Cloth Diapers & Panties

@DailyDi here is the other thread that is exactly like the other one I tagged you in.

@DailyDi there are 2 of the same threads going on here this one and I believe in another sub forum. might want to close one down keep the flow going only on one.

Already read on reddit 😛

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience and kindness in this. I’m still not out of the woods yet and that’s not great, but I managed to pump this chapter out after reflecting a little bit more on it. Another chapter, probably two though, will be put out this week. There might be a delay in later chapter this week, but it will be out. If, however, more news comes on Thursday… things could be very different going forward. If it’s a worst-case scenario, then I will write when I can, but consistency will probably be the least of my concerns. It sucks but sometimes priorities dictate these things and the last thing I want is to slog this story out when I’m not in the right headspace. If it’s good news though, I might have a few bumps and delays here and there, but this story should continue pretty much as before. Whatever the case, I’ll be sure to let you all know when I post that later chapter sometime on Friday/Saturday. Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story! Chapter 6: A Change in Venue It finally happened. The thing we had all feared when discovering that cabins were split up by age, we knew our time in black cabin wouldn’t last forever… I just hoped that we would have had longer. But time was against us, and sure enough, Brian went first out of the cabin… followed the day after by Leo once they were believed to have both dropped below 18. The past three days, it was just Dwayne and I remaining in black cabin along with Perry, Jason, and Uriah.   Despite there being few bodily differences between a 17- and 18-year-old, legal terms were still being drafted across the nation. It was causing a headache to most judges and attorneys, but until they could come up with a new legal definition of adulthood when it came to ARs at least, most places played it safe and drew a line in the sand… no matter if ARs were once in their 60s or not. So, here at Camp Commune, that line was the divider between the black and purple cabins. It was the first bump in our trajectory downward. With relaxed laws, it was just announced that 15-year-olds could still drink in most cities and about half still allowed those in their teens. I briefly saw Dwayne seethe with anger when he heard that the other day. But here at camp, that law might as well have been a thousand miles away. Here, the first change any of us would experience would be slipping under 18. According to Steven, the dividing line was there because it would mean different protections for the AR and for the society around them. To them, it meant forced schooling and potentially losing the right to vote… at least until the government could determine a new law for that one. All that was weighing on me each time I checked the mirror or pretty much did anything around camp the past few days. I missed seeing Brian and Leo, but I wasn’t in any rush to see them too soon. But as I looked in the mirror and felt my limbs grow stronger and more flexible than they had in years, I knew my time was up soon. So, as I made my way to Mrs. Galen… again, I began to dread what her results would show today. Last week, I was 18. Today… I could only wince as I entered her office. “Just tell me already…” I pleaded later as she viewed the results from my latest blood test and my fresh round of measurements. “Don’t sugarcoat it…” She sighed and looked back up at me with sympathy, and I just knew in my heart what the news was already. “I’m sorry, Miles. From everything I can tell here… photos and records from your previous medical check-ups, I can’t justifiably corroborate that you’re still above 18.” She paused and stepped closer to me. “You understand what that means, right?” I nodded grimly. “I’ve seen it happen twice before with the guys I came in with… I know what happens next.” Despite all it meant and the loss that was sure to come, ever since Perry and Dwayne poked fun at me the other day about my thinning facial hair, I had been mentally preparing myself for this moment. It sucked… but I knew there wasn’t a thing I could do about it once Mrs. Galen made her recommendation to Mrs. Claw and Steven. But I hated waiting for the other shoe to drop as she scanned her records again and inputted the results into the camp computer file system. “So… do I leave now or…?” She looked at me and shook her head. “No. We’re dealing with a bunch of new arrivals today and half the day is already gone. You just sit tight in black cabin for now. Tomorrow morning though… I’ll alert the purple cabin’s counselor, Mr. Nancy, to bring you over. Sound good?” It did not. I knew those words were coming as I had seen them before directly with both Leo and Brian, but now they were for me. I was dropping down a cabin level, and if to seal the difference already, my new counselor wasn’t Ichabod… he was Mr. Nancy. He wasn’t a peer… he was to be viewed as an older mentor to me now. Steven was in his mid-30s… possibly even younger than some of the new arrivals. But Mr. Nancy was definitely older than 18… not a peer by any standard. After a curt nod from me and a few other questions from Mrs. Galen, I exited the nurse’s station and stopped in front of the main building. There, already, I could see the two bus loads of new campers exit calmly, each looking confident or like Dwayne had been when he got off when he first arrived, disgusted with their new surroundings. But more importantly, beyond all that, they looked old. I looked in the mirror each morning and saw my youthening face. Scars and wrinkles and gray hairs were all a thing of the past. I felt more alive than I had in years and could touch my toes without groaning now. My youth was being handed back to me on a silver platter, but seeing even 30-year-olds as older than me… I likely knew what everyone else thought of me now. My mind might have been intact… but I no longer belonged in black cabin by any definition. Not wishing to linger any longer with the new arrivals and our contrasts now, I made my back to my waiting cabinmates. On medical check-up days, held twice a week on one A Day and one B Day, work at Havenswood would be temporarily delayed. If any of the commune members there minded, they never showed it. In fact, most seemed more than accommodating. Normally, their cheery attitudes grinded on me, but today, it was as good as a distraction as I felt I would ever get. Mostly because it meant that no one had a chance to ask me how my check-up went. Not when Mr. Lehman tasked our group to mend a fence. Not when Emma brought us all some cool and refreshing lemonade. It didn’t even occur when we got back to our cabin and met the new arrivals or throughout dinner with the commune members. It was only during the bonfire when I didn’t sing one of the songs that Uriah turned to me. “Okay, man… spill it,” he whispered to me with a knowing and intense look. “What did they tell you? I heard they’re figuring out how to know when you’ll bounce. Did you hear about that? Is that what’s eating you?” I stared at the better friend I had made in the cabin. I almost wanted to lie… to go on pretending that everything was fine when it really wasn’t. In the hours since Mrs. Galen, I was just another black cabinmate. I was dealt in a hand of poker and not a single person poked at me for dropping down in my age. Despite my youthful appearance, and despite the contrast to the new arrivals who quickly filled the cabin to the brim, all beds currently taken now… I could have lied and kept that notion going. But I couldn’t… not to Uriah. So, I shook my head. “No… I…” I took a deep breath and decided to go for the plunge. “I’m moving out tomorrow. Mrs. Galen confirmed… purple cabin.” His left cheek flinched for a moment as if his brain didn’t want to process yet another lost friend. Uriah endured and that meant he kept his maturity and his adult status… but it also meant he had to see everyone else shrink before his very eyes. By now, at least from the pictures I saw him occasionally looking at in the cabin, I knew there were at least five he thought about regularly. “I’m so sorry, Miles…” he finally told me, his hand briefly patting me on the shoulder. “Do… do the others know yet?” I shook my head. “No. I didn’t want to tell them. You saw what happened when Brian left. Dwayne couldn’t stop teasing him all the way to the door.” “Yeah…” Uriah flinched a little at the memory. It was the final straw, and Steven had finally taken him away for his punishment. When they returned, neither said a word… just a meek apology from Dwayne to Brian before he left for good a minute later. “I remember that. Best idea to wait then…” He sighed. “Besides… maybe you’ll see one or two of us in the next few weeks. Besides the new arrivals, most of us are in our 20s. No one leaves here from black cabin…” It was the grim reality of dividing up by ages. From news reports, we knew the new schools were divided more broadly. Adult, child, preschool, and baby, and even then… most of those categories were pretty loose and most who attended had to show signs of problems to be moved to the next category down. Between black and purple… it was purely age and nothing more. And as I fell asleep that night, I could only swallow that bitter pill and await my fate come morning. *              *              * I loathed mornings, even before all this craziness entered my life and I came to camp, I was a perpetual night owl, and mornings always brought the dreaded sense of whatever was coming that day. Sure, there was the occasional respite that fueled my passions, but most mornings were far too bright and too early for my tastes. But when I woke up the next morning, I was filled with a new dread I hadn’t felt before. Life is typically all about moving forward. When you’re young, it’s one grade to the next. It’s pass or fail and you push forward through age categories and scouting ranks, and your knowledge grows and you get taller. Going backwards is always thought of as failure. And even when you become an adult, going backwards can happen… but again, it’s deemed as failure like divorce or a demotion at work. So, waking up and knowing that this morning I was going to be moving into purple cabin before breakfast, despite being riddled with ARV, I felt like I was the failure. And having been informed last night when everyone got back to our cabin, the snide looks I got from people like Dwayne and Perry only added to that notion. “Don’t look so glum, Miles,” Jason tried to comfort me, now being the defacto and essentially undisputed leader of black cabin once Leo had left a few days ago. “Maybe even have a little hope.” I sighed. “I admire your enthusiasm… but I don’t think I can see it that way.” “Understandable but try to look at it another way maybe… some people bounce in purple cabin,” he noted proudly. “I don’t think anyone with ARV stops at black. But purple? I’ve seen a few bounce there. Pretty common actually…” I looked at Uriah, the other person whose knowledge and words I would actually trust, as opposed to Perry or Dwayne who would likely just tease or play a prank on me. Fortunately, Uriah nodded. “He’s right. I think… Otto, was it?” He scratched his head. “Yeah, I think so. Few weeks ago, he was here and then dropped to purple. A week later, he was out and looking for an apartment back in the city… 16 I think?” It was a momentary bloom of relief… at least until Steven came in. His eyes scanned the room and landed on me before making his way over to my bunk. “Okay now… you ready to go?” He had asked the same of Leo and Brian before me. Eustace was too far regressed by the time Steven came around to transfer him. I took my already packed pack of some of my added keepsakes since I had come here and nodded. “I… yeah… I am.” He smiled and turned to the rest of the cabin. “Okay. I’ll be back in a jiffy… then it’s laundry. No dawdling for the rest of you, okay?” “We got it, Steven,” Jason spoke for the group. “We’ll be ready…” He then turned to me. “Good luck, Miles. And again, don’t worry so much about what’s next, okay?” I smiled. “Thanks… I’ll try.” Perry waved from a distance on top of his bunk. “Just try not to wet the bed, okay?” I could feel the heat blooming beneath my cheeks, but I said nothing. If I expected anything else from him, I was a fool. In contrast, Uriah hopped down from his bunk and held out his hand for me to shake, which I promptly took. “Just keep your head up and take it one day at a time…” he said before pulling me in close. I thought he was going for a hug. Instead, he whispered in my ear. “What you saw your first night… don’t talk about it first. Let others talk about it. We aren’t the only ones who have seen things, but don’t paint a target on your back with the younger crowds…” he warned before patting me on the back as a cover and backing away from our embrace. “Aww!” Dwayne mocked us before I could make another move. “The two are saying their final goodbyes. Maybe you two will end up in a playpen together!” he chuckled at his own unamusing joke. Even the newbies that had freshly arrived yesterday didn’t so much as crack a smile “Dwayne! Do you need another… lesson?” Steven shouted to him, his brow furrowing quickly… silencing the bully completely. He then sighed and turned to me. “Sorry about that, but… you ready now?” I shouldered my pack, nodded to Uriah in acknowledgment of our friendship and his advice, and turned back to Steven. “Yes… let’s go.” Purple cabin was just next door but for me, it might as well have been twelve miles away. Each step I took towards the door felt like a step towards my doom. Before purple, one could pass through decades at black cabin. ‘Over 18’ was the official designation for it, but for purple and all the rest, measurements were made in years instead of decades. Admittedly, purple cabin could be for someone 17 and three quarters, but the place could also house some scrawny and pimple-faced 13-year-old. But I had no choice in the matter, so as Steven knocked on the door, I braced myself for what was to come. The door opened with a creak, and immediately, I was assaulted by loud music. “Yeah?” a greasy-haired teen with a pencil thin mustache asked as they stuck their head out the door. “What do you want?” I saw Steven grimace at his disheveled appearance. “Uh… is Ichabod here?” he asked, trying to look around the door and into the cabin. “Oh… you mean Mr. Nancy?” the teen asked with a smirk before shaking his tousled dark hair. “Nah. He doesn’t come until right before breakfast.” The teen’s eyes then wandered over directly to me and his smirk grew back. “Oh, I see… newbie huh?” Steven nodded before I could answer for myself. “That’s right and if I could just speak to…” But the teen opened the door and barreled right for me and passed Steven without a word. “Hey… name’s Griff. And you?” Already, the interactions between black cabin and purple cabin were seemingly obvious to me as I reached out my own hand. “Miles. And I guess I’m the newbie…” “Oh… Miles! The one from black!” He smacked his forehead before pushing back his dark hair. “Leo and Brian’s friend… yeah. Come on in!” he beckoned quickly, his hand lazily waving me forward. I immediately started to follow him. Right as I entered the door though, Steven stopped me with a hand over my left arm. “Hold it right there! Now, I’m not leaving until I can speak to Mr. Nancy directly.” Griff scowled back at him. “Let go… Steven. You want to do something about this… you take it up with Mr. Nancy later. You don’t have any rule over us here.” And a second later, Griff yanked my other arm inside. “Come on, Miles. Time to show you around…” Seemingly shocked into a stupor, when I wrenched my arm away from Steven, he didn’t do anything about it. He just stood there, his mouth open… even as the front door slammed close on him. But entering the cabin and moving on completely, I immediately spotted the differences between here and black. While the bunks, the small stove at the far end, the rear tables and chairs and the stone and woodwork were the same, that’s where the differences ended. As I walked in, smells of sweat and Cheetos and something sugary assaulted my nose. Hand-colored pictures lined the walls, each showcasing a different band. It was clear one person had done them all but had crafted them in a way to reflect the occupant of the bunk closest to them. And unlike black cabin where the bunks were all to one side, here, the now 32 beds faced each other… eight bunks one side and eight on the other. “Oh! Leo look!” I heard a familiar voice call out to me… only to be hugged seconds later by a shorter but still evident Brian. “He made it!” Leo smirked as he strolled over. “Hey, Griff. Thanks for taking him in, but we can take him from here, and besides… Pearson left our group yesterday, remember? We have an opening?” Griff stroked his chin where a few stray hairs poked out from. “Hmm… we’ll have to see what Mr. Ichabod wants… but I don’t have a problem with that.” He turned to me. “But do you have a problem with that? I know sometimes, old friends can be…” I shook my head. “No, no. All good. Good to see familiar faces and all…” Griff smiled. “Very well. I’ll leave you all to it but remember you all… breakfast in five. Don’t want to make Mr. Nancy angry already in the day. You know how he is…” “Got it,” Leo acknowledged before Griff casually saluted us with two fingers and walked away. “So!” Brian eagerly turned back towards me and then yanked me through the cabin before showing me an open top bunk. “Here! This one is open!” I quickly tossed my stuff on top before looking at my uniform compared to Leo’s and Brian’s. “I guess I need a new uniform,” I noted, pointing to their now purple striping and pockets as opposed to my currently black ones. “Oh… yeah… forgot about that…” Brian said glumly. “Just check the cabinet,” Leo pointed out to the familiar space for my stuff like I had in black cabin. Compared to the rest though, mine was blank. Opening it up, I quickly saw my new uniform, and checking the tag… I saw it would be a perfect fit. So, knowing breakfast was soon and not wanting to be late, I quickly stripped to change into it. “So… how is this place? Is it… different?” Brian shook his head. “No, not really… just…” “More rules,” a new face jumped in before thrusting his hand out to me. “Name’s Eric. You must be the new guy from black. Miles, was it?” I nodded as I shook his hand once I had buckled up my pants. “Yeah… did you all get an announcement or…?” I was wondering why everyone seemed to know my name at this point. Eric smirked but shook his head. “Nah. Overheard a conversation Mr. Nancy had last night. Plus… these two kept talking about their old friends in black when they first came.” His eyes shifted around the room for a brief moment almost in dread. “Dwayne’s not here, is he?” I shook my head. “No. I think he’s going slower.” Eric almost looked relieved. “Okay. Good.” “Hey…” Leo looked insulted at that jab at his old friend. “Watch it, Eric…” “Sorry, Leo, but…” He grimaced. “From the way you two describe him… even his positive traits seem to have negatives. And… we don’t need that kind of energy in here.” I chuckled at the notion. Considering how he and Perry had left me at black cabin, I couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah. Very true, but… what about these rules I heard about?” I finished tucking in my shirt. “Yeah… just gotta follow Mr. Nancy a little more here,” Brian pointed out. “It’s nothing too big,” Leo seemingly corrected. “You just need to pay attention a little more outside of here is all. Answer questions quick, don’t backtalk, no running, no…” “No having fun,” Eric interjected. “It’s a bit too strict for my tastes, but in here?” He then gestured around the cabin with a wide smile. “This is our territory. As long as we don’t burn this place down, Mr. Nancy let’s us have free reign in here.” I could already feel a new presence in my life… authority. While I had answered to bosses and people in positions of power for all my adult life, Mr. Nancy seemed to be the sort that exerted the type of power a professor would exert over his students. Don’t yell in class maybe, but wearing your fuzzy slippers to an exam wouldn’t mean failure either.   When he walked in the cabin soon after though, I felt just the same. “Okay, everyone! Breakfast!” He looked over the cabin and frowned. “Griff! Why is there underwear hanging over the stove? We talked about this!” Griff winced. “Winston! Take ‘em off!” He then turned back to Mr. Nancy. “Sorry, Mr. Nancy. Won’t happen again. I’ll talk to them later.” He sighed, his reddish-brown beard twitching slightly. “Very well, Griff. But… consider that a warning. You know my rules on fire safety…” “Yes, sir…” Griff shoved his hands in his pockets dejectedly. Mr. Nancy seemed to notice though and came over before patting him on the shoulder. “It’s okay. Just want you safe, Griff.” His eyes turned to the rest of us. “And that goes for all of you!” He paused and smiled. “And besides… tonight is our camping trip! No need to spoil that, right?” Several cheers erupted through the crowd. I wasn’t sure what it meant and just from all the bumbling out of the cabin and the haphazard way we all sat down to breakfast and the scrambling we did to our classes… I didn’t have a chance to ask fully until we were over at Havenswood and chopping wood for Emma. “Damn, man. This cabin is chaos incarnate!” Brian smirked. “Oh… just wait until laundry day.” I noticed Leo shudder in revulsion at the notion. “Worse than all that?” I questioned, remembering that each class and activity we did today had seemingly been marked by controlled panic and equal amounts of rushing. Mr. Nancy was a firm hand with us, ensuring we always followed the rules… but that still left a lot of leeway it turned out. “Tons worse,” Eric echoed the sentiments of the others after splitting another log. “Amethyst cabin can be a drag somedays, but we’re right in the middle of two vastly different styles.” I hauled another stump over for him to split. “Meaning?” “Meaning that Steven is great with black, but everyone there is shackled to their old ideals. Everyone is still former CEOs and doctors and lawyers and bricklayers and politicians… all ego and uptight rigidity. No fun except what we scratch from our old lives,” Eric explained. “But below us… Leo? You wanna take this?” Leo nodded, mostly just leaning against one of the nearby unfallen trees now with us taking turns. “Yeah… all rules between little spots of freedom. And we’ve seen why… even seen it up close and in-person. Sammy seems to be the exception with them… level-headed and all…” I looked over and saw Sammy still working in the fields in the distance along with at least Jason and some of the other newbies that had come yesterday. He still looked about half their size. “Really?” Brian nodded. “He might be short and on the younger end, but if chaos reigns supreme in purple… it’s lord and master over at blue. But… that just means more rules from their heads of cabin.” “I heard they even have a bedtime…” Eric bemoaned. I winced at the notion. “I guess I’ll keep that in mind…” I moved another stump into place. “But about this camping trip…” “Oh yeah!” Brian seemed more than enthusiastic now, almost dropping one of the small logs he had just cut in two. “It’s the best!” “Yeah,” Eric agreed. “We take tents and go out into the middle of the woods and camp for a night. S’mores and stories… and almost freedom from when we pitch our tents to when the sun goes down. And then after…?” His excitement had reached a peak and then faded as he eyed me suspiciously. “Well… we’ll just see…” I could see Brian and Leo give him a dirty look but nothing more was said about it. Instead, we finished our work and reported back to Mildred before being sent back to camp. But instead of getting ready for dinner, I found everyone stuffing their packs with the three bundles that had been placed on each of our bunks. “What’s this?” “This,” Brian explained pointing one at a time to each new item, “is your sleeping bag, your pad for the night, and one fourth of the tent.” “Camping…” I mused, proceeding to stuff just as quickly as the others. “Camping,” Eric echoed, though seemingly packing even more into his own bag. I could have said something about it, but there was a tiny little voice in my mind telling me not to. Despite the requirement of being in this cabin to be under 18, I practically felt like I was once again living in a college dorm. The stories, the art… it all coalesced into a strange mix of my days from my undergrad work. And then, I knew that if you saw something you thought was against the rules, you kept your mouth shut. Being a rat in the cabin was the last thing I wanted. Venturing outside, Mr. Nancy was already there alongside, Mr. King, both sporting long green bags slung over their shoulders. But wasting no time, each of us were assigned to bring, in addition to our stuffed packs, various pieces of equipment. Some carried water jugs or supplies for dinner, while others carried tarps of the first aid kid or the lanterns. We then began to hike to our camping spot for the night, apparently a designated area they went to twice a week. On the way, we had to stop to let another group go. Looking closely, after seeing a few suck their thumbs and others carrying tightly an array of stuffed animals, I was mortified when I saw who it was. “That’s yellow cabin?” I asked, Eric, seemingly the most knowledgeable of our little group. He nodded, shifting the lantern he carried to his right arm. “Yeah… they come out here as well. We’ll be joined by blue later tonight but yellow goes and joins together with the red cabin following up from behind.” “It’s another way to differentiate the cabins,” Leo explained, also adjusting the pot he carried to his right side. “We go first and set up the camp and the fire and the water and all. Then blue comes and we cook dinner together.” “But red and yellow only go out before coming back to sleep in their cabins,” Eric hopped back in. “Ms. Fairchild joked and explained it all to us on our first camping trip when she wandered over to us asking for some spare matches. Apparently, cribs and changing tables don’t travel well for her kids…” “She also said that it’s not safe at night for them,” Brian noted, almost with a sense of fear percolating in the back of his voice. “And most of them are afraid of the dark…” I was curious about that in my friend, but I had another more pressing question on my mind. “Ms. Fairchild?” I didn’t want to linger, but I was missing something now. I had learned most of the staff names by now… but not that one.   “Yeah… head of the yellow cabin. Caring and sweet… but never cross her or the kids in her cabin…” Leo winced a little. “Trust me…” “Yeah… the Ghoulmoth and the others might be the monsters in this camp’s tales, but… she has no mercy for those she deems ‘naughty.’” A shiver then ran through Eric like a cold wind had passed over his skin. He looked terrified… and over something as simple as what was essentially a babysitter. To keep from embarrassing him, like most of us were learning to do when a seemingly childish moment overtook someone, I looked to my left at the yellow group. Most seemed below four years old and while all sported the same khaki outfit I did, it was hard not to notice the elastic waistband or the snaps between legs as a few plopped down and idly played with their toys. A few horrifically even squatted. Yes, for a toddler it might have just been a daily occurrence, but seeing each, I knew deep down I could have been looking at a former banker or a doctor now using their padded undergarments to the fullest. “Don’t dwell on them, Miles…” Brian told me, nudging me from the side after he caught me staring in bewilderment at them. “They’ll pass soon, and besides, they don’t care… not anymore. “He sighed deeply before looking back at me with hope. “And after all, for all you know, you could end at purple or blue… nowhere near yellow.” I nodded and sure enough, within minutes the yellows moved away, soon followed by the reds. For them at least, they were young and had to be kept in line constantly by their subcounselors, but there was more awareness with them. A fascination with the world. Then I thought I saw someone, wide-eyed and curly haired… a younger portrait of someone I had known. “Wait… hey Eustace! Eustace!” I called out. “It’s Miles! Eustace!” But no one turned around from the campers… just a few of my fellow purples and the subcounselors. “What was that about, Miles?” Leo asked me once they had completely passed and I stopped shouting and waving. I shrugged after not seeing anyone turn back to look at me. “I thought I saw Eustace is all. I thought…” “He’s gone,” Brian noted gravely and abruptly. “If you did see him, he probably doesn’t remember you. The fast and dangerous strain usually wipes most memories away pretty quickly. Sometimes, some of them even struggle with their name… or they’re too distracted by a toy or whatever to hear you calling out to them…” “Oh…” I was silent for the rest of our journey to the campsite. Once there, it was plainly obvious it had seen heavy use over the years. Multiple firepits adorned a handful of campsites and large platforms lay empty withing spitting distance of each with a handful of picnic tables in the center of the three or four clusters I could see. “Okay… choose your spots and set up your tents,” Mr. Nancy called out. “Mr. King and I will be setting up for dinner and the various campfires. I will take watch of the north campfire. Mr. King will take watch of the east, and Mr. and Mrs. Brooks will take the south and west ones. If you can, stay away from those sites and stick only to the platforms. Outside of them… it’s not safe.” Frowning at that last part, the camp quickly dispersed and Eric beckoned us over. “Come on. I know where to pitch. Best spot in the whole site!” We all nodded and quickly followed him to a singular platform at the east campsite, curiously seemingly the furthest from where any of the head counselors would set up their tents. “Perfect!” Eric called out before unshouldering his pack and pulling out one of his bags. “You all get yours out and I’ll pop the other equipment back. Miles… you help me.” I could only nod back before dropping my own tent bag and heading off with Eric with the rest of the communal gear we had brought. Dropping it off, without even thinking, I ran back to help pitch the tent. “Miles Bosch!” Mr. Nancy thundered out, seemingly like a crack in the middle of the trees powerful enough to split a branch in two. Several of the nearby campers froze and all stared back at me. I winced, knowing I had just violated one of the biggest rules here, before I turned slowly back to Mr. Nancy. “I’m sorry. I…” “I believe you,” he cut me off, holding up a single finger, “but you need to learn the rules. I don’t mean for them to hurt you all… just the opposite in fact. And because this is your first offense…” He stroked his short beard for a moment. “Yes… clean-up duty tonight.” I knew there was nothing I could say in my defense and from what I could tell, I knew my punishment was very much on the light side of things. “Yes sir…” I confirmed glumly. “Good. Report back here after dinner.” He then nodded his head over to Eric. “Now run along until dinner time. Make sure your tent is up properly before it gets dark.” Needing no other prompting, I left with Eric to get back. “Damn… I can’t believe I’m getting hit for running a few paces…” “Welcome to purple cabin…” Eric remarked with a sigh. “Freedom in so many ways… but definitely rules a plenty as well when you’re in sight of Mr. Nancy.” He then leaned in and lowered his voice. “The trick is to do your fun when he’s not looking…” “There’s a trick?” I questioned, almost stopping before Eric pulled me back along to our tent platform. “Shhh… but yes,” he nodded. “In fact, when the counselors start telling their stories tonight, don’t linger. Just come back to the tent. They won’t care. But also… don’t tell anyone else.” I nodded and soon enough, we were back to help set up the tent. Fortunately, Eric was a pro at all this. His regression seemed to be slowing down, and he would likely be one of the few fortunate enough to bounce while at purple cabin. He estimated he still had another two weeks or so to complete bounce, but he didn’t seem to mind. So far, between the rules and being treated like a teen without any of the privileges 90% of the day in a chaotic cabin, I couldn’t figure out why. But, with the large tent complete, four of us could comfortably lay down and sleep in it. Each of us had brought a portion of the structure and it now seemed sturdy enough for a good night’s sleep. Curiously, while we did lay out our sleeping pads, Eric stopped us from unfurling out sleeping bags. Regardless, within the hour, each of the four campfires had been stoked and blue cabin had joined at their south and west campsites. I didn’t even need to get close to their campsites to notice the differences between purple and blue. While we had been left on our own, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks were busy laying out ground rules and then instructing the various tasks that needed to be done around camp. Barking orders, not a single minute of the camper’s lives seemed unstructured. But sadly, whenever orders weren’t given, only about five seconds passed before all hell seemed to break loose. Later, when things were starting to quiet down and the sun was just dropping behind the mountains, dinner was announced. To my delight, dinner was comprised of foil packets… little meals wrapped in tin foil that were placed on the campfire to cook. Most consisted of beef, chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and a variety of spices. By the time mine came out, I was famished and greedily at it all down. To my relief, that simplistic set-up meant less dishes and even more, I wasn’t alone. “Running, huh?” my washer mate questioned as I scrubbed a knife before handing it to him to rinse off. “Yeah… uh, Kyle, was it? You were the one who threw things earlier today in class?” I asked back, trying to remember his name from when he had been scolded earlier today by Mr. Nancy for throwing things in the computer lab. “That’s right. Too damned bored in that place,” he complained, rolling his eyes. “Used to do that stuff for a living. Computer code and all… and now, they’ve got us learning how to screw with Word again. Can you believe it?” I nodded, feeling his pain from Mr. Yoder’s class that was reviewing things I had learned twenty years ago in college. “Can’t blame you there. Wish they would evaluate us and then go from there… like only teach us if we slip or whatever…” He chuckled. “Yeah… they would never do that, but it’s a nice idea…” “You don’t think they’re trying to help, do you?” I had heard the notion before rumbling around camp, but most felt that Camp Commune was better than nothing… or at least that’s what I had thought. Staring at Kyle, I didn’t see any of that communicated on his face. He scoffed. “Not a chance. There’s something weird going on and…” He stopped and quickly went back to rinsing as if he had never been talking in the first place. I almost asked what just happened when a familiar face came into the light of a nearby lantern. “Everything going okay here with you two?” Mr. Nancy questioned. “Yes, sir!” Kyle popped back without a shred of hesitation. “Yes,” I answered more softly. “Perfect… keep up the good work,” he remarked. Right as he turned away though, he turned back to us briefly. “I just hope you two have learned your lessons…” “Yes, sir,” Kyle nodded. “Both of us have…” He grabbed me by the shoulder in a friendly embrace… which seemed just enough for Mr. Nancy to nod and walk away. Once he was gone, Kyle let me go. “Ugh. Sorry about that. Guy wants to be everyone’s friend, but he doesn’t leave until he sees something like that.” “Always?” I asked, knowing from a brief conversation at lunch with Brian that Kyle was a frequent delinquent of the cabin. “Always,” he said with pained emphasis. He then stopped and lowered his voice. “You’re with Brian and Eric and Leo, right?” I nodded. “Good…” He smirked, his cheeks glowing by the dim lantern on the picnic table in front of us. “See you tonight then…” Before I could ask what he had meant by that, after a burst of laughter from one of the blue cabin’s campfires made me turn away, once I turned back… he was gone. Regardless, the dishes were done and all that remained were the s’mores… something I noticed my whole group devoured and then soon disappeared afterward. Intrigued, I made my way over to the other side of the fire by our tent. “Long ago in these woods, there lived something called the Wruethroat,” Mr. Nancy started with his campfire story, several other campers leaning in on the edge of their camp seats, stumps, or rolled over stones. “It would stalk the woods, blending into the trees and…” It was my cue that Eric had told me about earlier. So, I didn’t listen to the rest, instead diving into my tent. Plus, I didn’t want another reason to fear these woods at night. Already, I was tense enough that the Ghoulmoth was out there somewhere. As soon as I entered though, everyone in the tent tensed up. “Oh, damn, Miles!” Leo exclaimed, his hand dropping from his chest where he had seemingly been trying to clutch his heart. “Nearly gave us a heart attack. Thought you were Mr. Nancy or Mr. King!” “No?” I had seen this reaction before. It usually only meant breaking the rules. “Then close the flap!” Kyle called out, prompting me to dart inside and do so. “Shh!” Sammy, whom I just noticed chastised him. “You want the Brooks’ or Nancy or King to hear us? Can you even imagine what they’d do to us for this?” He then held up a large bottle… with something amber sloshing around inside. “Wait…” I had seen that color before. It had been weeks really, but considering the teetering and slurring of worse I was seeing and hearing now, I felt I already knew what it was. “Is that…?” “Yep!” Brian confirmed before hiccupping. “Eric’s brew!” Eric snatched the bottle of purple liquid from his hands before handing it to me. “Made it myself. Prison wine… pruno… hooch… raisin jack… whatever you want to call it.” I took the bottle and eyed it suspiciously. In the back of mind somewhere, I was almost surprised a big cloud didn’t suddenly waft from the open lid and formed a skull in crossbones in front of my eyes. But when I heard a huge laugh from Mr. King outside, I had one thought on my mind. “And Mr. Nancy lets you get away with this?” Eric scoffed sloppily. “What Nancy doesn’t know… Nancy can’t punish!” Kyle nodded and cheered with the bottle he had in his hand, the red liquid sloshing around inside. “Mr. Nancy doesn’t care what happens inside the cabin unless its some fire hazard or whatever. I swear it’s his phobia.” He took a long swig. “And besides… Herbert used to grow pot behind his bed.” “What?” I knew a guy in college who did the same when our resident director was more focused on passing his senior midterm exam in physics than policing us… but still. “How is that possible here?” “Oh, Herbert,” Sammy said, almost revering his name. “Miss him… too bad he’s in red now…” “Too many gone…” Kyle noted, taking another swig of the bottle he was practically cradling. “But seriously… we keep quiet and don’t raise a fuss. For instance…” He quickly swiped a bottle from Brian who was already swaying. “Hey!” He tried to reach for the bottle, only to miss entirely and almost fall into the central electric light we had. “Shh!” everyone scolded him, including myself. At this point, especially when I was handed one of the bottles and took a swig of the foul-tasting concoction, I was feeling every part of the group. It was my first day, but I was amazed with the ease of slipping into this group. Yes, Sammy was from blue, and Kyle was from another group… but we all felt like old friends already. Even more so as the hours began to tick by and stories of past shenanigans soon gave way to others… more devious. “You all ever think about the old days?” Leo mused, his back arcing against one of our sleeping roles. I slapped an Ace down on the table, causing Eric and Kyle to groan heavily. “No. No point.” It wasn’t the full truth, but by now, I suspected I knew where his mind was at. “I do…” Sammy noted, draining the last drop of some of his hooch. “Think about the park and my old boat. Real beauty… fixing her up and all. That’s how I got whacked on Orange Day… rotten luck…” “Damn shame…” Kyle mourned, toasting with the last of his bottle. “But what if…?” He tossed his hands around the air erratically as if he was trying to catch pieces of the sky and bring them down to the ground. “What if we could go there again?” Brian shifted from the corner and frowned at Leo. “Leo? What are you saying there?” Leo shifted in his seat and stared back at him. In turn, we all looked back at him with a sense of dread that something was coming. The Leo of old was a proud and sometimes even vain figure in the company. He was a friend, but there was always some sort of standoffish quality about him… but he was also a leader. He was the person you could get behind and charge into the depths of any bad business meeting and feel that you would come out okay on the other side. He still had the sense of strength about him… but there was a frailty fringing around his edges now. Leo sighed and slammed his fist down on the ground. “I want out of here… who’s with me?” My stomach nearly fell to the floor. With Mr. Nancy and his rules and the constant reminders of what lay ahead for us, time felt precious and staying here could have felt like a waste to some. The inevitable conversation of escape had to come at some point… I just didn’t realize it would be so soon.

Clorox