Game Theory × NH

camping trip

Niall

Lynn Mercury loved camping. When Jamie and Jace first brought up the idea of a couples camping trip about a month ago when they came to visit us after our engagement, Lynn was all over it. She immediately started planning; thinking of things to do, where to go, and creating a list of things to bring. She spent hours on hours on the computer looking things up, making sure they wouldn't forget anything and to have extras of everything they brought just in case. She doubled up on food, sunscreen, bug spray, and mini games in case it rains and we're stuck inside our tents.

A month later we stood isolated on the Angel Island State Park campgrounds.

I however hated camping. One time before my parents were divorced and my brother and I got along fairly well, we had gone camping. It was Dad's idea, his notion of "making the family whole again" and I might have only been ten-years-old, but even I knew that wasn't going to happen.

And I had been right. Since this was before cellphones were a big thing, instead of spending all her time on one, Mum spent the weekend complaining how she was missing phone calls and that work needed her and that this was a waste of time. Dad brushed that off though, determined to make it a weekend we would never forget. He ended up getting what he wanted, but it wasn't in the way he would have thought.

"Will you stop slumping around and help me pitch the tent?" Lynn asked from a few feet away. She was on her knees with the tent flat in front of her, a pole in one hand and a corner of the tent fabric in the other.

"I thought you were the Girl Scout," I reminded her. "Can't you do it on your own?"

Lynn didn't seem to bat an eye at my attitude. "Yes, but it will go a lot faster if you help. Besides, you should learn how to do this just in case."

I laughed bitterly and swatted a mosquito away. "In case of what? After this, I'm not leaving a city ever again."

"Oh, for Christ sakes," Jace snapped from beside their tent that was almost put together. "Would you stop being a bitch and help her?"

I glared at him for a moment, which he returned with a scowl just as hot. There really wasn't away around this and Jace knew that. He would make sure I sucked it up for the sake of Lynn's (and theirs, for that matter) sanity.

Groaning, I stood up from the log I was sitting on and walked over to Lynn. I didn't say anything and neither did Lynn as she handed me one of the rods and pointed to the other side of the tent. Putting up a tent seemed self-explanatory as I threaded the pole through the sleeve for Lynn to grab and secure it on her side. After that was done and the tent was now standing, Lynn threw me some stakes and told me to start pushing them into the ground so the tent stays in place.

Eventually, after some grumbling and more complaining through the whole thing, our tent was up. And it was fucking tiny.

"We're sleeping in here?" I asked, looking at the girl beside me who was admiring our work. "Is it even safe?"

Lynn laughed. "As safe as it can get. We're not going to get attacked by a bear if that's what you mean."

"How do you know?"

"I guess I don't know that," Lynn confessed. "You're the statistic guy, you tell me the odds of that happening."

Jamie walked up to us then, the bright yellow tank top she was wearing nearly blinding me. "You'll be more likely to be mulled by a bear outside the tent then in, so this argument is pointless, isn't it?"