Girl by Blake Nelson Page B

didn’t write as much and her letters were mostly about fights with her mom or the new Girl Patrol record or some weird girl she met at the mall. Her biggest news was that she had convinced Richard to change their band name to Sins of Our Fathers. I wrote to Darcy to be careful she didn’t get AIDS or become a fag hag or whatever and how boring camp was and how stuck-up the counselors were and how cool Rita was and how cute Brad was, which was a slight exaggeration but she would never have to know and it made me feel better. To Cybil I mostly asked questions and tried to encourage her and tell her how much I liked her band and how sometimes their songs came into my head. And I asked her what she thought I should do next year in terms of which boys should I like and how should I dress and what did she think of boys from Learning Center? She never really answered these questions but that was okay. And sometimes I wrote song lyrics for her band, not that I would ever show her but just for fun and to see if I could do it. And sometimes I fantasized that Kevin and I were in a band together and went on stage at Outer Limits and everyone talked about us, even Todd Sparrow. And mostly I just wanted a boy to think about, and
not
acamp counselor and after a couple weeks I started thinking about Brad because he was shy and nice and he was really the only boy around.
    And he must have been thinking about me because one night before bed he came and sat with me on the steps. And he didn’t usually smoke cigarettes but he bummed one from Rita and smoked it really fast. And when he finished it he bummed another one and smoked that one really fast. Then he whispered to me if I wanted to go into town with him that night. His plan was we’d sneak his motorcycle out of the main garage and walk it out of camp and then start it and ride into town which was about ten miles. I was pretty reluctant but he said he’d done it before and then Rita said, “And while you’re there get some cigarettes.” She’d heard the whole plan and by saying that I thought she was sending me a message of
go for it
so I said okay.
    And it was weird because I’d convinced myself that Brad was cute but as soon as I was involved in his plan he seemed sort of dopey again and as we walked to the main garage he seemed really bony and awkward. He smelled nice though and he pulled me over to the trees and then went by himself into the garage and wheeled out his motorcycle. It made a soft whirring noise and I didn’t usually like motorcycles but I liked his. And we walked it along the road and coasted it down the hill and all the time I kept looking back. But no one had seen us. We had done it. We had escaped Camp North Pacific.
    Brad started his motorcycle. He revved it a couple times but quietly and not in that loud obnoxious way that I hate. He got on and I got on the back and grabbed his T-shirt but he made me put my arms around him and sit close because it was safer. So I did and he started going, slow at first and with the headlights off because the moon was out and you couldsee okay. And it was scary but sort of fun and then he turned on the light and speeded up and I grabbed hold and we were
flying
! And there were little pockets of cold air and warm air and everything smelled like pine trees and cinder dust and I rested my chin on Brad’s shoulder and scooted forward on the seat so I was totally against him. And when we got to the main road we went super fast and that was really scary because we didn’t have helmets and the pavement was old and gravely. But Brad zoomed straight ahead and I closed my eyes and put my face in his back and I figured if I died it was my parents’ fault because they made me come here.
    But we didn’t die. We got to Harper’s Ferry and the only problem was, what were we going to do there at 11:30 at night? We drove down the main street and Brad told me to watch for cops because