Episode 24: Heart attack

The word spread like wildfire...

Linda, closely followed by Samantha and Karen, ran over to the boys' cabin and stormed inside without even bothering to knock.

"Have you heard... ? Hartwell's had a heart attack!"

Robert was lying naked on his bunk while the others were in varying states of dress as they were getting ready for lunch. Robert snickered. "I'm not surprised. When we showed him what we thought of his silly rules and then, when the other campers started joining our skinny dip at the beach; he must have blown a fuse."

"You don't understand ... he had one for real. Jennifer brought him back with CPR ... the nurse is with him now while they're waiting for the ambulance."

"You're kidding... !"

They all rushed out in a group and gathered, along with an ever growing group of campers, about the admin building. Alice, the girl from cabin 10 that Robert had been talking to in that morning's skinny dip joined up with Robert, who was still naked.

"Hey, Rob ... not that I'm complaining, mind, but in view of what's happening, don't you think that you should at least slip on a pair of shorts?"

Robert looked down at himself. "Oh! Yeah ... I guess..." He started worming his way out of the group of milling campers. Alice followed him.

"What do you think is going to happen now?" she asked as they walked back to cabin 6 together.

"I don't know. At a guess, I'd say that Jennifer will try to keep everything running as smoothly as possible until the head office decides." By this time, they had reached cabin 6. Alice followed Robert inside.

"Oh! Wow ... you're cabin is a lot neater than ours. I'm living with a bunch of slobs."

"Well, most of the guys in this cabin are nudists and, if there's one thing I've learned about nudists, it's that they respect each other's personal 'space'. The girls in cabin 7 are the same."

"How do you know?"

"Because we're all the same gang..." Robert vaguely indicated a couple of bunk beds. "Luke's sister, Susan, and Thomas' sister, Ginger, are both in seven and Tom's girlfriend, Linda, is the one who set up our 3-day outing on Skinny dipper island."

"Wow ... I wish I could move into seven."

As they had been talking, Robert had squatted down in front of his foot locker, retrieved a pair of shorts and pulled them on. Just as they were walking out of the cabin door, they heard an ambulance siren kick in and gradually fade away in the distance. As the sound disappeared, the cowbell rang, calling all the campers to the dining hall.

Since the outing, the seating arrangement at the group' table had changed slightly ... Heather had joined up with Henry, who had found some other kids who liked playing 'Robinson Crusoe' and Susan had moved over to Jake's table, leaving room for Karen to join in.

When Robert arrived at the table, closely followed by Alice, he took a chair from a neighboring table, squeezed it in between two others and stole the other's place setting, as well.