Life on Wheels

Chapter 10: Camp Stride

Chapter 10: Camp Stride

    “We’re kind of close to those horses aren’t we?” I ask.

Olivia turns to face me.

“You’ll have the chance to ride them if you’d like. You’re encouraged to try everything, and I think you’ll love it!” she says.

3 minutes later, we come out of what seems to be forest and drive past several large buildings.

“That’s arts and crafts, and that’s the office, and that’s the medical office, and that’s the dining hall, and here we are at our cozy little cabin!” Olivia exclaims.

There’s already a counsellor and two other campers waiting for us. When the bus stops, the counsellors clap.

“Welcome to camp girls!”

All together there are 7 girls and 4 counsellors. Two are in wheelchairs, plus me, three have cerebral palsy but are walking, and another girl has spina bifida.

I walk carefully up a ramp and into the cabin. The green floors and log walls make it surreal. Once all of the suitcases and sleeping bags and wheelchairs and walkers are inside, we go for a tour of the camp.

          I am overwhelmed with all of the nice people we meet along the way. When we return to the cabin, the counsellors show us they have the activities all listed on a sheet and we will pick three each night before bed. I think I am going to pick kayaking, arts and crafts, and then pottery. We have swimming in second period.

          Before we know it, everyone is heading to the dining hall. We pile in and get settled around the table. Our table is bigger than the rest of the tables, because it has to accommodate for 12 instead of 6. There is often at least one wheelchair at the table too, which takes up more space than someone sitting on the benches. Once everyone is inside, I notice that a group of girls is standing at the front of the room. Nobody is sitting down.

          “Say thank you if you’re happy to be here!” one girl yells.

The whole dining hall yells back, “THANK YOU!” and then everyone scrambles to be the first one to take food from their tables.

Tonight we are having lasagna and Caesar salad. The meal is delicious. As people are finishing up, a woman walks up to the front of the dining hall and picks up a microphone.

          “Chicka…” she says.

“Dee dee dee dee dee,” says the rest of camp.

“Well I just want to start off by saying welcome to our new Striders!” she exclaims. That’s us. Our counsellors jump up and down and scream.

“So it’s a new session for everyone and I’d like to welcome all of our new campers as well. We do have a couple of bits of business to take care of, so if the duty counsellors from each section could just hang back for a few minutes that would be great. We don’t have too much to say right now, other than this. I’m sure you thought your first night at camp would be nice and quiet, but you’re wrong! We have a variety of performances from counsellors as a welcome to camp. Everyone is to meet in the studio at 7:00 pm. Bring something fancy to wear like a scarf or a floppy hat. Tonight’s theme is ‘A night at the theatre!’ That’s all for tonight girls! See you in 15 minutes.”

     We head back to the cabin to get ready. The counsellors bring up a large bin full of costume supplies. I pick a crazy green wig and a cheetah vest. That’s definitely something I’d wear to a theatre! I come out of the bathroom, and one of the girls, Tiara, starts laughing.

“You’re not seriously going to wear that are you?” she asks.

Just then, our counsellor Olivia comes out of her room wearing a green unitard and leopard print skirt.

“Well this is awkward…” she mutters.

I decide she suits the leopard, and change back into normal clothes. I’m not really one for fancy dress up like this anyway. I’m not the only one dressed down. I ask Olivia if I can walk outside while I wait for the others to get ready. She says yes, but I need to stay directly outside of the cabin.

So I walk down the ramp carefully and embrace the warm summer breeze. I walk towards the porch swing.  I try to hoist myself onto the swing using my arms, but my grasp slips and I go flying, landing with a hard thud on the ground. Just then, Hailey comes out. She sees me on the grass and ran to me.

    “Hey, let me help you.” She offers me her arms.

“Okay thanks.” I say, putting all of my weight on her.

“Whoa!” She shouts, falling over onto me.

She quickly separates herself from me, and we start laughing hysterically.

“Sorry.” She apologizes.

“It's okay, we’ll just wait here. I think Olivia should be coming to get us soon.”

“So what's your story?”  Hailey asks me.

“I was hit by a bus. The trauma was so bad they had to amputate. My dad was pretty shaken up about the whole situation.”

“And what about your mum?”

“Actually she died when I was 3. I don’t really remember her. I just feel bad for my little brother Matthew. He was only a few months old when it happened. So it’s been my dad, brother and I ever since. My grandparents are still very involved. Or they were, until my dad went to jail,” I start.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Melissa. I can tell it’s been pretty difficult for you,” Hailey points out.

“It’s OK. I find talking helps. Anyway, after the accident, I went to a rehab center for a while. I met some good friends there. After spending the summer there, I went home. But my dad took it really hard. He spent all of his time upstairs. I barely got to see him. The day I got home also happened to be my brother’s birthday, which I had completely forgotten about. When Matthew was opening his gifts, Dad just seemed very… i don’t know...distant. I had had enough. I spoke up, which only angered him even more. Anyway, skip ahead a couple of days, and we were at school to make arrangements for me in classes. When we were leaving, there was a group of girls standing outside. Some pretty nasty comments were made, and Dad got really angry when he heard the conversation. He ended up knocking a girl out. She died from an aneurysm and Dad was arrested for murder.”

Just then, the rest of the group comes out. We all go down to the studio. The staff performance is really funny. I can finally forget about the past couple of months and enjoy myself.