Tell Me, Darling Page 2

  “New recruits!” said the staffer, peering at her computer and then back up at them with a smile. “Welcome! I’m Elizabeth Jones, but never call me that. Just Jonesy.” At last, someone friendly! Sadie thought with relief. Jonesy was a dark-haired girl who looked about Sadie’s age, although she was almost twice as broad as Sadie and almost certainly twice as strong. Despite her imposing form, Jonesy’s voice was cheerful and her smile wide and genuine. Sadie liked her immediately.

  Sam gave her name and was ticked off a list, then allocated a room in the boarding house dormitory to share. “See you later!” she called out to Sadie as she went off with her key to find her room. So was Raj. Then it was Sadie’s turn.

  “Sadie Wheeler,” she said. Jonesy peered at the computer, then consulted her list. “Wheeler?” she said. “Can’t seem to find it here.”

  “I have my contract in my bag,” said Sadie. “I can get it out if you like.”

  “I believe you, cute blue-haired girl,” said Jonesy, picking up a different list. “Just can’t seem to find your name on the list of small group leaders.”

  “Ah,” said Sadie. “That’s probably because I’m not a small group leader.”

  “Really?” said Jonesy. “You look young to be a coach or an English tutor.”

  “I’m not one of those either,” said Sadie. “I’m the nurse.”

  Jonesy put down her pen. “Are you serious? You?”

  “Yes,” said Sadie. “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “Sorry, luv,” said Jonesy, finding Sadie’s name on her computer. “They said we were getting a South African nurse and I suppose I pictured a farmer’s daughter or something. Are you sure you’re the nurse? You don’t look a day over eighteen.”

  Sadie laughed. “I know, I get that a lot. I’m twenty-two and yes, I am sure I’m the nurse. So, do I get a room or what?”

  “Oh yes,” said Jonesy. “The nurse gets her own room. You know – in case you have to look after sick kids in the night or something.”

  “Oh. That’s a pity. I was looking forward to having a roommate actually.”

  Jonesy laughed. “So far most of the staff have moaned and groaned, or at least tried not to look disappointed about having to share a room. You actually want a roommate to snore and leave her towels on the floor?”

  Sadie shrugged. “I can sleep through anything. And I like the company.”

  Jonesy looked at her list again. “Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll put you in room 11 with Caitlin, the tennis bird. It’s right next to the private room you were supposed to get – maybe we can keep that for a sick bay.”

  “Great!” said Sadie. “Or I’ll go and bunk there if Caitlin the tennis bird’s snoring gets too loud.”

  Jonesy laughed again. “Okay, Nursie – here’s the key for 11. And the key for 13. You’ll have to have a meeting with Joe about what exactly he wants you to do. But that will probably be later. Joe’s a little stressed right now.”

  “I gathered that,” laughed Sadie, taking the keys and going off to find her room.

  Chapter 3

  A few hours later Sadie was seated in the dining hall with the thirty or so other Camp Bellevue staff members. She had reluctantly changed into one of the red T-shirts she had been given, disappointed to hear she would have to wear one every day. She was ravenously hungry; her sandwich on the train had worn off hours before and she hadn’t brought any snacks with her. Unfortunately, the only veggie option this evening was a mushroom pasta that looked as if it were made of glue and bits of grey cardboard. She tried to make up for it with as much as salad as she could get the nervous-looking girl behind the counter to give her, but she was not looking forward to her stomach’s objection to the gloopy mess.

  She looked over at Sam’s plate heaped with spaghetti bolognaise. “Tempted, Veggie?” asked Sam, tucking into her dinner. “That looks like a sorry excuse for a meal.”

  “It looks awful, but I am hungry enough to have to make it work,” said Sadie. “Not tempted to eat meat, though.”

  “Bunny hugger, then, are you?” asked Sam, grinning at her. Sadie laughed. She had only known Sam for an afternoon but already they were firm friends.

  “If there’s a bunny, I’ll hug it with pleasure,” said Sadie.

  Another girl sat down at the table with a plate of mushroom pasta. “Are they serious?” she said. “I don’t eat beef, so I get a plate of stewed knitting yarn?”

  Sadie laughed. “Let’s hope there’s some dessert,” she said.

  “I’d eat a bunny if the only other option was that wallpaper paste,” said Sam.

  Sadie closed her eyes for a second, giving thanks for her food. Awful as it was, it was a habit of hers to thank God before she ate, and besides, she truly was grateful. She had got the job and made her way here, and she was glad for the chance to do it. No one noticed her brief prayer, and she bravely made a start. She only got about half way before she had to stop, unable to force down another mouthful, and the other girl, Sharon, who was one of the English tutors, didn’t even get that far. Luckily there was dessert – just some canned peaches and custard, but at least it filled her up and took away the horrible taste of the pasta.

  “Hi girls!” Raj seated himself at their table, sitting close to Sadie and putting his arm around her shoulder. Sadie didn’t mind – so far Raj was one of the friendliest, nicest people she had met, and she was happy to engage in some harmless flirting. There was another guy with him – a painfully skinny guy with bad acne and limp brown hair. “This is Ian, girls, he’s from Liverpool.”

  “Ooh, like the Beatles!” said Sadie.

  “Like the Beatles,” said Ian. He was a third year Science student, and like most of the other locals was at Camp Bellevue to earn some summer cash and have a good time. Sadie realised quite soon that this was the aim of most of the locals, including Raj. The small group leaders didn’t get paid very much, and some who had worked at the camp last year knew what to expect: bad food, hard work, way too many rules, crappy pay and a blast of a good time.

  By the end of the meal she was laughing with a big group, enjoying herself immensely. It looked as if there were about twenty-five staff members all together, and almost all of them looked as if they were students or at least in their early twenties. The kitchen staff was called in, and there was a long lecture from Joe about how things were going to work. It seemed to Sadie that there were an awful lot of rules – no leaving the premises without permission, no smoking, no guys in the girl’s dorms or vice versa, no being a bad influence on the students. It seemed that just about everything was, in Joe’s words, “a sackable offence.” Lock your dorm door at all times, be on time for your duties and shifts, blah blah blah. Sadie felt a little annoyed to be treated as if she was a child or a servant, but then she supposed that many of the staff members were only about eighteen or nineteen and needed some boundaries. They hardly had any real time off – a Saturday or Sunday one week, and a half day the next. Evening trips to the village (Sadie was sure that meant the pub) were allowed if a group of four or more went together and only if you weren’t on night duty. Sadie knew that even though she was the nurse, she was also going to have to help with the general running of things; it had been agreed at her interview. She still had no idea exactly what her duties were.

  Joe was finishing off his lecture – just in time. Sadie could see that lots of people were losing concentration and getting tired of his serious voice droning on and on. “I think that about covers it,” he said. “Oh yes, last thing – if anyone has medication, you’d better give it to the nurse. I know that you’re all adults but it’s just safer with all the kids around to keep all meds in one place. Where’s the nurse anyway? Hasn’t she arrived yet?” He turned to Jonesy, who was slumped on a chair looking as bored as everyone else.

  “She’s right there,” said Jonesy, grinning, pointing in Sadie’s direction.

  Joe squinted over to Sadie’s table. Raj and Sam snickered. “Where?” he asked.


  “Me,” said Sadie, standing up. “I’m the nurse. You can give your meds to me, if you have any.”

  She smiled at the expression on Joe’s face as she faced him, hands on her hips. Clearly, he had also assumed Sadie was much younger than she was, not imagining that a spunky little girl with blue hair could be one of the few people in the room with an actual career.

  “Even if we’re on the pill?” asked Sam, cheekily. “You want Sadie to dose us every evening, Joe?”

  The staff laughed, Raj especially loudly, and put up his hand. “What about my Gummyvites, Joe?” he said, innocently. “Should I hand those in too?”

  Joe scowled at Sam. “No, of course not,” he said. “Just don’t keep drugs in your rooms.”

  There was another twitter of laughter from the group. “I mean, medicine,” said Joe, his face rapidly turning red. “Or any other drugs, of course. You know what I mean.” He turned to Sadie. “Come and see me in my office later and I’ll brief you.”

  The staff erupted into giggles again. Joe’s blush, as well as his scowl, remained. Sadie supposed it was funny, but she was feeling a little bad for Joe by now. She sat down again. Raj patted her on the back and gave her a thumbs up. “You rattled him good,” he said, playfully. “You go, girl!”

  “Hope he gives you a good briefing!” laughed Sam. Sadie laughed too, then wished she hadn’t. The joke was on her, after all.

  Later, in Joe’s office, there was a huge box of medical supplies and a thick file waiting for her. Joe sat on the edge of his desk, his arms folded. “You don’t look old enough to be a nurse,” he said, meeting her eyes and actually looking at her properly for what Sadie thought was probably the first time since she had arrived at the station.

  She folded her arms too, meeting his gaze. “I assure you I am old enough,” she said. “I’m not very experienced yet but I am an actual qualified nursing sister.”

  “Then what are you doing here on a camp?” he asked.

  “Having an adventure,” said Sadie. “Seeing the world before I go home and have to start being a real grown-up.” For a moment Sadie thought she saw the hint of a smile on his face. But it didn’t last long.

  “It must be the hair,” he said. “It makes you look like a schoolgirl.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Maybe that’s what I was going for.”

  “There’s a form on the top of that file,” he said.” An inventory of the supplies in the box. You need to check everything and sign it off before the kids arrive tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” she said. It was after eight, and the kids were going to start arriving early the next morning. “I’m supposed to stay up this evening and do that?”

  “It has to be done. Also in that file are incident reports. Every time you do anything for anyone you fill in one of those and give them all to me at the end of the week. Friday evenings.”

  Sadie nodded.

  “And there’s another form in there for all the medications. The kids will bring you meds, you record them, and you record when they come to you to get it. At the end of the camp there will be a recon of everything, all right?”

  “I won’t be irresponsible, Joe,” said Sadie. “I know it’s important.”

  “Good.” He turned and went to sit behind his desk. “That’s all,” he said. “Oh, and I’ll have to put you on the roster for other things too. Can’t have you sitting around doing nothing all day waiting for someone to hurt themselves. You can help run activities, accompany groups to swimming and sports coaching. And do night shift in the dorms.”

  “I’m happy to work hard,” said Sadie. “But what if there’s an emergency while I’m responsible for a group of kids?”

  “Then I’ll make a plan.” Joe squinted up is eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Look, I’m short-staffed, okay? I wasn’t even supposed to be doing this in the first place …” He paused as if he had said too much. “You’re on the roster, that’s it. I’d like that inventory form in the morning.”

  “All right,” she said. “Don’t worry, you’ll have it.” She picked up the heavy box and balanced the file on top. Joe was lost in the papers on his desk again, his frown deeper than ever. He didn’t say a word as Sadie left, making her way with her burden to room 13.

  Later that evening, Sadie and some of the other staff hung out in the dining room. Ian had brought a bluetooth speaker and they put on some music. Sadie met more of them – Gabriel, a long-haired Spanish guy who had been hired to help in the kitchen but had been promoted to small group leader, or SGL, and his friends Juan and Benita who were stuck chopping vegetables and stirring pots, but were happy to be making a lot more money than they could have at home. There was Johan, a baby-faced 20-year old guy from Rotterdam, and Emma, a tall slim girl from London with almost waist-length brown hair, who looked as if she could have spent her summer modelling rather than slogging away on a summer camp. Raj spent most of the evening flirting with either Sadie or Emma. Some of the English tutors, who were mostly graduates and a little older than the crowd of SGL’s, came to hang out for a while, although they already seemed a little concerned about Ingrid, their “boss” – a white-blonde seriously A-type girl from Sweden who was already frustrating them with her demands.

  “Hey Ian,” said Raj, who was sitting behind Emma and playing with her hair. “You’ve worked here before - what’s the deal with grumpy Joe?”

  “Oh – he’s a good sort, don’t worry about him,” said Ian. “He wasn’t supposed to be the Camp Director this year, just the Assistant. He’s hardly older than we are. He’s a grad student. The woman who was supposed to be the director pulled out at the last minute – I think she had a fight with the owner about money, and suddenly Joe was it. He was mad as hell – I heard him on the phone, saying it was too much responsibility and he wasn’t qualified. I think he must have been told to take the job or leave, because next thing he was in charge and Jonesy was Assistant Director, not just the admin bird anymore.”

  “This owner sounds like a prat,” said Raj. “Even if he does have a wicked car. Have you ever met him, Ian?”

  “No,” said Ian. “He’s never around.”

  “So, who’s doing the admin then?” asked Sadie.

  “No one, everyone – I don’t know,” said Ian. “You’ll see soon enough – Camp B always pulls it off, but it can be a mess along the way. Maybe they’ll get someone else in but for now – Joe’s under pressure.”

  “And he’s not happy about it,” said Sam. “He doesn’t have to be such a monkey’s bum though, does he?”

  Everyone laughed. “Australians!” said Raj. “So expressive. South Africans too, right Sadie? Speak some Afrikaans for us!”

  Sadie spent the next little while entertaining her new friends with funny Afrikaans phrases and songs, with Johan the Dutch guy laughing hard at this strange version of his home language. They were even more impressed at her Xhosa, especially the clicks. Then they spent a while comparing English accents and trying to get Johan and the Spanish staff to hear the difference. By the time Sadie thought she really should get to her room to start on the inventory, Raj was on table reciting nursery rhymes and everyone was laughing. She sighed as she walked off down the passage, gearing up for a few hours at least of work before she could go to sleep. As she looked out of the passage window, she could see the light on in the office across the quad, and Joe himself behind the desk, his computer screen glowing, his head in hands. The reluctant boss, thought Sadie, understanding the situation a little better now. The “owner”, whoever he was, didn’t sound as if he ran things very well, and it looked as if Joe was paying the price.

  Chapter 4

  “Virginia da Costa,” said the girl in front of Sadie’s table, enunciating her name clearly and slowly for the benefit of the non-Italian speaking nurse. She was about fifteen, very fashionably dressed, with beautiful long dark hair. “It is my medi-kay-shun for the a-llergies.”

  “Ah,” said Sadie, trying to make out the foreign name on the bottle and
marking them down as anti-histamines. “If you have a problem you can come and see me, all right? Room 13.”

  “O-kay,” said Virginia, smiling a very white smile and getting up to go. “I love-a your-a hair-a!”

  “And I love your accent!” said Sadie. Virginia was the last in the queue of kids handing in their medications that morning. Sadie had stayed up late doing the inventory, and had set up room 13 as her base, complete with a cheerful hand drawn sign on the door. “NURSIE,” it said, in big colourful letters. Underneath, Sadie had drawn a picture of a sad-faced bunny holding out its paw for a band-aid. She had begged a padlock from the groundsman’s office and had the medications double-locked in the cupboard, both keys on a cord around her neck. So far nothing promised to be too complicated – one kid needed medication for his epilepsy every day, and there were two who had asthma. The only staff members who had come to see her were Juan, who gave her a spare EpiPen in case he accidentally ate some shellfish, and the golf coach, Richard, a suave dark-haired nineteen-year-old who had Diabetes. He wore an insulin pump and said he had it under control, but gave her an emergency kit in case his blood sugar dropped low.

  Joe’s frown was deeper than ever and at breakfast that morning he looked as if he had hardly slept at all. When Sadie had handed him her signed-off inventory before breakfast he had barely acknowledged her. She felt simultaneously sorry for him and offended by his horrible manners. By lunchtime he had yelled at Caitlin the tennis bird (who was a lovely sunny girl from Manchester with brown hair in a ponytail and a permanent sock tan from all the tennis, who didn’t snore) for settling some girls into the wrong room, and again at Dave the driver after he had left someone’s suitcase at the airport. Kids had been arriving all morning, mostly a large bunch of Italians but also a group of Russians and a few Austrians. More were expected later in the afternoon – the English classes, sports coaching and other group activities were beginning the next morning. The small group leaders had each been assigned a group of either boys or girls and were responsible for settling them in, giving them their schedules, accompanying them to their classes and activities and of course making sure they knew all the rules. Sadie had seen Raj, Sam, Ian, Gabriel, Emma and others leading groups of kids around, showing them the grounds and the facilities. Jonesy had given her a few other jobs and she had a fun morning, buzzing around on errands and sorting out mix-ups. This was just the way she liked things to be – busy, exciting, new and interesting.