The Theoretical Hand-Off

I sat down with my cabin at a table in the shade, and we just sat there eating and talking.  I fielded a few questions about what had happened, and our response.  “No, Brandon hadn’t been given an ‘O,’ at least not yet.  Yes, you should be careful around him.  No, you shouldn’t totally avoid him.”  Although I was aware of it intellectually, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that my campers had no idea what had happened on Monday, and this was the first time I heard it referred to as the ‘water bottle’ incident, since all they had seen of it, was when Brandon threw his water bottle and stomped off to the cabin.  But I didn’t give them any idea that anything else had happened.  It was also at this point that they told me that THEY had seen his blade.  It was interesting to begin to understand their perspective on the situation, and I was just starting to understand the effect that Brandon was having on my cabin as a whole.  They were by far my ‘best’ cabin, in that they got along and behaved themselves, especially since I was not always around to supervise them.  I am fairly sure that was not by accident or random.  It is likely that the experience of having to deal with Brandon in their cabin united them in a way, they had a common problem which connected them, and working well together was the best way to deal with it.  But that is just a theory, every set of kids is different, and the situation they are in varies every week.

Eventually Mouth took a break from his conversation with Brandon, pull me aside for a chat.  He had a lot more sympathy for Brandon’s situation than I did, that is for sure.  I am sure there were many reasons for that, since Mouth hadn’t actually seen any of Brandon’s misbehavior, and I guess he could relate to him in some way.  I am someone who highly values rules and order, so I really couldn’t.  Plus I was the one that most of his anger was usually directed towards, as the most visible authority figure.  Mouth wanted to talk with him some more, but it was dinner time, so I needed to take my cabin down to Frontier, and then theoretically I was scheduled to have a few hours off that evening, since it was Wednesday.  I gave Mouth the two minute rundown on everything I could think of, possible possession of a blade, etc.  Mouth took Brandon with him, to chat while he supervised ropes course teardown, and promised to take care of things from there, while I was gone.

So I took my kids down the hill to Frontier and got them lined up.  I was squaring away dinner plans with Indy when Rocky showed up.  I explained as much as possible about what had happened, and then he sent me to take my scheduled time off, telling me that he would take care of things while I was gone.  Indy and I set off for Mongolian BBQ.  It was pretty therapeutic to have a solid half hour to explain/vent about the situation during our drive into Auburn.  By the time we got there, we had recruited quite a crowd, so we had a good time during the meal, and the conversation centered on other things.  I still have the message from my fortune cookie that night, only two words: “Don’t Panic.”

So with that we headed back, and I was honestly hoping to arrive to a situation that involved one less camper for the rest of the week.  Rocky was at the staff parking lot when I arrived, and gave me a ride back to Wild Oak.  He explained that Brandon was not being sent home, but that he was supposed to be primarily under Mouth’s supervision.  He would sleep in the Pinto cabin, which was empty that week, under the watchful eye of both Mouth and Paladin.  Once again, I point out that no one realized Paladin had not been told most of the story, but because of the partial flow of information, he wasn’t even aware that there was more that he didn’t know.  I see that as one of the most ironic parts of the story, especially since I worked so closely with Paladin in every other regard that week.

Rocky’s perspective on the situation was that Mouth would supervise Brandon, but that they would usually hang out with my cabin during the day, since that was sort of Brandon’s social group.  I think Mouth’s perception was that he was to supervise Brandon when I was unavailable, for assigned activities, sleeping and a few other times.  What actually happened is that I ended up supervising Brandon solo at meals, gazebo times, cabin huddles, and a few other select times.  Mouth did go to scheduled activities with him, slept in Pinto, took him during Friday cabin huddle at my request, and gave him a good talking to at other times if he was starting to get out of line.

The first thing that happened when I got back up to Wild Oak, was that Mouth asked me to supervise Brandon during Mission Impossible that night. Mouth wanted some time off, and he figured I could pair up with Brandon, either as spotters or as campers, so that Brandon would not be out in the woods unattended.  I didn’t want to be a spotter with him, sitting in the dark alone for an hour with nothing to do, so I agreed to play on the camper side, with him as my partner.

I hadn’t really decided how I wanted to handle the situation by the time the game began.  We started of by heading down to the paintball command post, but after realizing how futile it was to push forward from there, we retreated and headed way farther up the hill.  I started in the lead, because I knew the area better, but after about twenty feet, I stopped and put him in the front, for a number of reasons.  I didn’t like having my back to him, alone in the dark, at best he might try to just slip away, at worst…well I just kept about four feet between us.  I was also very conscious of the fact that no one had told me of any resolution to the blade situation.  Anyhow, we slipped in across the top of Arizona, and down the back side of Eagle’s Point over the course of the next hour.  We were still about fifty feet away from the objective when the game ended, and as a bonus I was still alive.

Upon our return to the cabins, I handed Brandon over to Mouth for the night, and got the rest of my guys ready for bed.  And then I got some real sleep for the first time in quite a while.