I hate getting lost in the car and lost I most certainly was. I had been traveling through wooded roads for hours it seemed (okay, not really) looking for Camp Cheer-Lee-Dah where I was to begin as a summer instructor. My GPS, handheld, not built into my old small sedan, seemed to be taking me through one small road to another deeper in the woods. I'm pretty sure I crossed some intersections more than once as I rattled up, down, and around the tree darkened roads. The only positive thing to be said for it was that the tree shade reduced the oppressive July heat.
Coming atop a high point, I suddenly saw before me a clear valley of tall grasses, a distant farmhouse, and even more distant grazing cattle. Civilization, at last. Maybe I could stop and ask for help finding the invisible cheerleading camp for which I was searching.
As I came down the rough blacktop road into the sunlit valley, I could feel the higher temperature permeate my weakly air-conditioned Kia. I could see someone riding a small tractor out on the far edge of the farmhouse property. I parked near a ditch and began walking across the knee high pasture grass towards the tractor person. As I approached, I could discern that the operator was a young woman, oblivious to my presence as she drove the noisy tractor away from my position. At last I was able to hail her with wildly waving arms.
The tractor stopped although the loud engine still huffed and belched in neutral. The operator gave me a quizzical look, turned off the engine, and climbed down. "Yeah?" She yelled as she approached my spot on this scorching prairie.
"I'm lost!" I shouted, sounding too frantic than I intended.
The young woman laughed and soon we were standing at a distance for more normal conversation. "Where ya tryin' to get to?" She asked in a friendly manner. Friendly, perhaps, but she still looked at me as if I was the strangest creature she had ever laid eyes on.
"Camp Cheer-Lee-Da." I said. "It's supposed to be around here somewhere but I can't find it and I've been driving around forever." I said in a rush.
"Camp Cheerleader?" She said doubtfully. "Never heard of it."
My heart sank. For all I knew I was on the opposite end of the county. "Oh, darn." I said dejectedly and flopped my arms in despair.
"Ha, just kidding." The young woman said. "It's back the way you came on the far side of that ridgeline."
I practically jumped for joy while laughing at the stranger's joshing deception. I looked around and felt the heavy humidity envelop me on this sundrenched piece of land. "Gawd, it's hot out here." I said.
The woman looked up into the bright sunlit sky. "You get used to it."
Now that my worries of being lost in the country had been abated, I was able to relax. I noticed that my farmgirl benefactor was not much older than myself. A sunstreaked (from the actual sun, not a bottle) blonde, with broad bare shoulders not surprisingly deeply tanned. She squinted and wore no sunglasses out here in this blinding glare. She was wearing a bandeau top that covered what appeared to be healthy All-American breasts with a hint of cleavage at the top of the material. Bare midriff with a deep navel, above loose fitting cutoff denim shorts that rode low on her hips and high up on her thighs. Long bare legs also deeply tanned ending in low-top canvas Converse sneakers. Oh, and her entire body from her forehead and neckline to her ankles was gleaming from heavy sweat that ran in rivulets down her arms, chest, and legs even as we spoke.
"C'mon up the house. Get a drink with me. I'll give ya directions." She said and waved me to follow her up the hill towards the farmhouse a few hundred yards away.
I followed and soon lost ground behind her as she effortlessly strode up the hill despite the incline and the unbelievable heat and humidity. By the time I was halfway to the house, I was also drenched in sweat and drooping at the shoulders as I huffed to the finish line. I dragged myself to the summit and walked around the back of the big house that seemed more modern up close than it had from a distance.
I found the young woman pouring large tumblers of ice water for us on a patio that bordered a huge oddly shaped pool. It was quite a spread behind the unassuming house. The woman handed me the glass which was icy to my touch and I gulped greedily.
"I'm Haley. Thanks for the water." I said with a sigh of relief.
"I'm Amy." She said, watching me over the rim of her glass.
"Wow, it's nice back here." I said. "Too bad you gotta cut all that grass out front."
"Work never bothers me much. I like the sun." She said as she took a slow pull of ice water. "So, what are you, a cheerleader? Looking for that camp I mean."
"Yeah. I'm a cheerleader for Albert-Preston U. and this is my first summer job...if I ever get there." I answered.
"You look like a cheerleader." She said. It didn't sound like a total compliment, though, the way she said it.
"What about you? What do you do all the way out here?" I asked my hostess.
"Oh, I'm home for the summer. I'm a junior at Barnsley."
I had to reassess my impression of Amy with that remark. So she was a student at Barnsley, a high SAT college upstate. I often find myself misjudging people at first impression. It's something I want to change about myself.
