The four of us trudged down to the beach front for general swim. We each had a towel wrapped around our necks. We were pretty subdued after the frantic paddle and fish hook incident, but up ahead we could hear the cacophony of the boys on the beach. All eighty campers were down there.

We arrived at the beach front, signed in with the counselor Ashley, and then I went over to the beach hut to get a folding chair out for myself. I set it up at the back of the beach in the shade, away from most of the campers. My kids tossed their towels on the chair. I put a life jacket on my son and let him loose on the beach. The three kids found the plastic shovels and buckets in the hut and tip toed through a couple dozen campers sprawled out on the sand. They went down to the water’s edge and began to excavate. Four young camper boys joined in with them.

I sat in the chair and a couple of campers approached me. One wanted advice on a rash and one had a slightly infected bug bite. I pulled the first aid kit out of the beach hut and (using gloves) lathered them both in antibiotic cream. I asked them both to come to the office if they didn’t get better. 

I sat back in the chair, buried my toes in the warm sand and surveyed the area. About a dozen campers were in the deep end of the lake, climbing onto the raft and diving off. Another dozen were in the shallow end playing football and splashing each other. The rest of the campers were spread out on the sand reading their books or comics or sleeping/tanning or talking or helping with the sand castle and moat construction. Everyone seemed pretty content. And so was I. My eyes started to drift closed and before I knew it, my head fell to the side and I was dozing in my beach chair. 

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I was startled awake about two minutes later when a whistle was blown in close proximity to my ear! It was a buddy call. My head jerked up and my heart pounded from the shock. I noticed my son skipping over campers to come to my side and hold my hand up high in the air for the buddy check. 

“Is anyone missing their buddy?” I looked around, with blurry vision, and noticed that no one was apparently missing. The whistle blew again and the campers went back to their activities. 

It was a valiant effort on my part to stay awake but I was only successful for perhaps a minute before my burning eyes insisted on closing, my head tilted forward and I started to softly snore. I was quickly into a hallucinatory state and was dreaming about fish hooks and turtles, when again about ten minutes later, I was startled awake by another deafening whistle blow. My eye lids flew open but my eyes were crossed as I watched the double image of my son scampering up to my side to hold up my hand again for the buddy check. I gave him a drunken smile and barely remember the end of the buddy call before I was off dozing again!

I must have been a sight cuz when I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder I had to try to discretely wipe drool from the side of my mouth before I spoke. It was Ashley. She was crouched down beside me.

“So I think we have a bit of a problem.” she whispered to me.

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“Oh ya? What?” I tried to focus on her face. Geez, I hoped she hadn’t heard me snoring or seen me slobbering on myself.

“Well, one of the campers told me he thinks his lice is back.” 

Ashley looked at me with much chagrin and then gave a subtle nod over her shoulder. About ten feet behind her I could see a Deer hut camper going to town scratching his noggin.

“Umm..beg your pardon?” I said as I sat up and tried to shake off the exhaustion.

“Lice. I said lice. Matt thinks his lice is back.”

And with that I was suddenly fully awake, distressed, and very very itchy!

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