Sept 37

Oh my God, that's the last time I work with kids. They are always bad luck. My therapist kept telling me to take up an activity that got me out and made me interact with people, happy people. I figured if I was paying him, I might as well try what he suggested. It was also the last time saw I him.

In the paper there was an ad, Camp Counselor. Since I never went to summer camp I thought that it might be a good way to reclaim my youth, make some money, and I'd have a place to stay (ironically, it was also my last time sleeping in the crap box I called home). After couch hopping, and a week of training I was a certified monkey, who they sent out with a litter of chimps under my guidance, at least I wasn't alone. Another unfortunate accompanied us. He, unlike the trip, was pretty cool. We get to the camp, its rustic, maybe quaint. Outside the camp grounds there's a small hut, built into the mountain side, I actually admired its construction, but its inhabitant, uh, not so much. We should have left when she, the hut's occupant, came out and tried to make a deal with me for one of the kids. "I really like their soft skin." I just chalked it up to being a hermit, but now I see it was much more related to being an evil witch. And that's saying a lot, especially since I enjoy a bit of the black magic myself, but damn this woman was evil. After my refusal she angrily cursed the boy at my side and immediately he began to shoot off at the mouth, I mean literally, shoot off. Everything he said came out as a spray of bullets, uranium tipped of course. That's how the evening started, him crying, two kids with radiation poisoning and festering bullet wounds.
I was determined, though, and did not let this stop me. Soon all the children were suffering some aliment, 'my foot fell off' 'I've gone rabid'. Really I don't know how all these kids are going to make it in life, they complain sooooooo much. The topper came when great jagged x marks began showing up on everything. At that point I marched over to the witch's house and threw a barrage of pine cones at her door. The other counselor set out to find us another place to stay for the week. He was gone for about an hour, and when he returned it was finally some good news. We all got our belongings and body parts and trampled through the dark forest with the witch trailing us. Suddenly she became very agitated, and I saw that ahead was a cabin. In the witch's agitation she fills our path with door after door, and between the frames of each door she would cram two or three children, and it cost us much time and effort to remove each child from this peculiar position. Finally we willed our way through every trap she placed on our path and made it to the awkward cabin.
"this is great, you're going to love it,' my companion assured me, and at that point I believed him. But it was better than I imagined, which wasn't much. Through the door we entered another planet,
entirely.
Entirely calm
entirely what we were looking for.
Do you know where we are?
According to the sign, we are on the
planet of May.
May huh?
Not bad, smells good,
things are clean,
best of all
Bitchy McWitch can't seem to enter.
She tempered and tantrumed
on the other side of reality,
which was fine with me.
Through the night
it only ever became twilight,
the children returned to normal,
appendages reattached effortlessly
any unnatural effects were reversed
and wounds healed themselves.
It was so nice on May that we slept
with out fire, with out bags
without tension or trouble.
That night on May I had a dream.

I was back home, and now it's my place. My family was gone. I was with my friends, gathered in the kitchen discussing possible decorating tips. The house was empty, of everything. No dishes, no plants, no towels, no lights, just a house. I hear something upstairs, in the attic. Everyone's gone now, I am standing at the foot of the stairs. The noise is louder, it sounds like furniture moving, footsteps, even voices. I am filled with fear, trembling as I head to the attic door. Finally I am there, in front of my phantasmic fear; as I reach to push open the door, it opens on its own. There in front me was a man, in a uniform, with arms full of boxes, boxes of my stuff. I jumped back, startled, and he walked right past me. The attic is full of people just like him, and I plead with them, tug on the furniture, yell profanities, and they go about working diligently, until all the items are gone. Defeated I stand in the sun coming in through the sky light. I look at the two men left; they are talking to each other, and then they stop. I hear one say to the other: 'Do you see that?' They look at me, turn pale and run out of the room. Outside they get in their car, and peel away. It took me a few minutes to realize that I am the phantom, I am the ghost living among the rubble, and that my time here had passed.

When I woke up it was still lovely on May, and most of the kids had been up for hours walking about, playing games, and that is how we spent the remainder of our week, exploring the wonderfully hospitable planet of May. When we left, we dressed as trees and snuck past the witch's place and safely back to the bus, which was covered in graffiti. They docked us half our pay to clean the bus, but I was glad to get the money.