Out of My Heart

At first, Melody is nervous. She has never been swimming in a lake. As they approach the lake, however, Melody is amazed by the beautiful colors and automatically reaches for her new camera. A beautiful white crane soars above them. Suddenly, Melody isn’t as afraid of the lake. Trinity announces it is time for lunch, but Melody is uneasy over what camp food would be like.

Trinity happily spoons Melody’s lunch for her—blended applesauce and hot dogs with a chocolate sundae for dessert. After visiting the bathrooms, the campers head back to the lake. “I am a sinker” (91), Melody types to Trinity. She says that she worries about rip currents, but Trinity laughs and says the campers do not go into the lake. The camp has a heated pool next to the lake.

At the pool, Melody is impressed by the long ramp and how the counselors help each camper. But she resists going in herself, as she thinks, “I felt like one of those characters in a scary movie right before the monster pounces” (96). With Trinity’s help, slowly Melody eases down the ramp in a specially designed swim chair that rides on pool noodles. The water is like bathwater. Trinity gently eases Melody out of the swim chair and holding her tightly lets Melody feel the water all around her. “What color is warm? Orange? Turquoise? I’m feeling a little lavender here” (98), she playfully tells Melody. The other girls from Melody’s cabin join her, with everyone splashing and bouncing. Trinity suggests Melody try kicking in the water, as she says, “Just let your legs do their usual thing” (100). With the water surging around her, Melody feels like an Olympic swimmer. When it is time to get out, she is sad.

After lunch, the girls head over to a large barn for art class. The campers are allowed to create what they want from what they feel. Donning brightly colored garbage bags with head and arm holes to protect their camp clothes, the campers go about creating art. “There are no rules,” the art instructor tells them; “Do your thing” (105). Jars of paint are lined up with poster boards, and Melody begins with blobs of color using her hands. The finished project, dozens of splashed colors, pleases Melody. As she and the other campers rinse off their hands, Melody watches the colored water mix and spiral down the drain and thinks that it’s the “Best mess ever” (107).

After dinner, the campers head to the first night’s campfire. All the campers, including boys, join in a circle around the great open fire. As campers introduce themselves, Melody, who sits a bit apart from the circle, studies the colors in the fire and how yellows and oranges and reds all dance together, merging, “just becoming” (111).

Melody looks around the fire and at the campers in their wheelchairs and thinks that for once they are all “insiders” instead of outsiders (112). The campers sing as they make messy s’mores. In all the fun, Melody notices fireflies begin to appear, darting and zipping in the night sky. One boy with white hair barrels past her on a walker grabbing at the fireflies to catch one. He catches two and cups them in his balled fist. Melody cannot stop looking at the boy who then lets the two fireflies go, their “black and golden bodies” (117) lifting against the darkness.

That night, as Melody curls up under the blanket from home, she feels momentarily homesick as she smells the familiar scents from her house on the blanket. She worries she may never fall asleep in a strange place. She falls asleep listening to the tree frogs outside the cabin.

The next morning the girls are given their official orange Fiery Falcons T-shirts. At breakfast, Melody sends her mother a text message telling her how much fun she is having. The counselors surprise the campers with the first activity: zip-lining. The counselors smile and assure them they would be learning “to fly” (126). Melody was relieved the activity would not be horse-riding and doubts whether she would be expected to slide along a zipline.

As they head to the zipline station, Melody reasons that these counselors have helped hundreds of kids with disabilities do this. She takes an elevator to a wide platform high in the sky. With Trinity’s help, Melody is harnessed into a bright-red cushioned bucket, her “disobedient” (132) legs hanging loose in the air. Before she has a chance to say anything, she and Trinity are soaring above the treetops. Today, she thinks as she returns to her wheelchair, “we learned we could fly” (133).

Swimming is next. After a quick dip where Melody is more confident and uses her arms a little, the campers head to lunch. The afternoon activity returns the campers to the lake, this time for boating. The campers are carefully guided down the ramp to the boat. The spacious pontoon accommodates all the campers who don bright orange life jackets. Their wheelchairs are each securely fastened in place in the boat’s cabin. The campers quickly see the boat is like a “giant, unsinkable bath toy” (138). In short order, the boy campers join them on deck.

Melody cannot stop gazing at all the colors in the lake. She thinks while looking at the water, “Azure, indigo, sapphire. I ran out of blue words in my head” (142). An amiable captain introduces the campers to the parts of the boat and, with a shrill shriek from the boat’s whistle, the boat prepares to head out into the water. It is then that Melody sees among the boys the kid with the white hair from the campfire.