Chapter 1: The Request

The Week Before, Friday Night, and Saturday Morning

My name is Mick O’Dell and I don’t know why I did this. I really don’t.

I was always happy to just vacation near wherever I lived, if I vacationed at all, and see the local sights. My job allowed me to accumulate a certain number of hours off for each week that I worked; each and every year I lost vacation hours because the company only rolled over a max of 40 unused hours. As I said, I never used much vacation time.

Ever.

After the way my early life rolled out, and three active duty tours with the Army, I just didn’t do vacations. For one thing, I didn’t like to go places alone. For another, I didn’t make friends, male or female. I was THE quintessential loner. So, you do the math. I don’t have friends and I don’t like going places alone. Ergo, I don’t go anywhere that would cause me to use vacation time. It’s not like I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t go out, or date, and I had enough in savings, between what I earned in the Army and from my earnings from my job. So I could spend a good amount on going somewhere if I wanted to.

One day I heard some of the women at work talking about going camping, and that intrigued me. I thought that a few weeks alone in the woods would fit me to a tee. I could handle the cost of buying, or better yet renting, equipment. I would still need to find somewhere to go. I thought that I could ask the women where they went camping. But then I thought, no, they might think I was interested in them, and I wasn’t.

As I said earlier, I don’t date. I don’t make friends and, what’s more, I don’t have social interactions at work. I go to work and I do my job. If that meant that I needed to talk to people, I did, because I had no problem helping someone who needed help. But I never let that interaction turn into a friendship or even an acquaintance. I had my reasons. I suppose that people thought that I was just a nice, really shy, guy.

The only thing that I think I have going for me, is that two years ago, after being in great shape from all the PT (physical training) in the Army, I started to feel fat. At that point I figured that I better get off my dead ass and start working out. So, just like that, I did by starting off walking a little and building up.

Now let me explain some more. Being the person that I am, I don’t like to walk to just walk, I mean if I’m specifically going somewhere then a 5-10 mile walk is nothing. I don’t run. Long story, I don’t run. I’m in pretty good shape. I lift weights 3 times a week and walk 3 miles, at a pretty good pace, to and from work, each day. I’m told that I look pretty good for 30, and some have told me I look about 10 years younger than I really am. The few times I went out to a new bar, I was usually carded.

Anyway, back to my job and vacation. After three straight years of my losing over 90 hours of vacation time, the HR manager approached my boss and complained to him. It seems that someone was worried that if I left the company in less than an agreeable manner, I would sue the company for the vacation time I never took. My boss decided to take the gentle approach, the only way to really get to me, and he threatened my life if I didn’t take three weeks off; not a week here and there, mind you, but three straight weeks. What the hell was I going to do for three weeks?

Now keep in mind that it had been over 6 years since I really took any time off and that was before being deployed the first time. I had nowhere to go and nothing I wanted to do, but now that I knew that I had to go, I guess I would have to come up with something. Maybe some of the national parks that were within a few days drive, like Yosemite or Yellowstone, or maybe Devils Tower or Mount Rushmore.

I was at work on the Friday before I was to start my forced vacation, and still had no concrete idea of what to do. I was having a cup of coffee in the cafeteria and reading a book on my eBook reader when I heard a quiet, friendly voice behind me.

“Excuse me, Mick. Can I join you for a few minutes?”

“Huh? Oh! Hello Diana. Yeah, go ahead,” I answered so flatly that my response must have sounded truly uninviting.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go elsewhere. I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said and remained standing.

“Disturbed? No. No, not at all! I guess I’m just not used to having people talk to me. I mean socially.”

“Well, you are a bit closed up,” she chuckled gently. “Several people would love to talk to you and get to know you ... if you didn’t always seem so off putting.”

“Is that why you wanted to sit with me? To correct my behavior?” I asked, purposely sounding a little testy.

“No,” Diana answered firmly. She looked at me, then the chair, then me again.

Taking the hint, after dropping my head in defeat, I stood, smiled, and pulled out the chair for Diana, and let her sit before taking my own seat. I wondered what Diana was up to, since I worked across the building from her and in a different department. I had noticed that, most days we seemed to have lunch at the same time. I’d always thought that she was attractive, but I didn’t date so no point in talking to her. Even if I had wanted to talk to her, she was about three light years out of my league.

“Excuse me. Please let me start over,” I took a deep breath. “Hello Diana. Please join me, what can I do for you?”

“How’s it going, Mick?” she answered warmly.

“OK. I guess I’m a bit stressed just now. My boss told me a few weeks ago that I had to take a three-week vacation, or he would kick my butt. It’s supposed to begin after work today, and I still haven’t decided where to go.”

“I heard. I have a girlfriend in HR, and she was amazed that you have seldom taken any vacation time while you’ve been working here.”

“Well, I guess HR has been getting after my boss. The truth is, I haven’t taken any vacation time since I started here. I’ve been losing a whole lot of vacation hours.”

“My girlfriend says that her boss is afraid that if you leave this job under a bad situation that you will sue them for over-working you.”

“I kinda figured that might be the case. I like my job and besides there is nowhere I want to go.”

“Mick,” Diana looked at me with a very serious expression on her face. “No one loves their job that much. Is being alone the real reason for not going anywhere?”

“Diana, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t ‘hang out’ with anybody here at work. Out here, in the world, I don’t do anything but work. Except for going to a discount movie or two on Tuesday nights, I kind of choose to limit my social life.”

“Yeah, some of my friends and I have noticed. They say they’ve invited you to join our group for drinks and stuff after work, but you always beg off.”

“I guess I’ve gotten used to my life as a hermit and I don’t see the need to break that mold. I guess I’m just a big chicken.”

“Well then, let me invite you again to come and spend some time with our group. We would really like to get to know you.”

“I guess for the next three weeks I can’t use work as an excuse can I?”

“No, you can’t,” Diana smiled an all knowing smile.

“OK, what will you be doing? Karaoke? Bar hopping? Bowling?”

“Camping!”

“Crap.” I didn’t quite shout it out, but I definitely said it before I could stop myself.

“Where did that come from?” Diana looked shocked at my reaction.

“I heard some women talking about camping, but I barely leave my apartment.” I took another deep breath and slowly released it, trying not to freak out. “Actually, I was thinking about going to a national park, but I didn’t know where to get the gear to go camping.”

“OK, well what we do is not all that rough. We go to a campground and stay in cabins. The couples have two-person cabins and the singles have one-person cabins. Each cabin has a room that serves as a bedroom/living room and a bathroom that has a toilet with a small sink. There is also a common building, a clubhouse, that has lots of tables and couches and cooking areas and showers.”

“And you call that camping?”

“Yeah! We don’t stay inside of the cabin all day. We spend a lot of time hiking around the surrounding hills and trails and sunning and swimming in their man-made pond. We even get involved with sand volleyball and horseshoe tournaments. But mostly it’s fun and relaxing ... and most importantly, it’s not work.”

“So, you don’t have to bring any equipment or paraphernalia with you?” I was looking for an out.

“Well, I mean you need to bring stuff to wear because it is warm in the days and gets cool once the sun goes down. I usually bring shorts and t-shirts for the day and a fleece and sweatpants for warmth at night. You have to bring your own sheets and pillow covers and towels, a lot of towels. They supply the bed, mattress and blankets. We shop for food when we get there and cook in their kitchen.”

“All the campers use one kitchen?” This could be an unsanitary way out.

“Yes! There are eight stoves and eight refrigerators and a ton of cabinets. We label everything that is ours and we are assigned an area inside one of the refrigerators and a section of cabinets. It is fun, Mick! You have to come with us.”

“I’ll think about it.” I gave my well practiced reply.

“Good! I’ll get a cabin reserved for you.” Diana almost jumped for joy.

“What? No! I said I’d think about it.”

“Right, that means that you’ll do it! This is going to be so much fun!” Diana seemed overly excited.

“You used to be a cheerleader, didn’t you?” I asked sarcastically.

“No! I just am a little excitable when good things happen. I also get a little depressed when things go wrong. I guess I don’t have a very well used middle to my emotions.”

Seeing defeat on the horizon, I took a deep breath and slowly let it out to gather myself. The fact that I’d been thinking of doing something out doors led me to believe that it was time to come out of my shell a little bit, although doing it with Miss Bubbly and her happy, happy, joy, joy crowd made me feel a bit unsettled.

“Oh all right. When should I plan on this?” I don’t know why I gave in; it was so out of my character. She was just so happy.

“We, our group that is, are going to take our vacations together beginning next week for two weeks.”

“Two weeks!?” Oh joy.

“Yes, Mick, two weeks of fresh air and new friends and not working. You get to go to bed when you want and sleep until you wake up without an alarm clock. Two weeks of complete freedom.”

“Yeah ... and two weeks camping with total strangers.”

“Except me.” Diana sounded hurt by what I said.

“Except you? This is the first time we have shared more than a few words. I think that still qualifies you as a stranger.”

“Right! But now I’m only a stranger, and not a total one.” Diana sounded so damn excited. “It’ll be good for you. All of us want to get to know the shy guy.”

“Two weeks living in a one-room cabin and walking in the woods with strangers. Oh boy!”

“Please don’t sound so disappointed. Come on, I know you are going to love it. I think that the problem with you really, is that you don’t like to do things out of your rut.”

“You might be right, Diana,” I surrendered.

“Goody! Give me your phone number and I’ll call you with all the wonderful details.” Again, like she hit a switch, just so excited.

I wrote my number on a sticky note and handed it to her.

“I’m going to ask one more thing of you,” Diana said in a more subdued voice.

“What?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“Would you please ride up with me. I don’t want to drive up there by myself. It’s a five-plus hour drive and having someone to talk to makes it go faster.”

“Diana, I’m not sure ... that doesn’t sound like something I would be comfortable doing.”

“Why?” She turned the happy switch off.

“Because I’m worried about what you’re going to talk me into in five hours, especially after what you talked me into today in thirty minutes,” I answered as flatly as possible.

She laughed, and I had to join her after a few seconds. My God, she was contagious! When she got up to leave, she patted me on the back of my hand as it rested on the tabletop.

“I’ll call you on Tuesday, Mick,” she said as she stood and quickly walked away.

“OK. Bye, Diana,” I quietly said to her back.

When I got home that Friday night, I started to look at my inventory of things I would need for two weeks of cabin camping. I pulled out my suitcase and pulled out four pairs of cargo shorts and all eight of the t-shirts I had in my dresser. I packed six towels, leaving the really ratty ones on the shelf. Then I thought about sheets.

I slept in a queen bed. I wondered what size beds they had in the cabins. Oh well it was Friday night and I could wait until Tuesday for Diana’s call before I figured out what to do. Worst case, I could run down and buy some cheap single or full-size sheets on Wednesday or Thursday.

I went to my favorite sports bar on Monday night and watched the baseball game that was on. I drank more than usual, since I could sleep in on Tuesday. When I woke up I went for a long walk with my headphones on, despite being up peeing too many times that previous night because of all the beer I drank, I needed to walk off the carbs.

After the long walk, I had breakfast, and just before noon, Diana called.

“Hi, vacation guy! How’s it going?”

“OK. It has been a strange week without regular hours to keep me centered.”

“Yeah, you need a vacation to remember how to do stuff differently. What are you doing for the rest of the week?”