“You can’t be serious? A week, all alone, in France? Mum, I don’t have to go, do I? What would I do there?” Lotti burst into tears.
“But you won’t be alone! There will be lots of other kids there, and look at all the exciting activities! Painting, drawing, sculpting… They’ll even take you horseback riding on a farm,”” Mum waved the camp flyer enthusiastically at Lotti, who was unimpressed. She had never travelled by plane before, and she didn’t even know the camp guides.
“I don’t want to go! I’d rather drive around the state, just the two of us, in a camper, like you’ve been promising for two years, Mum! I don’t want to do this”. Lotti ran up the stairs to her room and slammed the door behind her. Mum followed and knocked at the door.
“Lotti… you know I have to go to that conference, and there’s no other way to do it now. At the end of the summer, I promise you, we’ll rent that trailer and go for two whole weeks! Please, just get through this camp… It’s only seven days! And I think you’ll have a great time!”” ““Wow! Are you serious? You are the best dad in the world! I can’t believe it, a week in France! Thanks a million, Dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“That was only five,”” smiled Dad. “”If you like, we can go shopping this afternoon for the big trip!
“Yes! Like one of those travel pillows they use on airplanes, and a sleeping bag with a miracle kitty!”
There is no need for a sleeping bag, there will be beds. Look what a cool place you’ll sleep in!” Dad shows her pictures on his laptop. They even go horse riding, and it’s all great, artsy stuff! I’m almost jealous”.
“I’ll send you a postcard, Dad! How many days until we leave?” Louisa was counting. July 1st, that’s two more weeks, thirteen more sleeps. Countdown!”
“”There’s only one question left,”” Dad growled, “”What am I going to do while you’re away?”
“Don’t worry, Dad, I think you’ll manage,” laughed Louisa.” “The flight was the worst ever. It was an 8-hour flight from New York to Paris, and from there was still the journey to the camp. Lotti didn’t care that the flight attendants responded to her every wish.
“Would you like another Coke? If you want, I can turn on a cartoon for you. We’re only three hours away, you could take a nap!” Lotti gave the young blonde stewardess a hard stare and turned to the window.
But Louisa loved flying and was particularly sorry that the flight from London was only an hour and a half long.
*
“Hello! I think I’m waiting for you! Louisa?“
“”Yes!””, Louisa cheerfully skipped up to the tall, nice man who turned out to be her driver.
“I will take you to the camp. What a huge suitcase! Have you packed for a year?” he laughed, and Louisa followed him cheerfully towards the parking lot.
Lottie was met at the airport by a taciturn, elderly lady holding a large sign. Neither of them said much on the long drive, Lottie didn’t feel like talking, and the driver let her sulk. ” “Louisa, however, didn’t shut up the whole way.
“And guess what, I got this camp for my ninth birthday, because I love sculpting, I have a lot of different kinds of clay, and I go to a workshop in London! Really, are you going to be at the camp?” she asked the driver, who, it turned out, was called Jerome and was French.
“Sure, and I will be driving you around!” Jerome smiled.
“That’s great! I’ve never been to France, are we really going to eat croissants every morning?” and then, without waiting for the answer, she continued. “Dad often makes croissants, they are frozen, but he bakes them. I have never met my mother in person, they divorced when I was very little. I also have a twin sister, Lotti, we Skype sometimes. She and my Mum live in New York. Do you have a sister?”
“I have two sisters, one of them…” but Jerome couldn’t finish his sentence.
“Wow, two girls are a lot, Dad always says one of me is enough!”
“I can really understand that. You certainly have plenty to say!”
“Yes, when I’m not playing, I’m talking. And sometimes I do both at the same time!”” ““Not thirsty?” Blanche was the camp leader, but Lotti knew nothing about that, and stared grumpily at herself the whole way instead of talking. Her answer was monosyllabic: “No”.
“Look at all the lavender!”” said Blanche from behind the wheel. They were passing a huge purple field.
“Yeah.” Lotti didn’t want to admit it, but she was also impressed by the sight. There was not much lavender in New York. “When we get there, I want to call my Mum!”
“Unfortunately, you can’t. This is a gadget-free camp! No internet, no phone”.
“Oh, come on! This is going to be even worse than I thought!”
“But it might even be a lot better than you think!” Blanche sensed that she was going to have a difficult time with Lotti. She turned on the car radio.
“”I hate French music,”” said Lotti, and sat back, offended. The rest of the journey was spent in deep silence, apart from the music blaring from the radio.