Camp

Day 2: Missing

 Now Mom, I hope you know that everything I'm telling you is true, and I wouldn't embellish or exaggerate anything to you or leave any important details out. In that way, there are some things which I'm going to tell you later on that you might find uncomfortable. I'm sorry, but I have to tell you the truth. 

Once the check-in process was over, all the second grade campers met at our central fire pit for a brief orientation from the head counselor, Steven. He told them how much fun they were going to have, along with a few safety tips and rules. Always bring a buddy, always let one of your counselors know where you're going, where the bathrooms are, etc. 

After that, we went to the mess hall for dinner. During meals, only the head counselor of each cabin is required to sit with his or her kids, while the rest of the counselors go eat at a separate table. I sat down next to Sara and Liv. They were going on about how excited they were and how cute their kids were. Then Peter sat down across from me.

"How're you feeling?" He asked with a half grin.

"Pretty good." I shrugged, "How about you?"

"I'm pumped!" He replied, "I've never been a camp counselor before, and being around this many munchkins makes me feel like a powerful giant. This is great!" 

We talked like that until it was dark. Then we took the second graders back to the fire pit where we had an opening night bonfire and sang songs. 

We all went to bed that night happy. 

The next morning we woke our kids up at 8 AM to go eat. After they got dressed and were trudging out the door, Chelsea was counting heads to make sure everyone was up. 

"17... 18... 19..." She mumbled to herself as the last kid wandered out, rubbing his eyes, "We're missing one." She dashed into the cabin to check the bunks and instructed me to count the children one more time.

I did. There were only nineteen. 

Chelsea ran out of the cabin. 

"Did you count them?" She looked at me with stern eyes.

"Yeah, nineteen." I replied softly, starting to get scared.

Chelsea walked over to the kids and looked at each one of them.

"We're missing Courtney." She said to Peter and I after a moment, "Courtney Evans is gone. Did either of you see her leave?"

We shook our heads. We'd been sleeping, and neither of us had heard anything in the night. 

Chelsea frowned solemnly. I could tell she was trying hard not to freak out. Her hands were shaking. 

"I have to go report this to the main office. Take the kids to breakfast. I'll meet up with you there." She instructed. 

We did as we were told, leading the children to the mess hall, making extra certain none of them broke line or ran off. Losing a kid on our first day? That was one of the three bullets they taught us at orientation.

#1 - Safety

#2 - Don't lose anyone

#3 - Have fun!

We've totally blown it. At breakfast, Peter and I both sat with the kids. There was a strange feeling of uncertainty and fear that emanated from the both of us, but none of the kids seemed to pick up on it. 

"Look at me! Look at me Ms. Ally!" One of the little boys called to me. I looked over at him to see him shove bacon up under his top lip and clap his hands like a walrus. I smiled, but told him not to play with his food. 

"Did you see her leave?" Peter asked me in a whisper.

"Who? Oh, no. I didn't see anything." I sighed, "I don't even remember what she looked like."

"Me neither. I don't know how Chelsea is able to learn these kids' names so fast. I guess that's why she's head coach."

I nodded in agreement, glancing over at the kids, who were a few seconds away from discovering they could fling their grits at each other.

"Do you think she just wandered out of the cabin?" Peter asked, "If she did, you know, someone must have found her by now. One of the other cabins, I mean. She couldn't have left the campground, right? She gotta still be here?"

I shrugged, scared to think about it. The woods were expansive, and thick and dark in some places. I didn't want to think about a little camper curled up on the ground somewhere surrounded by pine needles crying for her mom. Just then, Chelsea appeared next to me.

"Hey guys," she said in a hushed voice as she sat down, "So I talked to the office. They said her mom came and got her in the night. No idea why they didn't tell me this as it happened, but whatever. She's home. She's safe. We're fine."

"Should we let the other kids know?" I asked.

We peered over the our children, who at this point were flinging grits at one another.

"I don't think they care." Chelsea said shaking her head, "On the off chance that anyone asked, just tell them she went home. But don't announce that to everyone or anything. We don't want the kids thinking they can all just go home early. If we do our job right, they'll all want to stay here, okay?"

"Okay." Peter and I nodded.

"Sweet." Chelsea got up and went to the other end of the table to break up the grits war. 

That was the first account of anything strange happening, Mom. The rest of the day went fine. We made dream catchers in the morning, and little sailboats in the afternoon. We told the kids that tomorrow we would take them to the lake to sail them. I got to know some more of the kids that day. Luke was an absolute character. He was the one who pretended to be a bacon walrus. Jennie and Mira, two little girls who knew each other vaguely before this, were acting like best friends now, and they went everywhere together. It was really cute. All the kids seemed to really like me. They were all showing off their little sailboats to me and asking me what I thought. I love little kids so much, they're so adorable! Except for Matthew. He was always sullen and quiet, so I didn't get to talk to him much. In fact, I hate to admit it, but I kind of ignored him.