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A Random Camp Story

Ah, the last night of camp. Staying up all night, eating any food we managed to save that long, covering the gateways of all the other campsites in toilet paper...

What? Who, me? No, of course not. I would never do that. But someone did. And here is their story...

* * *

There were ten of us that night, waiting in the pavilion until all was quiet in our site. It was almost four o'clock, and the time had come. Having left flashlights in lean-tosand exchanged light colors for pitch black, we silently crept between the trees out to the sandy trails. Without so much as a whisper, we began walking. Arriving at the first site, half our number continued onward, and the other half began to work.

* * *

We stepped back to admire our work, the wonderful loops of toilet paper and perfectly spaced piles of shaving cream. It was a masterpiece. With a small collective sigh, we stole the rest of the site's toilet paper and walked back to the trail to meet the rest of the group. We decorated other sites in much the same way, which was relatively uneventful, and extremely peaceful. Soon, however, things were to get a little more interesting.

* * *

In the middle of our rounds, we arrived at the leaders' site. Having left half our number at a site full of younger campers farther back, we eagerly began our work. Two stayed at the gateway, throwing the rolls up in graceful arcs, attempting to catch them as they swung over tree branches and back to the ground. The other three of us stealthily moved into the site. Our target: the latrine. Our mission: shaving cream. One of us went in, to do the shaving cream. The other two stayed outside with toilet paper. I had barely begun to twine it around the pipe going into the little-used water fountain when I saw... something... out of the corner of my eye. As the apparition drew nearer, my brain recognized the shape as human. I stared in a numb horror, hardly realizing that when I heard the whispered words, "Girls, I think we're caught," they came from my own mouth. The one in the latrine was just coming out, and heard my words. Silently, the three of us filed into the latrine. Going through my mind was the crazed thought, "Maybe she'll just think we got up to go to the bathroom..." Yes, maybe. If she ignored the fact that we were obviously not leaders, and there were clearly three of us, using the same latrine*. We all held our breath, listening to her footsteps coming closer... closer... Any moment now, her face would peer around the corner, demanding to know what we were doing here, and why the side of the latrine was covered in toilet paper. But, it never came. Almost five minutes later, we heard the sound of someone in the next latrine. Still not daring to breathe, we waited. I remember praying that the two at the gateway didn't finish early and come up to help us. I also remember telling god to forget them and save us first. Still, we waited. In all probability, she wanted us to suffer first. We heard the sink turn on, and a few seconds later, silence. Our faces now a lovely shade of blue, one of us cautiously peered under the wall, looking for feet but expecting to see the face of an outraged leader glaring back. There was no one. All at once, the three of us remembered to breathe. Then, we ran.

* * *

Reunited back on the trail, we shared our experience with the other members of our party, and fresh panic seized us as we realized that someone might hear us if they were still awake. Again, we ran.

* * *

After sprinting halfway across camp, we decided to finish the rest of the sites quickly and get back to our site before people started waking up. At another site, some people actually were caught, but I wasn't there, so I can't share that story. I can, however, tell you that they escaped before anyone could recognize them. When we got back to our site, we threw around a little more toilet paper for good measure, and so that our guilt wouldn't be too obvious. Then we sat around in the pavilion, pretending that we had managed to uphold that tradition of staying up the last night by staying in the campsite and eating lots of sugar.

* * *

And thus ended our last night at camp. Everyone lived happily ever after, as soon as they had some sleep.



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*While we are told to travel in threes at night, the buddy system isn't quite that strict.