This all began one day
when Grandma Sadie called me up on the phone.
"I have a wonderful surprise!"
she said.
Right away,
the best possible surprise popped into my mind.
"You're giving us a dog?" I said.
Grandma Sadie was quiet.
Then she said,
"Eleanor, honey.
Your parents don't want a dog."
I knew that.
But I didn't understand it.
"We'd be so happy with a dog,"
I told Grandma Sadie.
"And I'm old enough to take care of it.
I'm nine."
"I know," she said.
"We could name it Antoine," I said.
"I love the name Antoine."
"Then I love it, too," she said.
"But
should we talk about your actual surprise?"
"Oh!" I said.
I'd almost forgotten about that.
"Sure."
"Well," Grandma Sadie said,
"I was just remembering
how much your mother enjoyed
sleepaway camp,
when she was a girl.
I think you'd also enjoy it.
So I'd like to treat you to sleepaway camp
this summer.
Would you like to go?"
"Yes!" I said. "I would!"
I really meant it, too.
"My friend Katie went last summer," I said.
"Every single day she ate M&M's.
And rode horses.
And jumped on a floating trampoline."
"How marvelous!" Grandma Sadie said.
"She got great at diving, too," I said.
"They gave her trophies."
"Let's get you started winning trophies,"
Grandma Sadie said.
"I'll call your mom's camp right away.
Camp Wallumwahpuck."
She did, too.
She called that camp with the crazy name
right away.
She also sent me a photograph, in the mail.
An old camp picture of my mom
when she was a girl.
She's standing outside a small white cabin,
wearing a backpack
and hugging a rolled-up, puffy sleeping bag.
She looks so happy.
I taped that picture to the wall by my bed
and looked at it night after night
before the start of summer.
All those nights,
I believed I'd be happy at Wallumwahpuck, too.
I really did.