I quietly closed the door behind me as I heard Anita singing ‘Mmmm bop’ softly.

Slivers of light coming in from around our towel curtain. It was enough for me to make my way under our drying laundry and safely  around the various toy cars and rocks that were scattered on the floor and over to my pajamas on the shelf.

I stripped out of my clothes and shimmied into my jammies oooh so quietly. I set to folding my clothes and placing them back on the shelf (yes, I would wear them again without washing them…they were not dirty and only a little smelly!) when I heard his little voice.

“Mummy? Will you cuggle me?” I looked over to see my son sitting upright on the bottom bunk.

“I would like nothing better, little bear.” I whispered.

“Does that mean yes?” He asked as he rubbed his eyes with his fists.

“Yes, it does,  but you’re gonna have to scootch! You’re pigging up all the room!” I giggled as I crawled up from the end of the bed and turned my back to the wall. He moved over enough so I could lie on my side and then he lay down to face me. I pulled the sleeping bag over us. Both of our heads barely had room on his pillow. He reached over with his hand and patted my cheek.

“How come you are awake? It’s pretty late.” I asked as I rubbed his back.

“Bad dream.”

“Oh. What was it about?”

“The medicrin.” He answered.

“Who?” I asked.

“The scary monster from the campfire story! Remember?”

“Oh ya. The medicrin! Ya he’s was a scary guy creeping around at night, wasn’t he?” I recalled the creature from the story whom ate children. “You know he’s just pretend, right?  Campfire stories are all just pretend.”

“Yup. Pretend.” He said as he patted my cheek.

“Now it’s time to go back to sleep.” I kissed him on the forehead. “This time you are gonna dream about bunny rabbits and puppy dogs and kitty cats and teddy bears and little yellow baby chicks. OK?”

“OK.” He whispered as he turned over. I pulled him in close and breathed in the smell of him as I kissed his head.

“Goodness you are so precious.”  I whispered to him.

We both quickly fell asleep but it didn’t last long. I was rudely awakened by a pair of stinky boy feet in my face. Not so precious. I sat up and attempted to cover my son in his sleeping bag before I crawled out of the bottom bunk. I managed to step down onto a toy car.

“Barbara Streisand!” I cursed as I hopped on one foot. I grabbed my hurting foot and gave it a rub. Dang! I then climbed the ladder up to my own bed, slipping into my sleeping bag. My face hit my cool pillow and I fell back to sleep almost instantaneously.

Once again sleep didn’t last long. I was woken by caustic acid reflux. Apparently the red wine did not agree with me! It was coming back at me with a vengeance. I tried rolling over, but that didn’t help. The burning continued relentlessly. I knew that there were some Tums in the health office which might help a little. Finally, when I couldn’t tolerate the constant acid backwash, I sat up and looked at the clock. It was 2:40 in the morning. The main house of camp was dead silent. Everyone was asleep but me! I angrily threw off my sleeping bag, crawled down the ladder and stumbled across the floor towards the door.

“Holy Mother…!” I cried and then had to stifle any further cursing. I had managed to step on a rock this time. The same foot too! I hobbled to the door, favoring my injured tootsie. I grabbed the office keys as I left.

I limped along the hall and down the stairs. I quietly opened the health office door and turned on the desk light. It gave off a soft warm glow. I opened the medicine cupboard and managed to find the Tums and hurriedly chewed one. I put two more in a Dixie cup. I had to hop up onto counter, kneeling, so I could search the shelves for anything else. My persistence paid off as I managed to find some famotidine. That would eventually work. I hopped off the counter and I swallowed it without water. I turned off the little desk light and left the office with my Tums in a cup, locking the door.

I realized my foot really hurt! I trundled over to the couch in the dark hallway and put my foot up on my knee. I bent over, squinting, to take a closer look.

No wonder it hurt! I had managed to slice through the skin. It wasn’t deep but it was bleeding a little and it sure did sting.  As I was bent over examining it I heard one of the bedroom doors click open. A dark figure stepped out into the hallway and started to silently tiptoe down the hall in the opposite direction to me. A second figure stepped out, softly closed the door and followed the first figure. I watched from my dark vantage point as the two disappeared into the stairwell on the far side of the main house.

“Its 2:40 in the morning!” I thought to myself. “Nothing good can happen at 2:40 in the morning!” I frowned and shook my head. I stood up and grimaced.  “Dagnabbit! That really smarts!” I whispered and then started back to bed.