it by leaning forward and letting several nearly nose-length strands of hair fall over his face. Even so, he suddenly felt flush like he’d gotten an instant sunburn. She was one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen and she moved with an athletic grace he could only dream of.
“Don’t worry, parents are always like that the first time,” Jade said with a knowing and somewhat comforting smile.
“Uh-huh,” was about all Tristan could eek out.
“Okay. First thing you need to know is how to get through the jungle wall.”
“The jungle wall?” Tristan asked.
“It’s meant to keep the regular folks out and let us in.”
“Regular folks?”
“You know, the park visitors—all those screaming kids and their parents. Don’t get me wrong. They’re okay and all. Help keep us going and doing what we do. But we don’t want ’em snooping around and bugging us all the time.”
“Uh, okay,” Tristan said, wondering what in the world she was talking about. It was an ocean and marine life-themed summer camp. There’d probably be silly arts and crafts, running games he’d be worse than horrible at, hopefully some snorkeling, and greasy cardboard-tasting food that slid off the plate.
Tristan moved closer to the tall green barrier ahead. He quickly realized what she meant by jungle wall; it was actually a dense thicket of intertwined plants. There were vines as thick as the rope Tristan had attempted to climb in gym class and some had seriously nasty thorns. They were twisted, curled and snaked around massive tree trunks that resembled long, smooth elephant legs. Tristan thought they’d need a chainsaw to get through or even better, a bulldozer.
“The trick is you just need to know where to step. If it recognizes you, the wall will let you through.”
Tristan looked at the girl like she had vines coming out of her head. “How could the wall, I mean the jungle, know me?”
Jade ignored his question, pointing to a checkerboard of large flat rocks and grass that began where the walkway ended. It extended to the sides of the wall and disappeared beneath it. “These rocks are the key to getting through. Each time you step on the right one, the wall will open up, showing you the way through.”
Tristan nodded his head like he understood what she was saying, but he still had no clue what she was talking about. Maybe her ponytail was pulled too tight.
“Okay. The first rock is the sea turtle,” Jade said, pointing to an oddly-shaped rock to their left. “Now watch what happens when I step on it.”
Jade hopped onto a rock that reminded him of the shape of a sea turtle—if he squinted and cocked his head to the left.
She stood looking at the wall of interlocking plants in front of her, “Seems a little slow today.”
Tristan stared at the rock Jade stood on and at the green plant wall. The girl’s ponytail was definitely too tight, or maybe she’d spent too much time underwater and the seawater had affected her brain.
Then, right in front of Tristan’s eyes, the jungle wall came alive. Its vines started to slowly wriggle and squirm. Like thick green snakes, they began to slither away, unfurling their grasp around each other and the massive tree trunks. Soon there was a hole in the wall. It was a shadowy entrance into the jungle wall’s interior.
“How’d you do that? A trick switch or something?” Tristan asked.
Jade stepped off the sea turtle rock onto the path and the vines moved again, this time stretching forward and weaving around to reform the impenetrable jungle wall. The entryway had disappeared.
“Okay, now you try,” Jade instructed. “Just step on the sea turtle rock and give it a moment.”
“If you say so,” Tristan said, stepping onto the rock.
And just like before, the snake-like vines slowly slithered away, opening the way into the wall.
It was both creepy and cool at the same time. Tristan wondered how it worked. Maybe there was a camera somewhere with some new high-tech image recognition software and they were robotic vines.
Jade hopped to the rock Tristan stood on then onto another one about a foot deeper into the jungle wall. “C’mon, let’s go through. Just follow me and step on the rocks I step on. This one’s the fish. Next is the whale.”
Tristan followed behind Jade. He leapt from one sea creature rock to the next. She moved quickly and smoothly over the stones, while he had to steady himself between each long step. Inside the wall, the light was dim with a strange greenish glow to it. And as Tristan stepped off each rock, the opening into the dense jungle vanished behind him.
“Now you’re going to have to remember which rocks to step on. One time a new camper forgot. Got stuck in here for hours before anyone found him,” Jade warned in an oddly happy way. “Just look for the sea creature rocks and don’t step on the grass or the wrong rocks.”
“What happens if you do?” Tristan asked.
“You do not want to know.”
“Great . . .” he replied. “I feel so much better now.”
“We’re almost there,” Jade went on. “Really it’s only seven rocks in all, just seems like more. First time I did it, I kinda freaked out too. Just aim for this last rock. It’s jagged on one side, forked on the other. We call it the Jaws rock. When you see it, you’re through.”
Tristan stepped onto the shark-shaped stone and the dark jungle gave way to bright sunlight. Looking back, he caught the last wriggling of the vines as the wall transformed back into a thorny green barrier.
Jade glanced down at the information sheet on her clipboard. “You’re in the first bungalow of course, Seasquirts, room number two.”
Tristan had been about to ask how the jungle wall worked, but staring at the view ahead, he completely forgot what he was about to say. It was as if he had on-the-spot amnesia. Tristan just stood there speechless and stared ahead. A wide turquoise lagoon stretched out for as far as he could see. Its surface sparkled like a field of diamonds with reflections from the afternoon sun. In the distance were patches of deep, deep blue and a line of white, where small waves were breaking. A beach of sugary sand surrounded the lagoon and palm trees laden with coconuts hung out over the water.
Just then, about a hundred feet off the beach, two dark triangular fins broke the water’s surface. Moments later they submerged, disappearing from view.
“Are those . . . are they sharks?” Tristan asked eagerly.
“No, just a couple of dolphins.”
As if to confirm this, one of the large gray dolphins jumped high out of the water, twirled, and landed on its back. The splash was fantastically high and wide, as if a giant had done a cannonball off the high dive.
“C’mon. Let’s get you settled. There’s a lot more to see.”
They walked along the shore on a path of flat white rocks imprinted with shells and corals. As far as Tristan could tell, there were no sea creature
