Summer Letters by Rozanne Charbonneau
In 1970s France, a girl tries to run away from summer camp to escape the clutches of her overbearing mother and disdainful stepfather. Image generated with OpenAI The Colonie des Eglantines, a holiday camp for children in the Haute Savoie, France August 22, 1972 The long Formica tables were laden with jars of Nutella and redcurrant jam. Children in shorts dunked buttered tartines into bowls of café au laits. A feast, but I was too nervous to eat. The poppies in the wheat field outside the window glowed like stop signs in the morning sun. "Be careful, Lucy. There will be hell to pay if you're caught," they seemed to say. M. Thierry and his wife Mme. Mathilde Kasriels, the middle-aged directors of this holiday camp, clapped their hands in front of the stone fireplace. "Alright, everyone. It is time to get ready." In fifteen minutes, a bus would take us to the town of Evian for an overnight trip. I'd just turned twelve. The five girl...