Camp Shoni

by

Pamela

pamelapamela@hotmail.com

 

Chapter 8

 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Lorin went through the last week before he was to leave for camp in "auto-pilot" with his body accomplishing everything it had to, but his mind being a million miles away worrying, agonizing and dreading the upcoming plunge into the unknown. At odd moments throughout the day, regardless of where he was, or whom he was with he would find himself in a state of abject horror at the reality of what was about to unfold. Perhaps it was like a performer about to walk out on stage in front of 50,000 people. Only in his case, he would get onto a bus to Poughkeepsie, change to the camp bus and end up smack in the middle of hundreds of girls at Camp Shoni. It seemed absolutely impossible that not one girl among so many would be suspicious about who he was. Beth had had the right instinct. He couldn't help but make the comparison to Camp Dan in the situation that a girl tried to infiltrate pretending she was a boy. It would probably take just two seconds for the guys to figure out the deception. It must be the same for girls and even more so. Like a condemned man facing the gallows, Lorin would be caught, humiliated and then roasted alive by his parents.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there was no alternative except to going ahead with the plan. Confessing to his parents and taking whatever consequence ensued would be a worse thing to do, since, like he had said to Beth, he might end up being lucky. People did win the lottery after all, didn't they? Whether he got caught now or later his life as he knew it would be just as much over. He had to take the path that had a tiny hope in it as against the path with no hope at all. He would stay the course.

Lorin and Kenny had made up to the point where Kenny had gotten an intro into Penny's circle of friends. Kenny had confided to Lorin that he had set his sights on a couple of the girls and might even try calling them up that summer. Lorin hoped he would succeed. A particularly onerous task during Lorin's final week before camp was shopping with his mom for the camp things that she thought he would need but Lorin knew he would not need. She asked his opinion on everything and with great effort he attempted to sound appreciative and excited. The money being spent on his behalf only fed into his guilt. The events during this week that grabbed his full attention were the times that he was with Penny. He saw her for a part of every day and it was clear to both of them that they were getting ever closer emotionally and physically.

Despite the distraction of his worry and paranoia, Lorin carefully went over and over his detailed preparations - his "war plan" for the big day. His mom had already gotten him his bus ticket. He had insisted that she get him one for an early bus even though it meant an extra hour layover in Poughkeepsie until the camp bus came. It had not been easy convincing her. She had thought him crazy, but he said he didn't want to cut it too close in case his bus was late. "But two hours instead of one hour?" his mom has said with exasperation. Luckily she had caved in to his wishes and he had gotten the bus he wanted.

It was a key to his plan. He would have two hours to take care of the one thing he couldn't do before he left: restyle his hair into a girl's hairdo. In fact, through an endless sequence of improvised blunders he had successfully avoided getting his typical pre-camp haircut. Every day closer and closer it had gotten to camp, the more his mom and then both his mom and dad had tried to get him to get his hair cut. His hair was now easily a girl's length, longer than it had ever been before. Kenny had begun joking to him that he was looking like a girl and even Penny had asked him if he ever was going to get his hair cut again.

Lorin lied to his parents that Penny preferred him in long hair and he lied to Penny that he would get a very short haircut the day before he left. His mom left him money to go to the barber and Lorin purposefully left it on the table and pretended he had forgotten to take it. On other occasions he had made up lies wherein Penny needed his help or Kenny's family wanted to take him bowling or other crazy reasons. When there was only one more possible time left to get his hair cut - the morning of the day before his departure - Lorin's dad ordered him into the car and said that he was personally taking him to get a haircut. Not only would it would be cut, his dad insisted, it would be short enough to last the entire summer. Lorin fought back tears the entire way into town, but when they arrived at the barber shop there was a sign in the window saying: "Closed on Account of a Death in the Family. Will Reopen Tomorrow." Lorin's dad had stood staring at the door a good five minutes cursing under his breath, while Lorin quietly looked up at the sky and thanked God a hundred times for his kindness.

"Dad. Like I've been saying. There's a barber that comes to the camp every week. It's no big deal. He'll cut my hair."

His dad stared at him and pronounced that they would go to the beauty parlor where his mom usually went. When they arrived there, however, the hairstylist said that the only opening was late in the afternoon.

"We can't go back," his dad said, "can't you do it now?"

"I'm sorry. We're just booked solid."

Fuming, his dad stormed out of the shop and they drove home. Icily, his dad said, "so help me God Lorin you're going to get the first haircut at camp. I'm going to call to make sure you got it!"

"Don't worry dad, I'll get it done!" Lorin said with both inward joy and a quaking fear. Would his dad really call from China to find out if he had had his hair cut? It was possible, but it was a darn sight less of a problem than the one he would have if he showed up at Camp Shoni in short hair!

When they got back home Lorin's mom volunteered to find a shop somewhere that would cut his hair that afternoon, but his dad reminded her that there simply was no time. Besides, Lorin was going to get it cut at camp, come hell or high water!

"I'm disappointed in you Lorin," his mom said.

"I'm sorry mom, I really did forget to get it done."

"I'm not sure I trust you on that. I think you've got some other motive here. I just don't know what it is. To tell you the truth, there are a lot of sort of strange things going on with you."

"You know, I never dated a girl..."

"Things that can't be explained by you dating Penny!"

"I'm sorry mom. There is nothing going on at all!"

"I think it dates from the day you found out you wouldn't be in the upper camp. I hope you don't do anything at camp that would embarrass the family!"

"Of course not!"

"You haven't gotten a false ID card to prove you're 14?"

Lorin forced himself to laugh. "How could I get them to change my age! That's ridiculous. Look Mom, there is no reason not to fully trust me. I've resigned myself to having a good time at camp Dan and I will obey all the rules and you have nothing to worry about. I promise you on a stack of bibles!"

His mom looked at him a minute and then gave him a hug. "Teenagers. They are the most incomprehensible species on the planet. But I do love them anyway!"

 

Lorin had used the web to get the names of hair salons in Poughkeepsie, especially ones near the bus terminal. Certainly one of these must be willing to "turn him into a girl" he figured, it was just a matter of finding out which one. Using a pay phone and pile of quarters that he had saved, Lorin called one named "Maria's Hair Salon" to see what would happen if he were to ask them directly if they had a problem cutting a boys hair to look like a girls.

A woman answered and Lorin said, "I need to get my hair styled, but actually I sort of need to have it turned into a girls style."

There was total silence on the end of the line until finally the woman said, "is this a prank?"

"No, no, no," Lorin said, "I just want to know if you have any problem doing that."

"Yes, I do," the woman said. "We're a family business here.

"Can you tell me who would?"

The woman hung up on him. Lorin tried another place and when a man answered the phone Lorin hung up. He tried yet another and this time a woman with a thick Asian accent answered. Lorin had a hard time communicating with her but finally he got the idea that she thought he needed a unisex salon. Examining the list of stores Lorin saw that one of them had the name "Samantha's Unisex Salon" and it looked to be in easy walking distance of the bus station.

A woman answered the phone saying "Samantha."

Lorin said, "hi, I need to get my hair cut."

"When?"

"Oh, this Saturday at 11 in the morning?" That would be a half hour after his bus was due to arrive.

"I can do you at 4."

"Oh no, it has to be no later than 12. I catch a bus at 1."

"Let me see. What do you need done?"

"Just a haircut. Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that. I need to change my hair style. You do that don't you?"

Samantha laughed and said, "I like to think I can. I mean we are a hair salon, not a butcher shop."

"Sorry," Lorin said, "it's actually that I need to get a haircut so I can look like a girl." Saying that, Lorin felt the air rush out of his lungs and his heart pounded intensely in his chest.

"Why in the world would you be doing that?"

"Its way complicated. It's for a part in a play," Lorin lied, "I mean I'm going to audition for it."

"Okay, okay. No problem. You be here at noon and I'll do it during lunch. What's the name?"

"Lorin."

"Phone?"

Lorin looked at the number in the phone booth and gave it to her.

"Where's that?"

"I'm moving to Poughkeepsie for the summer, I don't have a number there just yet. I promise I'll be there and I'll give a really big tip."

Samantha laughed. "Okay. Bye. You're too much."

Lorin caught his breath. This was all going better than he should expect. Surely something was going to go wrong. He had to be really on his toes.

After he had hung up Lorin thought about Samantha's voice. She sounded like his mom and guessed that she would be kindly toward him. Perhaps like Beth if he was really lucky. It was a big relief that this was all set. He would arrive in Poughkeepsie, check his luggage at the bus station at a location in the terminal which he found on the station website and then find his way to Samantha's. Thus all was now in place except for the "big switcheroo" which is how Lorin referred to the time when he would switch all his boys' clothes with his girls' clothes. He had a mental picture of how it would unfold. His trunk, which his mom had already placed in his bedroom, was steadily filling up with his clothes as his mom went systematically through the camp list. A few things would wait until the last minute and then she would have him close the lid and he and his Dad would carry the trunk downstairs and out the door and into the car.

A big danger was that he would get interrupted in the few minutes he would have to do the switching before his mom told his dad it was time to carry it to the car. More likely, however, was the possibility that his mom would have forgotten something and would need to open the trunk again after he had locked it. To defend against the latter, he would keep some boys clothes on the shelf that fit into the top of the trunk. Until the trunk was safely stowed in the cargo bay of the bus to Poughkeepsie, he would be a nervous wreck.

The last bit of his plan was the one that gave him the most excitement and happiness. He would have with him his small back pack containing his first ever outfit as Lauren. There would be a bra, panties, his girl's shorts and the pink Camp Shoni tee shirt. He had given a lot of thought as to which bra and had decided it would be one of the new padded bras. Like superman he would rush to find a private place, perhaps the bathroom at the bus terminal to switch his clothes. He wondered what would be worse: leaving the boys bathroom dressed like a girl, or entering the girls bathroom as a boy. Neither one seemed like a good idea. Maybe he would find an alley somewhere. But after it was done, wherever that happened, he would be Lauren. The next step, of climbing on board the bus bound for Camp Shoni, was beyond his imagination to conceive.

 

 

The hardest part of going was saying good bye to Penny. Their friendship had grown to the point where he was no longer worried about saying the right thing or presenting himself in the best possible light at all times. She liked him. She liked being with him. It was easy being together. They had fun, they laughed, they played and they touched each other. Of course, there was a big part of himself she knew nothing about, nor could he confide in her about it. Had he known Penny before he had enacted his plan to go to camp Shoni then he surely would never have done it. On the other hand, the part of him that wanted to be Lauren was powerful, it was not simply going to go away because he loved Penny. Ultimately it was probably best that now that he had discovered Penny, he would have an equal chance to discover Lauren. By the end of the summer he would then know which way he would want to go for the rest of his life.

The day before he was to leave he saw Penny for the last time. It was after his dad had returned in frustration from trying to get Lorin's hair cut. Penny and he walked together hand in hand to the park and then to a spot near the top of a beautiful sloping meadow that Penny knew about. They lay down in the grass next to each other and Lorin looked out into the distance across to a forest that began at the bottom of the hillside and ran up to the top of an adjacent hill. They kissed each other and held each other and they told each other how much they loved each other. Yes, the "l" word had come out a few weeks earlier. Penny had said it first and Lorin had rushed to say it also. It had been so obvious it was more of an after thought than a necessity to say it, but it had felt wonderful to Lorin's and Penny's ears. It's nice to hear someone say that they love you. For Lorin it was the ultimate validation of his self worth.

Looking at Lorin, Penny had said, "your hair is so long. I think I may be starting to like it like this."

"Really?"

"I think so, but you know it does start making you look a little girlish."

Lorin glanced at her suddenly.

"I hope I'm not hurting your feelings."

"No. Of course not. I'm going to get it cut. I don't know why, but I just didn't feel like doing it. Maybe because it's the hair I had when I started seeing you."

Penny laughed and Lorin joined her. "That's so beyond ridiculous," she said, "but probably why I love you."

Lorin blushed. "I don't intend to look girlish. I guess I better get it cut the first thing at camp. Some of the guys can be pretty tough, especially if they think a guy is the slightest bit you know - like a fruitcake."

"I'm not surprised," Penny said. "The guys I used to go out with before you were always making jokes about fags. To be honest, I didn't know that any boys didn't think that way."

"You're not concerned that I'm not tough enough?"

"There's tough and there's tough. I don't think I would like swishy in a guy, but not being a caveman? No problem, in fact, I think it's great, it brings us closer together. Let's face it, I've dated a guy who was a freshman on the high school football team. All he wanted to do was make out and he had nothing to say."

They embraced and lay facing each other looking into each others eyes. Wisps of Penny's hair fell across her eye blown from a breeze of hot air running up the slope past them and Lorin gently pushed it aside. It was perfect. It was too perfect. Would they be together in the fall? And if they weren't would it be because of what he was about to do at Camp Shoni?

Lorin thought about what Penny had said. She didn't want a caveman and she didn't want swishy, but he wasn't at all swishy. Girls weren't swishy. The guilt he felt at what he was about to do felt like a hot poker inside himself. Perhaps looking for a release he said, "I worry sometimes that I want to emulate girls."

Penny's face scrunched up slightly and then relaxed. "Emulate them how? Having a baby?"

Lorin laughed. "I never thought of that, but that would be cool. No, I mean, it's hard to say. I mean if I like a certain guy, like Bob Dylan for example and I then tried to imitate him that would be OK I guess. But I like you for example, so logically it seems like I should want to emulate you also."

"I see what you're saying. You could want to have qualities of a certain girl, let's say she never lied or anything, or was a good student. But if you imitated Bob Dylan by wearing his kind of boots, then I don't think that kind of imitation would also make sense if the person you emulated was a girl. Like do you want to dress like Joan Baez or something? Do you want to wear my clothes?"

Lorin let out a gasp of air and recoiled in fear until he heard Penny laughing uproariously. "Oh, you're so funny. Man did you jump! I must have really hit a nerve!"

Lorin playfully climbed on top of Penny in a mock wrestling match. "As I always say, love the girl, love her clothes."

Penny laughed. "I'm going to miss you terribly this summer. Let's switch shirts so we have something to remember each other by."

"Really?" Lorin said.

"Yes! I think my blouse will fit you and your shirt will fit me."

Lorin impulsively took off his shirt, a red tee shirt with the logo of a country western night club that his parents often went to, it was one of his favorites. Penny's blouse was a kind of salmon color with a collar and a few buttons that ended just at the top of her cleavage. "You can't take your shirt off!" Lorin said, "we're outside."

Penny looked around quickly. There were a couple of guys playing Frisbee near the bottom of the meadow. "They're not looking," Penny said, and while lying on the grass she pulled her top off revealing her bra. They exchanged shirts and Lorin watched Penny put his tee shirt on. When the show was over, he put her blouse on over his head and pulled it down. It fit him well enough though it was just the slightest bit tight.

They admired the way each other looked. "You look beautiful in my shirt," Lorin said. The image of her white bra against her pale skin and her young breasts swelling inside was emblazoned in his memory forever.

"And you look so pretty," Penny laughed.

It was a magical moment Lorin thought. He sensed Penny's essence in the blouse, the slight dampness of her sweat and a kind of faint feminine smell. "Do I look like a girl in this shirt?" Lorin asked.

"I'll say," Penny said. "You're my girlfriend and I'm your boy friend!"

Lorin looked at her trying to see if there might be any truth whatsoever to what she was saying. Was it all a joke? Or just maybe she liked the idea of their switching roles. He was tempted to go further, to say something like: "but you're wearing the bra," but he didn't. It seemed like an enormous risk. It could backfire. Instead he hugged her and lay on her again and they took a long soulful kiss.

When the sun seemed like it was beginning to head down, they walked back to Penny's house where his mom was expecting them for dinner. Lorin already had permission from his mom to stay. Penny's mom laughed good naturedly when she saw that they had switched shirts, and said "how romantic you two are." Lorin enjoyed eating with Penny's family - her parent's weren't quite as serious or formal as his own. When it was over Lorin and Penny spent another hour in her room mostly kissing and saying their goodbyes and making promises to each other such as that they would write every week without fail.

Lorin's dad picked him up at 8:30 and on the drive back Lorin couldn't stop himself from crying.

"You've done a lot of growing up this spring, Lorin," his dad said. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks dad. It's so hard to see how I can get through two months without seeing Penny."

"True. A lot can happen in two months. But the way I always think about these things is that if they are meant to be they will happen."

"But she'll probably meet other guys this summer and she'll have all day everyday to hang out with them."

"True, but if she forms a better couple with you than she does with the others, then she'll know it and you'll get back together."

"But she might meet someone better than me."

"That's always the risk, but if she does, then it was never meant for you two to be together more than you have been. That's exactly my point."

"I think I see what you're saying."

"When you're older it will make even more sense to you."

When they got home his mom quizzed him about the shirt that his father hadn't even noticed. He told her the truth and while his mom didn't seem enthusiastic about the trade she didn't criticize him for it either.

 

 

The next morning was the big day, the day Lorin had been both dreading and hoping for since he first hatched his plan. It was a gray day, with a slight drizzle and unseasonably cold. An auspicious start to his final countdown. Memories of Penny flooded his mind and he felt his heart ache with longing for her. He had her shirt and he would wear it often during the summer.

His parents would be taking him to the bus station at 10AM to catch the 10:15 bus. It was now 7AM. The trunk filled with his boy's clothes awaited the big switcheroo. For safety sake he wouldn't switch the clothes until 9:30 or even a bit latter. He went downstairs for breakfast where he encountered both his Mom and Dad and Stephanie. They had a very big day themselves, since their plane to China left that evening.

"I'm doing one last wash before you go. Any to go in?" his mom said.

"No, I already put everything in the hamper."

"You're not taking Penny's blouse with you, are you?"

"I can't? Why not? That's why she gave it to me?"

"You're not going to wear a girls blouse at camp, are you?"

"Well, I won't wear it, but its sort of a way to remember her."

"It's all right," Lorin's dad intervened. "It's easy for us to forget how emotional young love can be."

"Shall I wash it then?" his mom asked.

Washing would take out Penny's scent and Lorin said, "no, it's fine. It doesn't need washing."

Lorin's mom looked at him as if she would say something and then thought the better of it. After breakfast, Lorin closed the door to his room. It was time to enact the first part of his plan. Since it would be too time consuming to shuttle clothes back and forth between the hiding place in the bathroom and the trunk in his bedroom, he had decided he would stage all his girls' things under his bed so the switch could be made that much more rapidly. He could also select the bra, panties and other clothes that he needed to switch into after his haircut in Poughkeepsie. He went into the bathroom, opened the panel and took out his precious clothes and put them under the bed. There was a bag of his bras and one of his panties, another for his swim suits and shorts and tops and one holding his crinoline. And then the most important bag of all was his dress. He prayed that it wouldn't be ruined lying at the bottom of his suitcase. The other girls probably would bring their dresses in garment bags, and he worried what they would think about the way he had packed his dress.

When he was done with his preparation he showered, put the last of the boy things in the trunk that his mother expected to find there and then went downstairs to see how the laundry was coming. As soon as his clothes were dried and folded he'd be there to carry them up and do the switch.

The clothes had completed the wash and his mother was in the act of putting them into the dryer when he appeared. "Excited about camp?" his mom asked.

"Yeah, but I guess I'm still more thinking about not seeing Penny."

"I know, your dad told me you were crying last night. That's so touching. She must be a very special person."

"She is. We have so much fun together. I feel like I can be myself with her."

His mom smiled at him. "I'm sure everything will work out in the fall. It's hard to meet a nice person and that should mean a lot for keeping it going in the future."

"I sure hope so," Lorin said.

Among the items in the laundry were Camp Dan tee shirts from past years and as his mom put them into the drier she said, "I've been wondering why you never got a Camp Dan tee shirt in the mail. Every year they always send one. Did it come and you didn't tell me?"

"No, mom. I was wondering the same thing," he lied. His mom would definitely not want to see the pretty pink tee shirt he got from Camp Shoni.

"I want you to complain about that when you arrive. They should give you a free shirt."

"OK, mom, I'll ask for one."

"Don't forget."

"I won't."

An hour later, it was 9:30 and the wash was done. Lorin anxiously sat in his bedroom. When his mom came in with the pile of laundry he rushed to take it from her. "I'll put it in the trunk," he said.

"We've got to go. I'll get your dad to help you carry the trunk downstairs."

Oh shit, Lorin thought to himself. This is going way to fast. The moment his mom left he raised the lid of the trunk, lifted out the top shelf in it, and madly grabbed the boys' clothes and ran them into the bathroom where he stacked them up behind the door. The door to his room was partly ajar and he noticed his sister staring in at him. "I think I forgot something" Lorin yelled at her and she shook her head and kept on walking. Lorin prayed she couldn't figure out what he was up to.

When the trunk was empty he placed his dress on the bottom and rapidly threw in his girls clothes taking them out of their bags since he figured it would look silly to have all his clothes bagged up when he got to camp. He could faintly hear the sound of his father downstairs and then he heard his father call up to him. "Ready Lorin?"

"NOT QUITE!" he screamed. He could hear his dad ascending the stairs and Lorin frantically completed tossing his stuff in and then just as his dad entered the room, in desperation, Lorin grabbed the top trunk shelf that was filled with small items such as soap, shampoo, and socks and flung it on top of the girls clothes piled underneath.

"ALL DONE" Lorin yelled.

"You don't have to scream," his father said, "and it wouldn't hurt to be gentle with the trunk. My goodness, you can't slam it around like that."

"Sorry, dad!" Lorin said with a weird smile on his face.

"My God you look tense Lorin!"

Lorin let out a strange laughing sound.

"Are you ready to lock it up?"

"Hunh, yup!" Out of the corner of his eye Lorin noticed that at least part of the clothes he had piled in the bathroom were visible from his bedroom. "But I've to go first!" he said, pointed to his stomach and ran into the bathroom slamming the door behind him.

"Are you sick?" his dad said through the door.

"No! I'll feel better in a minute," Lorin said. As quietly as possible he unscrewed the trap door and shoved his boys' clothes inside.

"What are all these bags?" his dad said.

"Oh nothing," Lorin said. "I was just cleaning out my room."

"Are you sure you have everything for your trunk?"

"Yeah!" Lorin said. The lid was open. If his dad looked underneath the top shelf he'd probably see a few bras and a panty or two.

There was so much boys stuff, Lorin was having trouble squeezing it into the opening. He finally had to take some clothes back out, push what was in there further in and then resume filling it. Lorin heard his father yell "what?" and then after a minute he said to Lorin, "you're mother wants me to check if you have your one good pair of corduroy pants."

"They're in the trunk, I'M SURE OF IT!"

"How far down?"

Lorin was almost done. He put the plate back on the opening and began frantically turning the screws. He flushed the toilet and ran out just as his dad was about to lift the top shelf off. Lorin lurched across the room in a frenzy, acting as if he had lost his balance. He screamed, made an Indian war whoop-like cry and headed right toward his dad, who jumped aside just as Lorin grabbed the lid of the trunk and slammed it shut with such velocity that the sound echoed throughout the room and downstairs like a gunshot. His mother yelled in alarm, "WHAT IN THE WORLD?"

"JESUS! LORIN! You almost chopped my hand off!" his dad yelled.

"I'm sorry dad, I stumbled, I lost my balance it was the only thing I could take hold of."

His dad looked at him with utter confusion and disbelief. "I don't know Lorin, you seem to be really losing it."

"I'm really sorry."

"Look Lorin. Are you..."

"Am I?"

"You know, high?"

"Dad! How can you say such a thing?"

"I've had some experience. Your behavior is fitting that profile."

"I promise you dad. You can trust me. I definitely have never taken drugs and I don't intend to start. I'm just excited and clumsy."

"OK. We don't have much time. Just calm down, way down. OK?"

"I will."

"I hope you didn't lock the keys inside."

"No, I've got them right here and Lorin produced a key chain with two identical keys on them.

"Alright, lock it up let's carry this down to the car."

They each grabbed an end and brought it downstairs to the car. On their way back into the house Lorin's mom saw them and said, "It sounded like a gun when off upstairs."

"Your son just about decapitated my hand. He fell on the trunk lid while leaping across the room. I guess we don't have to worry about him joining the ballet."

Lorin's mom chuckled and said, "I found one more shirt to go in the trunk."

"I'll just put it in my backpack," Lorin said and took the shirt from his mom and went back upstairs.

"We're ready to go," his dad called after him, "and throw out your trash."

"What trash?" his mom said.

"He's got a pile of empty bags up there. I just know about him."

Lorin crumpled the bags into a ball and put them into the trash can. He carefully filled his backpack with his girls outfit and put the shirt his mom had given him and other stuff on top of it. He took one long look around the room, checked under the bed and made sure there was no evidence of what he was about to do. In the bathroom he saw that he had missed one sock and he picked it up and put it in his dresser. He tightened the screws on the bathroom panel as tightly as he could and hid the screwdriver in his desk. He was all set here. When he came back in two months he'd have to deal with whatever he would have to deal with. One thing would obviously be to switch his girls clothes back to his boys' clothes and to somehow get his boys clothes to look like they had been at camp. That wouldn't be easy, but why worry about it now? He had a hundred other things to worry about.

 

***

 

The trip to the bus terminal was uneventful. A few minutes after they arrived the bus to Poughkeepsie showed up and Lorin watched as the driver loaded the trunk into the underneath compartment. Lorin's mom and dad and sister who had come along also, hugged him and Lorin found himself holding back tears. His family would be thousands and thousands of miles away and he'd be all alone in Camp Shoni masquerading as Lauren. It felt like a huge boulder was crushing him to the ground. There was still time to call it off; he just had to say the word. The driver called for everyone to board the bus and Lorin climbed in and took a window seat near the back and waved to his mom and dad. The bus backed out and then he was off down the road toward the highway. Lorin looked up at the sky and saw that the cloud cover had parted and the early summer sun shone down in full force. Lorin smiled and then he felt his heart rise up in happiness and excitement. He opened up his backpack, reached in and felt around in it for his padded bra. It was nice. In a couple of hours he'd be wearing it. He'd be a girl. He'd have a pretty pink Camp Shoni bunny tee shirt on and he'd be entering a world that held such wonders as he could never fully imagine. Just a few more hours. He sat back and relaxed. Months ago this moment seemed impossible to attain, yet here he was. Someone in heaven was looking out for him and maybe they would also do so while he was in Camp Shoni. He would soon find out.

 

End Camp Shoni, Chapter 8

  

  

  

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