Ha ha!
The Phantom scornfully mocks Christine and her irrepressible curiosity, then moves menacingly toward her. Unable to tear his eyes from the screen, Leo watches with mounting horror. For him the movie is too real; it scares him. Heedless of where he is, he leaps to his feet with a shout, which rings out and reverberates against the ceiling.
No sooner had the sound burst from him than a wave of mocking laughter shook the room, and “Wacko, Wacko, Wacko,” the epithet ran along the rows. “Scaredy-cat, scaredy-cat.” Flashlights were switched on, their probing beams sought him out, illuminating his dazed features. Ducking his head, he stumbled up the aisle and rushed outside; the door clattered loudly at his back, producing another volley of laughter. Hot with shame and embarrassment, he rushed down the steps and made his way blindly along the first path he came to. It was dark and he had trouble finding his way. To his left he could hear the lake water lapping the shore, and he pushed on until he came out at Three Corner Cove. No lights were on at the infirmary, nor at the Oliphants’ cottage, yet he judged someone to be home, because the car was pulled up on the grass. He trudged to the end of the dock and sat down, dangling his legs and listening to the sound of the water against the pilings. What a fool he was to act that way. When would he ever learn?
“Leo?”
He turned around to find Fritz and Wanda, who had stolen up behind him.
“Mind if we join you?” Fritz asked. No reply; but Leo was glad all the same for the company.
“You all right?” Wanda asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s nice here,” she said, “but I’ll bet it’d be nicer inside. I think if we looked in the icebox we’d find some ice cream. How does that sound?”
Leo was appreciative; neither had asked about his exhibition in the iodge; now here was Wanda inviting him in for ice cream, a thing camp rules strictly forbade her to do.
She gave Leo a hand up and they left the dock for the infirmary, where Wanda turned on lights and went inside. Leo and Fritz waited on the porch until she reappeared with a tray of ice cream and cookies. Then Fritz got up to tune in Wayne King and the Lady Esther Orchestra, and soon they had a little party going and, despite his embarrassment, Leo was enjoying himself.
His enjoyment was short-lived, however; another flashlight beam broke the surrounding dark, and Reece appeared. Leo tensed as the counselor marched up the steps and surveyed the scene.
“Well, this is chummy. Somebody’s birthday?”
“We were just having a taste of ice cream,” Wanda said lightly. “Sorry, there’s none left.”
Reece scowled at Leo. “I figured this is where I’d find you. What’s the idea, running out like a crazy man?” Without waiting for an answer, he leaned over to take Leo’s dish.
“Oh, let him finish,” Wanda protested. “Stop picking on him all the time.”
Reece swung on her angrily. “When are you two going to stop coddling this spud?”
Wanda tipped the ash from her cigarette into the nasturtiums below the railing. “Nobody’s coddling him,” she returned evenly. “Leo really doesn’t deserve the kind of treatment he’s been getting around here.”
“Look, like I told you once before, he’s not your camper, he’s my camper,” Reece retorted. “I’m the counselor of Jeremiah, and as long as he sleeps in my cabin he belongs to me. I’ll decide what to do with him, not you.”
“I’m only trying to help. He’s got to have someone he can turn to in this place.”
“And that someone is you, hm? The way you spoil him, he’ll never get anywhere. You’re like a mother hen.” “Then I’m glad – since he hasn’t got a mother.”
Reece’s voice sharpened. “Lots of people don’t have mothers and they get along just fine. So take my advice and steer clear of him”
Fritz snorted. “And you are going to make me, I suppose, with your Mingoes and your foolish posters.”
Reece lounged negligently on the railing, his expression lightly mocking, as if he found Fritz a figure of amusement. “You just don’t get the picture, do you, Fritzy.”
“I expect you’d be happy to show it to me, though.” “Anytime you like, bud.” Making fists, Reece assumed an offensive stance. “Come on, 1 dare you.”
Wanda put out a restraining hand. “Don’t, please, there’s no point to it.”
Reece crossed his arms and smirked. “Better listen to your girlfriend, Fritzy. And you better shut up about the Germans, too. I’m German and proud of it.”
Fritz shook his head sadly. “Sometimes I think I shall never understand people like you.”
“That’s okay, Fritzy,” Reece returned softly, “sometimes I don’t think I’ll ever understand people like you either. So why don’t you just trot along and play with your toy village? Or, better yet, go back and join your family in that pretty little camp they’re no doubt in.”
“Reece!” Wanda sprang to her feet in protest and took Fritz’s arm, only to have him shake her off. Suddenly the two men were grappling together, furiously pummeling each other. The muffled sounds of blows punctuated the dark while Wanda cried out for them to stop, trying to get herself between them but unable to separate them.
Reece’s tall, muscular form towered over the smaller, wirier Fritz, who seemed to be catching the worst of it, until the sounds of the struggle produced results: lights came on at Three Corner Cove, and Doc Oliphant appeared on his porch. “What’s going on over there?” he demanded, peering across the water.
“There, then – will you two please stop now?” hissed Wanda. “It’s all right,” she called back, “just a little kidding around.”
“Wanda, dear, try and control your hot-blooded beau, won’t you?” came the doctor’s admonition as he went back inside and turned off the porch light. Panting from their exertions, the two combatants faced each other with dull, sullen looks.
“You’re bleeding,” Wanda said to Reece, whose lip had been opened by a lucky punch from Fritz’s hard knuckles. “Let me get something for it.”
“Skip it.” Reece spat over the railing, then turned to Leo.
“All right, camper, skip off to where you belong,” he said, and, his lip red with blood in the lamplight, he swung away down the steps. With a prompting nod from Fritz, Leo followed. At the head of the path Reece split off without a word or sign to disappear in the direction of Bachelors’ Haven and the game of poker in progress, while Leo limped back to Jeremiah, where, as taps blew, he fell onto his bunk with his clothes on.