I'm not dead...yet (Part 3)

During our last installment the merry band of campers moved to a new area and I found out that the guy leading the whole trip was high on a regular basis…literally.

Saturday:
With a night under our belts, we woke on Saturday with the hopes of a better day. Amy made great breakfast burritos for the whole camp and the kids frolicked around, checking out the trails and various other camp like activities. They found sticks, logs, and moss to use for the campfire during the day and late into the night.

The way that the camps ended up playing out is like this:

Because of the animosity that was being felt toward Mel, Nicholas, Felicia, Joseph and Kristy got their own campsite. It was the best way to keep the fights down to a minimum.

If you’re actually reading this little story then you know that means we had: Dee, Doo, K, S, Tanner AND Mel.

Again, not pleased. (Are you noticing a trend? Cause I sure as hell am)

This meant that we literally were babysitting the entire time we were there. I don’t mind kids, you guys know this, I LOVE kids. Dee and Doo are freaking EXCELLENT boys and I love having them around. Yet we also have two other kids about the same age, a gentleman that’s touched and one that’s out of his gourd, this does not translate into fun for me. I spent most of my time in Nick’s campsite just to keep my sanity. Which I’m sure raised some hackles on Amy’s end but honestly, I could give a care at the point I was at.

Remember Larry? Yea, he showed up again. He comes biking down the trail, he remembers my name (never a good sign) and asks me if anyone had lost some hunting knives. As a matter of fact, as had. Dee and K had gone exploring down the creek and somewhere along the lines the boys had put down the knives, walked away and forgotten where they put them. There was finger pointing on both sides as to which thought had left it. They hadn’t found them and we considered them lost, now here was Larry with them in hand because a hiker had spotted them and brought them back. Talk about cool.

We had divided up meal chores for everyone and Saturday night was our night for dinner. Amy made potato soup, which I’m sure was good but I didn’t eat because I was at Nick’s camp site enjoying dinner with them, Felicia had cooked and DAMN that was great food.

While walking from one campsite to another (which was maybe 30 feet) I saw the boys playing with ‘walking sticks’, just random sticks they had found on the trail and felt they could work with. Boys are smart but when it comes to knives, they lose their minds. Now these are thick sticks, and I find Dee and K using them like light sabers on each other and the father instinct in me starts screaming that if they swing too hard and aim wrong, fingers will get broken, hospital trips will have to be made and the camping trip in general will be a total wash.

“Guys, Please stop swinging those sticks cause if I hear one ‘ow’ I’m just going to tell you to put them up and you won’t get them the rest of the day.”

What do you think the first thing I hear is?

Right, OW!

So the sticks get put away and there’s some mumbling but it happens. I’m sitting with Nicky and Felicia and we’re laughing about whatever’s being said between us when we start hearing this screaming.

“HELP! GET ME OUT OF HERE!”

Nicky and I exchange a look; the sound was coming from the communal bathroom in the campgrounds. Nicky gets up to see what’s going on while I stay behind to just keep things in order with the kids. Amy’s headed up there too.

What do they find? K is leaning up against one of the bathroom doors, Kristy, his mother, is the one that’s screaming bloody murder and the kid’s got a smile on his face the whole time.

Nicky gets K to move and let’s Kristy out while Amy talks to the kid and tells him to just go blow off some steam and when he’s ready to talk he can come back.

While he’s gone we talk to Kristy, explain to her that she can’t let him get away with this behavior and that’s when she shows us the bruises on her upper arms that K has left in the recent past. It’s not a one time occurrence.

Then an hour passes. Kristy begins to get a little frantic. Nicky and I decide we’re going to go on a little adventure to try and find him and then he finds us, in a manner of speaking. We find him where the whole thing started, locked in one of the communal bathrooms.

I’m not usually one to try and get authorities involved in anything, if you can handle it yourself, do so. However I was in a bit of a dilemma. The kid was holding himself up in one of the communal bathrooms which meant that any of the other campers could come right along and complain that there was something wrong. Plus Nicky wanted to hold vigil over the bathroom and I don’t know about you but I think that a grown man just watching bathrooms would raise some kind of alarm.

So where do you think I turned to?

Larry. Again, this poor man was put in our path cause he had so much flippin patience. I go up to his cabin and tell him that one of the boys is having problems with the door. I try to gloss over everything that’s happening for a very specific reason, Larry could get this kid taken away with one phone call and I don’t know how Kristy would react to that.

As we’re going up the hill to the bathroom Nicky sees me and before I can tell him to can it, he starts in.

“Alright bud, the Ranger’s here and he’s going to open the door. You have to learn that you can’t go locking people up and hurting your mom like that, it’s not a man thing to do.”

All eyes on the Shaman. The other shoe dropped and Larry understood there was more going on than I had informed him of.

The hits keep coming.

To be continued.