Free Mine by Brett Battles Page A

right. Leah liked him.
    Each group of campers bore the name of an animal. The next group on the course was the Gray Wolves, eight eleven-year-olds divided evenly between boys and girls.
    Today was Maddie’s turn to be in charge of sending kids off at intervals that would hopefully keep them from piling on top of one another, while Leah, Todd, and Kelvin were scattered along the course to encourage and help out where needed.
    Leah’s domain included the zigzag balance beams elevated a foot above the ground, and the rope swing over the mud pit. She followed the campers, and as they completed the sections, she clapped and yelled, “You can do it,” and “Way to go,” and “It’s okay, you’ll get it next time.”
    They ran everyone through the course once, gave them a water break, and then started a second pass. When the fifth camper, a girl named Sidney, approached the zigzag beams, Leah said, “You got this, Sid. No problem.”
    The girl had misstepped the last time and nearly twisted her ankle when she fell. It was obvious from her look of discomfort that outdoor activities were not her thing. Leah moved in closer than she usually did, but her caution was unnecessary as Sidney completed the zigzag with barely a wobble.
    Leah clapped loudly. “Way to go! See? I told you.”
    The girl looked surprised as she moved on to the rope swing. Since it was a simple matter of holding on, none of the kids—including Sidney—had had any problems with it. Sidney grabbed the rope, still glowing from her success on the beam, and launched herself over the mud.
    Leah, positioned next to the pit, watched the rope arc down and up again as Sidney headed toward the other side. Before the girl reached the end of her swing, though, Leah both saw and heard the bracket holding the rope to the crossbar give way.
    She leaped into the mud and threw out her arms as Sidney fell, back first, directly toward the dirt lip of the pit. Leah snagged the girl two feet above the ground and took the brunt of the falling bracket against her own back.
    Sidney, hyperventilating, wrapped her arms around Leah’s neck.
    “I got you,” Leah said. “You’re okay.”
    “I…almost…fell,” Sidney said between breaths.
    Not almost , Leah thought as she stepped out of the pit and lowered the girl’s feet to the ground.
    The other three counselors and the rest of the Gray Wolves rushed over in a stampede of pounding boots.
    “Holy sh—” Todd caught himself and then said, “—crap! Are you two all right?”
    “I almost fell,” Sidney repeated, with even more disbelief than before.
    “I saw,” Todd said.
    Kelvin looked up at the crossbar. “It snapped clean off.”
    Leah and the others looked up, too. Part of the bracket was still attached to the four-by-four beam, but the section that connected to the rope had cracked along each edge and broken away.
    “Leah, your back,” Maggie said.
    Leah tried to look over her shoulder, and for the first time felt the sting of pain.
    “Play some trust-me games,” Todd said to Kelvin and Maggie. “I’ll take her to the office.”
    He put his hand on Leah’s elbow and guided her away from the course.
    “I’m fine,” she said. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
    “Yeah, you’re probably right, but we should get that blood cleaned up so you don’t scare all the kids.”
    “Blood?”
    He nodded. “You’re going to need a new shirt.”
    She tried to take another look, but her unique changes didn’t include the ability to turn her head all the way around—yet—so she couldn’t see what he was talking about.
    Noreen Dixon, a registered nurse and the assistant camp director, cleaned up Leah’s wound and said a few butterfly bandages were all that were needed. When she finished, Leah donned the new camp T-shirt Todd had retrieved from the storeroom. When she finally got a look at her old shirt, she was shocked by the size of the bloodstain. Sure it had hurt when the bracket had hit her, but it