Surviving Summer Vacation by Willo Davis Roberts Page A

can’t find her,” I said. “If she’s moving, she could be staying just ahead of us.”
    Alison bit her lip. “And it’ll be our fault if anything happens to her. Why didn’t you get Harry to help look?”
    I rolled my eyes. “Harry’s not much use in an emergency. You don’t think she could have gone back to the pool, do you?”
    â€œI hope not. I’ll go check there, and you make another pass around the park. This time stop and ask people. Maybe she went in someone else’s trailer or something.”
    Ten minutes later, at the far back of the campground, I stopped. Nobody had seen a ­little girl in a red swimsuit. I didn’t know where else to look, and I was getting pretty nervous.
    â€œAriadne, where are you?” I yelled in frustration.
    To my great surprise, she answered. “I’m here,” she said.
    I looked all around, but it wasn’t until she yelled again that I looked up.
    And there was her little face, peering down at me from the top branches of the tallest cedar tree in the camp. About a mile over my head.
    My stomach tightened in a knot. She had to be at least thirty feet off the ground.
    My mouth went dry. “Come down,” I ­suggested, “and have supper.”
    â€œOkay,” Ariadne said and disappeared. A moment later there was a flurry of movement in the branches, and I thought she’d fallen.
    â€œAriadne?” I asked.
    Her voice sounded small. “I can’t get down, Lewis. I slid, and my hands hurt.”
    My teeth came together with an audible click. “How did you get up there?”
    â€œI climbed up to get away from the bears,” she said.
    â€œThere aren’t any bears here,” I protested, moving directly under the lower branches. I couldn’t even see her when I looked straight up.
    â€œThey would bite me,” she said, and then I caught a glimpse of red and a few needles drifting down through the branches as she slid down a bit more.
    I had visions of her falling all the way and breaking her neck. And guess who’d be held responsible?
    I evaluated the tree, swallowed, and called up to her. “Stay where you are, Ariadne. I’ll come and get you.”
    â€œCan I climb up too?”
    I’d forgotten Billy. “No. You sit down, right there, and wait for me, okay?”
    I didn’t know if he could be trusted or not, but I had to get Ariadne down.
    The branches scratched my face and especially my ears as I climbed. It was a long way up, and the branches were getting a little small to hold my weight before I finally got within range of her. She looked scared, and reached out for me.
    â€œIf I try to carry you,” I told her, “I can’t hang on. I need both hands to get down, so I’ll stay just a step below you, to catch you if you slip, and you move down one branch at a time. Okay?”
    â€œOkay,” Ariadne said. “See, Lewis, there’s the bear!”
    I looked down where she was pointing. I might have laughed if I hadn’t been so high in the air, still having to get her safely down.
    â€œThat’s a dog, Ariadne. Not a bear.”
    â€œNo, I heard that lady call him ‘bear,’ ” she insisted.
    â€œHe’s just a big dog, and they probably named him Bear because he sort of looks like one. Getready, now, and put one foot down, okay?”
    And then I paused and leaned out a little to see better. Was that a familiar car in that last campsite way up on the side of the hill, almost hidden by a couple of trees?
    It was light blue, but I couldn’t tell if it was the same car that carried the guy who claimed to have lost his keys near our coach. But now I could tell that this one was towing a small travel trailer.
    Ariadne’s foot touched my shoulder, and I guided her foot onto a sturdy branch and dropped down one level myself. I hoped we both made it down all right.
    It seemed to take forever,