Summer Camp - 4. Getting To Know You

There were eighty kids and ten staff who arrived in two coaches and a mini bus at about four o’clock in the afternoon. The teachers looked haggard and Nic, by now fully recovered, took over directly from the coach as the kids stood in a confused huddle by the side of the big vehicles squatting in the road.

“Right then ladies and gentlemen!” The kids all turned and hushed in an automatic reaction to a big powerful voice with presence and confidence. “Welcome to Six Trees. I’m Nic, this is the River Road site, and from now on you are all campers!”

Noah and Sean lead the general cheering. The kids were an interesting combination of tired and full of sugar from the coach journey, and it was the second aspect Nic and the team needed to exploit.

“What you’re gonna do people is Paddy and Troy here are gonna get your bags off the coach. You’re gonna get your bag and go and stand with the other people in your tent group, your teachers have the lists,” There was a confirmation nod from the lead teacher, “And one of the team will take y’all to your tent. There’s no time to unpack!” Nic was striding up and down now, purely in his element, “You need to be in the big white tent in ten minutes for your first activity. Now mush!”

It was mad and hectic, and Paddy had to deal with a group of eight girls arguing about who’s pink holdall was whose and then being unable to heave their own luggage across the field. They tried to make Paddy do it for them.

“Ye carry it yerself.”

“What?”

Paddy lifted the bag wondering, not for the first time, what it was twelve year old girls actually needed to take with them for four days in the semi-wilderness. He pushed the bag at the diminutive kid, scooped up her and her bag in one go and jogged to their tent.

“Wow!” Her smaller blond friend stared at him, wide eyed, “You are super strong.”

“Ta. I’m Paddy. Welcome tae yer new home.”

“You’re Scottish.”

“Aye.”

“I’m Dani,” The blond girl said, “This is Lily.” The girl he picked up gave him a little wave, till looking dazed and star struck. Amber and Pippa completed one half of the eight, and Paddy got all of them to stow their bags, had Amber nearly drag some of her friends away from the urge to unpack and find her hairbrush, and walked them to the marquee.

While the lead teacher rambled on about camp rules and responsibilities, Paddy sat on one of the low benches at the front, his knee resting casually against Troy’s. They’d barely had time to speak beyond shouting for bags and calling out kids’ names, and now Paddy breathed easier to be with his mate, connected to him in such a small way. Troy elbowed him on the pretence of pointing at something, and Paddy felt another string get added to the rope which linked them. The bond felt stronger now, more stable, but no more stretchy, and Paddy was already dreading the possibility they might be sent to activities on opposite sides of the forest.

Nic took over after about ten minutes of instructions and regulations and started gathering the kids into their activity groups, numbering them for ease of reference. Then he nipped back to the team.

“Right, Paddy,” Nic was beaming and slightly breathless, obviously happy, “I’m gonna send you with group six to the wobbly log. Troy, can you take group eight and go with them to tight rope walk, since they’re next to each other? I don’t want our new lad getting lost.”

“No problem.”

“Harness fitting time!” Troy smacked his arm, and it was a manly enough gesture no one noticed how Paddy smiled at the contact.

Group six were all girls, and some of them were the ones who Paddy had helped with their bags.

“Hi Paddy!” They giggled in chorus.

“Aye up then lassies, off we go.”

The teacher attached to group six was a skinny woman in her mid-thirties with glasses and very short hair. Paddy chatted to her aimlessly as they walked outside to where Noah and Levi had lain out all the harnesses in rows.

“OK lassies.” Paddy grabbed his own harness, which was grey and brown with black webbing straps and hustled the girls into a line. “This is yer harness. Yer harness keeps ya safe. Yer harness keeps ye alive. And we like y’all tae be alive ye ken?” They stared at him, heads on one side. “Alive is good yes?” He pronounced carefully.

“Yes Paddy.”

“Right then. Pick up yer harness by tha back. Aye, tha’s where the label is lassie. OK. Take the leg loops an step in tae it like a pair o’ troosers.” He watched the girls and their teacher stepping into their harness and moved around, adjusting straps. “Good. Now take tha waistband thar and set it around yer waist. Nae yer hips lassie. Otherwise ye wi slip oot o’the thing and hurt yerself.” Paddy fitted his harness, showing the girls how to work the buckles, and tugged on each of their belt loops to check the fit.

“Will we do Paddy?”

“Aye lassie. You’ll do.”

“Ready for the off bud?” Troy’s voice pulled him out of himself and made his heart race, “Paddy?”

Troy was wearing his own harness, a grey number with red webbing loops for his ropes and carabiners, and Paddy couldn’t help but noticed how completely wonderfully the dark webbing against the khaki combats showed off the shape of Troy’s crotch. Paddy eyes were drawn to his package as he grinned.

“Eyes up bud,” He spoke in so normal a tone that Paddy doubted anyone hearing him would ever have noticed what he said, “Let’s go.”

They made their two groups jog along the path while the teachers walked with the ladder. It was easy in small groups, and Paddy fell back on all the experience he had form working with the cubs when the clan came together for spring gatherings to make the girls do star jumps and start to relax. Troy touched his shoulder before he departed for the high wire, but apart from when he moved past trees, he wasn’t far away enough to be out of sight or scent. Though Paddy felt the cord pull between them, it wasn’t tight or painful, just a soft reminder of where his mate was.

The girls were a good group, giggly, loud and excitable. It was fun showing them how to climb up the tree, coaxing them across the log on its loose chains, and encouraging their friends to give them support from the forest floor. Eventually every single one of them completed the challenge, and took great delight in leaping down to be caught by Paddy’s skill with the harness ropes, allowing them to float and pull silly super hero positions in mid-air.

“You do it Paddy!” Amber asked, watching him feed the rope through the carabiner on his belt. “You climb up there.”

“I cannae do it little one,” Paddy ruffled her hair unconsciously, “There’s no one tae hold me rope.”

“Awww Paddy!” The girls giggled. It was near dark now, and though tired, the girls were insistent. Paddy laughed.

“A’right then lassie.” Paddy refigured the ropes to lead the long end through his main carabiner and tugged to check the rope. He swarmed up the thick staples in the tree without thinking about it, and walked across the log as though he was taking a gentle afternoon stroll. Rather than abseiling down, Paddy nipped down the opposite tree without using any of the formal hand holds, hoping that the gloom would cover him, and arrived back rewinding the roped into its usual coil.

“That’s cool!”

“Come on then girlies, time to head back for dinner ye ken?”

They scrambled back to the main path, and this time Paddy had three of the girls carry the ladder. Troy’s group nipped up onto the path ahead of them and Paddy watched the shape of his lovers arse, framed by the dark straps of his harness. The conversation about versatility was something else they were going to have to deal with at some point too. Troy walked quickly, drawing ahead of them, and Paddy felt the string around his heart pull at him. He stopped.

Surely not? With all his instincts, he tried to visualize the rope that connected them, a bundle of threads spanning the distance along the path, and pulled.

Troy jerked back and turned, glaring over his shoulder.

Well that is interesting…

They fed the kids. Sean and Ava had been down to the hub kitchen to collect industrial sized aluminium trays of stew and dumplings. Paddy had the vegetarian version, and ate rather more than was strictly his fair share while Troy picked every bit of beef from his bowl and discarded everything else without a second thought. Happy and full of warm food, the kids were sent to unpack their gear while one group cleared and washed up, and Nic gathered them in the little mess hall across the way for a quick rest and debrief.

“Schedule’s for the week gents and ladies,” he handed out the paper forms, lists of kids, corresponding teachers and numbers, tent numbers and group activities, “Paddy I put you mostly on the tree top route and the kayaking, Troy you’re mostly the trees too. Ava I need you to keep up with most of scrambling stuff and trade out with Levi yeah?” Paddy tuned out and as he and Troy compared schedules. They had a lot of events near each other, but not all of them. “Noah, you’re gonna pair with Paddy for the abseiling and the climbing wall when we do it on Wednesday. New lists every week, if there are preferences you really want, we can talk about that too. Fire on the Thursday night, prepare something.”

“When is duty over?” Alexia asked, as though she couldn’t wait for the day to end.

“Nine on all except fire days, and then the teachers take over the night time stuff. We let them run it how they like as long as no kids come over the road to this side. Strictly no kids in the cabins, not even for a minute. Clear?”

“Sure.”

“Right then,” Sean stretched, “Hot chocolate and bed time for the kids, beer in the fridge for us. Welcome home kids.”

*

Paddy did not want to sit in the mess hall drinking beers and shooting the breeze with his new work friends, but he knew he needed to. Troy had angled them back towards the mess hall after hot cocoa and the teachers were drinking it up in their own little lounge across the way. Not drinking tonight, on only their first real full day, would earn him a reputation he neither wanted nor deserved. They were celebrating a good day, but Paddy wanted to be in his cabin with his mate and try and sort through some of the crap that had happened earlier in the day. He needed Troy more than he could find words for, but he was still angry, worried about what had made Troy break down so hard in the big marquee, and he needed answers. They both did.

“Hey Paddy,” Noah passed him a beer from the fridge, “Good first day? You’ve never done this before right?”

“Nae, first year rookie. You?”

“I worked on summer camps back in Canada for the last three summers. But I fancied a change of scenery; get away from my family for a bit.”

“You have a big family?”

“Yup, all into outdoors stuff too. I used to work with three of them.” Noah grinned, “All of them make me feel shorter. Built like bears. I take after my mom. You’d fit right in.”

Paddy sipped his beer and nodded softly. His usual openness was warring with his desire to talk to Troy about things that were actually important, but Noah was friendly and unthreatening and it was nice to relax back into the chair with their feet on the coffee table and know that Noah had no agenda beyond getting to know him better.

“What part of Canada are you from?”

“BC: Which doesn’t narrow it down very much. Mom’s family are all from near the mountains near the Kitimat River, where the salmon run in spring.”

“I love salmon,” Paddy sighed. He missed having access to fresh fish and the smokehouse his grandfather had built. More than that, he missed his mother’s garden where soft fruits and squash grow in abundance, courgettes and pumpkins, potatoes, lettuce, radishes and all sorts of other delights. Paddy had always arrived home from school each summer day to eat things straight out of the soil, “We go fishing in the lake behind my grandparent’s house, and we have some massive salmon. Trout is good too though.”

“You should have brought your rods; we could have gone fishing in the lake on the weekends.”

“We d’nae use rod-” Troy kicked him in the back of the knee from where he sat on a camp chair, nursing a beer without seeming to actually drink it. “It would’a been fun yeah.”

“Too bad we can’t have campfires every night,” Sean sighed, “But the kids are mad on fire nights.”

“We can make fires on weekends, right?” Troy asked.

“Sure. You’re weekends are yours to do as you please.”

“Going home to watch TV it is.” Levi muttered.

“It’s your first year too right?” Nic queried.

“I was at a different site last year, different company. Makes this place look like the third world, we had all the mod cons.”

“Hey, we do have a fridge and hot running water,” Sean admonished, “What more could you want?”

“The Sky entertainment package and a flat screen?”

“Why’d you leave?”

“Six Trees is closer to home,” Levi said, “And I like the people better.”

Did I imagine that? Paddy sipped his beer, watching the skinny boy out of the corner of one eye. No, he’s still stealing glances at me. Fuck.

“Up early in the morning kids.” Nic stood and stretched before draining the last of his beer, “We serve them breakfast at eight thirty. Alexia and Ava? You guys are on duty to pick up breakfast and boil the water for tea this week.”

“Because you think as women we should be working in the kitchen? I don’t think so.” Alexia folded her arms across her chest.

“No, because you’re in cabin one and it’s easy to keep track of the rota if we go sequentially by numbers. Get off your soap box.” Nic yawned into his hand, “Night guys.”

“Imagine,” Noah rocked back precariously in his chair, “In July it’ll be warm overnight and we can drink outside and watch the stars. It’ll be awesome.”

“Do you see the aurora from where you live?” Paddy asked, finishing up his beer.

“Yup, most nights. You ever seen it?”

“Aye, the lights shine a few times a year. It doesnae really come overhead liek, but on a clear night when tha wind i’right we git the greens an’ yellows, sometimes a touch o’ blue and pink. I expect yours are better ye ken.”

“They’re all the same spirits bud,” Noah got up and yawned, “I’m off to bed too, gonna go Skype the family with my rubbish satellite phone. Bye people.” Paddy stared at him as he departed.

Alexia turned to Paddy.

“Why is it you feel the need to ignore the sexual rights of women?”

Paddy blinked, and then stood.

“It’s nae good lass, ye’ve lost me already. Night you lot.”

“Me too.” Troy and Levi stared at each other; both had spoken at the same time. “Night ladies.” Troy muttered.

Paddy grabbed his bathroom kit and walked to the shower block to do his teeth. Troy was talking to Levi in a voice so hushed even Paddy couldn’t hear them over the distance of the smaller field. Troy met him at the door to the cabin.

“Wha did he want?” Paddy toed off his shoes and set them by the door, turned and placed a hand on Troy’s chest, “Boots.”

“Huh?”

“We’re ye raised in a barn lad? Take yer boots off indoors aye?”

“Serious? You weren’t kidding about the no dirt in the house thing were you?” Troy unpicked his laces as he spoke, “Christ, sometimes I fall asleep in them.”

“Ye’ve worn shoes in bed?” Paddy was horrified, “Niver again!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Troy kicked his boots into the corner, leaving a trail of dust and pine needles, “Keep your kilt on.” Paddy raised an eyebrow at him, “Yes, I like the kilt. Also, Levi Roth fancies you.”

“I figured tha.”

“He asked me to swap cabins with him and room with Noah.”

“Oh.” Paddy was seized with the twin desires to hug his mate very hard and go and scare the skinny kid so hard he’d run for the hills, such as they were. “Fuck.”

Troy shut the door behind him and stepped forwards deep into Paddy’s personal space. It felt good.

“I want to kiss you,” Troy’s fingers traced the smooth line of his jaw, “I can kiss you and we can still talk right?”

“Aye…” Paddy ran his fingers into Troy unruly hair and titled his face upwards for the kiss, “Can I brush yer hair too?”

“You wanna what now?” Troy ran his fingers through his hair in a familiar gesture, “Er…I guess.”

“An’ I thought cats we’re supposed tae be meticulous about these things.” Paddy stepped across the room to get the brush, “Ye want tae sit here wi me?”

They ended up with Paddy’s back pressed to the wall, sitting on his bed, with Troy nestled between his thighs with his feet tucked under himself, and Paddy lifted Troy’s messy but clean blond hair from the back of his neck and began to brush contentedly. It was a good distraction, and by the time the whole lot was smooth, tangle free and shiny, Troy was melted against him. He took the brush from Paddy’s hand.

“This is nice. It smells like you.” Paddy explained what the brush was made of. “My dad made stuff too. He taught me everything about surviving in the wilderness. That’s why I’m here. Specifically, I’m a bush craft expert. I get to teach the kids how to make shelters and tools from stuff they can find in the wild.”

“Tha’s really cool,” Paddy stroked his fingers through Troy’s now silken hair, rubbing the back of his neck gently, “I can do all the basic stuff, fires an’ such, but I’ve never made my own tools.”

Troy exhaled slowly.

“You asked me why I didn’t believe in the Great Spirits. I just can’t do it. If they were there, watching us like you said, dad wouldn’t have died the way he did. We’d have never left Norway.”

And then we’d have never met... Paddy didn’t speak the words out loud, because he knew they wouldn’t be welcome at all.

“The Great Spirits cannae protect everyone babe. People die.”

“And you didn’t watch hunter’s skin your father for his pelt and dump his body in the snow!” Troy vibrated with anger and hurt under his hands, and Paddy wrapped both arms tight around his mate. Troy’s pulse raced under his hands, causing a similar spike in Paddy’s own heartbeat. He forced himself to be calm.

“Tell me?”

“No. It’s too sad.”

“Troy.” Paddy said meaningfully.

“Fine.” Troy sighed and nestled himself back more firmly against Paddy’s chest, “I grew up in Norway, and really, really in the middle of nowhere. Big pine forests, snow so deep it would bury the car, and the Northern Lights blazing overhead every night, or so it felt. My parents had a very practical approach to raising me. For as long as I can remember, we used to spend our summer’s living wild in the woodlands. Mum would take a tent sometimes, and we’d sleep under the stars all summer long. Dad taught me how to make rope and webbing, and we’d turn it into hammocks and sleep in our clothes. Even before I got my fur I could kill a rabbit in any one of a dozen ways and make leather or tanned furs from its hide. We made bows and arrows, really good ones. I can make cord and string from gut, make boots and clothes and work leather with nothing but flints and ends of antlers.”

“Sounds amazing.” Paddy decided not to mention about the fact that every rabbit his lover killed was another death the Great Spirits cared about too.

“I can feel your disapproval from here Paddy.”

“Sorry.”

“We’ll deal with that later. Between mum and dad, they taught me everything; how to make tools, knives, arrow heads, spears; how to fish, gut a deer and turn its antlers into tools and buttons. The summer I was fifteen, dad made me stay out in the forests by myself for a whole month. It was good fun, bit lonely maybe. And then at the tail end of winter right before I turned sixteen we went for a camping trip, just the two of us.”

“When’s your birthday?” Paddy found it strange he didn’t know this most basic piece of information.

“March twentieth. You?”

“July second. I be twenty one while we’re here.”

“I hope it’s a weekend.”

“It’s nae.” Paddy sighed, “Tell me about yer da.”

“We stayed in the wild like we usually did, but the snow was thin and there was good hunting in the twilight hours before the dark set in. We stayed in our fur most of the time, played in the snow and trees and jumped around. My father, Emil, had excellent fur, very dark spots and stripes, darker than mine. There was a pair of hunter’s out of season. One moment we were playing in the snow, and the next moment he was dead.” Troy stopped, breathing hard. “I didn’t have time to drag him away, and you stay in the shape you die in right? I ran into the underbrush and I w-watched them s-s-skin him. They took his fur and left his body dumped where he’d fallen.”

There didn’t seem to be anything Paddy could possibly say to the man in his lap, so he said nothing, and thought love and sorry and a half dozen other nameless emotions to his mate.

“I walked home alone and told mum. I think I cried for about two weeks, but I don’t remember it.” He shivered, “Dad used to talk all the time about the Great Spirits, and how they watched over us. He said his brother was up there, had died while he was still a cub, and how he never felt like Oskar had ever really left him because he was up there in the sky.”

“He w’right babe,” Paddy hugged his mate hard in his lap, “Oskar is up thar, a’ so is yer father. Naeone is ever really gone.”

“It can’t be,” Troy managed to twist around in his lap, ending up with his face pressed against Paddy’s shoulder, “Because why would they take him away from me? What could they need him for up there?”

“I daen’t ken babe. Spirits are mysterious an’ annoying liek tha.” Paddy held the man tighter in his arms, “But whatever they’re doing. They brought ye tae me, so I’m grateful.”

“That’s silly. It’s just luck.”

“Ye sound like me Mam. She always said I might aten’t niver find ma mate. But I ken I’d find yer eventually.”

“Tell me about your family?” Troy asked softly into Paddy’s jumper.

“Theirs is nae much tae tell. Me, Mam and Da live in the highlands near me grandparents. Mam has four brothers, all bears, and I hae a load of cousins wi black fur. She says it were luck tha she married me Da, but he’s always said he ken right away. She’s his mate sure enough. So thar’s just us wi our masks in a whole clan o’ black bears. Anymair questions?”

Troy pulled away enough to look up at him, head cocked to one side. They stared at each other for so many minutes that Paddy could no longer remember what he’d asked when Troy next spoke.

“What do you look like in your fur?”