Hollis McCalister - Summer Camp

HOLLIS McCALISTER

SUMMER CAMP

DK McCLOUD

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Gatekeeper Press 3971 Hoover Rd. Suite 77 Columbus, OH 43123-2839

Copyright © 2016 by Keith McCloud

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form without permission.

Layout Design by: Mr. Merwin D. Loquias

ISBN: 9781619845015 eISBN: 9781619845022 LCCN: 2016909541

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: 8TH GRADE IS OVER

CHAPTER 2: NO SUMMER CAMP - PLEASE

CHAPTER 3: THE BUS

CHAPTER 4: THE BUS RIDE

CHAPTER 5: MADE IT TO CAMP

CHAPTER 6: THE AGENDA

CHAPTER 7: WANDERING OFF

CHAPTER 8: HOLLIS IS MISSING

CHAPTER 9: STILL SEARCHING THE LAND

CHAPTER 10: INSIDE THE CAVE

CHAPTER 11: WHERE AM I?

CHAPTER 12: GETTING TO KNOW THE VILLAGE

CHAPTER 13: TRAINING STARTS

CHAPTER 14: LET’S GET STARTED

CHAPTER 15: TRAINING CONTINUES

CHAPTER 16: STILL TRAINING

CHAPTER 17: FINALLY MEETING THE WASIOUX

CHAPTER 18: HANGING WITH THE WASIOUX

CHAPTER 19: FUN AND GAMES

CHAPTER 20: FREEING CODY

CHAPTER 21: FOUND HIM

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER 1: 8TH GRADE IS OVER

The light from the windows is very soothing. The sky is bright blue and it is getting warm outside. The room seats about 30 or 40 students, and the classrooms are very modern and high-tech. There is a 70 plasma screen mounted on the wall behind the teacher’s desk. In the background the school bell is ringing, and it is the last day of school for the summer. Our teacher tells us to have a great summer and congratulates us on passing 8th Grade. She also says, You students are now freshmen in high school." All of us cheer and grab our belongings and then head out the door.

I look over at Katherine and say, Have a great summer. I would really like to ask her out, but I am chicken. Plus she would never go out with me: she hates anything to do with computers, so she would never go out with a computer geek like me. I then look over at Lou Lou and tell her the same thing. I hear Gwen say, Hollis, have a fun summer: call me if you get bored.

Okay, I will. See ya. I hurry out the door and into the hallway. The hallways of the school are packed with students and they are happy that it’s the last day of school and summertime is here. I am walking pretty fast to get outside and down the steps to get out to the bike racks so I can hurry and unlock my bike. There are a lot of students at this school who ride bikes, so if you don’t get there before everyone else does you can be standing for five to ten minutes longer, waiting on everyone to get out of your way. I make it to the bike racks before a lot of students do and unlock my bike.

Hey, Reae, how did you and Rod beat me here? Oh I know, Rod got you out early because he is a patrol. You know one day you guys will be married.

What, Hollis? We are only fifteen, Reae says.

My bike is a hybrid type that you can ride on the street or off the road. Now when I say ‘off the road’, I mean you can ride it on some dirt trails, but not like you would with a mountain bike. I get on my bike and I start pedaling home. I can’t wait to get home and start working on building my first computer game. I have been working on it for a few months, but I am having trouble coming up with ideas of what the character in the game should do. I love designing video games, and someday when I am older that’s what I want to become: a video game designer.

After you start to leave school on your bike you have to watch for the busses because they almost run you over. To get to the sidewalk to ride your bike you have to ride on the pavement right next to all the busses leaving. I have always wondered why the school has never corrected this, and I am really surprised that a bus has never hit a student.

From school to my house is about two miles, one or two hills, but other than that it’s a pretty easy ride. Every day I pass by the same houses and Ms Rodgers, who goes to the same church my family and I go to. She is always sitting on her porch and yells out to me, Hey, Hollis, how was school today? and I always yell back, It was okay, Ms Rodgers, and today was the last day. Ms Rodgers doesn’t have any kids and is always involved in all the things that the kids at our church do.

I can hear a lot of noise coming up behind me, yelling, and then, as I turn around to see what the noise is, I see a car coming straight for me. I have to turn my bike off the sidewalk, and when I do, I lose control, and me and my bike start heading downhill and the bike starts to flip over with me as I start flipping a couple of times down the hill. While I am lying at the bottom of the hill I can hear Jimmy Stewart laughing and yelling, That was funny, you loser. Jimmy Stewart is a bully at school: he is a year older than me and always picks on everyone who is not a jock. As I am picking up my bike and brushing the dirt off, I hear someone on top of the hill saying, Hey, Hollis, are you okay? and I yell back, Yes, I am fine. It is Jake Croyle, a guy who goes to my church and is in the same grade as me in school, but goes to the Christian school and not the public school where I go. He lives two houses down from me and he is a jock, but he’s not a butthead like Jimmy Stewart. Jake always seems to have to help me out when I am in need of someone helping me out. He doesn’t judge you and he likes everyone.

I push my bicycle back up the hill to the sidewalk, and then get on my bike and head back home. I have a couple of bruises but nothing serious. I just don’t understand why some people have to be such jerks, but I know one day they will have bad luck for treating people bad all the time. My bike is not riding straight and I think the front wheel is bent a little right now, I am having to hold onto the handlebars really tight just to keep the bike going straight. I also have a hurt knee along with a bloody lip. I still have over a mile to go before I can make it home.

All I can think of right now while I am riding home (with a hurt knee, bloody lip and wobbly tire) is that song we learned when we were smaller, and the tune goes like this: the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the bus go round and round. Right now the wheels on my bike do not go round and round.

Finally, I am almost home. Wow, this has been one long ride home and my knee, which is swelling really fast and is a little bloody right now, is starting to kill me. I just have about a block to go until I make it home. Hopefully my knee does not give out on me and then I wreck my bike and end up on the ground once again.

I am pedaling as hard as I can to make it home now so that I can get to the house and clean up my knee, which is getting bigger and bigger. I am sure that I just bruised my knee and that’s why it’s swelling right now, and the fact that I keep pedaling doesn’t help out my knee from swelling and hurting me. I can’t pedal anymore. My knee is really bothering me. I need to stop my bicycle and get off of it. I have decided to push my bike and walk the rest of the way. I only have half a block to go. I will just walk home slowly and use my bicycle as my crutch, putting the pressure on one leg and using the bicycle to help me not put much pressure on my hurt leg. Slowly I am walking on one leg and I am basically hopping on the other leg, gripping tightly onto the bike. Finally I can see the house around the corner and I am slow-going but I will be there soon.

As I am walking up into my yard my mother is looking out the window and sees me limping and not riding my bike. She shuts the curtain and runs toward the front door. She opens the front door and then steps out onto the porch, goes down the steps, and walks really fast towards the end of the driveway. Oh boy, my mom is coming really fast towards me with a panic look on her face.

Mom, I am okay, don’t panic, I say.

She gets to me and hugs me and asks me, Hollis, are you alright? What happened? What did Jimmy Stewart do this time? Do I need to call his parents?

Mom, please, I am okay and please take a breath: you said all that in like one sentence. Yes, Jimmy Stewart was why I hurt my knee. I was riding my bike and Jimmy, being Jimmy, decided to try and scare me and acted like he was going to run me over with his car. I know that he was just being Jimmy, but for a moment I did think he was going to run me over and I panicked and swerved off of the sidewalk and then I went flying down that hill next to Ms Rodgers’s house and I hit a few holes and flipped over a couple of times. I fell on my knee funny and I am pretty sure I just bruised it. The reason I am pushing the bike is because the more I pedal, the more it bothers my leg. I figure if I got off of my bike, it would be better. It does feel better. It is going to swell up and I bet that it will be that way, I am sure, for a few days. I will need to keep moving it some, or else it’s going to stiffen up on me. So, as you can see, I am fine.

Mom says, Well, you know you are my baby and I know you are fourteen and a big boy and can take care of yourself, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying about you. Let me help you make it up to the house and we will get you cleaned up a little. We will need to put an ice pack on your knee to help with the swelling.

Can you take my backpack?

We make it to the porch. Hollis, you sit here on the porch and I will take your bike and lock it in the shed for you, Mom says.

Okay, I will sit down and wait for you here and then can you please give me a little hand to make it up the stairs? I reply.

Of course I will help you up the stairs, Mom says.

It’s been a few minutes and I hear my mom coming and then she helps me up the stairs. You know there are only two stairs that you need to take to get up onto the wood porch, Mom says.

I hobble my way into the house with the help of my mom. I tell my mom, I need to go and change clothes and then wash my knee off and get all this dirt off of me and get cleaned up a little.

My mother says, Okay, let me know if you need any help, I am going to start dinner soon. I go into my bedroom so that I can change. I throw my backpack down on my desk. I change my shirt and then I take my undershirt off that I always wear: I know it makes me look like a nerd. I then change into shorts. Now I need to find me a T-shirt to put on. I guess I can hop on one leg to the bathroom, which is right down the hall but seems a long way right now from my bedroom. Once I get in the bathroom I need to get a washcloth and wet it with warm water. I need to wipe the dirt off of my face and hands and then I can start washing my knee off. After I am done getting my knee all cleaned off, I jump on one leg back to my bedroom.

Oh good, Mom is bringing me a little freezer plastic bag full of ice and I can put it on my knee. She says, Here, Hollis, put this on your knee and take these two aspirins and you will feel much better. She hands the aspirins to me along with the bag of ice.

Thanks, Mom, for getting this for me, I say.

She says, You’re welcome. She then leaves my room and shuts the door behind her.

I then get up off my bed and hop over to my desk and then I fall into my desk chair. I need to turn on my computer and wait for it to boot up. I need to play on my gaming application that I am building and it will take away me thinking about my knee pain.

Wow, I have been working on my computer for about an hour or so and now Mom is knocking on the door. Hollis, dinner is ready, Mom says.

Okay, Mom, I will be right there. I get up slowly and go down the hall and to the kitchen and sit down at the table. Oh good, my mom has made pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn, along with green beans. Wow, you made us a lot tonight for dinner, I say.

I wanted you to have a nice full stomach while you nurse your knee back to health, my mom replies. Oh man, I eat all my food because I am starving, and now I need to go back to my bedroom to work some more on my gaming application.

I am trying to come up with a good, cool game to build on this gaming application that I just recently got. I have been working on it for several hours. I hear a knock on the door and my mom asks, Hey, Hollis, you okay in there?

Yes, Mom, come in.

Then she opens the door and comes in and gives me another hug and a kiss and says, How is your knee?

It feels better, thank you, I reply.

She says, Okay, I love you and goodnight and don’t stay up too late tonight: summer camp starts tomorrow.

What summer camp? Not me. School is out and it’s the first night I can stay up and not have to worry about getting up tomorrow, and goodnight to you, and I love you also.

Okay, it’s back to working on my computer. Seems like it has been a long time: let me look at the clock. I bet it’s like 4 am: oh, it is now 2 am. I need to turn off my computer and go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Okay, back to my room so I can change and get into bed. Now it’s time for some good sleep until about noon tomorrow and every day until school starts back.

CHAPTER 2: NO SUMMER CAMP - PLEASE

Ican’t believe my mom is outside my bedroom knocking on my door at 6 in the morning.

Hollis, wake up. Hollis, get up. You have to get ready to catch the bus to go to summer camp. Hollis, I am coming into your room now. Oh no, my mom is opening the bedroom door and walking into my room: she’s walking over and stands next to my bed. I am awake, but I do not want her to know that I am awake.

Hollis, honey, get up. You need to make sure you have everything packed and that you are at the bus before 7:30, Mom says.

I thought you guys decided that I could stay home and not go this year. You know I hate going to summer camp, plus I am too old to be going.

Mom says, No, we didn’t decide for you to not go to summer camp: we have already paid for it months ago and we cannot get our money back. You are not too old to go, and this is the last one that you will have to go to. Please get up now and get ready. It’s only a few weeks and you will be back home before you know it.

You know I really don’t want to go. Can’t I just skip it and I will work somewhere over the summer and make some money to pay you and Dad back for paying for summer camp? I say.

Now, Hollis, you know we would not want you paying us back. You need to get up now because you are going to summer camp. You will look back on this a few years from now and you will thank us for sending you to summer camp. When you are older you will be missing these times of your life. Now get up and start packing. I bet you haven’t packed anything yet, Mom says.

Crap, alright, I am getting up, but I am not happy about going, and I know I will wish in years to come that I had not rushed my life to be older, and out of school and all that stuff. I will get up now. My mom hugs me and kisses me on my forehead and turns around and walks out of my room.

I look over at my clock radio, and the clock reads 6:15: man, that is really early in the morning and a Saturday morning at that. I just got out of school yesterday and now I already have to get up to go to summer camp and this is crap. I need to get up and slowly go over to my closet and get me a pair of blue jeans along with a T-shirt to wear. I have to go slowly because my knee is still stiff right now. Okay, out of the bedroom and down the hall I go: I have my clothes in my hands and in the bathroom I go. Done: now it’s time to hobble back to my room.

I guess I need to pack my clothes, even though I do not want to go to summer camp. My clothes are all packed and now I need to pack my electronic toys, digital camera, cellphone, computer, and an MP3 player: check. I need these electronics to keep me sane because I hate summer camp. Wow, I just got ready and packed all my stuff within 30 minutes. I now have 30 minutes to play on my computer. I still can’t believe that I have to get up and go to summer camp.

I guess I should get up from my desk and go to the kitchen to get some breakfast. My mom has made a big spread of food for breakfast. She has made biscuits, sausage and gravy, scrambled eggs, pancakes, grits and bacon.

Wow, Mom, you have outdone yourself this morning. Why did you make so much food?

Mom says, Well, I know that you are not happy this morning about going to summer camp, and I wanted to make sure that you had all your favorite foods to eat before we send you off for two weeks.

Well! I am not complaining at all, I will eat so much that it will stay with me for the whole two weeks. Looking at my plate: man, it is full of food.

I am done eating everything on my plate: I will put the dishes in the sink, I say.

Mom says, Okay, just put them in the sink and I will wash them shortly.

Here you go, then, and I am going go back to my bedroom. Time to start working on my computer again. I need to back up my computer real fast since I am not going to be able to back it up for two weeks, I say.

Mom says, Are you ready for me to take you to catch the bus?

I guess I am as ready as I ever will be, I reply.

Mom says, Do you have everything packed and ready to go. Do you have bug spray and enough clothes and all your supplies?

"Yes, I have packed all my camping items so I should be

okay."

Okay, we will be leaving soon: let me know when you are ready to go and then we need to leave, Mom says.

I think I am finished getting all my camping gear together. Let me look at my checklist that I made for items that I would need. Okay, again I need my all-purpose knife, flashlight, bug spray, rope to keep in my backpack, and lighter, and everything else they should have at summer camp. I guess I should go and take my stuff now.

Before we leave I need to put some snacks in my backpack so I will have extra things to eat besides what they have at camp. So let me open some of these kitchen cabinets. Oh yes, I see a box of wrapped peanut butter crackers, and let’s open another cabinet, and oh yes, a box full of Snickers. Now I just need to grab me several bags of lunch-size potato chips, and I will put all my snacks that I have collected into a separate backpack that I am bringing just for snacks. I am not starving this year like I did last year. The more snacks I can bring, the better.

They only feed you three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is up to you to bring any snacks that you want. It used to not be that way and they had plenty of snacks for you until last year. Of course I did not know this last year and was always hungry. That will not be the case this year.

CHAPTER 3: THE BUS

Let me pick up my backpacks so I can get ready to go outside. Mom, I am ready to go, I am taking my stuff out to the car.

Alright, I will be right out. The car is unlocked so just load up your stuff, Mom says.

Okay, out the front door onto the porch I go, I reply. I go to the car and put my backpack in along with my suitcase, which has all my clothes, and I put more batteries and my flashlights in there. Mom, are you ready to go?

I am on my way. Your sister Irene wants to go to a few yard sales this morning after I drop you off, Mom says.

I don’t understand why you guys love those crazy yard sales. That’s all you do is go to yard sales.

You are going to have a lot of fun: just enjoy your time while you are young. Irene, are you ready to go? Mom yells.

Irene yells out the front door, I am on my way out in just a second, I need to get my purse.

Okay, let’s go get in the car, Mom, and we will just wait on her. I hope she comes out soon, I don’t want to be late. That just adds more attention to me and I am not looking forward to this at all. I can see it now, I will be getting harassed by Jimmy Stewart the whole time we are there, from the time I get onto the bus until the time we arrive back and I get off the bus. Sometimes I wish he would just move away so I didn’t have to deal with him anymore. He is such a pain in the backside, I say.

One day in life, believe it or not, you are going to miss old Jimmy Stewart, Mom says. She is always trying to find the good in everyone. Whether they deserve it or not. They hear the front door shut and they hear Irene saying, Dang it, I forgot to put my wallet in my purse. She looks out to the car and says, Let me get my wallet and I will be right there. She goes back into the house, finds her wallet then puts it in her purse, and then heads back out the door. She shuts and locks the front door and then walks towards the car. She has her purse in one hand and another bag of snacks and a change of clothes in the other. She opens the back seat door behind the driver’s seat and puts her stuff in the car and then gets in and sits down.

Why do you always have so many bags with you? I ask.

Irene says, I need snacks so we don’t have to buy any food while we are driving around to yard sales. Then I have a change of clothes in case it rains because it is supposed to rain today.

Well, you are all set, then. Would you like to go to camp for me since I do not want to go? You would have a great time: you are more social than I am.

Irene says back, No, I am okay, I have to work and what would I do if I couldn’t go to yard sales for two weeks?

Mom starts the car and starts backing it up and says, Don’t forget to put your seat belts on. We then start traveling down the street headed toward the church so that they can meet the bus.

Well, it’s 7:15 and we need to be there by 7:30, so I can’t believe we are going to be on time. That’s surprising for us because we are always late for stuff, or I should say you guys are always making me late.

Mom says, Now, Hollis, we are not always making you late for things. I can’t help it if your sister Irene is never ready when we are and that we always have to wait on her.

Irene says, What? That’s not true. Mom looks back at her through the rear-view mirror and Hollis turns back and looks at her. Okay, okay, most of the time I am still getting ready, but I just like to make sure I have everything I need before I go somewhere.

It’s alright, you wouldn’t be you if you were ever on time. We have grown used to it and we plan our time around your tardiness, I say.

Irene says, Okay, enough about me, let’s talk about you. Are you going to have fun at camp? You know you are most likely not going to have any internet: what are you going to do with no internet?

Well, actually they do have wireless internet in the main hall. So I will be able to get on the internet when we have downtime. Also the wireless used to be pretty strong there and last year I could pick it up in my cabin. So I will get to go on my computer while I am there.

Mom says, You better then e-mail me a couple of times to let me know how you are doing. I don’t want to have to call you because you said that you get embarrassed when I do that. That’s because they announce it over the speakers and say, ‘Hollis, your mom is on the phone’. No thanks: the guys have never let me live that down.

Irene says, Now that is funny. Come on, Mom, call him, or maybe I will call him.

Do not let her have the phone number.

All of a sudden we hear a loud bang. Mom says, Hold on, I think we just had a blowout. She pulls the car off to the side of the road.

You are kidding me, right? This cannot be happening. Why do I have such crappy luck? This is a sign for me not to go. Bad things are going to happen. Let’s fix the tire and just go back to the house.

Mom says, "Hollis, settle down, it’s just a flat. We must have picked up a nail in the tire when we went to