Lufkin Summer Camp: The Year I wasn't there

Chapter 1

Our little hell-spawn's name is Aiden. I don't remember his last name, so we'll call him Aiden de Vil. His last name won't really matter in the long run though.

His story starts off at his own home with his mother and father, Rachel de Vil and Jacob de Vil. Rachel is a nurse at Texas Health and Jacob is a professor at Austin University.

Aiden was an intelligent child, I'll admit. It would help that your dad was a psychology professor.

Anyways, Jake was a traditional man who loved the outdoors and went whenever he could. He usually went with Aiden and Rachel during the summer, but this year, he was in charge of graduations. He's taught there for a very long time so the other professors voted for him to present diplomas and be in charge and all that. So he couldn't go this time.

His mom was also traditional, so of course she wouldn't go if her husband wouldn't.

But the love for their child motivated them to try for a summer camp. They looked and looked until they found my camp in Lufkin. They lived in Austin so how the hell the decided on my camp was beyond me.

"Of course!" They probably thought, "We'll send our sweet little Aiden there!" And their journey started. The journey to set fire to a summer camp. From Austin it's about two hours I believe, so once again, why me?

I actually saw them arrive, they were in a newer model Ford that's had a recent car wash. Aiden was in the back on his phone while his parents looked devastated. Like they had never been a moment without him. All I was thinking was "I'm glad this is a sob story I don't have to deal with."

At this time I was getting ready to leave the camp. I was packing my trunk when I saw them. I gave Daniel a call and told him another set of sobbing parents were headed his direction and got the hell out of Dodge.

There's not much that was said about him, but from what people tell me, he was a charming young man with a decent sense of humor. "Your kind of guy" as Dan put it. He met a lot of new people and didn't seem shy at all. The weird thing at first, however, is that he seemed to know everyone already. As soon as he talked to the person and asked a few questions, he would have them all figured out. As another child named Lily put it, "It's like he could read my mind. But he was cute so I didn't care."

Aiden was a ninth grader. Or was going to be. He graduated eighth grade this year. So he was organized with his grade and gender, and sure enough made fast friends. The first week, he was figuring out the different activities and things you could do. He wasn't too athletic, but he loved to concentrate on problems and figure things out. So his cabin leader, Richard, pointed him to archery.

He excelled at archery.

He was in fact so good at it he became bored. Shooting a ten nearly every shot. The only one that was better than him was Aubrie. A ninth grader who set the record at 290. But he was Bored enough to where he demanded he be put in another assignment. So Richard found another. Fencing.

Can you guess what happened?

He literally poked a hole straight through the glass mask the opponent was wearing and nearly cut her ear off. Poor girl was terrified. So once again he demanded he be put in a different activity.

They told him that he would have to find something to do that was more athletic such as swimming or wrestling so that he could tone his strength to do many other sports in the future. He chose wrestling.

Wrestling was fun for him apparently. He wasn't the biggest kid in the world, but he still put up a fight. It was said that in his eyes there was no emotion. Just concentration. As if figuring put the best way to take him down. Sherlock Holmes style. I'll have you know that at my age, I would have pummeled him. I was about twice his size and the fiercest kid on that team! But that was a long time ago.

Let's cut back to me real quick.

I was driving behind some bozo in a trailer about an hour into my drive to Amarillo, when suddenly I hear my car creak and groan. I pull over into a gas station and check the engine only to get a face full of smoke. I knew this would happen, so I managed to move the suitcase and food and all the other crap in my trunk to find my toolkit.

No toolkit.

I swear I left it right next to the spare tire! I knew this was an omen of some kind.

I went into the gas station to be greeted by a petite older woman working behind the counter. With a couple customers who looked like thugs and druggies.

"Excuse me, miss?" I called over the counter to the woman sorting cigarettes.

"Ooh! Yes dear?" She replied. She sounded so sweet. Like a grandma who doesn't have many visitors. Maybe it was nice for her to see an older man.

"I need some help, you see-"

"Huh?" She said rather loudly with a hand cupped over her ear. Oh boy.

"I said that I needed some help with my car! It's-"

"What? You need to speak up!" She yelled even louder.

I sighed and just pointed to my car outside and made some charades of me fixing the engine with a wrench. Rude, but effective.

"Oh! Well why didn't cha say so? I used to be a mechanic you know?"  She replied cheerfully. "All I need is a tool kit. Do ya got one?"

...

I shake my head "no" slowly and solemnly.

"Well damn it, son! How do ya expect me to fix it if you ain't got a tool kit? You can buy one down the street at Ace's Hardware."

I say thank you and get ready for my walk down the road. As I walk I think about the fact that she never said how far away the store was. She said just down the street but there wasn't an Ace sign in sight. I thought about my car and how I realized I left it unlocked. I thought about Dan and his responsibilities. I thought about my... wallet!

I had forgotten my wallet! I had already walked a mile without my wallet! I ran back and prayed to God that nobody took it. One long run later, I ended up back at my starting point exhausted from running. I look around and there it was. My wallet. I felt so relieved that I found it and so tired from my run that I simply passed out.