Sarah's Summer

Chapter 3: getting ready

Sarah showered for longer than usual, scrubbing anywhere she thought might've got wee on it with more vigour. She was a bit of a clean freak anyway, and this morning's wetting only made her more paranoid. Her soaking had been so severe, even some of her hair had gotten wet; so she had to wash her that too.

After about 45 minutes, she stepped out of the shower, wrapped herself in a fluffy towel, and dropped her way back to her room, where her Mum was just finishing up changing her sheets.

"Good thing we left that waterproof sheet on, wasn't it love?" asked Sarah's Mum rhetorically.

"Can we please just forget it Mum." Sarah said, looking to the floor, "Thanks for cleaning up."

Waving away her thanks, Sarah's Mum started back where she was before the morning's unfortunate incident.

"Do you still want to go out for breakfast slash brunch, Sarah? I get if you're not in the mood anymore?"

Sarah's Mum knew, despite her own matter of factness about the whole situation all those years ago, that bedwetting had affected her Daughter tremendously, and worried those emotional scars would re-open with this morning's accident.

"No Mum, it's fine; I'm fine. There's a new place just opened along the seafront that I saw on Instagram. It opened while I was still at Uni. Does lovely paninis apparently." Sarah said, "lots of veggie options for you, Mum", she added, remembering her Mum's recent dietary decision.

"That sounds lovely. I'll meet you at the front door in t minus 10 minutes", smirked Sarah's Mum. "I've got all your dirty laundry along with your sheets and PJs, so don't worry about bringing that down anymore. Just don't leave your wet towel on the floor young lady!", she added as she walked out the door.

Sarah finished drying herself off, shaking her head at her Mum still treating her like a kid. Did she not realise, Sarah thought, that she was now a fully grown, independent woman. A qualified nurse, able to help people back from the brink of death?! She sighed, knowing it was all from a place of love, and realising that pissing all over her bed again like she was a toddler (or in her case a teenager) last night didn't exactly help her argument.

Sarah opened the curtains of her upper floor bedroom's large bay window and beams of early British sun shone in, lighting the room and Sarah's mood along with it. She'd been at uni up north in Leeds, where sun was rather less of a given, even in summer, than it was here on the south east coast of Suffolk.

With the balmy looking weather in mind, Sarah dressed herself in a pair of short denim shorts and a simple yellow tee shirt which bore the logo of her beloved Norwich City Football Club. Some of her old school mates were meeting up down at the park later in the afternoon for a kick about and a post uni catch up so she wanted to be comfortable but also cute. She put on a pair of ankle socks and her trusty Vans lace ups, and went to meet her Mum at the door.

As usual, her Mum was dawdling, going through various bags looking for whatever it was she was looking for. Sarah checked her phone for a few minutes, catching up with messages and refreshing snapchat and Instagram. She saw that Camp Timber Lake had uploaded a new post, and she felt a flutter of excited nervousness. "Countdown to Camp!", it exclaimed in bold lettering, over a picture of a blazing campfire. The caption read: "Only 4 short weeks to go campers! You don't need to pack your bags quite yet! But stat tuned over the next few days, as we'll have some great previews to get you all excited for the summer in store!"

Sarah didn't need any previews – she was already super excited to fly over there in a few weeks time. She'd never even been out of the UK, never mind to America, so when the opportunity came up to be assistant nurse at Timber Lake, a medium sized traditional American summer camp in upstate New York like the ones she'd seen in countless movies and TV shows, how could she turn it down? Well, she couldn't. She flew out in 3 weeks to meet her fellow camp staff mates for orientation week, and she could hardly wait. That thought reminded her that she had a video call with Ellen Smith, the Head Camp Nurse, in a couple of days time, to discuss how everything was going to work. She marked the appointment down on her phone's calendar before she forgot.

Just as she was doing that, Sarah's phone dinged with a message from her favourite Aunt, Lucy. With a glance up to confirm her Mum was still rifling through various plastic supermarket bags in the cupboard under the stars, Sarah checked the message: could she come and babysit for Harry and Lottie tonight and stay over? The usual babysitter had bailed at the last minute.

Sarah had planned on going out to the pub with her mates tonight, or on to someone's house for a few drinks, but she thought that drinking wouldn't be such a hot idea after this morning, so typed out a quick response to the affirmative with a few kisses at the end. She loved her 12 year old cousin Lottie, who reminded her so much of herself at that age, and though she loved 10 year old Harry too, he could be a right handful. Still, it would be nice to see them and they both adored her, plus she was doing Aunty Lucy, who doubtless had yet another date or impossible to miss night out, a massive favour.

Sarah looked up from her phone once more. Her Mum had finally found her the sun lotion she had evidently been searching for. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Mum, it's only 10 o'clock, the Sun's barely in the sky!" Sarah chuckled, "You don't need that!"

"I might not, but you do!", replied Sarah's Mum. Sarah had always had very pale skin, and Sarah's Mum was always very conscious of that. Sarah found herself rolling her eyes, but knew from past experience that they wouldn't be leaving the premises until a generous layer of the factor 50 cream had been applied, so she acquiesced, slathered on the lotion, and off they went.