Dominick Kinsey: PI (boyxboy)

Case 30: S&M (S'mores & More)

My arms were crossed over my chest as I pouted.

"You're seriously gonna pout right now," Moira asked, more than a bit incredulous at my behavior.

"You know that I don't do routine police runs. Not anymore," I grumbled.

Moira had manhandled me out of my home at 9:00pm in order to head up to an all girls camp somewhere. Apparently a little girl had gone missing after they ate s'mores. The staff had followed their protocol of finding the girl and had no luck. They decided they better call in local police to come help before the girl could have gotten too far.

When the car stopped in the parking lot of the camp Moira got out in one graceful movement. I stayed petulantly in the passenger's seat.

"Get out," she hissed to me.

"No," I snapped back.

"You are acting like a child."

"So what?" What did I care if I was acting like a child? And I definitely didn't care what any of these people thought about me.

"They'll give us free s'mores when we're finished," Moira bribed.

"What are you waiting for?  Let's go," I jumped out of the car ready to go with a bright smile on my face. I loved s'mores. Especially s'mores with super burnt marshmallows. The carbon added an awesome flavor.

We met with the camp director and the girl's counselors. We found out important things like her name, Bridget; her age, seven; and what she had been wearing last, pink kitty pajamas.

The camp director wanted to keep this whole thing low profile so she had asked Moira not to wear her uniform. I glanced over at my friend noticing for the first time that she was indeed not wearing her uniform. I really must have been pouting to not notice that earlier.

The counselors led the way up to their unit and took us in the direction of the campfire. All the rest of the girls were asleep and it was our goal to keep it that way. No way was I dealing with a bunch of hyperactive seven year olds.

Moira leaned close to me and said, "You check over there," she motioned to the latrine, "I'll check the unit house."

Why did I get stuck with the shithouse?

Remember, s'mores, I repeated like a mantra on my way to the latrine. 

I grumpily made my way over to it kicking a small stone as I went.  It actually didn't smell as much as I thought it would. The porta-potties we used at the all boy's camp I went to were much worse.

Those brought back bad memories.

Because I was such an odd kid, I was constantly made fun of and picked on. My mom decided it'd be a great idea to send me to an all boys camp. She hoped I would make some friends that were "like me." Whatever that meant. Instead I was the target of constant bullying. One time I was going to the bathroom with my buddy (you always needed to have a buddy). They were these god awful porta-potties. My buddy stood outside and waited for me to do my business. Only while they were waiting they shoved a stick through the lock on the outside of the door. When I went to open the door it wouldn't budge. I was yelling for them to let me out and they wouldn't do it but I could hear them laughing. I knew my buddy was still out there. Apparently sometime along the line my buddy had gotten some friends. They came over and started acting like they were going to flip the porta-potty over. I still remember their chanting of "flip the fag," as they were making their attempts.

And that's why I didn't use porta-potties anymore.

While I was lost in thought I managed to also get slightly lost in the woods. I had walked right off of the trail by the bathroom and kept going. Looking around, I saw no discernible landmarks to get me back to the unit. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone to use my flashlight app. Probably should have done that ages ago. Up until this point I had been using the light cast from the full moon. It sure was bright. I had a shadow and everything.

I turned on my flashlight and did an about-face. I figured if I just turned around I would eventually make it back to the unit. In the far distance I could see Moira's flashlight over on the other side of the unit.

Deciding it was a good idea to watch where I stepped, didn't want to trip and fall, I looked at the ground as I made my way back to the unit.

That's when I saw it. Tiny and white, it sat unassuming on the ground. I poked it. It was squishy. Upon picking it up I realized it was a ripped off piece of a marshmallow. Huh. How'd that get here?

Off to the left of it there was another. I went over to it. Further up ahead I could see another and another.

Oh. This is like a breadcrumb trail. Setting the marshmallow back on the ground so I would know how to get back, I began to follow the trail. I must have walked for a good ten minutes before the trail stopped.

Where the trail stopped sat a little pink ball curled up at the base of a tree. "Bridget?" I questioned even though there was no way it could be anybody else.

She looked up at me. I could tell she'd been crying. "You found me," she seemed excited that she was found even as her lip quivered showing she was on the verge of crying again.

"My name's Dominick, how about I get us back to your unit," I leaned down to her lever as I talked and reached out a hand to help her stand.

She took it and nodded.

Once she was standing we decided the best thing to do was give Bridget a piggyback ride back to her unit. She was really excited about the piggyback ride and I was really excited that the way back would take half the time with only me walking. My legs were a little longer than her legs.

I carefully followed her marshmallow trail and headed back to her unit. Bridget did a good job of talking my ear off on the journey. Apparently Bridget had gone to the bathroom and gotten turned about on her way back to the unit. By the time she realized she was lost she didn't see any hope of getting back. So she left a marshmallow trail. Which went well until she ran out of marshmallows. Why she was going to the bathroom without a buddy and with a bag of marshmallows is something we may never know.

When I got back to the unit house I set Bridget down and was greeted by excited whispers and big smiles from her counselors.

We said our goodbyes and got back in Moira's car to head home.

I was hyper and energetic after being the one to find Bethany and Moira was pouting. "I wanted to be the one to find her," she whined.

"The important thing is that she was found," I said sagely.

"You're only saying that because you found her," Moira muttered.

"Hey!" I exclaimed suddenly. "We didn't get our s'mores."

We both sulked the rest of the way home.