Page 32 of Give Me a Sign
“No.” She snaps her fingers. Then she gives a large, silly grin. “A boy. A boy likes you.”
“Uh, no,” I say. “You’re too funny.”
“Not funny! Fine, I won’t tell you who.” She holds a finger to her lips, but points across the pool to where Isaac is floating on brightly colored noodles with his campers. Honey giggles and paddles away from me.
Okay, my interest is piqued. But even if Isaac actually does like me, how would Honey know?
Once she’s farther away, Blake practically materializes beside me. “Throw me!” She points toward Isaac, who is now tossing his campers up out of the water to plunge back down with a big splash.
“Oh, I don’t know if I can do that,” I say. “But you can hold on to my shoulders and I’ll swim around?”
“Fine.”
As we wade through the water, another one of our campers grabs onto my arm. And another onto my other arm. On a normal day, I might not entertain this, since it’s taking all my energy to drag these girls around the pool, but they’re having the time of their lives, and I need to prove to myself that I can be a good counselor. Staying upright is difficult at the deep end, where I have to be on my tiptoes, but I’m a few steps away from more solid footing in the shallow part when someone grabs me tight around the stomach and pulls us all underwater.
I pry the little kid’s arms off and jump back to the surface, helping the girls to the side of the pool, where we all try to catch our breath. The young boy, Cole, swims after us. “I wanna play, too!” he shouts.
“No,” I say sternly, still coughing up water. “You can’t jump on me like that.” I turn to my campers. “Girls, are you okay?” They all nod.
Cole doesn’t move away, though. He reaches out to grab my shoulders while kicking his legs to splash up a ton of water. “My turn!”
“No, no, no,” I say and sign, turning away to cover my face. I will draw the line at behavior that endangers anyone. No good counselor would tolerate that anyway.
I look up across the water to see Oliver, who’s approaching the edge of the pool beside us and blowing his whistle. He reaches down and lifts the boy off my shoulder.
“Can he hear me enough?” Oliver asks me. I shrug and nod.
“It’s not safe to jump on people,” Oliver tells Cole, talking loud and clear. “Remember our rules?”
“Sure.”
“Good,” Oliver says, standing back up. “Now apologize.”
“What?” Cole asks.
“Say sorry,” Oliver says and signs, putting his extremely limited ASL to use.
“Sorry,” the boy signs, and swims off.
The girls have already grabbed hold of a few noodles and are floating away, but I take a moment to catch my breath at the edge of the pool. It’s good for Blake to have some bonding time with just her fellow campers.
Oliver’s still standing beside me.
“Hey, stranger, didn’t I just see you at the lake?” I smile, shaking my head. “It’s been a day.”
“I’ll bet.” His voice is quieter now that he’s not talking to the camper, but I’ve caught most of what he’s saying on his lips. “Do————to drink?”
“A drink?” He nods. My mouth is dry. “Good idea.”
I’m about to scooch down the wall toward the ladder, but Oliver takes a few quick steps over to the lifeguard chair and returns with his water bottle. He untwists the cap and hands it to me.
“Thank you.” I gulp down almost half of it.
He sits on the edge and puts his feet in the water, letting out a sigh of relief. “It’s scorching.”
“Come on in, you’ll feel refreshed! Splash around and get your hair wet.”
Ben is walking around the perimeter of the pool. I catch him glaring at us, and Oliver does, too. “I’m supposed to be in the chair, but a quick dip won’t hurt.”
