“Marion”
"I am such an asshole," said
Louie, burying his face into a crumpled up sweatshirt. He had been like this
since Keith up and vanished; a self-blaming mess. Marion would have been lying
if she said it weren’t starting to get on her nerves. And the rest of the
counselors agreed, almost wanting to avoid this lunch entirely because of it.
"Not this again," said Barry
who shook his head disapprovingly. He was seated next to Diane, who twiddled
her thumbs, sipping on a cup of coffee. Her emotions had ranged from sad to
angry and it wasn’t the prettiest sight to behold. She seemed subdued now. Carol just sat there,
reading her newspaper and trying not to scoff every time that Louie said “asshole.”
"You guys just don't get it,”
Louie reasoned, “Keith would still be around here and we wouldn't be having to
bust our asses picking up the slack. It’s all my fault.”
At least that much is true, said Marion who certainly was feeling
the brunt of having one of her counselors up and leave on her. It wasn't the first
time this had happened but she was surprised at who the perpetrator was. If
anything, she figured it’d be Louie who left without warning.
"He had an opportunity and he took
it. It's really not a big deal. If you were offered a. . . professional . . .
Halo contract," said Barry, trying to come up with anything that Louie
could be professional at, "I'm sure you'd be out of this place in a
heartbeat. Especially if you'd been working so hard for it. Easy choice."
"One, you've now proven that you
have absolutely no idea how the video game industry works and sound like a complete
idiot. Two, it is not up to you to decide whether this is a big deal or not. I
was the last person to talk to him and I know what was going on," Louie
said, seemingly trying to sound as authoritative as possible but coming across
more childish.
"Uh technically it was –"
Barry started but was quickly stopped.
"Okay fine, the last person that saw
him before he left. The conversation did not go well and if I hadn’t been such
a dick he wouldn’t have left. It’s all I’m saying," said Louie for the
umpteenth time.
“Everything you’re saying is
ridiculous. You just need to drop it and let it go. You sound like a scorned
lover,” Marion said, not wanting to deal with him at all.
“She’s right, there’s no reason to act
like that,” Barry added.
“You guys can think whatever you want
but I know the truth,” said Louie, trying to put a nail in it.
“You are such an asshole,” exclaimed Diane.
“Thank you! At least someone can see
what I’m talking about,” Louie said. Marion choked a little on her sandwich,
laughing at the fact that Louie was thankful for the insult.
“No, you are a self-centered piece of
shit,” Diane started, her face growing more and more red, “Why the fuck would
you ever think that this was about you? People have lives that are bigger than
some asshole talking shit to them while they’re hammered.”
“And
on that note, I really must be going,” said Marion and stood up, ready to make
her exit.
Not that she had much of an
issue with leaving such an awkward lunch, but Marion also wasn’t wanting to
return to the office either. Lesser of
two evils I suppose. She quickly left the dining hall, glad that she had at
least a little time to progress with office work while the kids were busy at
lunch. It had grown so hectic that, especially with recent events, they were
quickly getting behind on bills and payments.
When she arrived at the office, Al
was halfway through a coke – not a week after swearing off all caffeine – and seemed
a little more jittery than usual. Marion figured he’d be on edge about Keith,
but it appeared he’d succumbed to at least one of his vices. She took off her
sweatshirt and plopped down in the seat across from him.
“I fucking hate that kid,” said
Al, completely drained.
“Oh you do not. He was a great kid,”
Marion reasoned, “In fact, he was looking to be one of the best counselors that
we had. Just had an opportunity and took it. So don't be like that.”
"The headache that motherfucker
has caused me is enough for me to want to contact him and tell him that he
needs to refund any money that I paid him during his first three weeks. Because
he did not fulfill his contract and I refuse to be taken advantage of. No, ma’am.
I refuse. God, and to even think about the work I put into getting that archery
range back up and running,” Al fumed.
"Al, do you have any idea how
ridiculous you sound right now? Hell, Keith did most of the work clearly out
all the weeds and stuff anyway. And he provided the bow and arrows. He helped
us out a ton so what are you even talking about? Have you been drinking?"
she asked, beginning to wonder if this was more than just an emotional
outburst.
"Ridiculous? I don't think so. You
should be right on board with me right now. You know our finances. This fucks
us. This totally fucks us. I can't even believe he'd do something like this. He
knew what hot water we were in and he specifically told me he wouldn’t let me
down. He promised me. Job interviews mean nothing nowadays, they’ll just say
anything to get themselves hired. Society is just a fucking mess these days.
And this is all just the beginning. Now people are gonna be dropping like
flies."
“What do you mean?” Marion asked, a
little concerned.
“We were barely able to keep control of
everything going on with six counselors, now we have five. They’re gonna start
complaining about not having enough to do. Then they’ll just go spend the rest
of their summer playing video games and texting each other. I know what we need
to do, we need to make sure that they can’t call home. That’s it. No one
leaving and asking their parents to come pick them up. Phone privileges
revoked.”
Al was growing ravenous in his tone and
Marion did not like it.
“Do you hear yourself right now? Is
everyone going fucking crazy? This doesn't change anything. We already have the
kids from Keith's group divided up into mine, Louie's and Carol's. It's been
two days everything has been totally fine. You're freaking out over nothing,"
she said, trying to be the more calm of the two, an easy feat given Al’s
volatility, “You still didn’t answer my question. Have you been drinking?”
The door was thrust open, banging up
against the outer wall of the cabin, with someone clearly wanting their entrance
noted. It startled Marion at first but then she saw it was just Carol – not Louie
as she originally feared. She had had enough of Louie trying to get Keith’s
contact information so that he could make sure he wasn’t the reason he left. They
already had enough difficulty getting ahold of him, it wasn’t going to do any
good for him to try. Besides, when was Carol ever a problem?
Carol sat down in the chair next to
Marion and noisily started tapping her foot on the floor. She was obviously mad
but Al refused to make eye contact with her, clearly sick of having to deal
with the many issues going on in the camp. Carol seemed to take the tension in
the room as her own doing and as such tried to command the room with loud sighs
and incessant tapping. Finally Marion took the reins and decides to ask her
what was up.
“We lose one counselor and suddenly I’m
expected to change my entire schedule around? This is – and I’m sorry for
saying it – bullcrap,” Carol snorted, annoyed she even had to have this
conversation.
“Look, I know that you have a very
meticulous schedule planned out and I know you’ve worked very hard on it,”
Marion started but not before Carol had to start in.
“A schedule that has already been rough
enough to keep with all these willy nilly meetings and happenings that are
going on,”
“Carol, we were forced to have that
safety meeting. I’m sorry that it interrupted whatever activity you had planned
–“
“It wasn’t just any activity it was my
pottery,” Carol interrupted.
“However, it’s kind of a moot point now
anyway so I’d appreciate you not arguing with me about it. I already have
enough of a headache right now,”
“Well you wouldn’t have that much of a
headache if I could just take over a duty here or there,” said Carol, just trying
to weasel her way into Marion’s job.
“How about you just do what we ask of
you?” Al finally chimed in, “It’d be lovely if you just did that.”
“You’re asking me to give up my pottery
class and go do archery. I should not be punished just because you had some
irresponsible boy that Marion hired decide to up and leave. If anything she
should be punished for having such terrible judgment in character,” Carol said
looking down her nose at Marion.
“That’s not the point, Carol. The point
is that you’re the only person here with any real kind of experience with
archery and you have the opening in your schedule,”
“I told you, I don’t have an opening that’s
when I teach pottery!” Carol said, putting her foot down figuratively and
literally.
“You have two signups!” Al said bluntly,
“And that’s just because the Belar’s know that they can just sit there and
gossip in privacy since no one else is around. I’m not going to have any more
of this camp’s resources be wasted. And in this day and age, pottery is a waste.
So you’re going to do what I’m asking you to because I’m asking it. That’s all
there is to it.”
Carol took it hard, not even wanting to
look him in the eyes. Tears formed around her eyes but before she would let
them fall she dismissed herself and was gone from the cabin.
“That may have been a little harsh,” Marion
finally said after several minutes of silence.
“I don’t have time to babysit these
counselors. I have enough trouble babysitting all these campers. Did you get
things settled with that Lieber kid?” Al asked.
“Yes, he said he was with Sally, it’s
all been sorted out. Carol just needs to calm down – in more ways than one.”
“You can say that again,” he said, taking
another swig of the coke. If it even was coke.
The rest of the day consisted of
Arts and Crafts, a thrilling game of capture the flag which Marion’s team won,
and a pizza dinner – something the campers were ecstatic about after the first
two nights of some kind weird pasta. The stresses kept coming though, with two
showers in the boy’s bath house going out completely and the toilets in the
girl’s, things just seemed to be getting worse and worse with each passing
minute.
When the day was finally over and
the campers were back in their beds, Marion couldn’t help but crave a real
cigarette. Something to just allow the tension in her shoulders to release and
let her go to sleep. She hadn’t had one in months and while she still puffed on
her e-cig daily, avoiding real cigarettes made her feel some form of health
awareness.
Not that it mattered anyway,
with Carol throwing a tantrum about having to take over the archery class the
moment she walked in the door. While it didn’t affect Carol’s job performance,
it certainly didn’t make her any more pleasant to be around. She received three
complaints from campers in her group that she was being particularly mean and
snappy. Marion understood that pottery was important to her but it was still
just another aspect to the job like any other. She’d complain less if I had her scrub the toilets with her own
toothbrush.
This probably attributed to her
bad judgment when Diane said she wanted to have a party and agreed it was a
great idea when it clearly wasn’t. Even though she wouldn’t admit to it out
loud, Keith’s sudden departure definitely got to Diane so mixing in alcohol and
a bunch of horny guys couldn’t have sounded like a worse idea in hindsight.
Unfortunately Marion’s usual judgment was stressed out beyond belief, and didn’t
care to tell her no. So she agreed to go over to Diane’s cabin, even though
every part of her body was telling her just to stay in. Then she remembered
Carol would be there.
“So what’s on the menu tonight?”
Marion asked before she was even fully through the cabin’s door. She kind of
regretted saying it the moment she saw the state Diane was in.
“Well, I still have plenty of
vodka left and whatever’s in that fridge is fair game,” Diane said, slurring her
words a little. Diane had decided to start early based on the red cup in her
hand which she proceeded to take a big chug from.
“You’re really going hard
tonight, eh Di?” asked a concerned Marion.
“Why not? Not like there’s
anything else to do in this place?” Diane said, taking another swig from her
cup. Diane was one to get sloppy drunk but there was a violent temper to
everything she said now. It worried Marion.
Breaking the tension without
even realizing it, Louie and Barry walked in, arguing over something involving video
games.
“So glad you guys could come,”
Diane said playfully, raising her red Dixie cup high.
“Yeah, it was a really long walk,”
Barry joked, drawing a sideways look of annoyance from Louie. Those two just can never get along.
“So why exactly do we have to be
inside this cramped cabin drinking when we could be outside at the fire like we
do pretty much every night?” Louie asked. And he wasn’t wrong. The same thought
had definitely occurred to Marion but she just assumed Diane wanted to switch
things up. She was wrong. Sort of.
“The fire is fun and all but how
are we going to get any privacy out at the fires?” Diane uncomfortably teased.
“Why would we need privacy?”
Louie bit like a rabid dog.
“Al wouldn’t appreciate us playing strip
poker out there, now would he?”
Diane took everyone off guard
with this comment. It wasn’t like Marion was opposed to the idea since she was
really good at poker and found the thought of Louie having to finish the night
in his boxers hilarious. Still, it was becoming more and more evident that
Diane wasn’t fit to be drinking.
“I think you’ve had enough,”
Marion said, trying to take her drink away from her. She refused though,
pulling away and spilling some of her drink all over of the floor.
“Excuse me! I believe I’m a
grown woman,” exclaimed Diane.
“Yeah, well I believe you’re
acting like a child. So I guess we’ll split the difference and call you a
teenager,” Marion said matter-of-factly.
Diane didn’t like this. Not one
bit. She charged at Marion, knocking her own cup onto the floor and causing
Marion to hit up against Barry, who quickly stepped between to the two. The
cabin was far too small for so much drama, they were all practically on top of
each other as it was. Diane’s sloppy and broad movements weren’t helping
matters.
“Enough! Diane, you’ve clearly
had enough to drink. Marion, stop provoking her,” Barry said, trying to be the
voice of reason but only angering both girls.
“Stop provoking? Are you fucking
kidding me?”
The fight lasted all of 60
seconds but it felt like much longer. Between the insults that Diane was
throwing and the nonsense Louie was spouting, Marion had, had enough. She was
sick of dealing with everyone else’s issues. No matter what they just kept coming
with their problems and she went from head counselor to head babysitter. No one
could deal with anything themselves and the camp couldn’t hold itself together.
She was done.
Forgoing the usual nightly
tradition of the fire felt weird, especially after walking by the pits in order
to go back to the main office. She quickly grabbed her sweatshirt from the
office cabin and started her way back towards her own. As she turned she saw
something move in the woods, not ten feet away from where she stood. The black
hood. The white face.
“Oh my god,” she exclaimed under
her breath.
A person. Wait, was that a person? She closed her eyes, trying to adjust them
more to the dark but when she opened them, she saw nothing. No one was around.
She was completely alone. She peered into the forest but it remained void of
any movement whatsoever. Was anyone ever
there? Was she just seeing things?
“Hello? Is someone there? Look,
I’m not having the best of days so I swear I’m not going to write you up if you
just come out now so that I can send you back to your cabin,” she shouted into
the woods, but received no response.
She waited for something to
emerge from the woods. Something had to; she knew she wasn’t just seeing
things. She didn’t imagine that dark black hood and that white mask. It couldn’t
have been a trick on her eyes. Even while she waited, part of her knew that she
had to just have seen things in the dark. It was just her eyes playing tricks
on her. That didn’t stop her from running back to her cabin. Just in case.
Marion returned to her cabin as
quietly as possible, not that it mattered given Carol’s deep sleep patterns,
but still Marion was raised to be courteous. Even if it was to someone like
Carol.
Carol slept perfectly still in
her bed, under the covers, just like usual. She wouldn’t be moving an inch
until the morning when her internal alarm clock went off and she made her
presence known. Marion really hated mornings.
I’m done with this place, Marion thought. This is the last summer I’ll ever have to spend in this shit hole. With
that she took a drag on her electronic cigarette and dozed off to sleep
repeating two words to herself – Last
summer.
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