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.

Night Hikes are Always an Adventure

When campfire was over, Paladin and I collected my cabin members, and we headed off down the trail on our night hike.  I usually take the lead, since I have exceptionally good night vision, but I asked Paladin to take the lead, since I wanted to keep an eye on Brandon, who I had in the back with me.  Now my night hikes are events where I try to teach kids how to adjust to the darkness, develop night vision, look at the stars, etc.  They are definitely not allowed to use flashlights without good reason, and on a few occasions we confiscate them from campers who can’t resist the urge to turn them on.  Within the first two minutes, Brandon has flickered his on once or twice, so I made clear to him and everyone else that we didn’t want that happening.  As we crossed the canal, and turned down Blackberry pass, I saw a few more flickers, and my brain was in overdrive I tried to figure out the best way to deal with the situation, in such a way as to solve the problem, while minimizing the chances of sparking a major confrontation.  While I was trying to figure this out, Paladin had begun to notice the occasional flashes, but since they were coming from behind him, he couldn’t tell who they were coming from.  He implemented his solution much more quickly, by walking back up the line and demanding all of the flashlights.  Brandon was the last one he came to since I had put him in the back of the line, and I had not intervened, since I figured there was a chance that Brandon would cooperate, and the situation would be resolved.  That of course did not happen, and Brandon made a rather clear refusal.  Understandably not ready to accept any direct disrespect from a camper, especially in front of the rest of my cabin, Paladin pursued the issue.  Not wanting to push Brandon into a situation where he would respond violently, I stepped in.

“Hand me your flashlight,” Paladin demanded.  “We told you this would happen.”

“It is my flashlight, and I will do whatever I want with it.”

“Paladin, I will take care of it.  Brandon, we don’t want to see anyone shining a flashlight during this event.  That means I don’t want to see your light on, at all!  Understood?”  “…Okay.”

Paladin was not a fan of letting something like that slip by, but went with me on it.  So we continued onward.  Now it had occurred to me earlier that the usual route that I took my cabin on during a night hike, was very similar to the route Brandon had taken during his little escape attempt a few hours earlier, including the drive back.  Not wanting to create a sort of Deja-Vu situation, since he was the type of guy who would read into that, before we left I had described to Paladin a different path that I wanted to take since he was in the lead.

Eventually we reached the paved road that leads up the hill from the ropes course, and we regrouped to begin the next part of the hike, where each of the kids hikes the stretch of path by themselves, to build confidence about being alone in the dark.  One staff member takes the lead and the other waits with the rest of the group in the back, releasing them one at a time every few minutes to follow.  I wanted to keep a close eye on Brandon, for reasons that should be obvious, so I sent Paladin up the hill first.  I sent everyone else up one at a time over the next few minutes, keeping Brandon there until the end.  Once I sent him up, I waited until he was near the range of my vision before starting after him, but I kept him in sight the entire way up the hill, and found Paladin and the rest of the group sitting at the edge of the road by the archery range.  It was at this point that Brandon decided that it was a good time to get a drink from the vending machine next to the Canteen.  “Hey, I am going to go buy a Powerade.”

My first response was fairly cautious, “Brandon, how about we not do that right now.”

“I am thirsty.  I will be back in a minute.”

Paladin had heard about enough talking back from this kid, and stepped in, “Hey, get back here, where do you think you are going?”

“I will take care of it Paladin.”  I stepped towards Brandon as he headed past me to the Canteen, and accompanied him in that direction while I talked with him, trying to regain some semblance of control over the situation.  Campers are not allowed to have cash on them at camp, for reasons including but not limited to: we don’t want to have a camper leaving the rest of the group to go buy a drink in the middle of the night.  I am sure this is one of many things that was bothering Paladin about the situation, but once again he backed off and let me handle it.

I was also very aware that the steps I would have to take to enforce a denial of his request to go buy a drink would not be worth the likely result.  Recalling Mr. Hassler’s advice from earlier in the evening, and observing that Brandon was becoming more irritable and less cooperative, I figured it wouldn’t really be such a bad idea get something in his stomach.  I told him, “that’s fine go ahead on get a drink down there, but hurry up, we need to be heading back.”

Paladin approached me as soon as Brandon headed down towards the Canteen, and we had a quick chat in hushed tones.  “What is going on?  He can’t DO that!”

“Don’t worry, I have things under control.”

“But he…You can’t-“

“-I’ve got it.  We have been instructed to show patience with him.” (That and I didn’t want a violent confrontation)

“Instructions from who?”

“Kevin…and Mr. Hassler,” which was a technically correct, but somewhat misleading statement, which I feel was justified at the time, but ultimately was used in other contexts later in the week.

“Alright, but I don’t like what is happening,” he replied.

“I know.”  At this point, I was totally overlooking the fact that Paladin hadn’t heard the story of what had happened earlier, and while he must have heard that something happened, he never would have guessed the magnitude of the incident.  As part of what became one of the largest communication breakdowns at camp that summer, I didn’t realize that he was totally in the dark about this for the entire rest of the week.

With that, went back and collected the rest of the cabin and started heading up the hill, picking up Brandon by the Canteen on the way.  It was a straight hike up the road, to the open field at the crest of the hill above Wild Oak, by the hay barn.  At that point we all took a seat in a circle on the ground, and had a talk about the stars, the universe, creation, God, and a few other things.  Brandon kept his inappropriate insights to a minimum, and the discussion carried on as it usually does.  Right as we were finishing, I saw Rocky drive by, returning to camp after his class, so I was anticipating a conversation with him upon our return.  We hiked down the last stretch of road into camp, and headed into the cabin.

Starting Fresh

Starting Fresh

Once we got back up to Wild Oak, Kevin sent Brandon over to the kitchen with Kodak to see if there was anything left to eat, and he and I were left leaning on the back of the Bronco.

“So, I guess we go back to square one, starting fresh…How do you feel about all of this?”

“Well I am not entirely comfortable with the situation, and…well that is pretty much it.  I am not comfortable with the situation.  I can handle whatever he decides to do during the day, but at night…”

“That is a good point.  We can send Mouth or Rodeo to sleep in your cabin, if that would help.”

“It would probably be a good idea.” I replied.

“I know it is going to be challenging, but hopefully we can make a difference for him.  He seems very confused and angry, but I feel like he is ripe for the word.”

“Okay, we will see how it goes.”

“Yeah see how things go.  I will be up here tomorrow morning anyway, so you can let me know how things are going.”

With that, I grabbed some snacks and headed off to the Hassler’s house for staff worship.  Once I arrived, I spent the next hour relaying the story to the counselors, lifeguards, and wranglers, who were all curious to know what had happened.  Importantly, the DAs and Paladin were not there to hear the story, since they were out supervising the campers.  Once we had discussed it and prayed about it, I had a chance to talk to Mr. Hassler about how to deal with the situation, and he was able to provide a few more practical ideas than I had received earlier.  At that point I wasn’t sure whether I should talk with Brandon specifically about what had happened, or totally ignore it under the idea of forgive and forget.  How was I supposed to explain Mouth’s presence?  Mr. Hassler also pointed out that people on medications were usually more prone to act unpredictably when they hadn’t eaten recently, so just before dinner would be a more likely time for problems, especially if he was hungry, and still adjusting to camp food.  I kept this in mind when dealing with other situations that developed later on.

Mouth was there when I got back to Wild Oak, actually preparing for the campfire devotional that he was scheduled to give.  We chatted for a few moments and I filled him in on some details.  He told me he was planning to sleep on the porch of my cabin, and we talked about options for my night hike.

 “Do you feel comfortable taking him?” Mouth asked.

“I guess so.  Paladin will be with me out there, but I don’t know if Brandon even wants to go.  And if he doesn’t want to go, I definitely don’t want him out there with us.”  That would have been great, having to chase him around in the dark, trying to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone else in my cabin.

“Ask him, and if he wants to go, take him, and if he doesn’t, he can stay here with me, and it will be fine.  You shouldn’t cancel it just because of him; you should definitely take your guys.”

“Okay, thanks Mouth. I will go talk with him”

So I headed down to find Brandon at the campfire pit as they were starting to build the fire.  I was conscious of the fact that I had no idea what this next conversation had in store for me, but I knew that it needed to happen.  I told the staff members who were trying to get me to prepare for the campfire skits not to count on my presence because I needed to talk with Brandon, and didn’t know how long that would take.  I beckoned him up towards the dining area, and while I could feel that he was about to rebel against me and stay put, he seemed to decide that it wasn’t worth it, and proceeded to follow me up the hill.  We sat down next to each other at the first table, looking down towards the rest of the camp preparing for the campfire ceremony.

After a second, I started, “Well to be honest I am not sure exactly what to say, but I know we need to have a talk.  I have a couple of questions to start off with, and we will just have to see where it takes us from there.  Okay?”

“…Alright.”  He was fairly apprehensive about the situation.

“Well first off, a few straight forward ones.  Do you know if you are susceptible to Poison Oak?”

“I think so, but I will be fine.  I haven’t been in any recently.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that.  You may have been a little distracted at the time, but you definitely came into contact with some.  You should definitely make sure you take a shower at some point before you go to bed tonight, regardless of how late it is.”

“…Okay”

“And speaking of late, that brings me to my next question. You may recall that we were planning to go on a night hike this evening.  Do you still want to go?”

“Yeah…I guess I will go.”

“Are you sure?  Because if YOU don’t want to go, I don’t want you to.”

“Yeah I want to go.”

“Alright, then you can go.  That takes care of that.  Well…I have one more question for you.”  It was time for a gamble, which definitely came into play later in the week, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but after all that talk about how you hated camp, what caused you to decide to stay?”

He got a bit uncomfortable, for reasons that became obvious as he spoke reluctantly, but I was amazed at how open his response was.  “Well it was because I maybe…kind of think I might…sort of like someone.”

Well there is nothing like a clear warning, so I knew of one other thing to watch out for this week.  That was just what I needed, a mentally and emotionally unstable camper who had a crush on some girl.  While we had about fifteen girls at Wild Oak that week, only two of them were in the Sportsman program, spending activity time with the guys.  That would seem to make my job a bit easier in that regard, but both of them were in my cabin’s activity group all week.

At that point I asked if he had anything else he wanted to talk to me about, but he of course declined, so we headed back down to where they were beginning the camp fire.  I was relieved that that talk had gone well, albeit a little shorter than I anticipated.

Although there were no major incidents, Brandon behavior during the campfire left something to be desired.  To begin with, his occasional participation was devoid of enthusiasm, and he provided a number of inappropriate comments.  Interestingly enough, the specific topics that Mouth discussed during his devotion dovetailed perfectly with what Jesse had been telling Brandon, while they were sitting on the side of the road a few hours earlier.  They dovetailed so nicely in fact, that Brandon began to make comments about how convenient it was that Mouth was speaking on those topics, although Kodak and I are probably the only ones who really understood what he was referring to.

A Whole New Type of Counseling

As if things weren’t already strange enough, Brandon started shouting all sorts of other things at us: “I hate this place, and I hate all of you!  You Christians, you’re a bunch of hypocrites!  God doesn’t care about you, he doesn’t even exist.  And for what?  There is no heaven.  It is all a big lie!  I look forward to seeing the devil in hell someday.  Satan created the world, there is no God.  There is no good there is only evil.  And I am proud to be part of the evil.  Satan is coming to take over the world and I look forward to that day.  You Christians have no idea what is coming.”

He continued this rant for a minute or so, Kodak and I were still sitting in the back, totally shocked, and Kevin continued to try to talk with him, constantly speaking the whole time, in a calm monotone voice.  Jesse arrived after putting his dogs in his car to keep them out of the way and he caught the last part of Brandon’s tirade.

Jesse began to point out inconsistencies in Brandon’s statements.  “If there is no heaven, then there can be no hell, one requires the other for comparison, to define what it is.  And Satan doesn’t even claim to have created the world, but he is in and of the world.  If there was no God, Satan would have nothing to resist against, and would not then be evil.”

Kevin chimed in occasionally, “You seem very confused about a lot of things. A lot of the things you are saying don’t make a lot of sense.  We are ready to try to explain the way that we believe things are if you are ready to listen.”

After a few minutes of this, Brandon gave up on the verbal battle, and stormed off to grab his stuff, and started heading down the hill to Frontier.  We followed him slowly in the Bronco, with Jesse on foot.  Right as he passed the driveway to the nurse’s station he stopped on the left side of the road and set his stuff down.  When he did so, his sleeping bag began to roll down the hill, on the road.  He didn’t chase it; he just stood there staring at it.  As it rolled farther and farther, I could see him getting madder and madder, as he began to shake in rage again.  Eventually it rolled into the median and stopped, and Brandon sat down on the grass at the edge of the road.  Kevin pulled the Bronco up next to him in the right lane, and Jesse went around Brandon and sat a few feet down the hill from him, on the grass as well.  The conversation continued from where it had left off, with Brandon as angry and upset as before, and Jesse and Kevin calmly talking to him, while Kodak and I silently watched.

Jesse continued to take the lead, “You may not want to believe me, but I know what it is like to be in your position.  I spent many years of my life not understanding why I was here, or what purpose my life had.  I don’t know who it is in your life that put some of these ideas in your head, whether it was you father or an uncle or a brother, but what they have been telling you is not true.  If you stop and listen to what you are saying, it doesn’t even make any sense.”

“Satan is coming, and he is going to take over this world, and everything in it!”

Kevin responded to this one.  “I fully believe Satan is already here.  We can see that very clearly in the world we live in.  But I also know that he has already been defeated, by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  And the day will come when Jesus returns in his Glory, and Satan will be thrown into the pit of fire.  I believe that with all of my heart.”

“But why?”

“Because I believe in a God that loves us.  What do you love Brandon?”

“I love no one!  I don’t need you or God or anyone else!”

“Surely you must love something.  Would you say that you love yourself Brandon?”

“No, I hate myself and everything else!”

“That is pretty lonely attitude to have.  What is that heart on your arm?” Kevin asked, pointing to a heart-shaped red mark, scratched into Brandon’s left fore-arm.

“That is the only heart I have left!” Brandon replied scornfully.  And the conversation continued like this for some time.

Since we were on the main road in camp, every few minutes a vehicle would pass between us and Brandon, and we would smile and wave at them, and then return to dealing with our serious situation once they had passed.  Impact drove by on a trash run, the nurse came through, and the kitchen crew from Wild Oak came back down the hill, signifying that we had totally missed the evening meal.  As the conversion continued, Brandon would calm down a bit, and then get riled up again, depending on what was being said.  They discussed all sorts of things from the place that boundaries and rules play in a community, to the meaning of good and evil, and the significance of ethics and morals.  I was very conscious of the fact that what I was watching disproved the idea that there was nothing beyond the natural material world.  Brandon was speaking from a demon’s perspective, and clearly wasn’t faking it.  He had so little control over himself and his actions during his rages, that he couldn’t be faking anything, let alone something like that.  So this demon possessed kids reaffirmed my faith in the existence of God, when it was weakening most.

Eventually the conversation took a sudden turn, and Brandon went from complaining about camp to trying to bargain to stay.  “Okay, well I am going to offer to make you a deal.  I would be willing to stay, if you will stop mistreating me, and prevent everyone else at camp from mistreating me.  So do we have a deal?”

I will be honest, my initial thought on the matter was: “when pigs fly and hell freezes over.”  But I just sat silently and listened to things play out.

When he asked Jesse, the response was something like this.  “Do you know what I do here at camp?  I spent the afternoon pulling maggots out of toilets.  No, I don’t have the authority to make any deal with you.”

Brandon turned and looked at me.  “BullsEye, can you accept that deal?”

I shook my head silently and pointed to Kevin in front of me, but Brandon turned back to Jesse and continued talking with him for a moment.  Then Brandon turned to Kevin and asked “Can you get me the guy who has the authority to make a deal?”

“I am that guy…But if you are going to stay here at camp, you are going to need to stay under our terms, and agree to honor our rules and boundaries.  We would like you to stay, we would like to help you, but you have to be willing to follow the rules.”  The exchange continued for a few more minutes, but I can’t recall it very specifically, since I was distracted as the potential reality that I would have to continue to deal with this kid slowly set in.

Eventually Jesse brought the conversation to a lighter topic and got things moving by volunteering to go retrieve Brandon’s sleeping bag from down the hill.  The tension of the situation began to diffuse as he returned with it, and handed it to Brandon.  We hopped out of the Bronco to load his stuff, but there wasn’t much conversation.  Then we climbed back in, with Brandon in the front with Kevin, and Kodak and me in the back.  Right as he got in, Brandon broke the silence for a second.  “BullsEye…I’m sorry.”

Not certain what to do, I replied “I forgive you.” I honestly wasn’t sure what that really meant, but it seemed like the appropriate response.  Those were the last words spoken the entire drive back to Wild Oak.

Runaway Camper

Within a few seconds I realized we must have passed Brandon somewhere in the bushes.  I had Kevin stop and I hopped out the back, to search behind us, while Kevin and Kodak continued down the canal.  It didn’t take long for me to spot Brandon about twenty feet down the hill below the canal, probably assuming that he was in the clear since we had roared by in the Bronco a few seconds before.  He was sitting down, facing away from me, surrounded by the largest patch of Poison Oak I had ever seen someone get into.  I stood silently at the edge of the canal above him, and just watched him, curious to see what he was going to do next.  He proceeded to pick up a huge rock, and lift it up over his head with both hands.  He paused for a second, and then heaved it down the hill.  It landed a few feet in front of him and rolled once before coming to rest.  I assume he was just trying to break it or something else in a random expression of his anger.  Still not noticing me, he picked up his belongings and began to head along the hillside parallel to the canal.  I stayed even with him, up on the ditch bank, until Kodak approached, walking back down the canal.  Brandon saw her, which then drew his attention to me.

He immediately turned and headed straight down the hill away from me, towards Blackberry Pass.  I found a spot to get through the bushes below the canal that didn’t have any Poison Oak, and set out after him.  He reached the trail in Blackberry Pass and set off in the direction of Buckhorn, with me following a ways back.  Occasionally he would start running for a moment, and I would lengthen my strides, to keep up, but he couldn’t maintain that pace for long.  As Saddle Inn came into sight over the crest of the hill, I saw Kevin in his Bronco, driving down to cut off Brandon at the corner.  Kevin had Uncle Jesse in the vehicle with him by now, and began to talk to Brandon as he pulled up in front of him.

“Hey there, I hear that you want to head home.”

“Stay away from me, you can’t stop me, I hate this place!”

“Well no one is going to try to stop you, I can give you a ride down to the office, and we can make some phone calls for you if you would like.”

“Leave me alone, I will walk thank you.”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

After asking if I wanted a ride, which I declined, Kevin headed back to Saddle Inn in reverse to turn around.  I just continued to follow Brandon from a distance on foot.  Right as he reached the crest of the hill on the road by Saddle Inn, he dropped his bags, turned around, and started running towards me, shouting angrily.  “Leave me alone, if you don’t stop following me, I am gonna…”  I darted backwards a few feet and realized for the first time that Kodak had been following a little ways behind me.  Once Brandon realized that I would be too quick for him, he turned, walked the few feet back to collect his belongings, and continued down the road towards the Canteen.  At this point Jesse had hopped out of the Bronco, with his dogs as well, and took our spot on foot.  Kodak and I climbed in with Kevin and drove behind them.  Brandon headed off the road up towards the pool, but stopped and sat down on his suitcase after only a few feet.  While we watched Jesse try to talk with him, the three of us in the car were working to get the contact info for Brandon’s parents from the camp nurse and calling them.  We got no response from any of their numbers during the entire incident, but Kevin left them a couple of interesting messages.  “Hi there, this is Kevin, the director at Wolf Mountain.  Your son Brandon seems to be having some trouble adjusting to camp.  So if you could give us a call, that would be great.”

We watched Jesse talk with Brandon for about five minutes, with Jesse’s big dog next to him, to add a somewhat surreal humorous element, before Brandon picked up his bags and continued up the hill towards the pool.  I pointed out that people frequently left keys in their cars when they parked by the pool, and that Brandon was sixteen, and things would get a whole lot worse if it escalated into a car chase.  Luckily nobody else had been around during this entire time, besides a few wranglers at Saddle Inn, since everyone was eating dinner, so we didn’t really have to worry about the safety of other campers at that point.  The pool area and parking lot was deserted, besides Jesse’s car which was locked.  Jesse took that opportunity to put his dogs in the car, and then caught up on foot, while the three of us in the Bronco drove around and caught up with Brandon in front of the Canteen.  He had set down his stuff and his trying to get the soda machine to give him a drink.  I have no idea if he inserted money at some point, but it was fairly obvious that kicking it was not giving him the desired result.  We were still making phone calls at this point, and were just watching him when things got really interesting.

Brandon took off his jacket and hat, and started heading up towards us.  Kodak and I were in the back of the open Bronco, I was behind Kevin, and she was on the right, towards Brandon.  Fortunately Brandon passed her side, and came around the back of the vehicle.  I handed Kodak my cell phone and knife, so that it wouldn’t be within his reach if the situation degenerated farther.  Brandon stood about two feet away, and started demanding that I get out of the car, because he was going to teach me a lesson that I should have been taught a long time ago, etc.  I didn’t react or say anything back to him, I just pointed to Kevin, who has maintaining a constant stream of dialogue: “You don’t want to do that.  What is it that is upsetting you so much?  We will let you go home.  No one is going to force you to stay here.”  And he continued this for a minute or two, until things got even more weird.

Everything is More Exciting during Mega-Week

Week Six was Sportsman Mega-Week at Wild Oak, although we hadn’t really defined what that meant by the time campers began to arrive.  And I had no idea that it was going to be one of the longest and most challenging weeks of my life.  We had been warned that one of our male campers had a form of autism call Asperger’s Syndrome.  I had never dealt with any of that kind of stuff, so I didn’t have a clue what that really meant.  Of the three male cabins, he of course ended up in mine.  His paperwork included a letter from his parents, talking about how they hoped he would have a good experience at camp, that he had trouble reacting appropriately to certain social situations, and to give them a call if he caused any problems, but with no phone numbers included.  When my campers arrived, the other six cabin members were all much younger than Brandon, who was sixteen, and had the build of a football player.  He wore all faded black clothing, pants, jacket and hat, and had a fairly thin haircut.  His parents came up to the camp to make sure he got settled in, and since luggage was a little behind schedule, they went back down to Frontier to check on it, since they didn’t think he would be able to identify has own bag.  This was my first hint in to the reality of the situation I was confronted with, and was an interesting event, considering I later discovered Brandon to have a photographic memory.  We had figured out the luggage situation and were eating dinner by the time Brandon’s parents returned to confirm that everything was set.

That evening I discovered a few interesting things about Brandon, among them that he was currently attending my old High School, in Colfax, and we had had some of the same teachers.  He also had the worst swearing problem of any camper I have ever seen.  We had recently discussed this issue with the staff, and had decided that in the worst profanity cases, we should correct campers more than discipline them, to help them identify the problem.  I agreed with the reasoning behind that approach, so that was how I attempted to deal with the problem. We had three or four blatant profanity issues the first night, but besides that, everything went smoothly.

All else went well for the first 24 hours, and by Monday afternoon we were headed to the Archery range for cabin option time.  Brandon had been bragging all day about how he would be able to outshoot me with a bow and arrow, so I was interested in seeing if there was anything behind that, since I have heard that autistic kids sometimes are overwhelmingly good at certain things.  Turns out that there was nothing behind it, and Brandon found himself in a very embarrassing situation in front of the cabin when he could not even hit the target at point blank range.  His frustration during this event is the only other factor I can attribute to his actions later that evening.

We headed straight from there to dinner back at Wild Oak, and lined up waiting to eat.  For the third time in a row, my cabin was selected last to eat, not really by any fault of their own.  As the second to last group was dismissed, my cabin started to follow them, since they were the only ones left.  We called them back to wait until they were specifically dismissed.  Brandon decided that he didn’t like that idea, and started to talk back to Joy, who was the DA running the meal.  Joy stood her ground on the issue, but after giving us a lecture about how he had paid $465 to come to camp, and was not going to be told what to do, Brandon informed us that he was going to go pack his bags and leave.  He stomped off to the cabin, throwing his water bottle over his shoulder at us.  We dismissed the rest of my cabin to eat, and watched Brandon disappear into the cabin.  I turned to Joy and Kodak, who were the remaining staff members who hadn’t gone to eat and asked, “Any advice about how I should deal with this little issue?”

“Pray about it.”

While not a bad idea, I had been looking for a bit more of a pragmatic piece of advice.  We took a moment to pray before I headed up to the cabin to talk with him, and they headed off to eat.  When I walked into the cabin, Brandon was standing by his bunk, trying to stuff all of his belongings into a small opening in his suitcase, without unzipping it the rest of the way.  I guess he was too angry to realize that opening it all the way would be much easier, and as it became more and more difficult to fit things in there, he was becoming angrier and angrier, shaking in rage.  I started out the conversation the only way I knew how:

“How’s it going?  ...It seems like you are having a bit of a rough day.”  He ignored me and continued packing.  “How about you just take a few minutes and try to calm down a bit.”

“Hey, I am leaving, and I swear, if you even try to stop me, I will hurt you.”

“Okay, okay, relax!  I am not going to try to stop you.  What are you going to do when you finish packing?”

“F***  you, leave me alone”

“Okay, well I will just stand here and watch, but I recommend that you try to think more than about five minutes ahead.  This entire endeavor will be a lot easier if you have a plan.”

“Screw you, man.  Go away.”

“Alright, have it your way.”  So we spent the next couple minutes in silence as he managed to cram the rest of his belongings into his suitcase.  I was curious to see what he was going to do next.  He then picked up his sleeping bag and pillow, and with his suitcase rolling/dragging behind him, he stormed past me out the door, and headed off towards the path to the canal.  Rocky was gone on Monday, as usual, so I darted over to the kitchen to grab Kodak for a little support, and to ask FX to watch my cabin.  Kodak and I headed out after Brandon, staying about 30 yards back.  By the time we passed the rifle range, she had gotten a hold of Kevin on her cell phone.

“So we have sort of an unusual situation up here, one of our campers has decided that he wants to go home.  He has packed his bags is heading back down to Frontier…We just crossed the bridge and are going along the canal…No, we are just following him, I am not sure what else to do…okay, thanks.”  Kodak closed her phone and turned to me, “Kevin is on his way.”

Now I figured that if we were lucky, Kevin would be there by the time we got to the road above the pool.  Instead, within 15 seconds of the phone call, we heard a vehicle roaring up Blackberry Pass, and before we reached the first bend in the canal, Kevin had cut across the meadow in his Bronco and was behind us, up on the ditch bank of the canal.  As soon as he was in sight, I turned to Kodak, “Wow, I am impressed” and when I looked back in front of us.  Brandon had begun to sprint away, belongings and all.  I started to run after him to keep him in site, while Kodak climbed into the vehicle.  I was another fifty yards down the canal by the time they caught up with me, but Brandon disappeared around the next turn while I was hopping into the Bronco.  When we rounded the next bend, Brandon was nowhere to be seen.

Immaturity at its Worst

That next week was my fourth week counseling in a row.  We had three cabins of guys, and a new male counselor on staff.  I ended up with a group of younger kids, four of whom knew each other, which is always a recipe for trouble.  They did fine at activities, but the nights were tough.  They were always wired, and had figured out some way to fart on command.  (Worst smelling cabin ever)  Yes, Jr. High kids can be very immature.  At one point, I actually hiked them to the top of the hill around midnight, and had them stand in formation until they could be quiet for five continuous minutes.  The nine of them had to stand in a square, far enough apart that they couldn’t touch each other, until they could make it five minutes without someone talking.  It took them about an hour to accomplish that, which should illustrate how hyperactive they were, in the middle of the night.  Eventually the somewhat mature ones, who want to go to bed, get the rest of them to settle down.  And we may have had to do that more than once.

On the ropes course, FX had a climber on the Leap who refused to jump, so eventually he gave the belay line a hard tug.  The kid leapt for the trapeze as he got pulled off the platform, and managed to catch it to keep from falling.  Once he caught it, he refused to let go.  FX wanted to know what to do about that, and I prescribed a little slack and a couple of minutes.  Gravity is pretty dependable, and pretty soon the kid was freaking out that his hands were slipping off the bar.  Meanwhile we are down there, calmly telling him that we had him, that he could let go anytime, and that the rope will catch him.  When he finally lost his grip, he screamed as he free fell…about a foot or two before the rope arrested his fall, as expected.

We had another climber on the same element get tangled up in the extra haul cord from the MVP.  By the time I was called over, we was so tangled up, he couldn’t climb any higher, and down would have strangled him, since is was wrapped around has neck somehow.  So if he slipped off the staple he was currently standing on, that would have been bad news.  I disassembled a couple harnesses, and borrowed some carabineers from other elements to build a makeshift set of lobster claws, and climbed up o rescue him ASAP.  It was such a tangled mess that I had to cut the haul cord into pieces to untangle him, but once he was free, he finished the element.  And I made sure the MVP cords were tied to the other tree from then onward.

Meanwhile, by Friday night, I had kids pulling down their pants during the serious, introspective, Illuminaria time, and making strange inappropriate jokes that made no sense.  There were also constantly little pieces of pinecone getting thrown around at everyone in the dark while we were talking.  Lots of accusations flew back and forth, but I never saw anyone doing it, so I figured they must be pretty sneaky, since I was facing everyone.  Based on observations a couple days later, I realized there must have been a squirrel up in the tree we were under, probably pulling nuts out of the pinecones, and dropping the leftover fragments on us.  Regardless of who was doing it, it was a huge distraction to the conversation.

They were the one cabin I had in all my years at Wild Oak, that I was just not cut out to handle.  I have had much bigger issues to deal with, but not ones with which I had less success in overcoming.  It was also the only time I had to deal with the issue of drug use while I was counseling, not directly, but talking about it.  One of my younger kids had an older brother who didn’t exactly sound like a good influence.  It was difficult to ascertain how far down that path my camper had headed, but I advised him as best I could, not being able to relate to that temptation at all.  The other counselors talked about dealing with those conversations more frequently, but that is the only serious one I ever had.

I was definitely relieved when that week was over, and we finally got a break during the next all-girls week at Wild Oak.  We still had to run activities, but we got to eat with the “big kids” on the deck, and sleep in relative peace. (Or actually sleep at all)  It went fairly smoothly, and after we dismissed campfire that Friday evening, I sat around it with Rocky and Kodak, discussing the summer.  Suddenly Rocky piped up with: “By the way, it doesn’t matter now, but Kevin got some calls early this week from the parents of the kids in your last cabin.  They complained that you were too ‘militant’ and strict, but I talked with Kevin about it, and we think you are doing fine.  I just thought you should know.”  Not going to deny that one.  But it did change my perspective a bit as I prepared to counsel the next week.  With only seven kids in my cabin, as opposed to the usual nine that summer, it should be relatively easy, right?