Short Stories from Camp Boker Tov: Shawn's New Leaf

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.