellie grabbed her partner's hand, pulling her over the intruding roots that littered the trail, but Angela resisted and slipped slightly. "OW!"
"Are you okay?"
"No! You don't even know if we're going the right way. My parents always told me to stay where I am if I get lost."
"But I don't wanna stay here. It's dark and cold..." Ellie stopped momentarily, then said softly, "...and scary."
So scary, in fact, that in their minds, recognizable sounds took on a threatening echo. The hooting of the owls vibrated through the night air more like squeals and even high-pitched screams as the vivid imaginations of the girls manipulated their psyches. Twigs were snapping behind them and wind-blown leaves fell to their feet, rustling around, some of them masking the crunching noises Angela kept hearing.
"I can't stop thinking about Susie's story about the two girls and the bear."
"That didn't happen," Ellie assured her, unwilling to admit it was the story of Na-Gah - the little boy stuck on top of a mountain and unable to return to his father - that haunted her.
"Do you hear that?" Angela raced to the middle trail. "It was back there."
"I didn't hear it."
Footsteps. She was convinced they were footsteps crunching the foliage underneath. "There's someone there."
"There can't be."
"This is just like the story of the two Girl Scouts a few years ago. They got lost at Camp Marden and they were never, EVER found again. EVER!"
"What happened?" Ellie looked at her quizzically.
Angela shrugged. "No one knows. We think they live with the bears now."
Ellie swallowed hard, her forehead wrinkling to banish the image from her mind. "Well, I don't think that's true. My sister Lizzie was a Girl Scout and her troop used to camp here and she never told me anything like that."
"She didn't want to scare you."
"Nuh uh! She LOVES to scare me. She used to do it all the time."
"Used to?"
"Last Halloween, I was a witch. A really ugly one. Lizzie went to a haunted house with all her friends so when my mom brought me home from trick or treating, I didn't take off my witch costume. I hid in Lizzie's closet behind all her clothes and waited for her. As soon as she opened the door and walked inside, I jumped on her."
Angela relaxed slightly and allowed a subtle smile to curve the ends of her lips. "Was that fun?"
"Uh huh! She screamed and ran and everything! Now she doesn't scare me anymore."
"Shhhh!" Angela tensed up once again and stepped in front of Ellie. "Did you hear it?"
Ellie stood still, perfectly silent, her head tilted slightly to the side as she listened. The crunching became louder, the footsteps closer, and Ellie jerked in terror. "OH NO!"
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
"It's those girls! The ones who never made it back to camp. They're like spirits or something haunting the campground." Truth be told, Angela was more intrigued by this thought than frightened by it.
"My dad said spirits are stars," Ellie reasoned. "Remember?"
"The one in Amityville Horror wasn't a star."
Not only had Ellie been much too young to see the popular movie when it came out two years earlier, she knew very little about it. "My mom would never have let me watch that."
"Mine didn't either. My brother told me all about it."
"I'm not even supposed to talk about things like that or hear about them either."
"Why?"
"So I won't be scared like you, I guess."
Angela took Ellie's hand and they both backed away from the ominous cluster of Elms, startled yet again by a new sound. This time, two ghoulish growls, one much deeper than the other and seemingly coming from different directions, beckoned from beyond the branches.
The crunching grew louder still. The clouds above parted, giving them a momentary reprieve from the darkness. But just as fast as they revealed the moon, they enveloped it once again. As the girls took steps behind them while their eyes focused on the scene in front, a hand, manipulatively waiting for the first clap of thunder, curled through a clearing in the trees and violently grabbed Angela's shoulder with such intensity, she nearly fell backwards.
A terrifying shriek escaped from the innermost depths of her lungs. Ellie forcefully pulled on her partner's forearm and before either one could look behind them, they sprinted together over the peak of one of the trails, screaming for help while tears streamed down their cheeks and their small bodies shuddered in fear.
A slippery patch of grass caused Ellie to tumble forward into the mud. "Ouch!"
Angela yanked her hand. "Come on! We have to go!"
Between their ragged breaths, they heard yet another peculiar sound, one that presented no danger whatsoever. Ellie rose to her feet and turned to find the origin of a hysterical fit of laughter.
"That was too good!"
"It was great! We should have taken pictures!"
Angela and Ellie stared at one another, obviously perplexed by the two new strangers. They looked to be a few years older, probably campers based on what they were wearing - pajamas under their light raincoats.
"What's so funny?" Angela finally asked.
"You are!" one of them answered. "Both of you, running through the woods screaming like your hair's on fire."
"We were scared and that isn't funny!" Ellie admonished.
"Come on," the other girl replied, still chuckling. "It was a riot!"
"Who are you anyway?"
"Jennie Harrison, Junior Troop 142."
"And I'm Keri Myers, same. We're camping right over there and we heard you on our way to the bathrooms." She pointed towards another red brick building that had somehow surpassed Ellie and Angela's sight.
"We didn't know there were other troops here this weekend," Ellie said.
"Yeah, but we're glad there are. I'm Angela and this is Ellie. Brownie Troop 168."
"Figures," Jennie teased.
"What?" Ellie asked.
"We knew you guys were too little to be Juniors."
"We are not little! I'm 8 and Ellie's going to be 7 next month!"
"You're still too young to be Juniors." Keri stood smugly at the ripe old age of 11. "You don't even know you're not supposed to wander away from camp. Don't sweat it though. When you're old enough, you'll be able to find your way back. This time, we'll help you if you want."
The playful rivalry between the Junior Scouts and the Brownie Scouts wasn't shocking to Ellie. She had heard all the stories from Lizzie and knew what to expect. She also knew that despite the ribbing, a Girl Scout was still a Girl Scout. "You will?"
"Yeah. Scout's honor," Jennie confirmed, her three fingers raised. "I have a little sister like you. So which way to your campsite?"
The million-dollar question. Not only were they confused after their stargazing adventure, but now, they had run from their other location as well. Ellie and Angela looked at each other blankly.
"You don't know?"
"If we knew, we wouldn't be lost," Angela sarcastically responded.
"That's okay. You two can come back with us. We'll wake our leader. I'm sure she'll help." Keri began to saunter away, certain the two younger girls would follow. And after a brief pause, they did.
"So, Ellie," Jennie began. "Do you know why the Junior Girl Scout got kicked out of scouts?"
"Why?" Ellie played along, trustingly.
"She ate a brownie. Grrr!" She breathed into Ellie's ear, growling the same sinister growl she grumbled from behind the trees.
"That isn't funny!" Angela slapped the older girl's arm and held a reassuring hand out to Ellie.
A few hours later, as the sun began to rise over the campground warming the remnants of the chilly September night and drying the saturated grass, Jed emerged from his tent to inhale a whiff of fresh air. He stretched his arms above his head as far as they could possibly go and twisted his back in both directions.
Delicate leaves swayed in the wind, a few already falling from their branches as autumn approached. Birds were chirping from high above and a colorful rainbow faintly streaked the clear blue skies. For Jed, this was paradise. He could bask in the splendor of the Great Outdoors for days and never want or miss the comforts of home. The only thing that could have made a camping trip like this better was if Abbey, Lizzie, and Zoey had accompanied him and Ellie.
He walked towards the pile of dry twigs still in its teepee formation from the campfire the night before. His hands guarding them, he was shuffling the tinder for a new blaze when Samantha peeked out from inside her tent.
"Mr. Bartlet, where's Ellie?"
Those were the most frightening words Jed had heard in a very long time. A quick search of the campsite and the adjacent restrooms confirmed that both Ellie and Angela were gone. Jed's pulse raced, his hands trembled uncontrollably, and in those few minutes that he teetered on the brink of sanity, he thought for sure his heart had stopped as a nauseating lump formed in his throat.
Frantically, he ran his hand through his hair, struggling to catch his breath. "I'm going to go look for them."
"I'm going too," another parent volunteered.
"Take a map just in case..." Shelly advised before she trailed off at the vision of the two missing Scouts walking sheepishly back to camp.
"Hi," the woman behind them greeted. "I'm a chaperone for Troop 142 across the way. It seems two of our girls found two of yours wandering in the woods in the middle of the night."
Jed ran to his daughter, scooping her up in one arm and comforting a visibly uncomfortable Angela with the other. "Are you guys okay?"
Angela nodded. "We're sorry. We were just going to the bathroom."
The girls had been given dry clothes and sweaters by the other troop, but their appearance clearly reflected the stressful night. Ellie's blonde curls were messy and awkward while Angela's dark tresses fell into a tangled mess around her shoulders. Their eyes were puffy from their tears and a small red bump dotted Ellie's chin from where she fell into the mud.
"We wanted to bring them back earlier, but it was too dark and since they didn't know the way..." the woman explained.
Shelly raised her hand, apologetically. "That's perfectly understandable. I wouldn't expect you to search for us in the dark. Thank you for bringing them back this morning. I hope they weren't much trouble."
"None at all. They were scared more than anything."
"What happened?" Shelly asked the girls.
"It was my fault," Ellie confessed. "I wanted to look at the stars and we got lost."
There were many ways to fuel Jed's temper. Blatantly disregarding the rules in potentially dangerous situations was definitely one of them. "What the HELL were you thinking?" he asked his daughter. Ellie didn't respond. "Ellie?"
"I don't know," she said softly.
"You could have gotten yourself and Angela seriously hurt! Do you have ANY idea how LUCKY you are that you were found by another troop?"
All the pent-up adrenaline that galvanized Jed's panic only moments earlier was unleashed in his tone. He had temporarily forgotten that he wasn't alone with his daughter.
"Okay, I think we should talk about this later," Shelly suggested as the other girls began to gather around. "Ellie and Angela need to change so we can get the clothes back to Troop 142."
Reluctant to further upset her father, Ellie looked to Jed for permission. He nodded. "Make sure you dress warmly. Both of you."
Shelly smiled at Jed's concern as she led the girls towards their tent. "Once you get into your own clothes, we'll all gather around the fire and have some hot chocolate while we review the rules, okay?"
After Ellie and Angela disappeared inside the tent, the other parents shuttled the girls to the circle around the fire. Shelly watched them get settled then turned to face Jed.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that. It's just that she scared me to death, you know? Her disappearing like that...I can't even stand to think about what could have happened."
"But it didn't. She's here and she's safe. Jed, you're training to be an assistant leader. If you want to run this troop, you're going to have to separate Ellie, the Girl Scout from Ellie, your daughter."
"That's easier said than done, especially when she behaves this way. She's never done this before. Maybe she thought she could get away with it this time because I'm here."
"Why would you think she would misbehave because she has a parent on the trip?"
"Not just a parent. Me. She wouldn't have pulled this stunt if Abbey was with her. She doesn't always listen to everything I say, but she does exactly what Abbey says. She never tests the limits with her." His anger dissipated rather quickly. Now, he just sounded sad and defeated.
"I don't know much about your relationship with your daughter, but I do know that Ellie is an extremely intelligent, respectful young girl. She's never given me the slightest bit of trouble in the past. So she had a lapse in judgment just this once. It happens."
"That lapse in judgment was pretty serious, don't you think?"
"Of course it was and, usually, I would have the girls sent home for something like this."
"But?"
"But they spent at least some portion of the night in the woods, cold and afraid and it's obvious they're remorseful. This is nothing that can't be fixed with a reminder of what can happen out there."
"You're telling me to let it go," Jed surmised despite the unspoken words.
"I would never tell a parent how to raise his child. As a troop leader, I'm making a suggestion based on my own experience. If you act too much like Ellie's father and not enough like her leader while you're in charge of the troop, Girl Scouts won't be as fun for her anymore."
"You think so." It wasn't a question.
"Tell me this. If it was Angela and Susie who wandered off, instead of Angela and Ellie, and they came back, apologizing and promising this would never happen again, would you have reasoned with them instead of losing your temper?"
"Probably," Jed replied. "But when it's Ellie, it's the father in me talking, not the leader."
"When my daughter was in this troop, we had a motto - what happens in Girl Scouts, stays in Girl Scouts. I treated her just as I would any other Scout. When we got home, I was her mother. When we were here, I was her leader. Just something to think about."
Jed did think about it. Deep down, he knew that Shelly was right. That was the only way this arrangement was going to work. The entire point of helping with Ellie's troop was so Ellie wouldn't miss out on the fun of Scouting while Shelly took maternity leave. If that meant he'd have to learn to look at Ellie differently during camping trips, activities, and meetings, then, for her sake, he'd have to train himself to do just that.
He leaned against a tree in front of the girls' tent and waited quietly. Ellie poked her head through the flaps, made contact with him, and ducked back in.
"Ellie," he called out to her. "Ellie, come on out."
She slowly snuck out, standing still on the wooden plateau in front of the flaps. Her head hung low as she timidly opened her mouth. "I'm sorry."
"I know," Jed replied in a softer voice. "But I wasn't going to talk to you about that. We'll have that discussion with everyone else around the campfire."
"We will?"
"Yeah. What I was going to say is that I'm not mad at you. I'm just so INCREDIBLY happy to see you." He returned her smile and for several seconds, both remained silent, unsure how to proceed. "And, also, since Shelly didn't mention anything about the grown-ups having hot chocolate, may I have a sip of yours?"
Ellie nodded. "And a marshmallow if you want!"
"All that before breakfast?" Jed teased. He pressed his index finger to his lips and used his other hand to help Ellie down. "Shhh, don't tell Mom."
TBC