Chapter 7
Gabriel
The first week of camp’s first session was always busy and always a struggle.
When Gabriel was the director of the boys’ camp last summer, he had slept fewer than four hours each night during that first week.
Things always went wrong in the first week.
Most of the counselors they hired were young college kids, all of whom had a little hockey experience either at the high school, club, or college level.
They were good kids, but they were kids, and they often made stupid choices in their free time or after dark.
Gabriel understood; he’d been like that when he was in college.
He was only a year older than some of the counselors, but he might as well have been a generation above them.
He was responsible for them and for their campers, who were middle- and high-schoolers who had come to the camp for two weeks of playing hockey in the woods, and he wanted everything to go smoothly.
He also wanted things to be easy for his parents.
His dad was glad to be back working with the camp, which he loved so much it was almost part of him.
But Don Ackermann was tired, and his body was older than he liked to admit.
The cancer had taken a toll on him, and he wasn’t the spry middle-aged man he used to be.
Tasks that had once been easy for him were now hard.
Gabriel led many of the activities that his father normally would, on top of handling many of the maintenance needs around the camp.
Hank the Crank still took point on keeping the grounds and maintaining the facilities, but he was in his seventies, and there were things he couldn’t do anymore.
Gabriel didn’t like working with Hank the Crank.
He was a grouchy old man who always found things to complain about.
He had been with the camp for decades, and apparently loved it, but you’d never know based on how he talked.
In addition to his other responsibilities, Gabriel found himself filling in sometimes as a coach for the boys’ camp.
Stu Chaudhry, the local gym teacher, had graciously agreed to take the position after Richie had quit so unexpectedly right before the start of camp, but Stu didn’t know much about hockey, let alone how to coach it.
Gabriel also didn’t know how to coach, but he was at least a competent player and could give basic, good advice to the boy campers.
The boys didn’t mind that he was an amateur.
They weren’t at the camp for expert instruction.
Some of them had dreams of the NHL, but even those kids knew those dreams were just dreams. They were happy to have two weeks in the woods away from their normal lives.
It was structured play for them, and Gabriel wanted all of them to have a good time.
He went to bed each night exhausted and sore.
He spent each day doing manual labor and at the old ice rink on their property, coaching the boys, and in the evenings after dinner, he met with the counselors in shifts to hear how things were going.
Each counselor led an extracurricular activity, some related to hockey, some more traditional summer camp activities, and Gabriel wanted a full report at the end of each day about how things had gone.
His father cared about each detail, and so Gabriel cared about the details, too.
After the meetings with counselors, it was campfire time.
There were two large campfires, one in the boys’ half of the camp, one in the girls’ half, where they would all gather and tell stories until bedtime at 10:00 p.m. After that, Gabriel had several more hours of administrative duties, and he would often patrol the camp after midnight to make sure no campers or counselors were sneaking out when they were supposed to be in their bunks.
It was hard work, but rewarding. He liked it and felt satisfied at the end of each day. He slept hard each night, waking up without remembering any of his dreams, if he even had them.
He didn’t see Drew at all during that first week of camp. He missed Drew and thought it was funny how you could miss someone so badly, even when you barely knew that person.
They texted every day, though Gabriel rarely had time to look at his phone.
When he had a spare moment, usually around lunch time and then again just before falling asleep, he’d check his messages and respond to anything Drew had sent him.
Drew wasn’t a frequent texter, but they fell into a rhythm of thoughtful, long messages in which they told each other about their days.
It was an easy, genuine connection, and one that Gabriel enjoyed.
Unlike the other staff members, Gabriel didn’t sleep on the camp’s property.
There was a cottage on the grounds where he could sleep if he wanted to, but he preferred to keep his privacy at his parents’ cottage on the beach.
His parents, during the summer, stayed in a log cabin on the camp’s property, as did Danielle and her wife, so there were plenty of adults available should a crisis arise in the middle of the night.
If, by chance, Gabriel was needed, he was only a few minutes’ drive away.
He liked to have some distance from camp, even if it wasn’t much.
It was a tradition among the senior staff at camp to end each week with late-night coffee in the mess hall.
The Saturday of the first week of camp, Gabriel dragged himself from the bonfire, where he’d just finished leading a rousing chorus of camp songs, to the Citadel.
His parents and Danielle were already there, drinking coffee and looking exhausted but happy.
Hank the Crank was also there, looking cranky and put-out.
Stu Chaudhry entered soon after Gabriel, stifling a yawn.
Gabriel fetched himself a large cup of strong black coffee and fell into a chair beside Danielle, who patted his shoulder.
She wasn’t a woman of many words, but her presence was comforting.
She could be as prickly as Hank, and was one of the few people who could stand up to him, but he loved her like an aunt.
“We’ve made it through the first week,” Don said congratulatorily.
“I know everyone is tired, but I want to thank you all for a job well done. I know I haven’t been able to do what I normally would, and camp wouldn’t function without you.
” He nodded to Stu. “And you’ve really saved us from being stuck in a bad place, Stu. Thanks for that.”
Stu stifled another yawn. Gabriel felt bad for the man.
He had two young kids at home and was stretching himself thin to be here for the boys every day.
He wasn’t particularly good at coaching hockey, and they all knew it, and he felt bad for the ways he couldn’t provide the level of coaching that Richie had when he was here.
Gabriel was picking up Stu’s slack, just as he was picking up slack around the whole camp.
They were understaffed this year, and none of them were talking about it.
“I think we’ve all earned a good night of sleep,” Don said.
Sunday was a day of leisurely activities at camp.
Campers were free to roam around certain parts of the property, and counselors organized games for them.
The senior counselors would be in charge for the day, and some of the senior staff, like Gabriel, would get the day off.
He was tempted to spend tomorrow sleeping, but there were other things he would rather do.
They talked for another fifteen minutes or so, drinking their coffee and swapping war stories from the week. Finally, they were all too tired to keep talking, and their mugs were empty.
Gabriel was the first to leave. He hugged his parents and Danielle, shook Stu’s and Hank’s hands, and then walked slowly to his car, stifling a yawn he’d caught from Stu.
He rubbed his eyes when he got into his car and pulled out his phone.
He had a long text from Drew, describing how he’d tried out a fish restaurant today and then gone back to a local bookstore that had become his favorite.
He was quite a reader, from what Gabriel had learned.
He told Gabriel about what he read, and Gabriel had already added several books to a list on his phone, wanting to read them whenever he had free time again.
Turning his car on and yawning once again, he typed out a short message:
Gabriel: It’s my day off tomorrow! I’m thinking of going to Turtle Dunes for part of the day. If you don’t have plans, I’d love if you joined!
Drew’s response came when Gabriel parked his car in the driveway of his parents’ cottage, where he was staying.
Drew: I’d love to. Maybe we could grab breakfast first?
Gabriel: As long as the breakfast isn’t before 8:00 a.m., that sounds great. I’ll be moving slow in the morning. It’s been a long week.
Drew: Sounds like it. Looking forward to it. We could go somewhere, or you can come by my place and I can cook. Whatever you prefer. I’m famous for my breakfast food.
Gabriel: That sounds lovely. Can I come over at 9:00?
Drew: Perfect. Any requests?
Gabriel: Gallons of coffee.
Drew: Consider it done.
Gabriel wasn’t fully sure how he made it into the cottage.
He was so tired he felt like he was having an out-of-body experience as he hung up his keys, kicked off his shoes, and shuffled to his bedroom.
He would’ve liked to shower, because he was sweaty and smelled like campfire smoke, but he didn’t have the energy.
He stripped down to his underwear, plugged his phone into its charger, and was asleep within minutes after falling into bed.