We sat along side the campers for another ten minutes and watched quietly as Lydia conferred with the counselors at the beach entrance. Meanwhile, my imagination was taking me on a terror filled ride. Lydia’s satellite phone buzzed on her hip. She had a short conversation on the phone and then hung up. Lydia appeared to be giving the counselors directions. The group broke up as the counselors began to resume their lifeguard posts. Lydia walked across the road and up the hill to the field where we all sat in great anticipation.

“Hello Camp Acorn!”

“Hello Lydia,” the group responded politely.

“I hope everyone enjoyed Visitor’s Day! Welcome back and thank you for being so respectful and co-operative during our missing camper call. You guys have been great and we so appreciate it. I have just gotten word that our two missing campers have been located and they both appear to be well. We are super thankful for that.”

“No kidding!” I whispered and the girls looked up at me. I offered them a relieved smile. They smiled back, now reassured that all was well. The campers and counselors all clapped and cheered. The girls joined in. Thank you Jesus. I took a deep breath. No need to call an ambulance as I attempted to wrestle slippery innards. Images of raging peritonitis and septic shock had been dancing in my head. I

had made a plan to cover his eviscerated bowels with saline soaked gauze — although I was not certain if we had enough supplies and that was making me uber anxious.

“So, let’s get back on track Camp Acorn and finish our general swim! Wadda ya say?” Everyone cheered again. “Please proceed down to the beach entrance so we can check everyone in again. Thank you!”

Campers immediately started buzzing with gossip of the missing campers as they got to their feet and headed down the hill. The girls jumped off my husband’s lap and melted into the crowd of campers. Himself bent over and took our son from my arms as the little guy continued to nap. He barely stirred as we transferred him between us.

“Whew! That’s a load off !” I said.

“For sure. This dude is getting pretty heavy.”

“Oh!” I laughed.”I didn’t mean sleeping beauty here, I meant the news that the two boys are OK. I was worried that Ted’s incision had opened and all his bowels were pouring out on the bottom of a kayak in the middle of the lake and Fred was trying to rescue him. I was silently freaking out about the various challenges in that hideous scenario.”

“Hideous indeed,” Himself responded as he grimaced at the thought. “My, my. We do have an active imagination, now, don’t we?”

“That comes with eight years in the trauma intensive care unit and eight days of various successes and plenty of failures in camp nursing.”

“Oh, I see,” Himself said as we both began to walk down towards the beach.

“Prepare for the worst but hope for the best and you will rarely be disappointed,” I said cheerily.

“I see your point there. Sounds like a great motto for the camp nurse”