Long Islanders

9 - Hot Chocolate

The snow hung heavy in the tree branches as Jimmy trudged along the path with his Boy Scout troop. The Long Island cold cut through their thick winter coats, hats, and gloves as they made their way to their campsite.

"I wonder where Nathaniel is," Tim muttered from his position beside Jimmy. Jimmy's neighbor hadn't shown up, and he was assigned to bunk with the two of them.

"I don't know," Jimmy muttered, focusing on keeping his teeth from chattering. He could feel the cold seeping into his bones. He beat his arms together, banging his fists against his biceps.

Tonight was not going to be too much fun.

Tim, Jimmy, and Nathaniel had all been assigned to share a lean-to together, and Nathaniel was late. Which meant who knew how much work he would get out of before he finally arrived?

Jimmy grit his teeth, thinking of the last time he and Nathaniel had been assigned together, that time to a tent. It had only been a year ago, in freezing conditions just like these.

Jimmy was called over to say goodbye to his father, the leader of the Boy Scout troop, who had gotten another father to stay the night with the boys so he could sleep at home for once. But after saying goodbye, he turned around only to see Nathaniel pacing in and out of their already pitched tent. Every time he entered the tent, he tracked snow inside.

That was not going to be pleasant to sleep in.

Jimmy spun to face his father as he started to walk away. "Dad, can I come home with you?"

His father glanced back at him, surprised. "Sure, Jimmy," he said. "You don't have to stay."

"Great!" Jimmy sighed, and ran to retrieve his things.

As a result of that, Jimmy got to spend the night warm and cozy, with a mug of hot chocolate, while Nathaniel spent the night shivering and cold, and he had woken up sick.

"And we're here!" Jimmy's father called from the front of the troop.

The Boy Scouts stood on the edge of a clearing filled with rows of wooden lean-tos. Snow covered the roofs and dusted the hard dirt floors from where the wind had blown it inside. The sturdy but open structures did not appear as if they would provide much protection from the elements that night.

"And that," Tim muttered, as if he could read Jimmy's thoughts, "is why we brought a tarp."

"Let's get to work!" Mr. Brandt announced, and the boys headed to their lean-tos to start preparing for the night.

Jimmy and Tim dropped off their packs after brushing out the powdered snow on the floor blown in by the wind. Removing their hatchets from their packs and ducking to avoid the low-sloping roof as they exited the lean-to, they joined the crowd of boys heading into the woods to chop firewood for their campfires.

Small trees soon fell victim to the hatchets of the Boy Scouts, falling and being chopped into sizable pieces for the fires. Jimmy hacked at the wood, grunting with the exertion, as sweat ran down his forehead, freezing against his skin in the cold. But the movement did serve to warm him.

Soon they had a sizable amount of wood and they carried the pieces back to their campsite, stacking them near the spot marked out for the fire. Then the Boy Scouts set to work readying their lean-tos for the night.

Jimmy and Tim, finding that Nathaniel still had not arrived, were feeling resentful for all the work he was getting out of as they pulled the tarp from Jimmy's pack. Unfolding the tarp, Tim and Jimmy began to hang it before the opening of the lean-to only to realize that their tarp wasn't big enough to cover the entire opening.