Yesterday was a Long Week

Mouth was on the porch talking with Rocky, who had arrived moments earlier.  I sent my kids to bed with the exception of Brandon who I sent to take a shower, conveniently giving me an opportunity to talk with Rocky about the situation.  Paladin had also waited around and was chomping at the bit to discuss the events of the evening with Rocky.  Rocky was not really expecting the importance of what we were planning to tell him.  “Its pretty late guys, can this wait until the morning?”  “NO!”  “Oh…okay”

“I will let Paladin go first, so that he can head off to bed.  We are going to need to have a much longer conversation after that.  Go ahead Paladin.”

“That kid Brandon deserves a Verbal, a ‘G’ and an ‘O’ and definitely should be sent home!  No question about it!”

“Okay, now that we know your opinions on the matter, you should probably head off to bed Paladin.  Thank you.”  I was actually thrilled by the way that went down, since I totally agreed that that needed to be said, and it would help put everything else that I had to say in the proper context.  As noted earlier, I did not realize that his recommendation was based entirely on the events of the night hike, since he was unaware of the earlier incident.  I on the other hand considered the night hike to be a minor issue by comparison, but still reason to send Brandon home.  He had been given a second chance, and had shown himself to be continuously disobedient and disrespectful towards the staff.

Once Paladin left, I did the best I could to explain to Rocky the events of that afternoon and evening, as best I could in about 5 minutes.  I had been planning that explanation ever since seeing him drive by, so I made sure I hit a few key points, but it was a much abbreviated version of the story.

“So that is the basic gist of what happened while you were gone.  We have to decide what to do about it in the morning, but I wanted to give you a heads up now, so that you have some time to think about it tonight.  Kevin is supposed to come up here in the morning.  My recommendation is going to be that I think it is a bad idea to let him stay here.  We gave him another chance, and he has clearly demonstrated that he won’t follow the rules.”

Rocky headed up to the duplexes for the night, and we got situated, with Mouth outside on the porch.  I took a moment to gather up all of my knives, from my backpack and belt, and stash them in the kitchen.  The last thing I needed was Brandon grabbing a weapon off my back when I wasn’t looking, and trying to use it to carve up something besides a stick.

With that, we headed off to bed for the night, after what had been a REALLY long day, and it was only Monday.  I couldn’t imagine surviving a whole week like that.  We have a phrase we joke about at work, after someone actually said it without thinking: “yesterday was a long week.”  Never had that been truer for me than right then.  But things would get easier once we sent Brandon home.  I couldn’t be expected to do a decent job of counseling the rest of my cabin if I was constantly dealing with his issues.  ‘Headed off to bed’ does not necessarily mean went to sleep.  I had a lot to think about after the events of the day, and although I am sure that I drifted in and out at times, I spent most of the night awake, keeping an eye on the bed in the opposite corner.