The
Short Stories from Camp Boker Tov are a collection of tales involving
characters who may all have some part of a future novel based at Camp Boker
Tov. These stories are excerpts that dive into these characters more in depth
and introduce readers to Camp Boker Tov and its various campers and employees.
The depictions of the characters to real-life individuals is at no point
intentionally done and even though many of my characters seem like people I've
known, they are an amalgam of people I've known throughout my life and are
inspired by those who've affected my life. There also is no character based on
myself, but parts of me will show up time to time. Hey, I know me best.
I will be releasing these intermittently and each will be from the perspective of a different character and from a different time frame.
Camp
Boker Tov is a fictional camp based in the Lake of the Ozarks region of Missouri.
The camp is a Jewish owned and operated camp, started as a high school age only
summer retreat for leadership and life skill training.
Shawn Maggid - Shawn's New Leaf
I
was so excited to return to Camp Boker Tov for my second summer with the boys
and all the new chicks were fresh meat. Never did I expect to have such an
experience for which I was being sympathized rather than admired. I’d finally begun
growing into my body and passed that awkward 'too skinny' phase with muscle
from wrestling and football built on top of my 5'9 frame. I managed to put on
20 pounds that school year and I learned to make my pecks flex like you see
body builders do or that guy from the movies, Cheeseburger Eddy from The Longest
Yard.
One
of my most memorable moments at camp was arriving at CBT in Neighbor's Village
and as we piled off the bus the guys started chanting, "Naomi & Shawn,
sitting in a tree, K. I. S. S. I. N. G." She blushed but everyone knew
about our on again and off again roller coaster from the previous summer. This summer
I was going to move on from her and already had plans to try and hook up with
five new girls. I climbed down from the bus flexing all the muscle I could and
wrapping big boy Kell Watts in a headlock. The big goof tried to squirm away so
I rubbed his shaved dome with my knuckles. Kell was older than me by a year,
but the fucker never had a spine to stand up to anyone so I always picked on
him when I was bored. It never was intended to cause harm. Camp that year
was being kicked off with a rainy day, welcome to fucking Missouri.
I
glimpsed Naomi Reznik hopping off the bus in her tiny elastic shorts and lime
green tank top. She tried to cover her hair with her fashionable outdoor purse
and I laughed loud enough for her to hear. I’m told my laugh is more of a
cackle and sometimes the guys make fun of it, but I think they are just being
dumbasses.
Naomi
saw me laughing and boldly came over to confront me. She gave me a smack in the
arm and tried to melt me with her toothy smile. We were close friends and I
think the romance in the past was due to boredom, but everything that happened
was because of that damn smile. She had me wrapped around her finger, but
luckily she didn't know that.
“What
up?” I muttered.
“Why
didn't you sit with me on the bus?” She inquired.
“I
was hangin with my boys. I’m gonna sit with you at dinner though.” I saved my
ass for a second by encouraging her to sit with me, when really I’ll be talking
to some of the new girls.
“Ok.”
Another smile. “I’m gonna get Abba to bring my stuff up to the cabin. See you
at dinner, babe.”
I
almost groaned out loud, but caught myself. I hated the romantic nickname shit
she did around others. It was her way of telling others that she had some claim
to me. We've fought about it before, I’ll be sure to say something stupid
later.
I
escaped the conversation by grabbing my large duffel bag filled with clothes
and goodies. Isaac Kellner and Brett Green were waiting for me to head up to the cabin. Our counselor,
Abba Critz, was smart enough to put us in the same cabin rather than letting us
terrorize someone else’s and it is easier to keep an eye on us when we are in
the same sleeping quarters. He’s never caught me doing shit though. This year I
brought enough weed to last the whole session. Luckily, my mom was eating a lot
of Altoids before we left.
I
fist bumped the fellas and headed up the hill to my cabin. The wonderful cabin
number five with its frequent toad and spider visitors and squeaky bunk beds we
turned into a mega bed for most of camp. Why? No one knew.
Isaac
and Brett thought they were so cool now that they had thick beards growing in
while Tanner Dobson and I were still waiting for our facial hair to come in clean, but
they looked like doofuses wearing NBA jerseys and shorts to camp. Isaac was
larger than me, so I never told him, I just laughed with Tanner about it. Brett
would argue its merit with me for hours for no reason at all.
The
rain wasn't that bad, but I didn't like walking in all the mud, so I tried to
move the guys quickly, but it is like herding cattle. I noticed Jamie Olt
walking the other way and saw her slip in the mud with her bag falling behind
her. The struggle was hilarious so I pointed and cackled. The guys joined in.
One of our other friends, Austin Hill ran over to help her. They will hook up.
We
spent twenty or thirty minutes in the cabin unpacking and hiding our
paraphernalia. That summer Brett brought a shit ton of weed too and Isaac had a
bottle of vodka. Tanner was a pussy and didn't bring anything. He was always
more of a mooch anyways. The rain didn't stop even though we waited for a bit,
so I changed shoes to my shitty sneakers and we headed down for the first
Shabbat meal of camp.
Halfway
down the path from Boys’ Village, Abba was walking the opposite direction and
he was on a mission with his eyes on the ground and his pace rapid.
“Already
busting someone, Abba?” Tanner joked.
“Shawn,
I need to speak with you, bud.” Abba replied with an ironic nickname for which
he didn't find any humor in at the moment. His morose tone is what really
struck me with fear.
Did
he already know about the weed? Did Naomi say something? They are close, but I
don’t think she’d rat me out especially since I promised her some. I thought
to myself and Abba lead me to the basketball courts to stand under the shed and
talk. He was silent the whole way and I was jumping out of my skin. He kept his
voice calm and slow as he started telling me this important information.
“Your
mom called me when we got here.” He started out. “I just got the chance to call
her back. I wish you’d told me your dad moved out. I didn't know him well, but
you could have mentioned something, man. I thought we were tighter than that.”
He paused to allow me to say something but I stayed silent wondering where this
was going. “Unfortunately, your mom had some bad news and wanted me to be the
one to tell you. I've never done this before, so I hope I’m doing this the best
way. Your father was on a bender last night and was found at the bottom of a
ravine in the Ozarks inside his car. They said it didn't look like he tried to
stop.” I realized what he was saying and it hit me all at once.
Tears
exploded out of my eyes and I fell to the ground. The rain and mud didn't
bother me anymore. My father had died alone and depressed, a feeling I’d become
more familiar with this past year. I didn't tell Abba about any of this because
I knew he’d worry about me and keep an eye on my behavior. Now I was beating
the ground with my feet and wiping phlegm and tears into my shirt while Abba
patted me on the back and stayed silent. I thought about my little brother, who
was back home with mom, hopefully handling it better than I was. The kid was
strong, while I’d become a wreck quietly retreating to my weed-induced blur. I
felt ashamed. I felt angry. I felt everything.
Abba
finally found more words to say and while I sat there trying to stop crying, he
shared the rest of my mother’s conversation. “Your father left a letter in his
hotel room. One for you and one for your brother. She’d like to give it you at
the funeral. We are going to coordinate getting you home and I've already told
her that Tanner, Isaac, Brett, and whoever else are welcome to join you on the
trip back for support, but I need to speak with their parents. I’ll handle all
that. Just know that we are all here for you, bud. You may act strong and
unbreakable, but we all know better. Or at least, I do.”
Luckily,
nobody saw me sitting there crying, but I wasn't sure I’d be able to keep it
together during Shabbat and asked Abba to be excused from the meal. He
reluctantly allowed me to go back to my cabin and be alone for a while. I
rolled a joint and smoked it. I didn't care about any of the damn rules or
getting caught breaking them. I was alone with my thoughts. It was then I
decided I will never be like my father. Alcohol killed my dad and with Mary
Jane as my witness, I was never going to allow it to happen to me. I drank a
lot sophomore year and knew I’d need to get control of it. This was my chance
to reach out for help though. I should have taken it.
I
smoked four joints that night and cried twice more. Isaac and Tanner cried too.
Brett was a great friend to all of us and they all agreed to go to the funeral with
me. Naomi texted me sending her condolences along with an invite to come visit
later that night; I didn't go. Austin, that dog, was the only one to sneak out
and he hooked up with Jamie, as expected. My friends were the only reason I
made it through that night. I’m a loyal friend to this day and couldn't be more
grateful to those three guys for sitting with me that summer night as I cried
over my dad and my life.
Six
months later, I was awarded my first honor roll grade report and took the ACT where
I ended up getting a score of 32. I finally began setting myself up for college
and partying less. My only vice was weed, but that’s not really that bad of a
vice. No one has told me otherwise. It will be legal here soon anyways. I need
the chill it gives me. I had 100 other good reasons stored up in case anyone
judged me. Abba also was a big help. He helped my mom get a scholarship due to
financial hardship, so I could go to camp again the next summer. That first
night of camp has reformed many of my behaviors and attitudes, but it’s all
about my friends. I would do anything for my friends and they have proven they
would do the same for me.
Shawn Maggid, Naomi Reznik, Brett Green, Isaac Kellner, Jamie Olt,
Kell Watts, Tanner Dobson, Austin Hill, Abba Critz, and Camp Boker Tov are
fictional characters/settings. These anecdotes are fictional designed as such where character
traits and personalities can be derived by each reader to connect with these characters each in their own way.
