The Camp

blades // erin i

i 'found' a partner, or more like was assigned one. he seems my age, maybe older. i introduced myself and stand next to him wondering what we are supposed to do now. "ladies and gentlemen turn to your partner and tell them why you are here." the cheery leader announced. matt turned to me, "just decided to come to a summer camp." he replied with a cherry smile. "same as me." i replied. no way in hell was i just about to tell a stranger anything personal about myself. we took our seats and had a small worship at the bonfire. 

they sang songs we knew, the songs that you sing loud and with everybody singing sounds half decent but you are screaming so loudly you don't care. that is what we did. the leaders then proceeded to hand us each differently colored wrist bands, that we could put our names on. "campers, you are given three wrist bands. you can distribute those to the campers you think deserve, have earned or have maybe made an impression in your life. i got purple ones, matt got electric green. 

"ladies and gentlemen please be ready by eight o clock tomorrow morning for our breakfast in the mess hall, followed by a couple of free hours, a session with you leader followed by some more fun activities to wind down the night." they announced, i grabbed my necklace, it held memories for me. i stared into the fire, sending a very light prayer up above. i had lost my faith -- and maybe this was the summer i would get it back.