Camp

Day 1: Check-in

 All right, Mom. I guess the only way for you to fully understand what happened is for me to start at the beginning. 

Now, when I first arrived, not much happened. In fact, the days of counselor orientation were rather uneventful. I made a few friends, we did a few exercises, learned some things, goofed around mostly, but nothing out of the ordinary. It all started on the first day of camp when our campers arrived.

My kids were all second graders, which was fine by me, because I work better with smaller kids. Besides, I'm not very tall, and I only appear like an adult when placed alongside little children. The second graders were split up into three groups, but my group all lived in Cabin B. Our head counselor was Chelsea, and Peter and myself were her two assistant counselors. Chelsea was waiting in our cabin for kids to arrive, while Peter and I, along with all the other assistant coaches, were running kids from the check-in stations to their respective cabins. There must have been hundred of kids there! 

Part of orientation was becoming familiarized with the campgrounds. I don't remember how many acres they said this place was, but I never quite found the end of it, despite my many lengthy walks through the woods. Even on check-in day when I was supposed to be taking kids to their new living quarters, I had to carry a color-coded map around just to find the right area. It was hectic, to say the least. 

But that's when I met Matthew Hemrock. He was one of my campers that I got to walk to our cabin. He was pretty quiet at first, but as I'm walking campers, I tried to make some light conversation. It was partly to get them hyped and excited for the camp, and partly to fill the empty silence that filled the long walk between check-in and cabin.

"Have you ever been to camp before?" I asked him, as upbeat as I could be, toting his duffel bag as we walked.

"Yeah, I went to a camp last year." He said softly as he scratched his nose, clutching a pillow and stuffed rabbit close to his chest. 

"Cool!" I said, "Did you like it?"

"Uh huh. It was fun." He replied, staring forward, exerting little emotion.

"So you've never been to this summer camp before, have you?"

He shook his head, still blank-faced.

"Well, I'll have you know that this is only the finest summer camp on the planet! Camp Southwater will not let you down!" I grinned wide and even threw in some theatrical jazz hands to try and make him smile. 

Nothing.

"My mom says I shouldn't go to summer camp anymore." He replied.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a slight laugh, taken aback.

He shrugged. 

There was a moment of silence where we just walked, listening to the gravel crunch beneath our feet and the cicadas hum in the distance. I tried to think of something to say, but for whatever reason I couldn't shake his last statement. It was so strange and out of the blue. I wasn't sure how to respond, and no new conversation topics were coming to mind. Finally, I thought of something.

"Do you like to swim?" I asked, trying to muster my previous excitement. 

"Yeah, I swim a lot." He said solemnly. 

"Did you know we have a lake?" I said eagerly, hoping to get him hyped for some fun lake swimming!

"Yes." He replied sternly, "I know you have a lake."

I don't know how to describe it, Mom. It was just... weird... the way he said it. It was like he meant something more. I don't know why it stuck with me, but I wish I'd listened to my intuition sooner. We didn't talk much else until we got to the cabin. Chelsea helped him find his bunk and then sat him down with the other kids. I think they were playing Duck, Duck, Goose!, but I had to run back to the check-in stations to take more kids to their cabins. Matthew gave me a little wave as I left. I smiled wide and waved back, but he didn't smile back. I don't think he ever smiled, Mom. Not once.