The Summer Job - 34. Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Many hands make for light work. With four assistants, Phillip had two-thirds of the Friday checklist accomplished by eleven thirty.

As they were mopping the swimming team and public locker rooms in the pool annex, Mr. Campbell showed up with a clipboard and asked Phillip to take a walk. He asked, “How are you doing on those old locker rooms on the 2^nd floor of the Annex?”

Phillip replied, “All they really needed was a deep cleaning. They weren’t in bad shape but, they’ve been raided for furnishings.”

Campbell said, “We can fix that. Follow me.”

Phillip followed Mr. Campbell into the main building and down a flight of stairs to a basement he had only seen on the blueprints in his office. Campbell stopped at a door marked storage, fumbled with his keys until he found the right one. The big metal door opened it with much creaking and groans of protest into a pitch dark basement. Mr. Campbell found the light switch after a few seconds of groping for it.

The lights revealed rows and stacks of all sorts of furnishings and equipment: benches, chairs, training tables and blocks of lockers. There was even some new in the box stuff Phillip would have to sort through.

Mr. Campbell said, “You should find everything you need down here. If there’s something you don’t find, let me know. Rehabbing those locker rooms was one of the projects old George never quite got around to. Make sure you’ve got a key to the dungeon on your ring.”

Campbell pulled a couple of chairs out and invited Phillip to sit. He changed tact and asked, “You’ve been up on 2^nd floor for a few days now. What do you think?”

Phillip got the idea that Mr. Campbell was fishing. Phillip responded, “I get the idea that the old superintendent had a lot of technology but either didn’t know how to use it, or didn’t want to. I do know how to use it and, it has been... educational.”

Mr. Campbell chuckled and said, “Now there’s an understatement. I know things go on up there that I really don’t want to know about.”

Phillip gave a noncommittal nod.

Campbell said, “I am bound by policy to be... let’s just say overly harsh about some mistakes that our boys might make. Most of them are just ten to fourteen. They are at the age when hormones and puberty burn the brightest and, they’ve all got the internet to give them pointers on stuff my generation never even heard about until college. They’re going to make... mistakes. Policy tells me to do one thing but, common decency tells me... not to do it.”

“Sometimes I’m really grateful that this is an all-male institution and the YWCA is just on the other side of the park. It would be so much worse if we threw girls into the picture. Still, it’s a very tricky situation. Kids having sex always gets parents up in arms and, kids having gay sex is like the third rail— it destroys anything it touches. My predecessor caught some boys and followed policy to the letter. The boys retaliated and accused him of being a molester. It was a huge shit show. He was eventually cleared but not before everybody got slimed by the incident: him, the staff and the YMCA. He had to resign. Others quit out of disgust. To be perfectly honest, we’re scared to death of it and don’t want to deal with it.”

Phillip said, “Unless there is an actual crime or someone is being victimized, you would rather not know about it.”

Campbell looked relieved and said, “I think we understand each other. The boys like and respect you. If you can handle this with the tact I’ve come to expect from you, I won’t have to send them home with a report that could seriously injure them with their families or socially. To protect us both, we never had this conversation.”

Phillip grinned and asked innocently, “What conversation?”

Mr. Campbell shook Phillip’s hand and said, “Competent subordinates are a treasure. Thanks for filling in for Coach Hanson this morning. It looks like you had the Barracudas working out hard.”

“They’re a good bunch of kids and, they’ve got some talent. I think they might surprise some people when the Summer Heat competitions begin in July.”

Mr. Campbell said, “I got a suggestion this morning. Do you know what a ‘lock-in’ is?”

“Isn’t that when the kids in a church youth group spend the night in the gym and get to play until they drop?”

Campbell said, “You’ve got it. We get that suggestion every summer but, it’s the adult staff’s idea of hell. It’s a popular idea with a lot of parents because it gives them a Friday night off. If you and your crew would like to take it on, we’ll spring for over time.”

Phillip pondered the question and said, “Let me talk to my guys. I’m pretty sure they’ll go for it. I’ve got some suggestions too: Casey is an awesome cook and, I’m not bad on the grill. If we ask for a few bucks or so a head, we can feed them well.”

Mr. Campbell said, “That sounds like a good idea. How would the weekend before the fourth work for you?”

Phillip said, “Two weeks from today?”

Campbell nodded.

“It suits me but, my Dad is going to be home for the fourth and the weekend after. Now that I’ve got minions, we can make it work.”

Campbell, clearly pleased, said, “Thanks Phillip. Now I’ve got to get back to work. Have a look at the stuff down here and feel free to use what you need. Just make a record of what you take and where it goes.”

Phillip stayed and looked over the collection of miscellaneous things in the big cellar storage room. His most surprising find were two big whirlpool baths new in the box with a manufacture date of last year! There were enough chairs, benches and even a few sofas to do a nice job on the two locker rooms, freshen up the locker rooms on the first floor and maybe even the locker room in the adult gym. The basement even had a freight elevator, so it wouldn’t kill his team moving it around.