“I just want to warn you… to always check your shoes in the morning before you put them on,” the counselor was explaining to the new group of campers who had just arrived. “You never know what could end up in your shoes. It’s nice and dark in there… and moist and maybe a little smelly – just the place a bug might hide, or a snake… or a lizard. Just remember to always check your shoes.”
Two weeks went by and the girls had a blast! It was the last day and they were all really sad because they had to say goodbye to their horses. They were crying and carrying on like any eleven year old girl would do after bonding with “Star Sister Blue,” an old grey dappled mare… not pretty purdy, but sturdy.
They had really had fun. The experience was probably as close as you could get to the real western experience for a young modern girl. They rode the horses up a steep trail which was both terrifying and thrilling as rocks fell above them and rolled down a steep, scary cliff. “The horses,” they assured the campers, “are used to this trail. They have steady footing. Don’t try to lean or guide your horse. They know what to do… and don’t be afraid.”
They set up camp among the trees. Everyone had a task: cooking, making camp beds out of pine needles, setting up sleeping groups, collecting firewood. Kristie was thankful not to be on clean up after dinner, although she knew she would get her turn. It was her job to make the counselors’ beds. She took pride in making the piles of pine needles exactly three feet by six feet, just like a grave – six of them, one for each adult, facing the fire in a semi-circle.
The campers carried on like that for two weeks. Each day they would care for their horses, ride for a few hours, set up camp, do the chores…. There was a staff of people in the background who were delivering truck loads of food, water, hay for the horses, and any other supplies they might need by way of the fire roads. Still, it was enough to experience what pioneering was all about.
On the last day, they were all crying, saying their goodbyes to the horses, crying some more… Riding home on the bus the girls were singing all the camp songs they had learned with full fervor. Kristie loved singing, but her foot was really bothering her again.
All day long the pain in her foot was nagging her. She wanted to take her shoes off, but the bus is bouncing, and everyone is singing, so she ignores the pain thinking, “I’m gonna need new shoes again. My feet are growing. Too bad because I really like these cool green tennis shoes I’ve been wearing everyday.”
The bus lands and there is a reunion with their parents. They say their final goodbyes, more crying… hugging and crying… “See you next year,” sort of thing… On the ride home Kristie talks about a mile a minute about, “I did this… I saw that… I made a fire, horsie, horsie, etc…” Her mom just sits smiling and listening. She is so glad to have her eldest daughter back since those baby brothers keep her running.
As soon as the car pulls up in the drive way and makes a stop, Kristie jumps out and heads straight for the bathroom where she is looking forward to taking the enormous shit she has been holding in for a week… and finally taking off her shoes!
Then she sees it! The thing that has been plaguing her all day. She see sits legs, its disgusting brown body, its tentacle feelers, its deformed mouth – Yuck! Although it is dead, she hates it. She hates looking at it. She hates that it was in her shoe all day.
Huge and nasty, stinky, crawly potato bug in her shoe all day! She picks up her shoe to deposit the bug on top of her masterpiece in the toilet. Flush! Always Check Your Shoes!
(First published 11/14/11)
