Dash

Mitsi and her family wake up early in the morning (it’s still dark outside) to go to Camp Harmony. She holds Chubby Bear and plays with the tag on her shirt. In kindergarten, she had to wear a tag with her name and teacher. The tag the government gives her is just a number, 11817, the number of her family. As Mom locks the door, Mitsi cries.

In the rain, Mr. Adams, Pop’s former boss at the electric company, drives the Kashinos to the “assembly point” in the car he bought from Pop. She remembers waiting in a long line to get shots for the camp. A man in line ridiculed Camp Harmony—there was no “harmony” there: People slept in horse stalls.

An armed soldier directs the Kashinos to their trucks. There are tons of trucks and people. She sees a blond girl and a girl with black hair hugging goodbye. Miss Wyatt appears and gives Mitsi a gift—colored pencils and a drawing pad.

The ride to Camp Harmony is bumpy, and the people are quiet. They couldn’t talk over the roaring engine anyway. The truck enters a large gate in a barbed wire fence. There are more armed soldiers, and there’s a guard tower. Ted tells Mitsi that Camp Harmony is the same place as the state fair.

The Kashinos wait in another long line, and a tiny boy, Davy, sits in the mud and tells his mom he wants to go home. Through magic, Ted distracts Davy, and Davy’s mom introduces herself as Helen Tokuda. She also has a baby girl, Donna. Mitsi’s mom thinks Mrs. Tokuda could use help, but they lose sight of her. Pop labels the scene “a madhouse.”

A soldier assigns the Kashinos Barracks 52 in Area A. Their “apartment” is smaller than their kitchen, and it has five army cots and a stove. The space is dusty, and the walls are weak plywood. Mitsi hears a man next door say at least they’re not in a horse barn. As Obaachan, Pop, and Mom look for supplies, Ted shows Mitsi a magic trick. Mitsi wishes Ted could do a trick that’d take them home.

The Camp Harmony bathrooms are outhouses with holes and no dividers. For privacy, Mitsi sits under a large cardboard box she finds behind the canteen.

The Camp Harmony food is “awful,” serving Vienna sausage three times in three days. The displaced people eat at 7:30, 11:30, and 5:00, and there’s a rumor that they’ll have spaghetti for dinner tonight. The spaghetti is noodles and sauces and green beans, and Mitsi’s family doesn’t sit together. Obaachan sits with three older women, Ted sits with Lefty (his real name is Frank), and Mitsi sits with her parents. Skipping dessert, Mitsi returns to their space and packs: She wants to go home. Ted says they might not go home for a bit.

Bad Vienna sausages give people food poisoning, but the Kashinos stopped eating the sausages, so they’re fine. Ted eats with his new friend group. Aside from Lefty, there’s Tank (Henry), Skip (Tom), and Pudge. Ted’s nickname is Magic.

Mitsi gets mud on her anklet and complains: She hates it here and wants to go home. Pop says no one wants to be here, but at least they’re together––the husbands of Mrs. Iseri and Mrs. Tokuda are far away. Mom suggests that Mitsi tries to make friends. She points to girls playing jacks, but Mitsi calls jacks a “baby game.”

While Pop makes furniture with found wood, Mitsi feels “frozen” and stony. She looks at her sketch pad and her picture of Dash. Crying and feeling worse, she rips the picture and runs to the main gate, where she meets Ted. He makes money by delivering messages. People from outside the camp ask him to tell their friends they’re here to see them. Even if he can’t find them, he keeps the money. Ted hasn’t done that yet, but Lefty has. Lefty thinks Mitsi could make loads of money due to her innocent looks. Mitsi doesn’t like Lefty.

Mitsi doesn’t want to go to the movie, Obaachan’s knitting club, or the baseball game. Instead, she rereads Carol Ryrie Brink’s Caddie Woodlawn (1935)—a novel about an 11-year-old girl who lives on an isolated Midwest farm. Mom forces Mitsi to visit Mrs. Tokuda with her, and they watch her kids so she can shower. On her way back, Mitsi sees Lefty stealing from shower robes.

In the mess hall, the Kashinos sit together with Mrs. Tokuda and her family. Mrs. Tokuda keeps a picture of her husband in a locket she wears around her neck, making Mitsi want a locket with a picture of Dash. Mitsi helps Davy eat by pretending his food is an airplane. After she eats her chocolate cake (the server gave her a piece with extra icing), she goes with Ted and his rowdy friends to check for mail.

On the way, Lefty disrupts a marble game and throws a marble at a younger boy. Mitsi doesn’t know why Ted is friends with a “bully” like Lefty. Mitsi has a letter from “DK,” but Lefty takes it. Ted tells him to give it back, and while they box, Mitsi snatches the letter and reads it. DK is Dash Kashino, and he’s “doing fine,” chasing squirrels but not chasing cars or chewing Mrs. Bowker’s slippers.

Mitsi buys writing materials and writes Dash back. She dislikes many things about Camp Harmony, but she likes getting letters from him, so he should keep writing.