21

I went a little farther in. When I walked down a hallway, I found something that REALLY shocked me. It was a BATHROOM, with a toilet and a sink and EVERYTHING. There were even a few rolls of extra toilet paper, and it wasn't the CHEAP stuff, either. My head was spinning at that point. I was ready to run back to our campsite and tell everyone what I'd found, when I heard something that sent shivers down my spine. It was the sound of WHISTLING, and it was coming from right BEHIND me.

I turned to run, and that's when I ran smack into DAD. I was totally speechless. I couldn't understand what he was doing taking a shower in a maintenance shed, but then he started talking. Dad said when HE went to Hardscrabble Farms, the bathroom situation was even WORSE than it is now.

There was only one outhouse, which everyone at the camp shared. There was no shower, and if you wanted to get clean, you had to go down to the river with a bar of soap. Then one day when Dad was collecting firewood, he found this maintenance shed that was used for keeping up the property during the off-season. When he realized there was a toilet and a shower inside, he knew he had to keep it a secret or EVERYONE would find out.

So he came up with the story of Silas Scratch to throw the other kids off the trail. Dad said when he got here yesterday, he was pretty surprised the Silas Scratch thing was still going after all these years. But he figured he'd just go with it so he could keep the bathroom to himself. I was pretty mad at Dad for causing everyone all this stress. But I have to admit that coming up with a crazy story to protect a secret bathroom is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'd do MYSELF. I realized I'd been away from the campsite for a while and my cabinmates probably thought I got snatched up by Silas Scratch.

So I asked Dad to help me find my way back to the campsite. It had started to rain, and by the time we got back, the fire was completely OUT. I guess my group got desperate and threw in anything that would burn, because I found my BOOK in there. Or at least what was left of it. My cabinmates had picked apart our shelter for firewood, and that's where me and Dad found them, all huddled together.

I really didn't wanna spend the night out in the rain, and thankfully Dad didn't, EITHER. I guess he wasn't too concerned about the camp rules, because he snuck us all back into our cabin. It might've stunk to high heaven in there, but it was the best night of sleep I've had in my life. Monday This morning we packed up all our stuff and brought it to the parking lot. Almost everyone in my class looked like a WRECK from sleeping out in the woods overnight, but MY group actually looked REFRESHED.