We never did hear from Crazy while he was at sleep away camp, but when I went to the camp to pick him up at the end of the two weeks, he was in fact still alive and quite happy. We loaded up his stuff and drove home with him telling me about all the fun he had. A few days later when I opened up his suitcase, I found that ALL his clothes were missing. The only clothes he brought back were the ones he was wearing the day I picked him up. I asked him what happened to his clothes, and he said, “I don’t know.”
“What do you MEAN you don’t know?” How could he not know what he did with his clothes? Did they just evaporate?
Ahh, but that’s Crazy.
Then I noticed the laundry bag I’d packed was also missing. I figured he put his clothes in the bag and somehow left it at camp. Don’t the counselors do a once through before the kids leave? I wondered. I mean how do they not check the cabin to make sure nothing’s been left behind before the kids go home for good? Maybe the bag got kicked under the bed, and nobody saw it. I don’t know, but I’ve given this a lot of thought because that was his entire summer wardrobe, which I had just purchased because he’d grown out of everything he owned from last year. Good thing I left 1 pair of shorts home so now he has 2 pairs of shorts to wear for the rest of the summer.
I called the camp to ask about the missing clothes, and when I explained the situation, the woman there said they post pictures of Lost & Found objects on their Facebook page. I was like, “Well, I haven’t been checking your fecking Facebook page because my kid’s not in camp anymore.” But I didn’t say that. The woman said she hadn’t come across the missing clothes, but she took my number in case his summer wardrobe turned up.
“Thanks,” I said, hung up, and immediately logged onto their Facebook page where I feverishly scrolled through their pictures, and what do you know? I FOUND his clothes. They’re all folded up in a clear plastic bag (with a pillow I didn’t even know was missing), and labeled with is name. Still, somehow the camp is unaware of this. “It’s right there! It’s right there!” I shouted, but no one at the camp knows, and they couldn’t hear me shout into the computer. As I stared at the screen, my son’s belongings almost within reach, I wondered how the camp could not know? There’s like 2,000 missing articles of clothing all labeled with my son’s name because I actually followed to the camp instructions and sharpied every single object right down to the flashlight he put in his suitcase.
Now I have to inform the camp that they do in fact have his clothes. I wrote on the Facebook page and leave it at that, figuring someone will give me a call now that the clothes have been found.
Later that day I do get a call. It’s one of the counselors. He said, “We couldn’t find the clothes.”
“They’re on your Facebook page! I found them.”
“Oh, I’ll have to check with the woman who posts those photos.”
“Yeah, why don’t you do that.” But I didn’t say that. A little while later he calls back, and says they’re mailing the stuff out. So long story long, we’re getting the clothes back! Oh, and I think I figured out the mystery of what happened to them. When I found the photo on the Facebook page, the label or caption said something about laundry service. I knew the camp had laundry service, but you had to register and pay for it. We never did. Someone must have asked Crazy if he wanted to use the laundry service, and he was like, “Sure, you can wash my clothes.” Wonder how much that’s gonna cost me.
STACEY GILL INK 