"Who is ready for the second annual Mendes-Burroughs camping extravaganza?!" my dad shouted as we stood outside our fully packed minivans.
"I think you mean glamping," Eric said with a scowl.
Our first camping trip was last summer and it had been a little bit of a disaster. It had rained two of the four nights and our "waterproof" tents had flooded. Someone (me) hadn't completely closed the cooler with the perishable food and the ice melted overnight. This meant we had to toss all the yummy things and just eat canned or boxed stuff. On top of that, my mom discovered bear tracks just twenty meters from our campground which freaked her out.
This year, Lisa handled the arrangements. She rented a small cabin at Algonquin Park, right on the water. It was surrounded by several acres of woods, so anyone who wanted to rough it could stay in a tent. The moms said they could be found in the three room rustic house where there was a refrigerator to chill their wine, running water, and toilets. Eric and my dad said they wouldn't be setting foot inside the cabin since that was cheating and not real camping. Ceci and I hadn't decided on where we'd stay but to be honest, being in a house sounded better than getting eaten up by mosquitos.
"Why is my dad so corny?" I whispered to my best friend.
"I dunno, but I think it's a requirement for being a father."
It took a few minutes to decide on the driving arrangements. In the end, me, Ceci, and both dads took our van while Aaliyah rode with the moms in the other one. Their music would be better than ours, but we were more likely to stop and get junk food along the way. I could put up with hits from the 90's as long as I got some sugary crap.
Ceci and I had each gotten an iPod Touch last Christmas, so we amused ourselves with offline games for most of the ride.
"Back in our day, we had to entertain ourselves on road trips by playing the license plate game or singing songs," Eric said.
"How did you survive?" Ceci asked sarcastically.
"It was better! We used our brains!" my dad answered.
Ceci and I looked at each other and both of us rolled our eyes.
"I'd be down for singing," I offered, "but I don't know any Pearl Jam or Nirvana or whatever this is."
"Manuel...you've failed as a father if you haven't been playing good music for your kids. It's part of their basic education!" Eric said with false seriousness.
"Can you identify this group, Cecilia?" my dad asked.
"It's Cake and the song is The Distance," she replied.
"Very good," my dad said, clearly impressed.
"I prefer Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, though," Ceci said. "There really weren't enough strong female solo artists during the 90's."
"Not true! Look at Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette," Eric argued.
"Good choices, but it's not like today where women dominate the charts," she said.
The conversation ended when we stopped to buy live bait for fishing and snacks for me and Ceci. A couple hours later we arrived at the cabin where the first order of business was unloading the vans. After that, the two large tents were pitched in a clearing deep in the woods that had a fire pit surrounded by large rocks. Apparently we weren't the only people who wanted both a campsite and a cabin.
Ceci and I were sent off to gather sticks for kindling while our parents blew up the air mattresses for the tents using a battery operated pump.
"Are you sleeping in the cabin?" I asked my friend as we trudged through the woods.
"Naw. I think I'll stay with my dad in the tent. I like falling asleep to the outdoor noises."
"Like bears who are considering eating you?"
"There were only two fatal bear attacks in all of North America last year, so I'm pretty sure that won't happen."
"You looked that statistic up, didn't you?" I asked, though I knew the answer. Ceci was brilliant and was always researching facts.
"Knowledge is power, which is why you're so weak," she teased.
"Ha ha ha." I was a little scrawny, but I was still bigger than her.
That night we sat around the fire after a satisfying meal of hot dogs, baked beans, and s'mores. Aaliyah fell asleep in my dad's arms, so he carried her back to the cabin with my mom and Lisa leading the way with their flashlights. He returned a little while later and sat down in his folding chair after grabbing a drink from the cooler.
"So what do you think, Eric? Are the kids old enough to hear some scary stories?" he asked as he opened a can of beer.
"Yes!" Ceci and I shouted at the same time.
Eric chuckled. "Okay, but let's start with something that won't make them piss their pants."
My dad told a story about a hitchhiker that was spooky, but not pee-inducing. Eric told a couple other stories that got increasingly scary. I found myself turning around and looking behind me whenever I heard a noise in the woods.
"This next one is pretty terrifying," my dad said in a low voice, "because it's true. In fact, it happened in this part of Ontario around ten years ago."
Ceci snorted. "Impressive set up, but I'm not buying it."
"No? Well you can search and find the story online."
"It was all over the news," Eric added.
My dad then proceeded to tell a story about a couple who got lost in the woods and happened upon a group of ax murdering cannibals. Only one of them lived to tell the story, but when she brought the police to the area her boyfriend had been slaughtered and eaten, there was no evidence, other than a still-smoldering campfire.
"Th-that really happened?" I asked.
"It did. The poor girl ended up going crazy because no one believed her," my dad said.
"I am verifying it later, but that was a fantastically crafted scary story!" Ceci enthused with not even a hint of fear in her voice.
"Cecilia, don't ever change," my dad told her.
"I need to pee," I said, standing up.
"There's the woods, kiddo. Just make sure to go far enough that we don't see anything," Eric advised, pointing to the dense dark forest.
"Um, I think I'll go back to the cabin to do it," I said.
"Why? The whole outdoors is your bathroom when you're camping!" my dad barked.
"Gross," Ceci muttered.
"I need to brush my teeth, too," I explained. "Those sticky marshmallows could give me a cavity."
"Good point. Grab the flashlight and take Ceci with you so that you can both take care of all that before we hit the sack," Eric told me.
I picked up the old metal flashlight and turned it on. Ceci got out of her seat and joined me at the edge of the woods.
"You two know where you're going?" my dad asked.
"Straight that way," Ceci said, pointing directly in front of us.
We started walking. Once we got out of range of the campfire's glow, the woods became pitch black, aside from the narrow yellow beam from the flashlight, because it was a moonless night.
"That last story really was good and extra creepy," Ceci said.
"Can we not talk about it when we're alone in the woods?"
"You scared?"
"No, but I want to focus on getting to the cabin. I really need to piss," I lied.
That's when the flashlight started to flicker. I banged it on the palm of my hand like I'd seen my dad do, which caused it to go out completely.
"Oh shit!" I said as I started to panic, spinning around in circles. "I can't see anything!"
Ceci grabbed my free hand. "Hold on. Our eyes will adjust to the darkness in a second."
We stood there until the trees started to come into focus.
"Which way do we go?" I asked.
"I, uh, think we were headed this way," she said as she started walking.
"You're not sure?" I whisper yelled as I came to a stop. "What if we get lost?"
"Then I guess the cannibals will eat us."
"Shut up! That's not funny!"
"We could shout and our dads would come get us," she said.
"But then they'd make fun of us."
"Okay, so let's keep-"
Ceci was interrupted by the sound of branches being trampled behind us. I was positive it was either a murderer or a hungry bear, so I took off running, pulling her with me. When the light of the cabin appeared in the distance, I felt such relief.
"What the heck, Shawn!" Ceci said when we got to the porch of the log house. "I've got scratches all over my legs now from being dragged through the brambles!"
"Sorry. I got a little scared. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"I won't. And I'll tell our moms that I want to sleep in the cabin tonight. You'll have to stay, too, since you can't walk back to the campsite alone."
Ceci could read me like a book. She would have preferred staying in the tent, but she knew there was no way in hell I could make the trek back after that scare.
She was the best friend ever.