Last Night

I did not survive the camping experience without gaining a new nickname of sorts. Toby regularly referred to me as "minion". The second or third or fourth route we went on he began "Alright let us go, madame Halie... Or... wait, madame is for married people so..." "Miss Halie?" I asked. "Miss is for single. Miss Halie works... Or just Halie... Eh minion works. Minion is good!" "Alright! Minion, then." He was in charge of teaching me to do the job. When he said something about not getting along with kids and referring to them as brats oftentimes. "Hey!" I objected, "I consider myself a kid!" "Brat," he said jokingly, laughing. "Minion brat, eh? Am I a brat?" "No, you're not..." He said, "Well you don't behave like a brat." Although most of the camping experience was very fun, the last couple days sort of began to sink. My route partner Toby was unused to walking so much apparently and so after two days of hobbling around with the use of a large stick he went home early with his dad. Brenten would help me sometimes, but others I would go on my own, donning the bright blue plastic gloves and heading off. The last day I was there many people, the regular campers, left. The kitchen and porta potty crew etc stayed behind to clean up and everything. I was kept busy all day running around doing odd jobs until early evening when my aunt Nicole and uncle Samp-son showed up to visit with Jade. We ate lunch together and I pulled Lily around in the wagon as we followed mom on her route. I ended up sprawled out on the ground in some random grassy area of the camp, facedown and exhausted. Lexie took the wagon and kept following mom and I sort of fell half asleep. I don't know how much later it was that I heard a man's voice say "Hey... Hey, are you alright?" Groggily I lifted my head. A man stood over me in a green button up shirt. "Ohh... I'm fine." I croaked. "Oh good! I just saw a person laying on the ground, you know. Never want to assume about something like that!" I laugh-choked and sat up slowly, glancing around. A bunch of other pastors, as well as a guy my own age that I knew, Matthew had arrived to load up and take the nearby porta potties away. Matthew recognized me as I stood up, grinned and waved, "Hey Halie!!" I smiled and waved back as I walked away sheepishly so as not to concern them further to my health, "Heya Matthew." It wasn't until late that evening after dinner that I insisted on going swimming at the river, alone if I had to. I'd been saying the whole hot day that I wanted to go, and for several days I'd been talking about a river trip, but it always got put off. Tonight was the last chance, and I was determined. So Lexie agreed to go too and during dinner we asked all the family members if anyone would like to join us. Andy decided to come as well and so directly after dinner the three of us set off. We walked and walked and walked alongside the river and finally decided to try getting in. It all looked shallow and we wanted to find a spot where we couldn't touch the bottom, a feat we had not yet managed to complete. We got in, and swam. We found a couple of rope swings on one bank and took turns swinging off. Laughter and tickling and wrestling ensued all the way, we saw a shore in the distance and decided to make it our goal. It definitely got deeper, and the shore turned out to be quite a bit further than expected! We were tired by the time we hit the shore and Andy chased Lexie onto shore for throwing wet sand into his face oh so ungraciously. We chucked rocks forward and all three of us would dive forward trying to find the exact rock thrown first. Rocks, as it turns out, are a common object in the bottom on river beds so this proved difficult. "What we need," I suggested, "Is a bright orange rock." And sure enough as we left the shore area we'd worked so hard to reach, I found a large, bright orange rock. We repeated our pattern on the way back, struggling and laughing. Andy grabbed me around the waist and I struggled, flailing and kicking desperately at his strong grasp. The kicks were my worst apparently, for her clutched my ankles together with both hands trying to contain them. He dunked me under the water as I was laughing hysterically and brought me back to the surface in a few seconds. I was still laughing so hard that I didn't have time to catch a breath before he dunked me under again. He had both my ankles and I was already weak with no air and flailing desperately so he didn't notice the difference when my playful attempts to escape became necessary struggling. I had to inhale and as he brought me to the suface again I was coughing and spluttering, trying to eject the water from my mouth and throat. I had inhaled it and when he saw the change he immediately dropped my ankles and grabbed me up, pulling me upright and supporting me. For a minute he was holding me up above the water as I choked out water. No matter how many times I coughed I couldn't stop, it was uncontrollable, trying to dispell the water from the area it wasn't supposed to be. I couldn't get it all and for probably an hour or two after that it was still uncomfortable to breathe. :Are you okay?!" He asked, eyes wide. I kept coughing, unable to answer for awhile, then cracked a smile and waved him off, "It's okay..." was all I could scratch out of my throat. We kept swimming back, catching sight of some cows on the opposite bank as we walked back. The sky was darkening when we made our way back into the campground and then to our camp on foot, weaving through all the empty spaces people had left behind. I went straight to my tent, changed into dry pajamas and grabbed my notebook, a pen, my long dead phone and its charger. I sat up in front of the bathroom to charge my phone for an hour, writing my story in my notebook. One olderish man glanced at me funny as he passed, "Writing a letter hm? Or in a diary." I said decisively, walking away and obviously not expecting an answer. I sat there for an hour before I went back and straight to bed. I was cold, tired and thought I would die the second my head hit the pillow. And I certainly slept like it! But that night I woke up in the pitch dark feeling pain in my stomach, and scrabbling for a flashlight. I needed to use the bathroom. But I couldn't find the flashlight so I jumped out to look for flip flops that should have been right there. But only one sat there faithfully, so I abandoned that mission too, in my haste. I weaved between my family's tents and made it, barefoot and flashlightless to the empty camping spot next to our lots where the pain in my stomach became unbearable. I suddenly and unnexpectedly felt that strange and rare pressure on the inside of my throat. I knew the feeling. It was unnexpected. I was going to vomit. I threw up on the spot, in the grass in that empty lot. The taste was awful and I hurried even faster to the bathroom. I felt empty, hollow, sad, vulnerable, alone and barefooted as I stepped into the lit bathrooms, no porta potties would've done for me at that time. I needed the yellow light to reassure me. The bathroom was empty too, no signs of life except myself, but better than a dark porta potty. I used the bathrooms and stood, noticing my bare feet on the tile floor. I thought despairingly that I'd probably get athlete's foot, and spashed my face with water, staring at the sad, bedraggled reflection in the mirror. A tear stood underneath each eye from when I'd vomited. I looked horrid. I looked sick, like I'd just rolled out of a sleeping bag on the hard ground that gave me inumerable bruises and thrown up. I splashed my face again, turned off the faucet, dried my cold face and hands and ran through the now pitch black unseeable darkness back to my camp and crawled into my sleeping bag. This was where I spent several exhausting and exhausted hours, turning back and forth and lacking the ability to sleep. I thought of all my problems and prayed over and over and felt the pain in my stomach, continuous and unfaltering. Finally after a lengthy period of time, I don't remember when I fell asleep. The next morning I barely helped with breaking camp. I was weak and my stomach ached unbelievably. Every time I stood up I felt like I wouldn't be able to support my weight for long, and the pain would double in my inside. I helped a little, but mostly I was a giant baby and got in the car as soon as I could. I barely ate that day, and neither did most anyone else. Mainly everyone was sick. When we finally got home we all flooded in and laid down. It wouldn't be until the next day that I felt fully better. And of that I was truly thankful.