Holes and Angels

Short personal experience story from the memories of a camp counselor as a teenager.

I’m not sure what made us more upset; the fact that we were awakened from our comfortable, warm sleep or the fact that we had to hike two miles into the woods in order to get to the shelter that we would be sleeping in for the next two nights.  I forced my eyes open to see the rest of the guys struggling to move around in the large van. 
                This was week number three in our leadership training program as future camp counselors.  Supposedly, this would be a little more relaxed than the week of canoeing and the week of hiking in the mountains that we already had.  After two weeks straight out in the woods, showers and meals that weren’t oatmeal or rice cooked over a fire were much needed.
                “We’re going to spend a couple days in New York at Houghton College,” Bill told us earlier from the driver’s seat of the 15-passenger van.  “They have a ropes course that we are going to train on, and then we head out to do some rock climbing for a couple more days.”
                “Finally, something easy,” Armando said in his thick New York accent.  The closest thing that city boy was used to as far as wildlife were sewer rats and cockroaches.  In fact, the first night the eight of us boys were in camp, Armando, Troy, and I were sitting in one of the camp vans.  My back was against the passenger’s door, and I just so happened to glance over Troy’s shoulder at the rear view mirror.  It was the first time I had seen a bear up close and personal.  What really got my heart pumping was the phrase “objects in mirror may be closer than they appear”.  That’s not a comforting thought in any situation, but especial with a wild animal four times your size. 
                “Guys, there’s a bear right next to the van,” I said through clenched teeth.  Both of them strained to look in the mirror.   Troy, who as a native of inner city Baltimore, wasn’t any better than Armando.  He immediately started to freak out and threw open the door before thinking.  The bear heard the commotion and waddled right up to the front.  Troy stopped moving.  For a few seconds, it was just the bear and Troy staring at each other.  Well, the bear was staring at Troy.  Troy was avoiding eye contact.  Then Armando got a bright idea, which seemed to occur in slow motion.  He jumped out of the van, ran around to where Troy was, pulled his camera out of his pocket, and snapped a picture of the bear.   I guess he figured that no one would believe him back home without proof.  Well, the camera made the bear freak out and stand up to defend himself.  That, in turn, made Troy freak out and take off running; which made Armando freak out and follow behind.  I was very content to stay in the van; not being seen by the confused and frustrated animal.  Again, that was the beginning of camp.  They both had grown accustomed to nature’s friends now.
                This story isn’t about Armando or Troy though.   We each grabbed our hiking backpacks and supplies and emerged into the woods via a small trail that had been worn down by constant foot traffic.  It had rained the previous night, and a majority of the path was muddy.
                “Make sure you guys stick to the path.  There are some areas that are under construction in those woods, and it’s easy to get lost out here even with flashlights.”  Half asleep, stumbling over roots, fighting through tree branches- finally we stood in a clearing that had a fire pit several feet away from a giant lean-to.  The three-walled structure was not comfortable in the least, but we didn’t care.  After building a fire and getting settled, we each climbed into sleeping bags and did our ritual of ending out the day with a prayer. 
                “Whoever wants to jump in and give a prayer, go for it.” Bill addressed us all.  I waited for Juan to start praying because he was always the first volunteer.  He said nothing.  It was one of the other guys.  I sat up a little and glanced around the group.  There were eight of us on the trip, and I counted seven.  Before I could say anything,
                “Hey, where’s Juan?” Dwayne chirped up.  Everyone froze, and sudden realization hit us all.  Juan wasn’t with us.  Bill jumped up.
                “Juan!  Juan!”  We all joined in; scouring the surrounding area.   After about five minutes, we convened back in the center of our camp. 
                “Actually,  I don’t remember him actually being with us when we got to the site,” I said thinking back.  Bill nodded.
                “I’m going to head back down the trail then.  You guys stay here.”
                “Man, you guys set up fast.”  Every head turned to the entrance of the trail as Juan threw his backpack down and sighed. “That was a lot longer than two miles.  It was more like six.”
                “Juan!” We all yelled in almost a perfect chorus.  Bill exclaimed.  “Where have you been?” 
                “With you guys,” Juan said a little confused.  “I mean, I was behind a little bit, but only a few seconds.”
                “Man, we’ve been here for at least an hour and a half,” Troy said raising his eyebrows.  Juan’s frown deepened. 
                “Funny, guys.  Real funny.  I’m not falling for that,” He pointed behind him.  “We were walking, and I started to fall behind.  I asked you all to wait up because I left my flashlight in the van, but for a couple of moments, I lost you and couldn’t hear your voices.  I walked blindly for a bit, and then it was like something told me to stop right where I was.  So, I did.  Then a few seconds later, I heard your voices again just to the left of me.  I followed them for about five minutes, and then walked into the camp site.”   There was silence for several long seconds before Bill said,
                “Juan, we were nowhere near you.”

Just for the heck of it, in the morning, we retraced Juan’s steps from the night before.   What we couldn’t see in the night was a small fork in the path about a mile into the hike that only one fresh set of footprints had followed down.  The path weaved through the woods and then opened up into one of the construction areas.  We followed Juan’s footprints through the site and straight to a huge twelve foot deep ditch.
                “Wow,” Juan said studying the footprints.  “This is the spot where I told you I felt like I needed to stop.  See, here is where I stopped and turned to the sound of your voices.”
                “The voices that weren’t ours,” I said.  Juan swears that God stopped him from falling into that ditch, and angels led him to our camp site.  I’m not sure.  But maybe that the best thing about situations like these"not being sure, and just believing that God’s got your back.

Author's Note

written for a contest, but check out www.tbhministries.com for more written works in the Broken Writings section.

Reviews

[Einstein Noodle]

ahahaha ...hooked me ..and i like your ending .. so true about "knowing" ... easy read .. i like the little aside about the bear... there is just enough believability in your story, as a whole, that I am kept engaged .. that's some boot camp for counselors ..sounds more like for survivalists :)
E.
ps. how did the contest go for you?

[A.C. Jones]

the story actually won...lol. and this was actually a real story.

[Einstein Noodle]

big congratulations ..and God must have had a hand in that bear not doing significant damage ..so many "wrong" things were done ... God bless my friend!