The Tapiocans: Chapter One - Sunday

A church camp story for middlegraders

Tamar Geil did not hate her family. But on days like today, that was hard to remember.

Grandpa drove, and her mother sat in the passenger seat. Tamar’s six younger brothers jumped back and forth around her, shoving their super hero action figures into the air. Apparently, Mom and Grandpa didn’t believe in the safety of seatbelts. Normally Tamar would read while road tripping. But today she was upset, and it took her full attention to let her mother know it. This was hard as she was two rows behind, surrounded by her noisy siblings.

“Mom, it’s not fair that I can’t stay in the girls’ cabin.” Tamar whined for the fiftieth time. 

Years before Tamar was born, her grandpa had preached at a small church congregation. That resulted in them changing their services from Sunday to a Saturday worship. Shortly after they’d started a summer camp, and Grandpa went nearly every year to share a sermon and spend time with the group. This was the first year Tamar’s family had been able to attend with Grandpa, though, due to her father’s work schedule. 

“Tamar,” Mom sighed. “We’ve already been through this. You aren’t old enough to be staying with a bunch of girls alone.”

“I’m fourteen. And we won’t be alone. There’ll be a counselor. And the girls’ cabin is right next to yours.”  Mom never caved in before, but this was a big deal to Tamar. She couldn’t spend the week forced to sleep with her family. That would be too weird at her age. 

“Tamar, that’s enough.” 

One of her little brothers crawled over the back of Tamar’s seat, pulling on her hair. Tamar bit her lip to keep from screaming or crying. Already her emotions were too tense, and if she gave into that pain, she'd have a complete meltdown. Instead she twisted her brother’s ankle. “Don’t pull my hair.”

The brother answered with an extended tongue, then continued on his climb through the van. 

“Kids, you better calm down unless you want Grandpa to pull this van over.”

The kids settled down for only a moment. 

Tamar used the silence to make her next argument. “But Mom. It’s humiliating to have to stay with y'all.” 

“I don’t care. When girls get together, they get silly. And they talk about things they shouldn’t.”

By things Tamar’s mother most likely meant boys. 

As if any boy would ever like Tamar. She knew her family’s beliefs were too weird, and that mother was too strict. Besides, she was only fourteen. 

“Dad would let me stay with the girls,” Tamar tried.

“No he wouldn’t. And, no, you can’t call to check. He’s probably on some roof right now and if you called him he’d fall off and break his neck. And then there wouldn’t be any church camp for any of us.”

“No camp would be better than staying with my family,” Tamar mumbled.

“What?” Mom shouted over the children’s chaos. 

“Nothing.” 

Grandpa looked at Tamar through the rearview mirror, and smiled. “Hey, it’ll be alright. You’ll have so much fun meeting new people and learning more about Elohim that by the time night comes you won’t care where you sleep.”

Tamar highly doubted that. But she gulped down the lump of frustrated dreams. 

The entrance sign read, CAMP TAPIOCA.

Tamar’s twelve year old brother, Luke said, “What kind of stupid name is that?” 

“What does it say?” Another sibling poked Tamar. 

Grandpa said, “There’s wild Tapioca plants growing here, so they named it after those.” 

They were driving through a forest on a rough dirty road. It seemed as if the van bumped over every pothole in the road. And there were a lot of them. Somehow all that jolting and shaking soothed Tamar’s mood, though. It was so beautiful here, she wouldn’t mind getting lost.

A string of bubbles passed by her window. They were translucent and large enough to fit in, and looked as if they'd fallen from the rainbow because they were so colorful. If she’d been younger she’d have thought they had something to do with fairies. 

“Grandpa, what was that?” Tamar asked. 

“What was what?” 

“Something just passed my window. It looked like large bubbles and they were all sorts of colors.”

“Ah. I was just going to tell you all about the wonders of this camp. Those were floating tapioca seeds that had somehow gelled and clustered. It is a phenomenon unknown to any other location, or even to science. They are actually clear, but when they reflect light they appear colorful.”

“Is that true?” Luke demanded of his mother. 

“I don’t know,” Mom said. “Is it, Dad?”

“Well, it better be, because Tamar just saw it.”

“That doesn’t make sense, though.” Tamar stared out her window, hoping to catch another glance of the floating tapioca. “I read a book on Tapioca once … the plants we have here are actually called Cassava. And its roots are where you get the tapioca from. And they are thick. But even if they somehow opened and the tapioca starch got out, you have to process it to make it look like balls. How is that stuff just floating free and looking like that?”

“I don’t know.” Grandpa said. “That’s why it’s a wonder.”

Another group of floating tapioca passed by the window and this time most of her brothers and mother saw it, too. 

“Wow! It’s so neat!” 

As they neared the camp buildings, the forest thinned, but there were even more of the floating tapioca. The sun shone just over the edge of the cabins refracted strings of light from the masses of tapioca sending an array of vibrant colors onto the camp. 

“Beautiful,” Tamar said. 

Grandpa parked the van at the edge of a bunch of other vehicles. As soon as the engine turned off, all of Tamar’s siblings scrambled out. She stayed put until the path was clear. 

Grandpa called to the boys before they could run off and play. “Y'all better come and help me carry the suitcases to the cabin.”

Reluctantly the boys obeyed. 

Tamar exited the van and took her suitcase. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the tapioca. There had to be a reason that stuff was just floating around because it defied every bit of logic. She knew someone here would have to know the real answer beyond mysterious wonder. 

Intense heat lingered although the sun was fading away. 

Everyone seemed to know who Grandpa was, and was overjoyed he’d brought his family. It was almost like they thought of him as a celebrity—Tamar wondered if this is what it felt like to be a social outcast. Grandpa was waylaid in conversation. Tamar and her brothers continued unloading their suitcases without him. 

“It’s gonna be so hot here,” Tamar said. She surveyed the cabin she’d have to share with her family. She picked a bunk as far from her mother and brothers as possible. There was no AC. There were plenty of windows and a lot of showers. 

Grandpa came in when they were nearly unpacked and announced that they were about to pray for dinner at the cafeteria.

Box fans blew louder than any crowd could shout inside the cafeteria. At least it wasn’t as hot in here. Dozens of families filled the already convoluted space. Tamar had thought their van had been crowded. Compared to all the people in this building though, she wondered how she might survive this week. 

A young girl about Tamar’s own age poked Tamar’s arm. She had a friendly face scattered with freckles, like a fairy who might own all those pretty tapioca bubbles. 

“Hey,” the girl said. “I’m Ariel.”

Ariel looked like just the sort of person Tamar could be best friends with. 

“Hi! I’m Tamar Geil—”

“Oh, that’s your grandpa?”

“Yeah.” Tamar shuffled, hoping this wouldn’t affect how the girl saw her. 

“No, stinking way. It’s because of your grandpa that my dad changed our church doctrines.”

“Oh?” 

“It was before I was born,” Ariel said. “But I still hear about it all the time.” 

Tamar was about to respond when her mother said, “Tamar, let’s find seats.”

“Can I tag a long?” Ariel asked. 

“Sure!” Tamar slid into the bench her mother pointed out and Ariel sat down right beside her. 

Mom saw “Who’s your friend, Tamar?”

Ariel answered, extending an arm. “I’m Ariel Garrison. My Dad is the pastor.”

“Oh, yes. I know your family.” 

Convinced that Tamar was safe for the moment, Mom helped the boys find seats. 

“So?” Ariel asked. “How do you like it here?”

“Oh.” Tamar said. “I like it. I really like all those floaty things. Do you know how they got there?” 

“No idea. Scientists come out to study them occasionally. They are always too baffled to even write anything about them. So people just pretend like they don’t exist. We love them though.”

“Oh,” Tamar had hoped for a better answer than that. 

“You know, there’s still an empty bed above mine if you want it?” Ariel offered. 

Tamar looked away, her face burning. She clenched her fingers. Why did her mother have to do this to her? “I actually have to stay with my family… ”

She expected Ariel to ask why. But she said, “Gotcha. Well, that’s fine. We’ll still have plenty of fun together, I’m sure.”

Ariel seemed to… understand. Which was relieving, but also infuriating. Because a mother doing this to her daughter shouldn’t be understandable. 

“Are you homeschooled?” Ariel asked, as if Tamar’s moment of embarrassment never happened. “I have a feeling you are.” 

“Yes…” Tamar hesitated. 

“Some of my cousins are, which I’ve always thought was so cool. What do you like doing in your free time?” Ariel asked. 

“I like… reading.”

“Really? Me too! What’s your favorite author? Mine is Frank Peretti.”

The girls talked for a few more minutes until everyone had entered the cafeteria. Then a middle aged man stood and announced it was time to eat. He asked Mr. Geil, Tamar’s grandpa, to bless the food. 

Ariel whispered, “Oh, I’m so excited. Church camp food is always so yummy.”

Tamar smiled and closed her eyes as her grandpa prayed. Silently she thanked God for Ariel. Things didn’t seem so bad anymore… What were the odds that she’d run straight into someone her age who knew what it was like to be related to an evangelist?

That evening Ariel sat with Tamar’s family for the worship service. Two siblings named Faye and Declan near Tamar’s age got up to sing a duet. A few older members of the church also sang solo hymns. 

After all the special music was heard, a young woman with beads in her hair came to the front and said, “I’m in charge of the children’s choir this week. If you’d like to bring your little ones to me here every morning after breakfast, we’ll practice here around ten. We hope to learn at least five to seven new songs to sing together as a group on Sabbath.”

Mom said, “That sounds like a lovely thing for you boys to do.” 

Ariel’s dad then delivered a sermon. He started out with a prayer, and then said, “Thank you everyone for fellowshipping with us this week. The first day of camp is particularly special as we greet one another and learn to work together. Already I can see that there are good things in store for us and that God is at work in our hearts.”

Ariel wiggled in her seat, and whispered to Tamar, “I wish I were still little enough to color. It’s so hard to stay awake!”

Tamar tried to sit straight and not giggle. Her mother was just a couple seats away. 

When the sermon was done, the youth group—still a bunch of faces with no names—quickly slipped away out of sight. “Where are they going?” Tamar asked. “Do you know any of them?”

“Yeah, most of them are my cousins, or my cousin’s cousins. I don’t know where they’re going, though,” Ariel answered. Then sounding a little mysterious, she said, “All I know is it’s hard to find them ever after the evening service.”

…

The next installment is published on the first Monday of next month.

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