Next time I woke up I heard another funny noise, like shushing on the roof, and I wondered what it was, then I realized it was raining, and that was okay.
When we finally woke up, I was the second-last to get out of my bunk. Jennifer and Donna had already gotten dressed, and Mr. Henderson was going down the pathway yelling for everyone to get up. I didn’t feel too chirpy, and checked with my tongue, to make sure I still had all my teeth. Then I ducked down a little into my sleeping bag to give myself a good sniff. Hmmm, may be Sally was right, after all. Even though it was so cold, I really washed up good, before going over to breakfast.
Everything was wet outside, and birds were singing like they were getting paid overtime for each sparkling note. There were funny little mushrooms popped up all over the place, and we had a game of kicking them out of the ground. It’s okay if you kick them clean, but they can sure make a mess of your shoes if they mush all over the toe. Ukk!
We went on up to breakfast before the gong went, so we were early, and Mr.
Farraday said how would you early birds like to help make breakfast? We thought it would be kind of fun, so we said okay.
“Any of you ever make French toast before?” he asked us.
“Me. I have.” Jennifer T. said.
“Me too. I know how”, Donna said, and started licking her chops.
“Hey, that’s really great! Okay, remember, we’ve got to make enough for everyone. Everyone will want to have at least two, maybe more. That’s at least eighty pieces, okay?”
So we went in back, behind the counter, to the galley or whatever it’s called, and the cook was there, and he smiled at us and told us where all the stuff was that we had to use. Jennifer took charge, and told us what to do. Me and Diane got a big deep dish apiece and started breaking eggs into them.
We were kind of messy at first, like there’s a certain way of breaking an egg properly. Jennifer showed us to tap the side of the egg on an edge of the counter, so there gets to be a crack, and then you pry the halves apart with your thumbs. I’ve seen Mom do it lots of times, but I haven’t done it too often. Like never.
Anyway, here we were, cracking these eggs. then Diane would give too much pressure on the egg and it’d all mush up in her hands, yuck! Or, I would crack the egg and then start to open it, and it’d fall too fast and drip all over the edge of the counter, and the floor. Did you ever try to clean up drippy eggs? It’s got to be the mushiest, gooiest, number-one yuckiest mess ever!
Well, finally, we got the hang of it, and we got the first round all cracked and opened, and got platters of milk, and Jennifer and Donna showed us how to dip bread slices first in the egg, then in the milk, then in the eggs again. You’ve got to be careful the bread doesn’t fall all into pieces, and you have to be careful you don’t drip all over the place.
And, of course, you try not to get the guck all over you. Naturally, I dripped all over the place, the bread kept breaking at the edges, and my hands got all full of goo. Like it’s not the kind of goo you don’t mind licking off your fingers, like cake batter, or icing. Still, me and Diane were good sports, and kept doing our thing.
Actually, we’d have preferred to do what Donna and Jennifer were doing. They heated up margarine on a big griddle apiece, and then fried the dunked bread on either side. Like, they had all the fun, and never got as gunky as us, but that’s okay. After all, they knew how to cook, and we didn’t.
The mess hall filled up really fast and everyone had orange juice, and we got a relay team going, sort of, to get the hot French toast out to our waiting fans. It didn’t take all that long to do the toast, and we did more than eighty, I’m sure, because some kids had three and four apiece, the gluttons.
Finally, we sat down ourselves, to have ours, and everyone said it was really great, we did a good job. I’m sure glad we didn’t have to clean up after ourselves, because like, we really, really truly left a mess. But we weren’t the clean-up team this time, yay!
It was windy this morning, and the water was choppy, and Mr. Farraday said that’s too bad, it looks like we can’t take the boats out this morning. He didn’t look like he really thought it was too bad at all. He looked relieved. Can’t say I blame him, really.
He said, since there were so many mushrooms growing roundabout, he’d teach us some mushroom identification. So he did, like he tried to show us different kinds, and said which were good to eat, and which you shouldn’t.
Boy, some of the most innocent-looking mushrooms are poisonous. And other ones, he said, were hallucinogens. We said, like huh? And he said, they were like drugs, and they were dangerous. Like you could get high on them.
Kerry said great, he wanted to get high. He was going to look for some of those mushrooms. Mr. Farraday told him there were none of that type around here, he was just telling us about them, and for heaven’s sake, he said, don’t try to eat any of them.
Like who’d want to, anyway? I mean, when Mom makes them at home I know they’re supposed to have a delicate flavour, be gourmet-type food and all that, but I’ll pass them up anytime, thank. We took up in science about how they’re fungi, and about the mushroom spores and like that, and they don’t look too appetizing to me, anyway.
Kerry said since he couldn’t eat them, it was a pity to waste them so he began to bombard us with mushrooms. Crap! It was bad enough to have marshmallows in my hair, how would you like to have a head full of pukey mushrooms? Mr. Farraday said, please Kerry, let that be enough. He suggested that Kerry have a run around the courts to cool off.
“Yeah, Kerry”, one of the guys said. “Take a long walk on a short pier.”
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