Camping

"You're very welcome, sweetie," he said. He then called out, "Connor? Can you turn on the other lantern?"

He was sitting inside using a light that was strapped around his forehead so he could play with his Game Boy and called back, "Sure thing, Dad!" Seconds later the entire tent lit up just before Connor brought it out to him. "Here you go," he said handing it to his father.

"Are you having fun?" he asked his son.

"Yeah! This is really cool!" Bingo was wagging his tail and barked once causing them both to laugh.

"I'm glad we did this, buddy. Go on inside and I'll be in in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay. Come on, Bingo! Let's go inside!" He watched his son and his dog disappear and he realized this was the longest he'd gone without thinking about Claire since she'd passed away.

Moments later his two new neighbors came back. This time, the mother was carrying the lantern. She held it out to Micah and said, "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," he said. He set it down between himself and their site so they could see their sleeping bags.

"Go crawl inside and I'll be right there, Addy," the woman said.

It was only about 15 feet away and there was enough light so that Addison wasn't afraid so she bravely went over alone and got back in.

"I'm sorry for being such a..." she lowered her voice and said, "bitch. I've been pretty...bitchy...ever since her father walked on us right after Christmas last year. I didn't mean to take it out on you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. We know a little about losing someone ourselves," Micah said politely.

"What? Did your wife cheat on you, too?" she asked not knowing what had happened.

"No. Nothing like that," he said quietly. "She um...she passed away two years ago come August 4th."

"I am SO sorry. Oh, my God. I'm such an idiot. I had no i..."

"It's okay. You couldn't possibly know."

"Um, well, I'm gonna take both feet out of my mouth now and just walk over there where my daughter is and go to sleep. I may even crawl or slink away. I really am sorry."

"Thank you and I'm sorry your husband abandoned you." He looked passed her to where Addison was laying down and said, "She's a very sweet girl."

"Yes, she is, and thank you for saying that. I've tried very hard not to let my bitterness rub on off her. I don't want her to ever hear me badmouth her father even though..." She got very quiet again before finishing her thought. "Even though he is a lying, cheating, scum-sucking bastard."

Micah laughed and the woman laughed, too. "Sorry—again. Sometimes that stuff just has to come out," confessed.

"Yeah, I know what's it like to need to let built-up emotions go, too."

"Oh, God. I just did it again. I'm whining about being left and your wife... I think it would be better for both of us if I stopped talking and just went away."

"Here. Take this one with you," he told her holding up the first lantern. "Just turn it on and off here and that's all there is to it." He tried to look up at her as he said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to sound patronizing. I know you can turn a lantern on and off."

"It's okay. I deserved it," she said. "I've been kind of down on men in general since...you know. I had no right to take it out on you, though. Oh, and thank you for letting Addy play with your son. What's his name again?"

"Connor. And I'm Micah, by the way."

"Micah? I'm Summer. It's nice to meet you and thank you again for...everything."

"I couldn't help but overhear you forgot your cooler. Would you maybe like a juice box for your daughter?"

"How much salt do you have over there to keep pouring into this gaping, self-inflicted wound of my own creation?" She laughed then said, "That was redundant, wasn't it?"

"Was that a 'yes'?" he asked politely.

"Yes?" she said sheepishly. "If you don't mind."

"Not at all. Let me just grab one for her. Would you maybe like one for yourself or at least a bottle of water?"

"Yes, again?" she replied in the form of a question.

"Hold on." A few seconds later he returned with both. "Here you go," he said with a smile.

"Thank you—again. And sorry—again."

"It's okay, really. We all have bad days, Summer. Trust me, I've had my share."

"Okay so um...good night then. And thank you."

"You're very welcome. Sleep tight," he told her as she picked up the lantern.

"I just hope the mosquitoes don't eat us alive," she quipped. "Have a good night, Micah."

He grabbed the other lantern and went inside the tent. Connor was pushing buttons and making all kinds of sounds as he played with his Game Boy.

Just after 10:30 he finally said, "Okay, champ. I think that's enough for tonight. Do you need to pee before we go to bed?"

"Um...yeah, I probably better," he said. "Can you come with me?"

"Sure. I need to go, too," he said. "Come on Bingo. Let's go potty."

Connor was out cold in less than five minutes after he laid down. Micah sat there and relaxed taking in the muffled sounds of low conversation and laughter from those still awake. He looked over at his son and thought how lucky he was to have him and how glad he was they'd decided to go camping.

A little after 11pm, much too early for him to go to sleep under normal circumstances, he decided to lay down himself. He got into his sleeping bag, thankful for the mattress pad underneath then switched off the lantern. He saw the one that Summer borrowed was still on and laughed quietly when he realized it would almost certainly be dead before morning giving her yet one more thing to apologize for when she realized it was useless.

Micah had no idea what time it was or even what woke him up. It was pitch black inside the tent and it took him a couple of seconds to get his bearings. "Oh, okay. I'm in the tent," he realized as he heard the cry of a woman. That was the same time he heard the plop, plop, plop sound of heavy drops of rain hitting the tent. In just seconds the plops turned into a steady sound as the skies opened up and it began to pour.

"Oh, shit. The girls!" he said out loud. He flipped on the lantern, jumped up, threw open the tent flap, and stepped outside. He ran over to their site and saw them trying to cover themselves with the canvas tent.

"Addison? Summer? Come on! Come with me!" he said over the sound of the rain. "Come on! Get inside before your sleeping bags get soaked."

He scooped Addison and her bag up as Summer stuffed hers under her arm.

Addison woke up and squealed as he carried her to his tent as the rain kept pouring down. He gently set her down inside and held the flap for Summer who quickly stepped in and moved out of the way.

Both of them were shivering. "Hold on," Micah said. He found a large towel and handed it to Summer who quickly wiped her face then did her best to dry Addison off. Micah pulled out a sweatshirt and handed it to Summer, too.

"We have to take you shirt off, honey," she said.

"But there are boys in here, Mommy!" she said as she began to cry.

"Connor's asleep, honey, and I'll turn the other way, okay?" Micah offered.

As he turned around he heard her shirt come off and the sweatshirt go on. "All set!" Summer said. "Nice and dry, right?"

Addison was smiling. "That was fast!" she said.

"Yeah, we needed to get you dry and warm, pumpkin." She turned to Micah and said, "Thank goodness I pulled my feet out of my mouth earlier."

Micah smiled and said, "No worries. Here, let's get you two settled." He grabbed his mat and pulled it to the side of the tent, then grabbed Connor's and pulled it along with the sleeping boy on top right next to his. "That should give you two enough room over there to get by on."

Summer got Addison 'tucked' back in. "Her sleeping bag is surprisingly dry," she said. She gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, "Sweet dreams, kiddo."

"Nite, Mommy," she back.

Summer turned around and said, "I apologized earlier and rightly so, but now let me say 'thank you' from the bottom of my heart, Micah."

"I hope you didn't think I'd let you sleep in the rain," he said with a smile.

"Well, I was pretty sure you wouldn't let Addison do that," she replied with a smile of her own.

The light from the lantern was enough to reveal more details and Micah saw some beautiful, high cheek bones, two almond-shaped eyes, and a pair of very soft lips surrounding what looked to be a perfect smile.

"I'd have come and got you, too. Well, maybe after an hour or two," he said still smiling.

"You're such a nice man, Micah. I can't thank you enough." She smoothed out her own bag and said, "I'm not really that tired. Are you?"

"No, not really. Did you want to talk?"

"Yeah, that would be nice," she said. There was just enough room for them to sit in one corner with the lantern on low illuminating the tent. "How old is Connor?"

"He's seven. How about Addison?"

"Six," she replied. "If it isn't too personal, how is he coping with the loss of his mother?"

"It's been really tough. For both of us. But I think this weekend is kind of turning point for us."

"How so?" she asked.

"It just seems like we're ready to finally move on. You never 'get over it' but at some point you have to start living your life again. Going camping was Connor's idea and to tell the truth I really didn't even want to do this, but we haven't done anything since Claire, his mother, died and this has been great. I haven't seen him this happy since before...you know."

"I'm glad," she said. "It's a completely different thing, but I know Addy misses her father. They were very close before...before he left us for another woman."

"Is he still in her life?"

"Oh, he calls once in a while, but they moved to California so she never sees him. He keeps stringing her along with promises of a visit, but that keeps getting kicked down the road. First it was going to be during spring break, then for the summer, and now it's Christmas which I know won't happen, either. He's just such a...dick." She looked up at Micah and said, "Sorry. That's my cross to bear, not yours. The one you're carrying is much, much heavier, I'm sure."

"It is different, for sure, but a loss is a loss. Yes, we love and miss Claire, but even though you may be angry with your ex, your daughter still loves him and for what it's worth, I think you're very wise to avoid criticizing him in front of her."

"It's hard, you know? I want to tell her the truth, but for me to do that I have to spell it all out and her dad looks like the bad guy."

"Which he is," Micah added.

"Definitely. But Addy doesn't need to know that. To her, he's still the King of the World. When she's older she'll figure it all out by herself and then she'll know. Until then, I'm not going to put him down even when she blames me for him leaving."

He saw tears welling up in her eyes and said, "That's gotta be very difficult. You're not only wise, you're very brave, Summer. I'm not sure I could do that."

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and said, "Addison is my whole world, Micah. She's the only reason I'd ever go out in the woods alone like this. I'd do anything to protect her from harm whether it's physical or mental. Kids have enough to worry about when a parent leaves and the last thing they need is to feel like it's somehow their fault. I can handle it. She can't."

"You're pretty amazing, Summer. May I ask your last name if that's okay?"

"Sure. It's Harvey. I'm thinking about going back to my maiden name which is Perkins but for now we're the Harvey Girls."

"We're the Gibsons. Like the guitar."

Summer laughed quietly. "Do you play?"

"Me? Oh, no. I'm not terrible at singing, but I'm afraid I don't play any instruments. You?"

"I took piano lessons when I was a girl, but I can't remember much. What do you do, Micah Gibson?"

He gave her an abbreviated version of his college days, his love of all things computers, and how he'd gone to work for becoming an independent contractor five year ago. What he didn't tell her was his first job was with MicroSoft or the amount of money he'd made. The older he got, the less money mattered to him and the number of zeroes in his bank account didn't impress him so why would he tell anyone else knowing he sound like some kind of arrogant schmuck?

"And you, Summer Harvey?" he asked with a smile.

"I'm a nurse. An LPN specifically," he told him. "I'm trying to finish my BS so I can become an RN, but for now, I work as an LPN at St. Joseph's. It's just very hard to work full-time, take classes—even on-line, and be a good mother."

"How does that work as far as Addison and childcare? Do you have to work swing or graveyard shifts?"

"Both. Thank goodness my mom can watch her. She loves having her but I know she'd like to have some time to herself so she and my dad can travel. He still works, so it isn't critical yet, but I feel guilty dumping her on my mom all the time. When Ed—my ex—was home and working, we could afford daycare. It was tough but we made it. Now that's out of the question. It would eat up about a third of my take-home pay so if not for my mom..."

"She sounds like an amazing woman, too," Micah offered sincerely.

"She really is. She's the reason I chose nursing. She has MS and although it doesn't stop her from enjoying life, it makes a lot of things more challenging."

"I'm sorry. I have to say though, that makes me respect her all the more. If she's anything like you, I'm sure she's..."

"You're sure she's what?" Summer asked.

"Sorry. I should probably not talk so much."

Summer tried to smile but it wasn't happening. "It's okay. It sounded like you were going to say something nice and I don't hear a lot of nice things these days."

"That's a shame," he told her. "You...you should hear nice things all the time." His voice was already low and trailed off as he spoke.

"Even when I'm a complete..." She whispered the word, "Bitch?" She smiled when she said it but even so it bothered him to hear her say that.

"Please don't use that word about yourself, Summer. You're not a... You're not that kind of woman." She was so beautiful and so caring, and she was doing something to him no other woman had done since Claire. "You're pretty incredibly and..."

"And?" she said still smiling.

"And well...you're...pretty. Very pretty as a matter of fact." He looked away as soon as he said almost wishing he hadn't.

"No one's said that to me in several years, Micah. No, that's not exactly true. I should say no one who's attractive has said that to me in a very long time. Thank you. That was really nice to hear. " She sat there quietly for a minute then said, "You're a nice-looking guy yourself. And you're obviously a very good father. Connor is so polite and well mannered." She smiled then added, "I think Addison has a bit of a crush on him."

"Well, he really is a good kid. He's so open and tender-hearted. He wasn't a momma's boy, but he was very close to Claire and she was so loving and so kind and so good to both of..." He felt a lump in his throat; something that hadn't happened in a while. For the first six months, he couldn't even mention her name without being unable to talk.

He cleared his throat and said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to..."

Without warning, Summer slid over next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "It's okay. You don't have to be embarrassed about getting emotional over the woman you loved and who obviously loved you. I'm just so sorry that you...you two...are having to go through this. I can't even imagine. Just the thought of losing my mom or my dad makes me tear up and this was your wife. So it's okay, Micah."

"Thank you," he said. "I'm not a macho guy, but I still don't like crying in front of other people. I haven't gotten emotional like that in quite a while. I'm not sure why it happened."

"It's very late, you're tired, and I'm sure that when you think about her...you know, when you really think about her, the loss becomes all-too-real again. It just makes sense. Speaking of tired, we should probably get some sleep if we hope to keep up with those two tomorrow."

"You see? You are a very wise person," he said. He put his arm around her and pulled her close for a brief moment and said, "Thanks."

"Me? For what? You're the one who's done nothing but take care of us since you got here. What have we done?"

"You listened and you showed compassion. I really needed this. So...thank you, Summer."

She smiled, looked up at him and said, "Well, in that case, you're welcome. I hope I at least made you feel a tiny bit better."

"You most definitely did," he told her. "You really are pretty amazing."

"Yeah, I know," she said playfully. "Good night, Micah."

"Good night, Summer." He waited for her to get into her sleeping bag, then got into his and turned out the light. "Sleep tight," he heard her say.

"Don't let the bedbugs bite," he said back.

He smiled when he heard her laugh a little-girl laugh. "She really is pretty awesome," he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, he heard whispers. He raised his head and saw Connor and Addison playing with his Game Boy. There were two juice boxes next to them and that made him smile. He got out of his sleeping bag and went over to them. Summer was still asleep so he spoke in a whisper. "Good morning. Did you sleep okay?"

Addison nodded and Connor said, "Uh-huh."

She looked up and said, "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Come on," Connor said. "I'll take you."

"Take Bingo outside with you, okay?" he said. It was less than 50 yards to the Port-a-Johns, but Micah would never let them go without keeping an eye on them. He had a clear field of view and watched Addison go in while Connor waited outside. Then he went in while Addison waited with Bingo.

"I'll race you!" he heard Addison say on the way back. Bingo circled around them as they ran and all three of them were panting heavily by the time they got to the tent.

"I won!" Addison said.

"Shhh!" Micah said with a smile. "Your mom's still sleeping."

"Oh, sorry. I forgot!" she said sweetly.

"Addison? Is that you?" they heard Summer say.

"We're right here, Mommy," she said poking her head in. "We had to use the bathroom. They stink! Bad!" she said.

"Oh, wonderful. I need to go, too. That should be great fun."

Micah overheard and said, "I'm going to boil water for coffee. Would you like a cup?"

"Yes!" she said. "Yes, please."

It was pretty chilly outside so Micah went in to grab his jacket and saw Summer shivering. "Burr! Isn't it the middle of June?"

He grabbed the jacket and handed it to her. "Yes, but this is Washington, not Florida. Here. This will help. That rain really cooled things off. It's even cooler outside."

She knew he had to be cold too, but she was freezing and accepted the coat. "Thank you, Micah. That's very kind of you. Okay, I'm gonna brave the stinky toilet so I'll be right back if that's okay."

"Take your time," he told her as he set up the camp stove and started boiling the water. "You kids hungry?" he called out.

"I'm starving!" Connor said.

"I'm hungry, too!" Addy called back.

"We have granola bars and donuts. Come and get 'em!"

By the time Summer came back, Addison had white powder all around her mouth. "Hmmm. What did you eat for breakfast, pumpkin?" she asked knowing the answer.

"A powdered donut!" she said still chewing the last bite.

"Coffee's almost ready," he told her. He sat the other lawn chair by his and said, "Have a seat. Care for a donut?"

She looked over and said, "That granola bar looks pretty good."

Micah pointed to it and said, "Ah, look at that. This one has your name on it." He handed it to her and she laughed weakly at his lame comment.

The water just started to boil so he turned it off before it got too hot. "It's instant. Is that okay?"