HOLLIS MCCALISTER SUMMER CAMP

by Keith McCloud

  “I am up, I am up,” I say.

  “Cool, now get your butt up out of that bed and get ready so we can go eat soon,” James says.

  “I am not too excited about going to eat. My friend will be there and I am sure he has had time to plot something against me. He has been cooking up something all afternoon,” I say.

  Jake walks into the room. “Stop worrying about him. You are obsessing and it’s going to drive you crazy and eventually it’s going to make you get sick. If he tries to do something to you, we will stop him and make him leave you alone. So just stop it and get up and get ready,” Jake says.

  I reply, “Alright, alright. I just need to put some water on my face and use the restroom and then I will be ready.” I walk into the restroom and of course every time I do now I look for spiders. Again, I hate spiders.

  “Okay, let’s go, I am ready,” I say as I walk out of the bathroom. “Cool. I am starving since somehow we didn’t have lunch today,” James says.

  Everyone walks into the living room area. “Okay, is everyone ready to go eat? I know some of us are starving since we lay down and took a nap and we didn’t have lunch this afternoon,” Jake says. Someone opens the door and we all start walking out and towards the dinner cabin.

  We all enter the food cabin and as usual we are the first ones there. Tonight is seafood night. I will be getting fish. We walk over to our table and sit down. A few minutes later the rest of the groups start coming in. Preacher Miller goes up on the stage and says, “Let us pray.” After Preacher Miller has said the prayer, he says, “After dinner we will be having campfire stories tonight and roasting marshmallows.” If there is anything at all that I like about camp it is eating marshmallows. Other than that I hate it here. So everyone eats their food and dinner goes by pretty fast. After everyone is pretty much done, Preacher Miller stands up and says, “Okay, we will be out at the campfire at 8:30. You might want to bring a chair from your room.” The time now is almost 7:30 pm. We all stand up and put our chairs back under the table and then start walking out, table by table. This gives us plenty of time to go back to the room and get our chairs and whatever else we want before we need to go out to the campfire. It is our time to finally get to walk out. As we leave I look over at Jimmy Stewart and he is just staring at me with no facial expression at all. He doesn’t look mad, but he doesn’t look happy either, just in between. I can tell deep down he is pissed and it was just the calm before the storm. We walk back to our cabin. Jake walks over to me and says, “Hey, I told you to stop worrying about him.”

  James says, “He was really quiet tonight, though, but Jake is right: forget about it. You beat that loser.”

  “You better watch what you say, he just might hear you,” I say.

  “Who cares? He doesn’t want a piece of me. I would squash him like a little bug,” James says.

  “Ha, ha, ha, now that is funny,” I say.

  “Okay, let’s do whatever we need to do so we can get out of here in the next few minutes. Don’t forget to bring your chairs, or else you will have to sit on the ground,” Jake says. We all then walk to our rooms and get our chairs. We then take our chairs and walk out of the cabin towards the bomb fire. We decide to all sit by each other and really don’t have to sit too close to the fire since it is summertime and it’s hot outside. We all sit around the fire and roast marshmallows and then some of the guys sing and play guitar. Jimmy Stewart does not show up: it is a good night for once. We all then go back to our cabins. Tomorrow is the camp’s version of lumberjack challenges. I just can’t wait for that - not. I am tired and ate a lot of marshmallows so I can’t wait to go to bed and get a great night’s sleep.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 7: WANDERING OFF

  * * *

  “К nock, knock, knock, knock, wake up, wake up. Time rC to get up and start getting ready for breakfast. It’s 7:00 am, and we need to be at breakfast by 8:30. Get up,” Jake says. I look over to James and say, “I can’t wait till camp is over so that I can sleep in late for the rest of the summer.”

  Everyone gets up and starts to get ready for breakfast. I am not sure why Jake thinks we need to be up an hour and a half early to get ready, I am thinking. It’s shower time and then I will wake up and feel better.

  “Wow, you’re up and seem in a better mood now. What changed from the time you got up until now?” James says.

  “Nothing, I just figured I might as well get up and get the day started instead of sitting here complaining. The faster I get the day started, the faster I can get the day ended, and then it’s that much closer to going home and leaving my last summer camp,” I say. James starts laughing.

  “Why are you laughing?”

  “I am just laughing. I know you hate it here, but sometimes I feel that you really do like it here and that you are having a great time and you say negative things about it here, but I can see that you really love it. That’s why I am laughing. You might as well admit it,” James says.

  “That’s not true, I don’t love it here. I don’t hate it, though. You and Jake make it fun, but other than that I would rather be back at my house working on my video game software. That’s what I really enjoy. I am glad, though, that you ended up in this room with me. I think we are friends now and honestly other than you and Jake and maybe one other good friend, I don’t have any. So that I will miss when we leave,” I say.

  “Dude, we are friends and don’t forget that,” James says.

  We walk out of our room and into the little living room area and sit down waiting on everyone else to finish getting ready. “Wow, it’s strange for you and me to be the first two in here and we have to wait on others,” I say.

  “I know that’s why I was so surprised when you were already ready to go. I am usually always ready and waiting on everyone, and you are normally last to come into here,” James says.

  “That’s because I normally do not want to participate in anything, but this morning we are only going for breakfast and I am hungry, so I am ready to go and eat,” I say.

  “Well, everyone should be here in a few minutes and then we can go eat,” James says. Everyone starts walking into the living room one or two at a time.

  Jake says, “Are we all here and ready to go? I know I am a little crazy about us all going together all the time, but that’s just the way I am.”

  Everyone laughs and then we all start leaving the cabin and head toward the food cabin. We all file into the food cabin and of course we are the first cabins to get there. Jake always wants us on time for everything. He is so set on his schedules and hates it when we are off schedule by just a minute. Everyone starts to come in and sit down. Preacher Miller walks up onto the stage and says, “Good morning, everyone. Today we have a full day scheduled. We are going to be shooting high-powered pellet guns at targets. So we will eat and then go back to our cabins for thirty minutes and then meet out at the little gun range we put together. Now let us pray and then we can eat.”

  Once he is done praying, we all get up and go over to the breakfast buffet. I get a big plate of food: I am starving. I go and sit down and start eating. After finishing my first plate, I decide I want to eat a little more and then go back over to the buffet. Walking back towards the table, Jimmy Stewart is walking in the same direction with a plate of food. Jimmy trips and falls, and all his food goes over me and on my face, and then he knocks me over onto the ground. I have food all over me and everyone is laughing. Jimmy says, “Oh I am sorry, I tripped and all my food fell on you, loser.” Then he whispers to me, “I have just begun to make your life miserable. I am going to embarrass you every day like you did to me.”

  I see James and Jake run over to me. James says, “Get off of him before I shove that plate down your throat.” Then James grabs his arm and throws him off of me. Then Jake gets in the middle of them and says, “Hey, we are not fighting. Jimmy, you better make sure we do not find out you did this on purpose.”

  I say, “I am going back to the cabin to get
cleaned up.” I then get up and walk out the door. I knew he would want to get revenge. I have food all over me, grits in my hair and in my ears. He like threw the food on me. I saw him. It was not an accident. I go back into the cabin and go into my room and get some more clothes, and then go in and take a shower.

  I hurry up and get ready and then leave James and Jake a note on my bed. I grab my backpack and take off out the door. The other guys come back to the room. James picks up the letter I’ve written:

  Hey, guys, I needed a break and have gone out for a walk for a couple hours on the trails. Tell Preacher Miller that I am just going to hang out in the room for a little while today. That I have requested some alone time.

  I find this trail that says it is a couple miles of trails and ends at the big lake. Since it looks pretty safe I decide to take it. Of course I am only concerned about snakes: I can’t stand them and since it is so hot I know they are crawling trying to find somewhere cool. If you look around, all you see is big oak trees along with palmetto plants everywhere. I am thinking to myself that this trail doesn’t look like it has been walked on in a few years. The more I walk down it, the more I am noticing that it has grown over a lot. There is underbrush everywhere. I need to find me a big stick so I can knock down spiders if I need to, or anything else I might need to defend myself against. Maybe when I get down to the big lake I can sit down and work on some of my game software and get the new game started. I decide to walk off of the trail just a little bit and look for a stick. I stop and look around: that area looks like a good way to go. I am looking everywhere for a stupid stick. I should have just kept walking down the trail. I don’t even see the trail anymore.

  Oh my, there is a beautiful Boxer dog walking up to me. She is fawn and has a white mask for her face. She looks to be almost a year old. I hope she doesn’t bite me. “Hey, girl, you are so pretty. You are not going to bite me, are you?” I say. I reach down and start petting her. She is so excited to see me. She has to be someone’s dog. She has a collar on and a tag, and it says her name is Max. It doesn’t say anything else. I say, “Where are you from and who do you belong to, girl?” She just keeps getting excited and barking. I say, “You can go with me, then. I will take care of you, so come on, Max, let’s go.” She then starts following right next to me. We walk for a little while, and I am still looking for a stick. We keep walking and then all of a sudden I feel the ground come out from under me and we start falling and fast, and then we hit the ground and hit it hard. I land straight down on my ankle and then fall to the ground. Max ends up landing right on top of me. Oh, I grab my right ankle - man, it is in pain! I start to look around. Max jumps up and starts barking at me. I say, “It’s okay, girl, come over here and I will make sure you are okay.” She looks fine. I look around and see that we are in some kind of trap that someone has built for a bear or something. It looks to be 12 feet by 12 feet. That is too high for me to climb out of right now, especially with my ankle hurting. I need to just sit for a moment. Please don’t let me see a snake in here, or any nasty spiders. Oh man, we are stuck in this hole and I am not sure how we are going to get out of here, or when someone will even start looking for us. I am not going to panic. I am just going to sit here and lean up against this wall and hope nothing crawls on me. Max comes over and lies by me.

  I start to hear this faint voice. “Hollis, help me, Hollis, please find me and come and help me,” Cody says.

  I holler out, “Cody, where are you? I can hear you, but I am in a pit right now. Cody, can you hear me? Where are you? Cody, come on, say something.” I then start walking around and pushing on the walls, along with Max trying to help me. Next thing I know we push a wall open and then we both fall forward. I fall first and Max falls right behind me. We start sliding and sliding down and down and then further down. It is like we are on a slide and it is fast and we just keep sliding until I shoot out across the ground and everything goes black.

  I keep feeling something on my face and I wake up to Max licking my face. “Okay, okay, I am getting up, I am okay.”

  Wow, I hit my head pretty good. Where are we? This place looks like what Heaven should look like. There is color everywhere. The flowers are all in bloom and the trees and the leaves on the trees are so green. Wow, the butterflies are so beautiful. It’s like I died or something: this place is amazing. It just seems so peaceful. We just kept falling and falling and sliding and sliding. I am far away from the camp area.

  “Max, do you know where we are at?” I ask. Max just barks at me and looks at me like I am stupid or something.

  This place is just so amazing: the sky is so blue and the temperature is perfect, like around 80 degrees and no humidity. I am not sure where we are. I reach to the back of my head because it is sore and I pull my hand back around and there is a little blood on my hand. I am sure it will be okay and my ankle from falling earlier does not hurt at all anymore. Wow, I can walk on it with no problem. I just wonder, where are we? We have to be several miles from camp.

  “Well, Max, which way do you think we should go?” I ask. Max again just looks at me crazily, but then turns and barks and looks like to me is almost pointing which way we should go.

  “Okay, we will go that way,” I say. “Max, wait, I need to check inside my backpack and make sure I didn’t break my computer,” I say. Again, I think Max thinks I am stupid or crazy. Sometimes I think Max really knows what I am saying. The way she looks at me it’s like she really understands me. That’s just crazy, I know it is.

  I am not even sure where we are going. I haven’t heard Cody yelling for me in a while: I know I heard him. I guess we will just keep going this way since Max keeps walking that way. This place just doesn’t seem real. It’s too perfect. Everything is so alive here and vibrant. Plus it was really hot earlier and the temps here are just so perfect right now. It’s not hot and it’s not cold, just right. Not sure how that can be since it’s summertime here in North Florida. I am not sweating and I am not freezing, now that I think about it - it seems a little strange. I don’t care, I am just going to enjoy this place, and being away from Jimmy Stewart and all his stupid stuff he does for as long as I can.

  I wonder what that noise is in the grass area. It’s getting louder and louder. Max is starting to growl towards the area of where we hear the noise. The sound is getting louder. Max is barking louder as the sound gets louder and starts coming closer towards us. I am getting a little worried wondering what it is. The way the grass is moving it’s pretty big. Wow, whatever it is just jumps behind me and I do not even see it and neither does Max. We start walking and, whatever it is, it keeps following us: every step we take it moves along right with us. Max just keeps growling at the grassy area and we continue to walk and it continues to follow us. If we walk fast it moves fast through the grass, and if we slow down it slows down. It’s probably just a rabbit, or something small.

  “Let’s just keep going, Max, and we will ignore whatever it is that’s following us,” I say.

  The sound in the grass ends up leaving and going ahead of us and we don’t hear it anymore. “I told you, Max, that it was nothing,” I say. Max looks over at me and barks. So we just continue to walk and I enjoy the surroundings. The waterfalls here are out of this world. They are so beautiful, just breathtaking. All of a sudden I hear Max bark really loud and start growling. Right in front of us stands a huge king cobra snake. I am frozen and can’t move, I am so scared right now. Max is growling and barking. As I look over at Max, I can swear she is changing, meaning her body is shifting and turning and continuing to shift and turn, and she is shaping into something else. While she is changing, the cobra has crawled over and is now standing up and looking at me eye-to-eye. The snake is as big as I am and it’s so close to me its tongue just touches my face. I cannot move, I am stuck. I am going to die right here and I don’t even know where right here is. If I could move right now, I would move right over by the tree and the cobra would not be able to strike me. Oh my gosh, I need to think
hard, tree, tree and just maybe a miracle will happen and I can will myself there to the tree. I know that is a stupid thought, but I am panicing right now. Like I would have that power to do that. This snake is ready to strike me any second now. Oh my gosh, it is backing its head and getting ready to strike me. I am going to die a quick and painful death. I am thinking hard on that tree, I need a miracle fast.

  For a moment I think I black out but I feel myself hit the tree really hard and fall to the ground. I look over to the snake and I see a bigger snake looking down at the cobra and it is a much bigger cobra and I can swear they are talking to each other. I hear voices coming from over in the snakes’ direction, and the big snake is like yelling at the smaller snake, and then they look over at me and I can swear the big snake’s face looks like Max and then I guess I black out and wake up again with Max licking my face. I must be disoriented: I just about got killed by a king cobra snake and then my dog starts like shifting into something and then I could have sworn it turns into this big snake and they are talking to each other and, to top it all off, I somehow jump from one spot to another that is 15 feet away. And now I don’t see any snakes and I see a rabbit hopping off into the grass. I must have just dreamed all this. “Max, I am losing it, aren’t I? How can I think I saw a snake and you turn into a bigger snake, and then you two are talking to each other and then me thinking about jumping from one place to another? It’s just crazy to think like this.”

  * * *

  CHAPTER 8: HOLLIS IS MISSING

  * * *

  T he summer camp event for the day is over and everyone is going back to their cabins. James goes into his room looking for Hollis, and is going to check on him. He reads the note again that is from Hollis. The note reads: ‘I am off for a walk down one of the paths. I need to get away and clear my head. I should be back by lunchtime. I just need some time away. Thanks.’ James leaves his room and goes to Jake.