Watersports

When is the next event? I'd be interested in attending. How many folks attend on average?

There is a bunch of free stuff on birthdays in Cape Town.  I also did the Cable Car, but there was an hour of wind at the top of the mountain meaning the ride up had to wait an hour, and I got up the mountain with only 10 minutes before my cab was booked. So I got a bunch of pictures but not one from the top of the mountain. 

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay, but PSA… even on a cloudy day at the beach, when you have gotten less than three hours of sleep, be warned about passing out in a beach chair. I’ll let your all’s imagination fill in the details, but needless to say, I woke up feeling much warmer on my skin than when I had first sat down. Oops. Now, aside from that, as I mentioned in the last chapter, I’m not feeling love for this story as much as my previous ones. Some of you have reached out, and thank you deeply for that, and don’t get me wrong, I love writing this story… but it doesn’t seem like you all enjoy reading it as much as my others. Again, I have notions, but they are just guesses. One of the results though, like my grandmother used to say, is that ‘the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.’ I’m never a big fan of that saying, probably because it was usually directed at people, but I think in this case, it might be accurate. I love writing as I have stated before, but with all this, I feel my efforts could be served elsewhere… like writing short stories or editing my old ones for other places instead. So, as a result, I might just be posting two chapters a week now. What this means is, like this week, I will post sometime either Monday or Tuesday (like today), and then again on Thursday or Friday (with a makeup chapter likely on Saturday this time at least). This will take a large burden off me and allow me to edit when I’m more awake or give me better ideas when the sun is out. I might occasionally write and post three chapters a week… but it will be the exception rather than the rule (like this week). Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story! Chapter 12: The Inevitable Plunge Have you ever sat on the beach… just inches from the water and maybe the occasional wave lapping at your toes, but you don’t care because you’re just freely scooping up sand and letting each dozen or so grains slip as you tip your palm over? Maybe… maybe not… But I have. I loved seeing all the changes from the hot sun sparkling off the sand. My mom collected sand from all over the world… kept it on a series of shelves all around the house depending on the year. Jordan… Egypt… Hawaii… the Florida Keys… Bahamas… it was there. And with each, you could see all the differences. Some were darker or others had larger grains. It was sand and if you tipped it out in the palm of your hand, it would be the same… but it always looked different. The same went for ARV. Each of us had been fumigated with that blasted virus. For most, even the longer regression processes, it only took a week for us to notice a difference. That wrinkle dividing your two eyebrows… gone. Your hair that looks more like sea oats than a luscious field… reverted back to thick and dark luscious locks. It was all beautiful, until you got to a place like Camp Commune and you’re forced to see the downsides each and every day with your fellow campers. It’s like being on a roller coaster and you hear the screams as you entered the queen… and then you get yourself strapped in and you’re going up the hill and… whoosh! A thundering ride vehicle zooms past you… the same you know only left the station a minute or so before you. You know you’ll be there and maybe you don’t want to go… maybe you do, but no matter how hard you struggle, you’re trapped. I felt that way a few days ago when Brian finally got popped down to red. He didn’t even seem sad. After all, he knew Tommy from ACTS. He also knew Sammy and now Leo as well there, but since the contested boat race and their next demotion, neither were very friendly to either of us. “Relax,” Pedro tried to soothe me as I packed up my bag finally about a week after Sammy had left. “Mrs. Carlisle keeps a sturdy ship there. If Leo or Sammy ever try to get revenge on you or Brian or whoever… just tell her. She’ll keep ‘em in line before you can blink.” I winced. “Sturdy, huh? You mean strict, right?” By now, I was learning the lingo how most campers spoke in code around here. Cool meant lax rules, like Mr. Nancy, and observant meant keeping watch over you night and day, like for the Brooks’. So, for Mrs. Carlisle, sturdy meant rules… and plenty of them. “Try not to take them like that,” Billy countered. “Think of the rules as just extensions of our own. We have curfew… they have curfew. We don’t handle shotguns, they…” He paused and shook his head after seeing a nearly snarling glare from Pedro. “Uh… I’ll let you find out that one.” I sighed. “God… I’m screwed, aren’t I?” I couldn’t help but look at my hands. I was an early bloomer with puberty and all, but even now… no sunspots or hair or wrinkles. Just three small scars… two from when I was eight and one from when I was seven. I was an idiot both times and I always hated them being reminders of my past stupidity… but now I was worried they would vanish just like my other ones had. Bill moseyed over and placed his arm around me… now something he did with ease looking more like a bodybuilder… at least compared to me now. I saw myself in the mirror this morning… I had more common with chicken little than anything of how I used to be. ‘Stupid virus…’ “Easy, man…” Billy tried to comfort me. “You just focus on you and your mind. That’s the name of the game now. Things will be tough, but trust me… you keep your mind and you’ll do much better over in red.” “You think so?” Up until I had packed my bag, it had been the only spot of good news I had heard since Mrs. Galen announced my move yesterday after lunch. And while Emma had given me some comfort after I spread some fertilizer later in the afternoon, with help of course, Dwayne snickered nearby. Each day, I was feeling more every ounce the awkward and weak kid my new home was proclaiming me to be. “Absolutely,” Pedro agreed, helping me zip up my backpack after searching around my bunk to make sure I wasn’t leaving anything behind. “Billy knows what he’s talking about, and besides… we’ll still see you at our ACTS meetings… just like you still see Uriah.” He smirked. “Plus, tonight is the bonfire. Always a good time to take your mind off things.” I nodded… but mostly for their benefit. As I left the cabin with Mrs. Brooks, my reality was still crashing all around me. Walking out of the cabin, I went to the right and like a comment on my height, I was moving away from the largest cabin… and going to one of the smallest. Red and yellow were the same size… though from rumors at least, there were still fewer people in yellow than red. ‘Why do they need that space if…?’ “Oh, is this our new member?” a cheery voice asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I took my eyes off the mulch pathway and stared at the redhead directly in front of me. Impossibly tall, her dark khaki uniform and the red stripes paired well with her fiery hair. Like a lighthouse, her bright green eyes seemed to scan out over me like great beams of light… taking in her latest cabin member. “M… Mrs. Carlisle?” I asked timidly, immediately aware of my own lack of height currently. I was still shrinking and already, I could use a smaller uniform. ‘Guess I’ll be getting one no matter what today…’ She grinned and crouched down, quickly but strangely filling me with far less dread or worry. “That’s right. It’s good you know that.” She looked towards Mrs. Brooks behind me. “Guess that report you sent me on him was accurate, Mrs. Brooks. Seems he’s still a bit of a smart, huh?” “Always, Ke… Mrs. Carlisle.” For a moment, it seemed like she would use her first name… but I saw the warning looks from my head of cabin. It wasn’t camp policy to force the use of last names and titles… after all, black cabin was led by Steven. ‘Did I ever even hear his last name?’ Now though, it appeared I wouldn’t even get a whisper from another staff member of Mrs. Carlisle’s first name. “And Miles shows no signs of mental regression. Just…” “Just tumbling back through time,” Mrs. Carlisle interrupted. “Yes…” Her looks dropped toward me and then back up at Mrs. Brooks. “I’ve got him now. With breakfast coming up, your cabin definitely needs you.” I saw a flash of something between the two women. Animosity, maybe, but it was almost as if Mrs. Carlisle was insinuating something about blue cabin. If I had to hazard a guess, it was likely the most rambunctious nature of blue cabin. Red was younger… but if rumors were accurate, that just meant more exerted influence by Mrs. Carlisle. It’s easier to be neat and orderly when it’s all rules or if someone helps you out to look tidy. Mrs. Brooks gave me a tiny wave and then walked away. No sooner did she step off the front stoop than did Mrs. Carlisle place her hand on my shoulder and directed me towards her. “She’s gone now, Miles. This is going to be your new cabin, okay?” “I, uh…” I immediately got the feeling that she was practicing a routine of sorts and maybe even testing me like everyone else who came here. I might have been insulted, but remembering back to Brian and how he was… I knew not to take it to heart. I might still have thought like an adult, but by all outward appearances, I wouldn’t be considered one legally for at least the better part of a decade now. “I kind of figured that. Younger means new cabin, right?” She smiled and nodded. “Yes.” I could almost see a flash of relief and yet sympathy in her eyes. Asking Tommy about red cabin when I started to get worried last week, he informed me that losing your mind was terrible… but you never fully noticed and just got to have fun in red or yellow. People like him and now me, we had to suffer to see our lives dwindle further into childhood without the freedom of a youthening mind as well. “But being younger means that you sometimes need to ask for help.” She sighed. “I know you think you’re an adult still and your mind will burn and shine out here in a way that might help you with some things. You and the others like you get special privileges as long as that remains.” I didn’t want to ask the obvious, but I felt an itch not knowing. “And if it doesn’t?” “Then those privileges are stepped back. You’ll see today what that means already,” she explained. “But just know two things with the way you are now…” She paused and removed her hand from my shoulder, her hand now holding up a single digit. “First… as the more mature member of the cabin, I expect you to follow the rules to the letter and if you see someone who’s not following them... tell me immediately. Snitches don’t exist here. I know it might feel like a lack of loyalty, but here… the rules aren’t meant to help you all. It’s not a power trip for me or the volunteers. We don’t do laces check before we leave the cabin because we want you to fall under our commands. We do it, because not everyone will remember to tie their shoes… or even how to do it one morning. Understand?” I quickly nodded, trying not to worry about someone feeling bad by following that rule. Smiling, she then held up her second digit. “And second… your mind might fight what you’re told to do around here. Adults don’t need to be careful or need a hand always. There’s an instinct in us to try and do everything ourselves. And that works well a lot of times, but here… that instinct might only cause problems. So, if you ever need help doing anything… and I mean anything, please don’t let your pride or instinct or whatever get in the way.” I heard her talk about adults with an ‘us.’ I wasn’t sure if she was including me in that populace anymore, and I hoped I would, but it was bracing already by that question even being there in the first place. At blue, everyone might have been immature but still an adult to some degree or another. Here, it seemed there were adults only trapped in kids’ bodies… and there were just plain kids who only used to be adults. That being said, despite the question raging in mind, on some level I knew that she already considered me some kind of an adult mentally. Thinking of Brian or Leo, one seemed to lack mental maturity and the other the emotional maturity for those long and drawn-out rules. Something told me that by those long explanations alone… I was firmly in the ‘adult’ category of the cabin. “I understand,” I acknowledged. I knew in practice it would be hard to follow those directives, but I at least understood the gist of them, and from her face afterward, I knew that was really what she was just hoping to hear right then. “Perfect.” She then stood up and gestured me forward as she opened the door. “Now, in we go. Let me give you the grand cabin tour.” I nodded and stepped forward beyond the screen door to my new life. Stepping inside, unlike black, purple, and blue, Mrs. Carlisle showed me around the cabin herself. Drawing down the cabin, once more, the nearly 40 bunks were aligned on either side ten rows down. On one side, streamers and butterflies and race cars and all sorts of decals adorned the place. Looking closely, if there was any writing at all, it was either chicken scratch or extremely bold and neat… like that ability had been fostered by someone else instead now. In the back, tables and games were set up, but like the split with the bunks, these also now drew a contrast. The left side was more or less the types I had seen with the other cabins ranging from chess to monopoly. The right though… Candyland, Go Fish, Connect Four… though things like Twister and Operation were stored up high… like one needed permission to access those. ‘Probably too many around here try to over-extenuate themselves with things they can’t do anymore or just a plain way for control…’ “And I think that just about covers it besides the bathroom in the rear. Feel free to use it as you wish,” she directed towards two doors in the back where both were labeled ‘bathroom.’ “A bathroom? Really?” I was confused and that might have seemed strange to anyone else, but for the other cabins, the bathrooms were about fifty yards away… not inside. It sucked in the middle of the night, but we were out in the woods and some concessions felt natural. But here… it felt odd… different. “Yes,” Mrs. Carlisle confirmed. “It’s minor really… but we lock the cabin doors at night. They will unlock in an emergency, and we have several checkers here in the night, but yes… the door remains locked.” She paused, like I needed that fact to settle in around me. “For safety, of course…” “I…” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that… so I didn’t. What could I say? No thank you? Screw you? Everything that popped to the front of my mind made me feel like I was about to break a rule or just sound childish. I didn’t want that. So, I didn’t say anything else. “And I believe you know Tommy,” Mrs. Carlisle continued without skipping a beat, like that all this was entirely normal, before turning toward him just two bunks away. “Tommy?” I looked over and saw my old friend now from ACTS. He was one of the few I knew around here that I could immediately see. In purple and blue, Leo and Brian had greeted me within the first ten minutes of me being here. Now, they were nowhere to be seen. “Miles!” Tommy called out, patting an empty top bunk where a nametag with my name in neatly written characters had been placed. “Over here! Fresh linens last night and all!” I nodded and ambled my way over, trying to make too much of a scene. “Thanks, man. But… have you seen Leo… or Brian… or even Sammy?” “And what do you want with those two?” a voice questioned from nearby. “Fancy joining them for playtime or something?” “Now, now, Victor…” Mrs. Carlisle warned, her right eye seeming to bulge out with her light words. “He didn’t mean anything by it, Mrs. Carlisle!” another voice piped up. “I swear! He’ll be good!” Mrs. Carlisle’s warning glare dropped back to her previous cheerful one. “Yes, thank you, Eric. I’m sure he will be today.” She smirked and rubbed the kid’s back for a moment. “And thank you for keeping peace last night. I heard from one of the volunteers just how helpful you were after the whole apple incident.” Eric smiled right back. “Anything I can do around here to help out, Mrs. Carlisle!” She smiled. But Tommy clearly had an agenda of his own and jumped into the fray. “I’ll be sure to guide him around, Mrs. Carlisle. Show him the ropes and all.” He bowed for a moment. “I promise… you can count on me.” “Very well…” She seemed more wary to leave me, but soon, she nodded to the four of us. “Miles… Tommy… Eric… Victor.” And with that, she went off to stop another fight brewing just on the other side of the cabin… located just under some cars with faces on them. “Geesh! Brown nose much?” Victor finally asked Eric. Like he had been wearing a mask, it soon fell away to reveal his truer and more adult self. “It’s a defense mechanism. And besides, you could be a little less antagonistic, you know? She’s not our enemy.” “But she’s not our friend, either,” Tommy corrected quickly before pushing me forward a little. “Eric? Victor? Meet our newest group member. Miles here is part of my special group, and… he’s a smart one.” “Oh really?” Victor seemed less than impressed with me. “Is this the same kind of smart as your last friend? Or is he actually smart.” “Victor…” Eric hissed. “That’s not nice. We have to trust Tommy’s judgement.” But Tommy shook his head. “No, no. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Eric, but Brian was a fluke. I thought he was genuinely better, but I was wrong…” Hearing Brian’s name, my ears perked up more than they had been already. “Wait… so Brian is still here?” I hated to ask but not seeing him and knowing just how far he was dropping lately, I knew I couldn’t put it past him to drop even another cabin level… especially considering how he was being talked about now. Eric and Victor looked away as if the truth was too obvious and they refused to touch it. Tommy though… he looked right at me and sighed before patting my shoulder like Brian was dead or something. “Miles… Brian is on the other side…” I frowned. “Other side?” They explained it all to me and while I wasn’t fully catching on, by breakfast and our first few classes, the split in red cabin was as plain as day… literally. As I had observed in the cabin, red was split up in two ways… those who looked like kids but were adults and those who seemed to have little in difference with actual kids. To my dismay, Sammy, Leo, and Brian were all placed on that younger side. I tried bugging Brian at breakfast at least… but he was more focused on playing with his food. I then tried in the computer lab… but Brian wasn’t even fully engaged after playing a quick online learning game… for basic reading comprehension skills. And with our B Days now changing, I even tried at Ms. Peachey’s, hoping that he would acknowledge me with more than a ‘hey.’ Instead, he drew a picture of a butterfly and goofed around with a familiar-looking redhead.   “Try not to take it too personally,” Tommy consoled me as we walked to our final class at the range. “Happens a lot at these early stages in red.” “Yeah,” Eric agreed. “People like Brian at least are almost like sponges. Exposed to all the younger brains… they play right along like adaptive camouflage. After a few days though, most snap out of it… especially if a friend keeps showing up for them.” He took a deep breath as we topped one of the hills leading to the range. “Keep talking… he’ll come around…” “Just don’t get bogged down yourself…” Victor warned. I nodded to my new group member. While Victor was a little standoffish, he was tolerable. Eric though, I had first despised after seemingly taking every chance to kiss butt to all the teachers and head of cabins and counselors. Now though, I saw it as the cover for all the other shenanigans the group could get away with. Compliance when they were watching meant the ‘adults’ would leave quickly and attend a truly problematic cabinmate. Of all places though, the range was where the split in the group was most plainly felt. Other times today could be shrugged off as boredom or not enough supplies or something of the sort. Innocuous and even passing off nine times out of ten. But for the range, I saw that once more, the targets had been split into two stations. “So… how do we know where we go?” I asked, gesturing to the sturdier bows and arrows and real targets… versus the Styrofoam plates and almost toy-like bows. “Is it a test? Is it a questionnaire? How do we know?” “Easy,” Mr. King answered with a smile. “You don’t know. I tell you… from my list!” He then plucked a clipboard off the desk and referenced it towards me. “We’ve been watching you lot since you came here. By now, we know all about you. How you think… how you act… how your mind works. We know if you pick your nose or suck your thumb or like Power Rangers more than Pokémon. So now…?” He looked around at the group before him. “No test. No questions.” He quickly started parsing out the members of red cabin… dividing us almost entirely evenly between the two halves the cabin was already divided into. There were some exceptions, like Herbert being too small for the regular bows and arrows… but most were no surprise. Like Sammy, Leo… and Brian. I stepped up to the line first and picked up the bow and arrow… a long way from the shotgun I held not so very long ago. Mr. King seemed to notice. “Not a reflection on you, Miles. I still trust your mind… unlike a few others…” I saw his eyes glance over at a few of the others with he more toy-like versions… and who were also sticking them in their mouths or horsing around with the arrows… all fully blunted. “But some of you lot could be experiencing mental capacity lapses or memory issues… like that shooting an arrow at your friend is bad.” There was silence in the air for a moment around us and briefly, I almost wondered if maybe a past camper had done just that. I hated being treated younger than my mind was… but I knew safety was the prime concern around here. “I understand…” He smiled and gestured for me to step up with the rest of my cabinmates. “Then… let her rip!” I nodded and just as Mr. King had instructed us previously, I took my stance, lined up my shot, and fired my arrow, streaming across the range and to the large red, blue, black, red, and yellow target in front of me. Hitting just a shade off from the bullseye. It was a triumphant moment for me. I had one of the better shoots all day… but that had to be only compared against about 12 other archers. Beyond the fact we were using different equipment, after only three rounds of shots from the others, the more regressed were led off by a volunteer to a local play spot. It dampened my mood considerably. And I guess that was the other big difference with red cabin; volunteers. Blue had the Brooks’. Vigilant and stalking and annoying but caring in their own ways… they were only two of them to wrangle the whole cabin. It was a big job, but they managed. Here in red cabin though, there was only Mrs. Carlisle here with us all the time. Otherwise, local volunteers from Havenswood came to see after us… especially the more regressed members. Some kept their distance from the mature of us, but others… I wasn’t honestly sure. At first, I though I caught glances of jealousy… but it wasn’t that. They had these strange looks with us. Like they wanted something from us but couldn’t get it and just settled into their jobs. Fortunately, Havenswood work distracted me enough from all that… at least mostly. Even that work had changed. Between black, purple, and blue, our jobs remained mostly the same. Sharp tools or heavy lifting faded off but the work was still there. In red though, our duties were shrunk to match our new capabilities. “Oh, it’s not so bad,” Tommy tried to cheer me up as a large adult button-up shirt was placed over me to protect my clothing right before we started to paint the fence. “We’re still outside. We still get to see the locals… and it’s at least not toys today.” “Toys?” I questioned, dipping my paintbrush in the whitewash paint. “Yeah,” Eric confirmed, wiping some sweat from his forehead. “The younger members paint toys for the kids in Havenswood or to sell in the nearby towns.” “That’s surprising.” I tried to paint a model for my desk one time… it didn’t go so well. And I was 38… “Do they…? Are they supervised at least? I feel that would be a disaster.” Tommy chuckled. “Oh, it is. The commune markets it as relief toys from AR victims. Like a charity, but anyway… most of them only work for an hour or two and then go off to play in the woods or in the community itself.” I nodded and dipped my paintbrush in my paint bucket a few more times, trying not to drip or ruin a good paint job on the freshly installed fence from black cabin last week. But it was hot and I was getting frustrated. “Man, I swear. Feel like toys would almost be better than this shi…” But I stopped cold. Nearby, other groups were working. Clearly at the end of their work shift and heading off to the woods or town under supervision, the other members of red cabin passed by members of purple cabin… two members specifically. I couldn’t quite make out all their conversation at first, seeming friendly, but Dwayne and Leo quickly started something up. But apparently, interactions between younger and older cabins just did not happen. “Hey, Dwayne!” one of the purple members called out to him. “You talking to your baby brother or something?” “Nah… it’s his baby boyfriend!” another one jeered. Leo blushed, but Dwayne… his ego was still as large as ever. “Ha! Just giving him tips on finger painting is all! Can you believe I actually used to work for this guy?” His words were short and quick… but pointed, and Leo just stood there stunned for a moment. “But… Dwayne. What are you talking abou…?” “He used to be someone!” he scoffed. “Now look!” “Dwayne…” From this far away, I could only make out so much, but I swore that Leo started to tremble. “I thought… I thought we were friends still. You said…” “Well, then you must have heard wrong!” Right then, a tiny bit of Dwayne’s façade seemed to drop. Before, it was more bluster than anything. Now though, there was a pain in his face that hadn’t been there until now. “Probably your memory. I mean… do you even remember who I am?” “Well… yes!” Leo started counting on his fingers. “We met years ago and we both left a company with our friends and founded our own and I protected you on Orange Day and dragged you away, and… oh! That trip to Vegas a few years ago and…” “Enough!” Dwayne shouted, stunning Leo into silence. “That’s all the past. And… just look at you!” He sneered at his old friend. “How could we be… friends? I’m double digits and your single digits… and that’s not going to change. So, I think… we should just stop that.” “Stop… that…?” Leo played with the words as if they were foreign to him. “Wait…” A dawning realization soon started to grow over his face. “You don’t mean…?” Dwayne nodded. “I do. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t try this again. You’re just a kid… a baby almost. And me? I’m…” “That’s enough!” a voice pierced through the whole conversation, forcing everyone to turn around. And there was Fred. Black cabins were passing through as well going off to chop a few more trees down in the woods near the perimeter of the community. “I said enough…” Fred glared down at Dwayne. “That goes for you… and all of you!” he shouted to the other members of purple cabin who had been mocking the two previously. “Don’t make me report you all to Mr. Nancy. You know what he’ll do… especially you, Dwayne.” The others, previous haughty, now ran in fear. Mr. Nancy was a great guy… at least until you got on his bad side. Dwayne left as well but after scowling back at Fred, who refused to budge now standing next to Leo, turned toward his old friend. There was hurt there and a realization. Maybe there was a scrap of decency left in him… or the notion that he had pushed too far… or that regardless of whatever the case truly was, it didn’t matter anymore. Now, a permanent wedge had been wedged between the two friends… Alone, Fred just stood there for a moment and sighed. “I’m sorry, Leo…” Maybe using his best judgement though, shaking his head, he then simply walked off. Seeing my opportunity to comfort an old friend, bad blood between us or not, however, I walked over to where Leo was still standing. I knew it was a risk to approach the guy. Shrunk or not… on the younger side of red cabin or not… he still seemed to have a scrap of the old Leo left in him. At least that’s what I thought. With the dust settling down, I gingerly approached my old friend and boss. Looking at him, no longer was he a proud lion of a small downtown business grown into one of the private juggernaut engineering firms of the city. No longer was he the prowler and the chaser and the ladies’ man that I had always known him to be. Now, he was a little boy, shocked, and frightened over what had just happened. Dwayne and Leo had been friends, or maybe even something more than that for decades… and now all that seemed to be over in the flash of less than a few minutes. A virus and a different in ages had split their friendship apart and the former old man had now seemed to have lost just about everything that ever mattered to him in life. And with that in mind, I spoke softly. “Hey there… are… are you okay, Leo?” Turning around, his boots crackling under the pebbles by the country road he was on, he looked at me for a solid minute in utter silence before wiping his eye, the gesture clearly trying to pass it off as allergies and nothing more. From what I had seen with Brian and others on the younger side of red cabin, they didn’t care about their pride anymore. That wasn’t Leo by a longshot. “I… I…” He paused and almost seemed confused about how he even felt. After a moment though, he winced before shaking his head, his sorrow quickly transformed into pure rage. “You know what? It’s none of your business, Miles! I just… I… I…” Old Leo would have torn me a new one and stormed off. He would huff and puff and maybe hit the gym later to blow off some steam. At that moment, however, whatever façade this new Leo had been trying to keep up, broke away, and the adult and him seemed to vanish quite smoke on a blustery day. He simply didn’t seem to have the strength anymore. And now, the little boy in him, the one afraid of the dark or hated his veggies, broke and ran away. Seeing my old friend in distress, I charged after him. But I only made it a step or two when a hand clapped me back on the back of my shoulder. Wondering who dared to stop me, I turned and saw that it was Victor. “What… what are you doing? He’s getting away!” Victor nodded. “Yes… and you need to let him go.” His words were dry and uncompromising. “There are some things you can help a friend out with. Offering style choices or helping them through a storm of playing a game with them.” He sighed and looked in the direction that Leo had run off in. “For a person like Leo, I’ve seen him since he’s been here. After what just happened between him and Dwayne… he needs to do this on his own.” “He’s right,” Tommy quickly agreed. “If you two are truly friends, back then or even still now, he will need you with what comes next.” He stepped forward and leaned on a still unpainted part of the fence. “We’ve seen this before. An emotional break like this? His memory might start to go, and he will be more scared than ever. Be there for him then.” I sighed and knowing Leo, I knew they were right. “And until then?” “Patience with your friend,” Eric added. “And until he returns, focus on you and staying on this side of the cabin.” He took a deep breath charged with emotion and burden. “Trust us… it’s harder than it might seem.” None of us said much after that and just went back to painting the fence. It was tedious work, but by the time Emma called us back in and helped remove our oversized ‘adult’ shirts we had used as smocks, the fence looked wonderful. Nearby, I also saw about a dozen or so drying painted toys, and beyond them… Fred was talking to Mrs. Carlisle. Before I had a chance to ask though, we were all given snacks by Emma and a few others before being sent on our way. After that, the whole day seemed to have a dark cloud cast over us. On the way back, Brian tried to talk to a broken Leo, looking like he had just gotten dumped… only to be snapped at. ‘Good thing I didn’t talk to him then… that could’ve been me…’ And dinner wasn’t much better. Before, even blue cabin was still respected on some level. Even though some of their members were bottoming out and would soon join our ranks as well… they weren’t with us just yet. And while I had noticed it at both breakfast and lunch, now keenly aware of the split between red and the rest of the cabins, I saw the looks… the stares… the snide comments whispered under breaths of prejudice and hatred. None of the ‘adults’ heard it, so it didn’t exist to them… but it did. I tried to rationalize it in my mind why the jokes were so much harder or cut deeper to our core for those of us who still cared. People like Brian or Sammy or the redhead or a dozen others… it was all just background noise, of it they noticed, they thought it was a joke they were included in on… and not the subject of. But as I looked down the table, some of my cabinmates were normal… or at least as normal as one could get. Tommy pushed aside his peas and Eric struggled with his knife briefly… but we had manners and our conversations were just as they had been before. Sports or the outside world or women or past adventures… things for adults. Looking further down though, the split was almost unimaginable. Games and stories of fantasy and crude jokes and blowing bubbles in apple juices or chocolate milks. Each action was thwarted or guided by Mrs. Carlisle or a volunteer. The whole mass looked ready to scale fully into a food fight at any second. Which is where I realized the awful truth. Maybe it was the cooing behind me or the fact that I was moving with everyone else more toward the right side of the dining hall on a forever descending staircase in years of my life. I’m not entirely sure, but the poison of my realization clung to me like thick fog. I hated it but it was true. Before, we were far away. But now, we were only one drop more from the dreaded yellow cabin. Pants pooping and stuffy-clinging droolers. The ability to walk… speak… read… write… even think in the most simplistic of terms… all that would be a maybe at best. Even the ARs most unaffected by the virus often found themselves slipping once in yellow cabin. Simply put, smaller heads and rejuvenated synapses sometimes lost something in the regression process. And it was coming for us. I wanted to deny it… fight it… spit at it and rage against whatever I could. But like the universe was telling me the futility of all that, I could breeze slithered through the dining hall. It was a call to stop and to wait like I had done with Leo. Whether I liked it or not, yellow cabin might have been in my future. And now, I just had to sit and wait and see with whatever came next.

Hudson River 

12:07 Morning Win!