Stan Morris: Surviving the Fog

Mike and John were used to spending a few minutes each night chatting together, before John went to his bunk and Mike retired to his cabin. The presence of Desi seemed unusual but not terribly awkward. Each thought that she would soon head down to the girls’ area.

“Can I see the Admin’s cabin, Mike?” Desi asked.

“Uh, all right,” replied Mike, who had not anticipated this request but saw no harm in it.

John looked at Desi. Then he looked at Mike. He frowned. “I’m going to bed now, Mike,” he said quietly. “See you in the morning.” He stole one last glance at Desi.

“Night,” Mike replied.

John left, and together Mike and Desi walked up to the A-frame. Mike unlocked the door, and they went inside.

“Wow, this is nice,” Desi exclaimed. “I guess this is your place now, Mike. Yuie calls it, ‘Chief’s Headquarters’.”

Mike laughed. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good name for it,” he agreed.

Desi sat down on the bed.

“Mmmm…, this is soft.”

She lay back on the bed, and then she clasped her hands behind her head, and she smiled up at Mike with her supple brown eyes. Mike thought that the room suddenly seemed much warmer.

“Would it be okay if I stayed here tonight, Mike?” Desi asked in a voice that was soft and sultry.

Mike gulped. “Yeah…sure…okay,” he replied with a squeak in his voice.

The next morning, Mike left the cabin while Desi was still sleeping. He felt like he was older and much more experienced, and he felt wonderful. He found John in the dining hall.

“Morning,” he said to John. John looked at him, then he looked past Mike for a second as if he were looking for someone, and then he looked back down at his cereal and grunted.

“It’s a really good morning. I feel very, very good, if you know what I mean,” said Mike happily and a little slyly.

“Well, I’m so happy for you!” John snarled. He got up and stalked out of the room. Mike stared after him, mystified.

“You idiot!”

Mike turned to see Yuie staring angrily at him.

“What’s your problem?” he asked, annoyed at her. First John and now Yuie was acting weird this morning.

“You dummy! He likes Desi. Didn’t you know?” Yuie demanded.

Mike was thunderstruck. “Oh, shit,” he said.

But now that Yuie had told him this, he realized that he should have known. John was always mentioning Desi to him. Mike realized that he was not the swiftest boy when it came to girl-boy relationships. But he should have seen this.

John avoided Mike the rest of the day, and Mike avoided Desi. Both John and Desi were at the meeting that night. After the meeting, before John could leave, Mike asked John to accompany him to his cabin for a private talk. Desi came with them.

In the cabin, Mike showed John the radio phone, and he told John that the battery was dead. He asked if John knew any way to recharge it. John shook his head and grunted impatiently. Mike tried a few other subjects. He didn’t quite know how to proceed. John was plainly not interested in conversation or even being in the cabin.

Suddenly Mike blurted, “Why don’t you sleep here tonight, John? I miss my bunk. I think I’ll sleep in my bunk. Desi won’t mind sharing the cabin, will you Desi?”

Mike looked hopefully at Desi. She and John were clearly startled at Mike’s outburst. Desi gave Mike a surprised frown, and then she looked at John. The boys held their breath.

Then she sighed and said calmly with a small rueful smile, “No, I won’t mind sharing with John.” Mike quickly left the cabin and escaped to his old bunk bed.

Dumbfounded, John stared at the door for a moment, and then he turned to look at Desi. Outwardly, she seemed calm. Oh, oh , he thought. She is royally pissed .

“Uh, sorry about this, Desi,” he said sheepishly. “You know, Mike’s still just a kid. He…I guess…”

“So you guys didn’t plan this?” she asked stonily.

“No!” John exclaimed. “I swear I didn’t know that he was going to do this.”

Desi was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Some of the guys say stuff about me.”

“I don’t,” responded John. “At least, I don’t say that kind of stuff.”

“So you don’t have a line you would like to tell me? Like, maybe, what’s your sign?” she asked sarcastically.

It was John’s turn to be silent for a moment, and then he said thoughtfully, “Yeah, I do have a line.”

“So let’s hear it,” she replied indifferently.

John smiled at her. “I like you, Desi. I really like you, and I would like to spend some time with you. But not like this. If you want, I’ll walk you to your cabin, or I’ll just leave.”

Desi stared at him for a while, and then she looked down. She pondered his words.

“Well,” she began slowly. “I really like this mattress. It’s a lot more comfortable than mine. I guess we could share it.” She looked up at John. “But just to sleep on,” she warned.

“Okay,” he answered quickly.

The next day, John was much friendlier to Mike. He and Desi shared Mike’s cabin for four days. By that time they were publicly holding hands and stealing an occasional public kiss. The fifth night, Mike kicked them out of his cabin. He thought that he had sacrificed enough.

“You guy’s take the counselors’ cabin,” he said. So John and Desi moved into the vacant counselors’ cabin.

Sometime later, Yuie cautiously asked Desi about the incident.

“I thought that Mike needed someone to talk to,” Desi explained. “And I thought he that he needed a girlfriend to help him relax at night. I thought that it would be good for all of us. I didn’t know that his best friend liked me. At first, I was kind of pissed that Mike wanted me to be with John. But Mike is too immature for me, right now. And I like John.”

While John and Desi were sharing Mike’s cabin, Jackie finally made an appearance. Mike found her, one morning, having breakfast in the dining hall. Mike was very glad to see Jackie. Even though she was not much of an adult, she was, officially at least, still in charge. But as he looked around, he realized that the other kids, especially the girls, did not seem so happy to see Jackie up and about. Cautiously, he sat down across from the young woman.

“Hey, Jackie,” he greeted her. She looked up at him from her breakfast.

“Hey, yourself,” she replied, looking back down at her breakfast. “I hear you’ve taken over the Admin’s cabin.”

“Uh, well..,” Mike sputtered.

Jackie shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s just another reason why we have been dumped.”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

“Don’t you see? We’ve been abandoned. We caused our parents grief, and so they abandoned us.”

“Huh?” asked Mike, very confused by her words.

A girl standing nearby asked timidly, “What about the fog?”

Jackie shrugged again. “That’s just their way of making sure that we can’t get out of the mountains and bother them again.”

“My parents wouldn’t abandon me,” the girl protested. “They love me!”

Jackie looked at her with pity. “Sure they do. Then why did they abandon you? Probably, they blame you for their divorce. And now they’re gone.”

The girl was clearly shocked. “My parents aren’t divorced!” she said angrily. Mike looked at her, and he gave a shake of his head, unnoticed by Jackie.

“Where do you think our parents have gone?” he asked the counselor.

Jackie scrunched up her face and thought for a moment. “Probably to heaven,” she replied.

Other kids had gathered around. They looked at one another. Some were shocked, some were bemused, and some were just sad. Clearly, Jackie had become mentally disturbed. Seeing no point in staying, Mike left. He felt more alone and more scared than ever. Secretly, he had always hoped that Jackie would collect herself and reestablish order. Now he realized that Jackie was barely able to take care of herself.