It's Friday afternoon and the last of the teen and young adult campers are departing. They roll into camp on Sunday afternoon and spend the week camping and learning outdoor skills with us. I've been helping out as a member of the staff at our regional camp ground for several summers while I finish college.
I used to be one of the campers. My parents thought that it would be a good idea for me to get into something where I could learn to do things on my own and become more self confident and independent, and I took to it like a fish to water. I loved being able to do things on my own and depending only on myself, even though it was largely an illusion.
Over time I got to know the camp master really well and ended up eventually coming on board as a staffer during my latter high school summers. Plus it helped that my parents knew the camp master and his wife.
Being on staff at summer camp was a whole lot better than bagging groceries at the neighborhood Safeway, or pumping gas at the Unocal at the corner. I was outdoors most of the time, doing fun stuff, and getting paid to boot! So I was the envy of my friends all through high school.
So here I am at summer camp again. This will probably be my last year at camp as I'll be graduating from college next summer. Then it'll probably be straight to work; assuming I can find a job which will probably be my top priority at that point in time.
This year the camp master has me filling a teaching position and an administrative position. So I'm in charge of hiking and the PX, and help with the paper work. Not too bad a deal as I get room and board for two months along with a reasonable salary. At least enough to keep me in beer for the first semester back at school as I start my senior year!
The camp master's daughter is also working as his assistant. Joanie has also been coming to camp from as long as I can remember. A real daddy's girl! There was very little that her dad could do that Joanie couldn't do. Also my classmate from elementary school days all the way through high school. We've always been friends however that's all that it's been.
Well, we've flirted with each other from time to time but its never grown beyond that. I haven't pushed it, although I wouldn't have minded taking our friendship beyond. But I'm afraid of what might happen between us if I tried to make something more out of our friendship and it didn't work out. You can never go back to the way things were. I don't think I can handle that.
I've thought about this long and hard and think that this is the best course for now. Not what I want but perhaps the safer alternative. At least Joanie and I would be friends and I'd still be able to talk with her and be with her from time to time. I just don't want to mess it up.
I mean, we'd see each other each day in school. We've shared many classes together. Been in the same school service clubs and worked on projects together. But it's always been on a basis that we had built upon from when we were little kids.
She's one of my best friends. Better than Ralphie or Jimmy with whom I used to get in trouble with, with great frequency when we were small kids. Joanie and I are friends who can share secrets and not have the entire world hear about it the next day. Our families often picnicked together and we were always playing in each other's backyard. We've always been there for each other when the other has had a bad time or experience.
Like when Joanie had her first set of braces! She felt like her world had caved in. I remember her getting mad at her parents for forcing her to wear them, then crying later after her first day of school with them on and a lot of the kids ended up teasing her. I just thought she needed a hug and a friendly shoulder to cry on. So I hugged her and was her emotional support for a week or so until the novelty wore off.
Or like the time I tried out for the tennis team as a high school freshman and didn't even make the cut for the second team. That was a major blow to my self esteem and confidence however Joanie made it a point to goad me into practicing more and working harder on my game. I credit her persistence in making me live up to the team's standards as I not only made the first team my sophomore year, but ended up playing in the first and second singles slot for the next three years.
When we graduated from high school we ended up going to different colleges. But we saw each other during the breaks and generally hung out together. And it became our routine for one of us to call the other each day to "keep in touch." We would usually talk about how our classes were, the quality (or lack of) of the cafeteria food, what was happening with our other classmates who were at school with us, and other stuff. Usually light and cheerful in content with a fair measure of harassment thrown in for good measure.
That's the Joanie I've always known; at least until this summer! All of a sudden she's become a woman and I can't believe that she's the same Joanie that I used to play with and go to school with! I can't believe my eyes! Joanie's got curves now! And her smile lights up the room! My heart starts racing when I see her! What happened?
She's also become the touchy-feely type and gets my pulse rate running a 50 yard sprint each time she touches my hand or shoulder, which seems to be each time she's around me! I just want to grab her and kiss her so bad!
This summer camp's been an absolute torture for me. How can I function when Joanie's around? And she and her dad know it too! I caught him laughing at me last week, right after he caught us with Joanie sticking her tongue out at me.
"So what's so funny?" I asked him?
"Boy, have you got a lot to learn about women!" he laughed as he and I walked over to PX. He just shook his head, chuckled, and left me wondering what that was all about.
Anyway, Joanie and I are in the process of checking the last remaining campers out of their cabin. I'm at the last cabin with the campers, doing the final bed check to make sure that the place is picked up, floors are swept and mopped, and everyone's got their bags packed and haven't left anything behind. As I'm doing the final walk through, Joanie comes in to see how I'm coming along.
"Hey Mark, everything cool here?" she queried as she did a quick sweep with her eyes.
"Yep, everything looks very fine," I say as I gaze at her and smile.
Joanie responded with a quick, "cool" then saw my stare and smile, looked away then looked back at me, then blushed a bright pink before she smiled and walked out the door! I hope I didn't embarrass her. But then again, I hope I did!
We shepherded the campers up to the main lodge where their parents were waiting. It took us more than an hour to help the parents sort through the mess of kids and their things, but finally they're gone and the silence is deafening. But we still have work to do, reports to complete and send off, and a final group meeting with staff before we let them off until Sunday afternoon rolls around again.
Joanie's dad, our camp master, took this past week and half of next week off to celebrate his and her mom's 30th wedding anniversary. Joanie jumped at the opportunity to run the camp herself and volunteered me to help. Not sure why except perhaps I've been there for so long. It also helped that her dad and I always got along well and maybe it gave him comfort knowing that she would have someone he could depend upon to help her out. In any event, her dad was happy to take her mom on a much deserved and delayed 2nd honeymoon.
We deferred completing the reports in order to do our staff meeting so the others on staff can leave early. We know that they all want to get home and relax before having to return to camp. Not much to cover in any event. By this time, the 7th week of summer camp, everyone knows their job so it's a fairly short meeting. Plus there's only one more week to go before we wrap things up for this summer.
As the rest of the staff begin to depart in their cars, Joanie and I return to the main camp admin building to do our paperwork. We're usually the last ones to leave. It normally takes a couple of hours to complete and file the various reports so it's almost 7 pm before we're done.
"This is always such a pain," Joanie groaned as she stretched and flexed her shoulders, trying to loosen and unkink her shoulder muscles.
I walked over and stood behind her chair and massaged her shoulders. "You are tight, young lady" I said as I kneaded the knots in her muscles. "Lean forward a bit so I can get your neck as well," I instructed her.
Joanie leaned forward and placed her head on her arms on her desk. "Oh, this feels so good. Thanks Mark, I needed this...." As I kneaded the muscles up and down her neck as well, then gave her a scalp massage.
I can't help but to notice her slim build, the sensuality of her beautiful neck, the fragrance she wears, the outline of her bra under her shirt. I'm getting hard just thinking of her. Touching her sends electrical charges through my body!
After about 10 minutes my fingers started to give out so I called a break to the amateur massage session. Joanie stood up, turned to face me, stretched, then gave me a quick peck on the lips, "thanks, that was really relaxing. You can give me a massage anytime." as she grinned from ear to ear.
Did she just kiss me?
