Howdy Doody

The Geppetto Project

Chapters 9-10

Chapter Nine

Green Tree Goes Co-ed

To make things even better, in 2003 Hurricane Isabel created the conditions to make the camp season even longer, from 12 weeks to 18 weeks. The boys would now be in camp from mid June to mid October to avoid any storms back at school. Not one of the boys voiced opposition as they boarded the busses for camp.

Sammy lived with seven other boys and three staff members at school in his house known as Beachview, and now the same group would live together in a cabin at camp. Along with 9 year old Sammy, there was Jesse who was about to turn 13, David who was 11, Joey 9, Trevor10, Christopher10, Matty 10 and Spencer who would be 9 in three weeks. The boys would live with Adam, Sid, and Anthony just as they did at school.

As the buses pulled off Interstate 77 the two day ride from the Florida Keys was at an end and the boys' roar of appreciation was fairly unmistakable to anybody within earshot.

It took probably another 20 minutes or so for the buses to pull in through very formidable looking chain link fence gates past extremely somber looking guards replete with dogs, guns and enough camera's to shoot a Hollywood epic thought Adam as the buses rolled past them in a blizzard of dust and exhaust that had them backing away as the boys banged away at the windows and screamed all the louder. The boys were back and these were very special boys. Not one of the guards knew that, they only knew that anybody else attempting to enter the property was to be shot on sight if the attempt was made.

Adam watched the guards as the buses rolled past wondering what they were thinking as the buses rolled past them with windows too tinted to see into. Did they question their orders? Were they curious about the contents of the buses? Would they really shoot someone if they attempted to trespass? Most probably, Adam thought to himself as Sammy came running up the isle of the bus. "We're here Uncle Adam! We're here!" Sammy screamed as the boy jumped into his teachers lap and looked out the window that was now passing through a forest of very tall pine trees.

Even in the air conditioned bus Sammy and most of the other boys had already stripped down to shorts and left clothing littering the seats and isle. Adam watched as Sammy's heart beat twice as fast as it normally did on the little boy. Adam knew it was going to be a mad dash once the buses door was opened and the boys streamed out to jump into the lake, they were on the road for two days, and were damned tired of it.

Sammy's eyes gleamed as the buses pulled alongside of each other one by one and the little boy once again looked out over the lower campus that he had not seen since last August when he left camp to fly back to school with Adam. As the air brakes of the bus let go, so did Sammy as he leaped off Adam as quickly as he got on and disappeared up the isle.

"I guess he's happy to be back!" Anthony said as he stood up and pulled down bags from the luggage racks. Adam smiled.

"I think we all are."

Most of the adults and senior boys were much too smart to get in the way as the bus driver hit the button that opened the door and the boys stampeded for the lake barely trampling each other on the way out. Their summer had begun and shorts went flying in every direction as very tanned asses hit the water.

"What the hell took you so long good buddy?" Sid asked Adam as the two friends met at the front of the bus. Adam smiled.

"Listen Sid, anytime you want to stay behind and send me up first, please be my guest!" Adam said as the two men headed for the Director's cabin.

Adam and Sid mounted the porch to Bert's cabin and Adam sat down as Sid went inside only to reappear with two very cold beers. Adam watched as the boys surrounded Bert at the bottom of the stairs and greeted the man they hadn't seen now for maybe 48 to 72 hours.

"Now you know why he doesn't go on vacations. If he was gone for a week, we'd have to have an engraved invitation to speak with him!" Sid said to Adam as the two watched their boss with the boys. Adam again smiled, but he also knew he'd see the same scene if Sid went away for any length of time. Bert, as the Headmaster/Director of Green Tree and Sid, as the Assistant to Bert were the two most popular men at the school. To these boys, they were not merely teachers or counselors or administrators, they were everything that meant anything.

Within a minute or two, Jeanette from the Lower camp climbed the stairs leading two year old Kenny by the hand as he picked up one robust little leg after another mounting the steps that were almost half his height. Adam once again smiled as he watched the little boy. It had been nine month's since he had first laid eyes on the baby as he nursed off his caretaker, and he was now probably twice the size. Kenny sported a pair of Carter's that didn't look like the driest pair of underpants in the world and Adam went for a preemptive strike.

"Kenny boy, you came all this way just to see Uncle Sid?" he asked the boy as he mounted the top step. Sid smiled and looked over to Adam and then back at the child as he held his hands out. Kenny scooted into Sid's lap and started climbing up the man's chest as Jeanette reached a chair next to Adam and sat down.

"It's hot, but at least it's not frying us," Jeanette said as she greeted both men.

"Take care of these old pal," Sid said as Adam felt a soggy pair of underpants being deposited in his lap.

Jeanette giggled a bit as she watched Kenny now standing in Sid's lap giving the man a hug while Adam picked up the boys underpants and dropped them down to the porch in a squishy thud. Sid patted the boys dimpled bottom as he rocked the chair and kissed his face half a dozen times.

"I can always count on you!" Sid said to the boy not really expecting a response from the little boy. Adam shook his head "Isn't it just about time for the little tyke to drop a load in Uncle Sid's lap?" he asked Jeanette.

"Don't be silly pal, everybody in camp knows Kenny makes his deposits between two and three and it's almost five," Sid said.

"Ain't that right tiger?" Kenny giggled as he continued to step all over Sid's lap.

With a small clamor, Bert now mounted the steps followed by half a dozen boys of varying age who were intent upon raiding the man's refrigerator for some soda. Bert sat down as Kenny now found another interesting lap to explore and crawled down to the floor. As he waddled over to Bert, the man scooped him up and gave him a kiss on his neck that had Kenny once again giggling as he squirmed.

"How was the trip?" Bert asked Adam.

"It began very quietly, but by the time we reached Alligator Alley, the shit hit the fan," Adam replied.

"Shit, I always had my boys hanging out the windows before we reached Key Largo!" Sid responded. Bert and Jeanette now giggled. The ride was almost 12 hours to Valdosta, and then another six the next day to camp. It was difficult for the boys to just sit still even given the fact that they had each bus half loaded to give the boys ample room to play and work off their energy during the ride. Nobody, especially the bus drivers, were unhappy when it was over.

As the empty buses now backed out and left the grounds, Adam looked over towards the lake and watched a frothing mass of water as close to 150 boys worked off the ride.

A small mountain of luggage was slowly being loaded onto golf carts and flatbed trailers, and off to the left of the beach, a small gaggle of about 25 girls stood about 500 feet [150 m] away intently watching the new arrivals from a safe distance. Adam watched the girls for about 10 or 15 seconds and then looked over to the boys in the water.

"Well, I guess our new campers now know what our boys look like," Adam said as he smiled once again.

Bert looked over to the girls.

"They've had the last two weeks to study anatomy 101, but for the most part, their studies have been in the miniature department," Sid chuckled.

"It's going to be real interesting when Brian takes a bow." All three staff members now chuckled. Brian was 12 years old and would be going to the senior boys group in the Fall when they returned to school. Brian was also a boy diagnosed as a child with precocious puberty. He began maturing sexually as a two year old and by six could rival most adult males both in size as well as stamina. At twelve, Brian was a very well endowed male and could send most 12 to 16 year old girls scampering back to their mothers for protection.

The girls had arrived from their old school which had to close in Montana, and they were now being merged into Green Tree Academy which, in the past, was strictly for boys. The two sexes had never before been in contact with each other, and Bert and his staff knew they were in for a very interesting season. For the past two weeks the girls had been at camp with the Camp Kenny boys, all of which ranged in age from two to seven. Now the intermediate boys had arrived and they were aged eight to twelve.

As most little girls will tell you, a two to seven year old boy is generally a cute cuddly little rascal that is most useful for the purpose of playing 'Mommy' when the fancy strikes her. Eight to twelve year old boys on the other hand, were usually annoying, smelly, rude and obnoxious little creatures that needed to be put into cages until they learned manners and learned how to treat girls with the proper dignity and respect they most certainly deserved. At the same time, it was interesting to see what the future might offer them from a boy so long as the boy never suspected the reason for the inquisitiveness. From about 500 feet [150 m], evaluations were being made, and in the opposite direction, very few of the boys knew the girls were there; nor would they have cared very much even if they did.

"We're going to have to get together to brainstorm this thing and come up with a program," Bert told the three staff members.

"We've always run this place very loosely organization wise, and that's not going to cut it in the future. The kids are going to need a structured program to follow, so let's put together a group that knows camping. Adam, Sid's got enough on his plate between his administrative duties and the stables, so you head a team and come back to me with a plan that's going to keep this place from becoming the biggest whore house that North Carolina ever saw."

With the boys' body temperatures now back to reasonable levels, they started leaving the lake and climbed onto trucks and golf carts for the short hop up the trail to the upper camp where the Intermediate boys would now be housed. The lower camp and the lake would hold the Junior Boys and Senior boys, and the Girls camp was now completed where they would live separately. The girls called their camp Pine Ridge, named for their old school in Montana.

In a cloud of dust, noise and ringing bells, horns and whistles, the girls watched as the boys disappeared up the trail. Slowly, they made their way to the lake passing by a beach littered with shorts, shirts, underpants and socks. The staff on the porch watched the small group of girls as they made their way to Bert's cabin. One of the older and braver of the girls spoke first.

"Are they going to run around naked all the time Aunt Jeanette?" she asked. Jeanette smiled.

"They usually swim naked, but once they know you're around, you'll probably see a little less skin for the next week or so," she told the girl's.

"For the most part, they wear clothing, but it really depends upon what they are doing at the time. They have been told you're here and they have been told to avoid being naked just to impress you."

"That won't be hard," one of the girls responded. Some of the girls giggled a bit.

"Well now, don't be too sure!" Sid now quipped.

"Ignore Uncle Sid, he's just a silly boy," Bert told the group of girls.

"It will take a little time for all of us to get use to being around each other and the boys will be made aware that there's a time and place for them to be naked. For now, what you wear in your camp and what they wear in theirs is your business. We'll have them put clothing on in public areas, but the lake and pool is not considered public," Bert said. "So if we want to swim we have to be looking at boys things?" one girl asked. Sid was about to speak as Jeanette covered his mouth with her hand.

"If it becomes a problem we can have a girls' swim and a boys' swim, but I don't think the boys want to show you theirs any more than you want to show them yours," she replied. Again, some of the girls giggled.

"Trust me; boys are just as shy about running around naked as girls are. They might talk a big line, but I'll bet if they knew you were watching them just now you wouldn't have seen half as much as you did," she told the girls. The girls didn't look convinced, but they did now drift back off the porch steps and headed to the recreation room where the rest of their friends were hiding.

"Gee Jeanette, you act like I was going to say something inappropriate!" Sid said to the girl acting hurt. The girl shook her head.

"Whatever we do boss, keep this pervert away from them or he'll corrupt every single one of them within a month!" Jeanette told Bert.

"Aw hell, that's not fair! I haven't corrupted any one of the Camp Kenny girls have I?" Sid responded. Again, Jeanette shook her head.

"Sid, can you name one girl you haven't slept with yet?" she asked the Assistant Director. Sid thought hard for a few very quick seconds.

"Come on Adam, we gotta go to work!" he finally said as he stood up and kissed Jeanette goodbye on the forehead.

"It was fun!" he said as he walked down the stairs amid giggles. Bert shook his head as he stood up with Kenny and handed the boy to the woman.

"It's going to be a very interesting summer!" he said.

"Not one?"

"No, not one!" Jeanette replied as she put Kenny on her hip and bent down to retrieve his underpants.

The trip up the trail to the upper camp was a quick one, probably made quicker by Sid's foot on the power peddle.

"So, when you're not being a dirty old man deflowering virgin maidens, what else do you do?" Adam asked his friend.

"She's gotta be wrong! There must be one or two of them I haven't slept with yet," Sid responded deep in thought.

As the cart pulled up to the cabin, Sid pulled on the cord to the ice cream bells he had found in an old junkyard. Each golf cart driven by a staff member had a unique horn, bell or whistle sound which identified the arriving staff member without the boys having to actually see them. As Sid's bells chimed, the screen door to the cabin flew open as half a dozen boys streamed out onto the porch.

"I'm headed to the stables," Sid told the boys.

"If anybody wants to throw nuggets, now's the chance!" he said to the boys as they clamored aboard his cart. Once again, Adam shook his head. It was less than an hour before dinner, the boys would return reeking from horse shit, and, he didn't need to go inside the cabin to know that there was clothing unpacked and not put away.

"Get them showered before they come down to bivouac and make sure they have drawers on!" Adam yelled to Sid as he scooted across the ball fields heading for the stables.

Sammy was giddy with excitement as he rode with Sid along with Jesse, David, Joey, Trevor, Christopher and Matty. Only Spencer remained behind in the cabin with Anthony still unpacking, and the boys were now headed to the one place in camp that was their absolute favorite; the stable which now held four dozen horses, a few dozen chickens and a cat with a litter of kittens about five weeks old. The cat was new to camp having found itself a home on its own just before giving birth. Sid didn't mind, cats kept the barns and stable area free from mice, moles and rats who were instantly attracted by the horses feed.

With the addition of the girls, it was now necessary to bring in more horses. The girls rode, but unlike the boys who trail rode, they rode dressage. This meant another breed of horse altogether. It also meant another riding instructor since Sid was not a teacher of dressage. Sid's assistant was named Patricia, and the two were already getting along very well. Not as well as the Camp Kenny girls quite yet, but the two had only been together for two weeks.

Including Patricia, Sid had a senior boys staff of six who groomed and tacked the horses.

Once the Intermediate boys showed up in camp, they would feed and muck the stalls, lay down new straw for bedding and even wash the horses down, but for the most part, the boys spent the majority of their time riding on and not taking care of the horses. Sid also had a bit of explaining to do to Patricia, something he pretty much avoided for the first two weeks. Now, as the woman looked up from the riding ring watching a couple dozen boys forking down both hay and straw from the barn loft, the talk could no longer be avoided.

"I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not Patty, but the boys generally ride bare assed," Sid began the conversation as the girl watched probably half the boys working naked in and around the stable area.

"No Sid, I don't recall us having that little discussion," the girl replied.

"Is there any particular reason they do that?" she asked.

"Matter of convenience I guess. They generally always ride double and it saves time and wear and tear on clothing," Sid said rather sheepishly.

"From the schedule I reviewed, we're going to be riding both boys and girls at the same time. Bert can't be thinking that the girls are going to be watching the boys ride off into the sunset doing each other right?" Patty asked Sid.

"I guess they wouldn't understand huh?" Sid replied.

"Sid, let's get real. We need to adjust the rules a little bit. Besides, how do they avoid getting their thighs chafed off?"

"Lamb's wool blankets mostly, but let's face it, they're not running barrel races or jumping fences."

"Lucky for them," the girl replied.

"Maybe it won't matter in a few weeks or a month down the road, but for now, let's get them to at least put on a pair of shorts until they get down the trail." Patty suggested. Sid nodded his head as the two sat on the fence rail watching hay and horse shit fly around the corral.

"So I guess this means we need to cancel the co-ed campouts too huh?" Patty smiled and shook her head as she got off the fence.

"Gloria told me to be very careful around you!"

Sid smiled to himself as he watched the girl walk back into the barn. Patty was 25 and a very cute 25 with a very smart head on her shoulders and a body that told the 49 year old he still had what it took if he was as wise as he was when he attended Georgetown University almost 30 year earlier. Patty had a personality that matched Sid's and the two seemed both compatible and comfortable around each other. Without a question in the man's mind, he was devoted to and loved the boys very deeply, but he was NOT against rolling in the hay with a very pretty girl, and Patty was certainly that!

Adam walked into the cabin to a scene he damned well knew existed. The cabin was awash in clothing, toys and personal effects of the boys and piece by piece he picked them up and began putting them in the appropriate boys cubby or closet. Out of absolute necessity, every boy's piece of clothing was labeled with his name, and every toy had his name on it and by just before dinner, Adam, Spencer and Anthony had the cabin in a reasonable enough condition to allow them to go to sleep and find the bathroom in the middle of the night without falling over a mountain of obstructions. Spencer had come up from the lake naked, and a little over an hour later, he still was.

Adam looked at the boy who had the body of an athlete about to bloom. Spencer did not actively seek them out, but when he played sports, he dominated the game over his peers. Be it tennis, baseball, swimming, running, gymnastics or skating, Spencer was the boy you very definitely wanted on your team. As a camper himself, Adam also played sports and like Spencer, he was very good at it. At Camp, Adam had elected to be the camps Baseball Coordinator. Every cabin in camp hosted its own baseball team and for 2004, Beachview Cabin was the home of the Boston Red Socks. Adam was looking forward to putting the Red Socks on the Dining Hall Wall of Honor that summer. He had Spencer, Jesse and David and the camp competitive spirit was once again coming into focus.

"Let's get dressed for bivouac," Adam suggested to Anthony and Spencer as the three of them surveyed the cabin.

"Are the other kids coming back?" Spencer asked as he took out a pair of shorts and pulled them up.

"I don't think so, Uncle Sid will probably have them shower at the stable and have them put on pants from the lost and found," Adam replied as he readied for a shower.

"Knowing Uncle Sid, he'll probably have them all traipse down to bivouac naked." Anthony said as his shorts were pulled up.

"Can I bring Cuddles and Puddles?" Spencer asked.

"We've got all summer Spencer, let's leave them here tonight and we can take them tomorrow morning," Adam replied as he looked at both Cocker Spaniels laying sound asleep on the rug in the middle of the cabin.

Dinner that first afternoon was a lakeside camp cookout of steak, chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. In the past the camps Dining Hall held everyone at one sitting comfortably. Now, with the addition of the girls the school contained just under 600 students and staff. Meals would now have to be served in two settings until and unless a larger facility was added. Many more changes would have to be made, very few of the camps facilities were ever designed to accommodate that number, and those additions could only be made when camp was not in session. Bert had no control over the size of the student population, but he was determined to keep the camp as close knit and as comfortable as it was when it was half the size it now found itself to be.

Adam appeared at bivouac with Anthony and Spencer after picking up a few 'hitchhikers' on the way down the trail from upper camp. Bivouacs do not have assigned seating, and Adam found himself with Kevin and Dan and their entire crew still intact. Back at school, the three houses of Beachview, Kevin's house Coquina and Dan's house, Bay Watch, all pretty much stayed together and were known by other student's and staff as 'The Mafia.'

"Where's the great leader?" Dan asked as Adam sat down.

"Knee deep in horse shit the last time I heard," Adam replied as Bruce from Coquina handed Adam and Anthony a beer. Bruce giggled as he retreated back to Greg and sat down.

A truck coming off the hill in low gear with a load full of boys followed by a golf cart told Adam he was about to see a bunch of girls retreating for safety or his boys were coming to dinner in something other than their Birthday suits. With Sid, Adam knew it could flow either way. With ice cream bells ringing, Adam looked at boys in shorts. Wet boys, but boys in shorts nevertheless.

"Well, at least they're not dangling. Let's see what they smell like," Adam said to Kevin and Dan as he took a sip of his beer.

"Man did you fella's miss a swell time, we loaded enough fertilizer to grow ten gardens today!" Sid said as he sat down and took Adam's beer and downed it. The boys around the table all watched as the next act was about to begin. As was his custom, Sammy slid onto Adam's lap and sat back as the boy slid his arms backwards and rapped them around his teachers sides. Adam's nose was now in Sammy's hair as Adam sniffed.

"Smell's like you cornered the market on shampoo too!" Adam quipped as the boys giggled.

"New fragrance good buddy, we call it Head and Sea Biscuit."

"Uncle Adam, don't be silly! Uncle Sid shampooed our hair more than you do!" Sammy told his teacher.

"Then how come all these flies keep buzzing around your head?" Adam asked.

"What flies?" Sammy asked as he turned his head looking around. Jesse now sat down and plunked two more beers down in front of his teachers. Adam held the bottle as Sammy opened it for him. The boy was back in his element and Adam kissed the top of his head to prove it.

As every meal at Green Tree always did, it never began before the little one's from Camp Kenny arrived and they were served first. Now, not only Camp Kenny, but the girls were served first and more than a few very small eyebrows were now being raised on the Intermediate boys. Sammy and his pals understood the reason for the 'babies' eating first, but some of these girls were a lot older than they were! "How come Uncle Adam?" Sammy asked as he watched the girls standing on the buffet line.

"Well, I guess because we're Gentlemen!" Adam responded.

"I ain't a Gentlemen, I'm just a boy!" Sammy responded to the collective agreement to his friends around him. Adam smiled as he sat back bringing Sammy with him.

"That's true, but you're a boy who has very good manners, and little boys wait for girls to eat first," he told his charge. Sammy studied his teachers words and mulled them over for a few seconds.

"Why? We've been working at the stables and we're just as hungry as they are; probably more!" he told his teacher.

"It's just one of the great mystery's of life Sammy. It's like asking why your Uncle Sid likes to wallow in horse shit all day long, we'll probably never know the real answer!" Adam told the boy.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Sid chimed in as the boys all erupted in laughter.

Gloria sat at a table with a group of girls and staff from Pine Ridge that looked up upon hearing the commotion in the Intermediate boys section. As the new Administrator to the girls, Gloria's responsibility was to see a smooth transition between the new schools, and she could only imagine that the girls thought the laughter was directed at them.

"Whenever you see Uncle Sid involved in a group like he is now, he's probably defending himself." Gloria told the little girls around her as their staff listened. Among her other duties, Gloria had primary responsibility for a boy of two and a half named Timmy, who was now ready for bed, but not before he had been nursed.

"Mik" was his signal to receive his caregivers milk and he had now said the word three times. Timmy knew where the supply was kept, and he was reaching for it on his own as Gloria unbuttoned her blouse and attached the boy to her breast. There were no babies at Pine Ridge, and breast feeding a baby had never been seen in person before by any of the younger girls and now, they were regularly watching as the Green Tree staff nursed boy after boy, and some of them were well past the baby stage! Acceptance of the practice was mixed, in most girls it brought out maternal instincts but some, usually the older ones were aghast at the thought of baring one's breast in public.

"Wouldn't you feel more comfortable doing that in the bathroom?" a woman of 26 named Elaine asked.

"In the bathroom, I would feel very uncomfortable." Gloria responded without looking up from Timmy. "You wouldn't feed one of the girls in the bathroom would you?" she asked.

"I would if I were breast feeding her," the woman said refusing to back down.

"Here at Green Tree, all the students know that what is occurring is giving the baby nourishment. The baby is being fed, and there is no shame in that. Our girls who lactate are not expected to hide it, there's nothing to hide from," Gloria told the group.

"As a matter of fact, if we were to attempt to hide it, then the boys would have reason to believe it's something unseemly or wrong," she said.

"I didn't mean to suggest it's wrong, just that it's a private thing." Elaine responded somewhat defensively. Gloria smiled.

"At Green Tree, whenever the term 'private' is invoked, the boys automatically connect it to their penises," she replied

More than a few giggles around the table told Gloria she had the girls' attention.

"There are times when things are private, like taking a nice warm bath, or being made love to, or just talking with your friend in private conversion. Sometimes we might even just want to be alone and have personal private time taking a walk, or out in a boat," she told the girls.

"But feeding the babies to them is just that, we're feeding the babies and it doesn't matter if the milk is from a bottle or from our breast. Every single boy here knows what our breasts look like, so it's no big surprise. It's also written school policy and if the time comes for the need to nurse a girl baby, you may reasonably expect to see that also."

"Why not just feed the baby milk from a cow?" a girl of about 10 asked Gloria.

"We could do that, and it would probably easier and more convenient for everybody." Gloria told the girl.

"But nursing a baby gives the baby much more than just food, The baby receives a sense of security, belonging and love that just doesn't come from a plastic bottle." Gloria then took her hand and passed it down Timmy face and took the boys arm and lifted it up. Placing the arm back down on his tummy, she lifted up one of his legs and put it back down gently. Timmy never skipped a beat and continued nursing more asleep than awake.

"If I did that to a baby laying in a crib with a bottle in its mouth, the baby would most probably stop drinking and start crying," she told the group.

"For Timmy and the rest of the boys, touch is security and comfort. No plastic bottle is going to provide that." "I've seen boys being nursed who are well past the baby stage." another staff member interjected. Gloria nodded.

"Boys like Timmy and Kenny who have basically been raised here will probably stop nursing at the normal age. They won't need to nurse because they stand on a firm foundation emotionally." Gloria replied.

"Boys who will allow themselves to be nursed passed age five are boys that have come to us in emotional crises. When you see an older boy nursing, you're looking at an emotional basket case, not a boy getting his sexual fantasies fulfilled by a love starved girl. They out number us four to one, there's far too many of them to need to look to little boys for some attention." The giggles that ensued told Gloria she had made her point.

She had a little work to do with some of her new staff, but nothing even close to what was needed when the new male staff from the Albemarle School came just nine months previous.

Bert arrived at the lake just as the boys from the upper camp were getting their dinner.

As the very first meal of the camp season, this gathering brought together very close to 600 people, 400 children aged two to 16 and another 200 Staff who ranged in age from 16 to almost 50. At 45, Bert was one of the oldest and only five other staff members exceeded his age, Sid being one of them at 49. Bert had been the school's Chief Administrator now for over 13 years. And the scene he now looked at was the largest ever. Maybe too large he thought to himself. Bert liked the idea of knowing each and everyone of the schools students and staff on a personal level. It was getting to the point now, whereby he didn't know some people by name. That had never been the case before. In the meantime, he needed to pull the group together as a cohesive unit and the job began at dinner.

Bert made the rounds as he was greeted by boy after boy who wanted to be picked up, hugged, and maybe even receive a kiss or two. The boys from Camp Kenny would be first in his arms, and as he approached Gloria's table with two boys in his arms he bent down and gave Gloria a kiss on the forehead.

"How's the little butterball?" he asked as he looked down at Timmy. The girls at the table giggled a bit as he sat down on the table and adjusted his load.

"Gaining by the day." Gloria responded as she handed Bert her glass of iced tea.

"Well girl's, the Indians have arrived. What do you think of them?" he asked the girls. More giggles ensued but no real responses were offered.

"You've been here now for two weeks girls. What should we be doing first that will make the camp better?" Bert asked. One girl raised her hand.

"All of the bathrooms down here are all boy's bathrooms. Can't we have girl's bathrooms?" she asked.

"If we gotta go, we have to run all the way back to the the girl's campus now that the boys are here," she told Bert.

"I can have them built, but it's going to take some time. In the meantime, why not just use the bathrooms in the cabins along the lake? Those are much more girl friendly," Bert suggested.

"But those are boys too!" the little girl replied.

"Yes, but they have doors and toilet bowls," Bert said.

"Uncle Bert, everybody knows that boys pee all over the seats!" a girl of about 12 replied. A bunch of the girls now openly giggled.

"We do?" Bert asked the group.

"I'll go speak to them right now, no more pissing on the seats girls. We'll keep your bums dry no matter what!" Bert told the group as he stood back up.

Bert returned the two boys to their counselor and Caleb now found the opportunity he was waiting for as he jumped into Bert's arms. Caleb was about to turn five in July and he had grown tremendously in every respect since he first arrived at Green Tree less than ten months earlier. On arrival, he was a shy, timid little boy who was hugely homesick for his Mother. Only the expert care given to him by the girls and Staff of Camp Kenny brought him through unscared by his separation from his Mother, coupled with Bert's direct hands on intervention in meeting the boy's need for a positive role model. To Caleb, his Father was useless to him, the Father openly rejected the boy because he was a Geppetto boy, and Caleb was far to young to understand any of it. At Green Tree, Caleb was flourishing beyond everyone's expectations.

Caleb's climb into Bert's arms came as natural to the boy as he rapped his arms around Bert's neck and gave the man a kiss.

"I'm in Mohawk Lodge Uncle Bert. Look!" the boy said as he showed Bert his brand new tee shirt emblazoned with the name of the cabin he would live in that summer. Bert knew that, he had arranged for Caleb to 'chose' that cabin without the Director knowing about it of course! "Wow Caleb, that's really neat. Who is your counselor?" Bert asked.

"Aunt Sarah!" Caleb replied. Bert nodded.

"You're a very lucky boy then, Aunt Sarah always has lots of boys who want to be in her cabin every summer. I even hear that she really loves to go camping and swimming." Caleb smiled and nodded his head. Caleb was well on the road to independence and Bert wanted to place Caleb in a high functioning cabin for the summer. His choice of placing the boy with Sarah would accomplish that goal. She would run a cabin of four boys and they would test her endurance mightily for the next 16 weeks or so.

"I missed you Uncle Bert." Caleb said as he laid his head down on the man's shoulder.

"Well, I missed you too Caleb, but now we're back together and we have the whole summer to play and have fun!" Bert told the boy as he kissed him on the cheek and hugged the little boy. Caleb closed his eyes and smiled. He didn't know any man in the world who was nicer than Uncle Bert, and he knew that Uncle Bert loved him back.

Bert made several more stops before eventually making his way to Sid's table. The 'war' between the two most powerful Uncles in camp was about to begin for the camp summer of 2004, and Adam watched as the look of anticipation grew on the boys faces around the table's as the Director sat down and turned Caleb around in his lap.

"Every year now Sid that garden of yours gets a little bigger," Bert began as he poured himself a glass of iced tea and gave Caleb a drink."Now it's winding its way around the back of my cabin," Sid looked up from his plate.

"Your cabin boss, is that your cabin?" Sid asked the man.

"Yeah, the big yellow one that say's 'Bert's Place' on the front of it!" Sid looked over to Jesse and David sitting alongside him.

"Did you know that?" he asked both boys who were now snickering into their plates.

"Jeez boss, If I would have known that I would never have dumped all that horseshit right under your back bedroom window! Ain't that right boys?" Sid asked the boys around the table.

Camp 2004 had now begun.

As the upper camp boys were about to devour two or three slices of watermelon apiece and start the pit wars, the lower camp and girls were pretty much finished. The little one's, now covered in juice from head to feet and sticking to the benches were ready to hit the lake running as they always did. The upper camp watched as the little one's peeled clothing off on the journey to the water. Along with the girls, the little one's arrived in camp weeks before the upper camp, and the girls had long since abandoned their clothing along with the Camp Kenny boys. Now, the girl's were back to square one. The new boys were not 'babies' and they weren't about to go starkers in front of a bunch of dumb old boys. At least not immediately. Half the girls, most of them between the ages of eight to 12 or so went to the water but pretty much 'helped' the camp Kenny boys playing in the water.

Most of the staff watched, as one by one, the upper camp boys finished and hit the lake.

Probably after ten minutes or so, both groups were in the water, and Adam could envision the 'wall' that separated the two groups. Moses couldn't have done a better job. Then, very slowly at first, pants began arriving on the beach as well as underpants and shirts.

Not everyone got naked among the boys, but enough to satisfy a lot of curiosity on the girls side of the fence. By Adam and Sid's second beer, even a few size six to ten panties arrived on the beach and Bert breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a huge beginning, but the campers hadn't reached the pool, sauna and steam room yet, and that's where the party would begin in earnest tomorrow morning every staff member knew very well. While the pool itself was considered a 'public' area, what someone did in the sauna and steam room was their own private business so long as everyone agreed to be there.

Watching the boys extricate themselves from the lake was even more entertaining than watching them get in. Pants came off underwater, and until they got frisky enough to take dives off each other's shoulders, the boys could keep themselves 'under wraps'. For Sammy and company, it was fun to swim around stark naked next to a bunch of 'Gooney girls' who couldn't quite see their little stiffies unless they wanted them to see it of course! The staff watched the scene play out as it had done tens of millions of times in the past. In fact, Adam remembered his own childhood when skinny dipping in the river in Connecticut when he and his friends KNEW the local girls were watching crouched down in the bushes. Very exciting stuff for eight to twelve year old boys indeed!

Joey was elected, since he had the limpest penis in the crowd. His job was to go to the beach and throw out pants to the rest of the boys who were waist deep and ready to return to the upper camp. Adam once again smiled as one by one each boy exited the water leaving very little to the imagination in soaking wet underpants and shorts with very definite tents in them. "I guess the shows over for tonight" Sid said.

With the tables now cleared, it was time for a brief meeting. Bert needed to give the obligatory welcome speech and he mounted a table as the campers sat down on the ground and around the table's. One by one, he introduced the women staff first, and then the men. As it always was, the introductions were a popularity contest between the different staff as far as the campers were concerned, and it was a pretty fair barometer of their effectiveness. At the same time, this first year was a lopsided cheering section because the boys outnumbered the girls, four to one coupled with the fact that the female staff was unknown to most of the boys.

Following introductions and a brief description of what each counselor's position or responsibility was, Bert explained the camp daily routine and what the expectations were for that coming summer. Camp Kenny intro's came first, and with their bedtimes fast approaching, cart after cart drifted away until the little one's were gone.

"The last order of business before Uncle Adam has a short message for staff is that I've been made aware of a very serious matter concerning the boys," Bert began.

"Now I've been told, and I'm completely convinced that it's Uncle Sid who is totally responsible, but someone from the boy's side is peeing on the toilet seats and the girls are getting wet fannies when they sit down," Bert said.

"Please remind Uncle Sid to pick up the seat before he goes so we don't have wet fannies walking all over campus," Bert sat back down as Gloria shook her head.

"Are you sure you graduated Harvard with a Doctorate?" she asked her boss.

It took a good five minutes for the assembled to settle back down before Adam could speak and he wasn't about to get involved in the "Bert and Sid Show", at least not tonight.

Reading off a list of staff names, he requested a meeting the next morning right after breakfast.

"Uncle Bert has volunteered your services and he's promised that Uncle Sid won't be invited." A full round of applause from the staff had Sid protesting his total innocence to any camper who would listen to him as the meeting broke up.

There was still a good hour of light left before dark and most of the boys who were finished unpacking were now out on the ball fields either playing impromptu games or tossing balls to each other. Both Sid and Adam along with Kevin, Anthony, Greg, Eitienne and Dan were sitting on the porch watching over the boys play as Puddles and Cuddles ran from boy to boy trying to catch up with the ball being tossed around. Only Bruce remained on the porch among the boys, and he was firmly attached to Greg. This was 'quiet time' for the men, the time of the day Adam savored the most as he sipped his last beer of the night.

"Kevin, who would you say are the best trumpet players in the senior boys compound?"

Adam asked the teacher. Kevin thought for a few seconds. I guess Jacob, Eddy and Craig are the best. Why?" he asked.

"I,m thinking about proposing to the committee that we start a bugle program for camp like the one I had at my camp when I was a kid," Adam responded. Sid nodded his head.

"Most camps use bugles, some use PA systems too" he told the group.

"I don't think Bert's going to approve a PA system, it's too noisy for the neighbors. But this is a military property, so someone hearing a bugle wouldn't think too much about it," Adam replied.

"Good point, but keep in mind that this property is 12,000 acres [50 km²] protected by people with a very dim sense of humor when it comes to trespassers," Dan interjected.

"I think camps should have bugles," Adam repeated.

"We can use them for wake up, flagpole, meals, changing periods, taps. A whole bunch of stuff without needing clocks."

"What's the flagpole for?" Sid asked after a long pause.

"We could raise the Green Tree flag, and the flag of a cabin for special events," Adam replied.

"We don't have a Green Tree flag," Sid said.

"So maybe we need to make one up!" Adam said.

"At my old camp, each cabin had its own flag every year. It could be a project for the kids like the plays are," Adam told the group.

"I like it. So will Bert. Just don't expect him to OK raising the Stars and Stripes, he'll rip your heart out," Sid counseled his friend. Dan, Greg and Etienne instantly agreed.

"So what's the plan fearless leader?" Sid Asked Adam.

"Well, Bert wants to see more of a camp like structure, so I guess we're building a camp from the ground up traditions and all," Adam told his friend.

"Let's face it, last year I was convinced this place was a Motel.

It looks like a motel and it sounds like a motel except for the fact that the place looks like it's run by the Sunnydale Nudist Colony!" Adam told the men.

"From what I understand, the Feds are telling the locals and the guards that this place is a summer camp for the children of adults enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. If that's what they believe, why not make us look and sound like a camp?" Again, a long pause ensued before Sid spoke again.

"Works for me good buddy I'm beginning to believe it myself! Hell, as it is, everything from Laura Bush's brand of Kotex to which Dialysis Clinic in Islamabad Osama visits every Wednesday is a matter for 'Homeland Security' so I don't see why we're not on the bandwagon!" Chuckles from all the men masked the seriousness of the situation. These children were a Top Security issue. They were an issue of National Security. They were invisible and didn't exist if the folks in Washington wanted to keep their jobs and stay out of prison. Since 9/11 Washington's job was a lot easier, but it still took a little bit of skill to hide 600 people from society and Green Tree wasn't the only secret in town.

"So, tomorrow you start making us over into a camp?" Dan asked.

"Tomorrow we lay the foundation," Adam replied.

"Let's just forget about snipe hunts and short sheets right good buddy?" Sid said. Adam smiled.

The boy's refused to give up the ghost until Spencer smacked a ball into the woods and there wasn't enough light left to find it in the brush. Dejectedly, they all returned to the cabins as the men left to tend to the night's toothbrushing and final piss call. The two day bus ride had taken its toll, and little argument was made concerning turning in.

All the cabins in the upper camp were configured in four rooms each which contained two double bunk beds and dressers in each room with a bath room in between each room on both sides. The rear of the cabin contained a small kitchenette and closet area and the center of the cabin was used as the common area. Each cabin had a wrap around porch, and 16 people had tons of room to live and play quite comfortably. In total, Adam had 11 people sleeping, so room was never a concern. Then again, it was the very first night and inter-cabin sleepover's had yet to begin.

Adam snuggled under the quilt as Sammy found his favorite spot on top of his teacher's chest and stroked Adam's chest as the boy gazed out the sliding glass doors and listened as the breeze softly whistled though the pine trees and an occasional spring loaded bathroom door slammed shut in a nearby cabin somewhere not too far away.

Adam kissed the top of Sammy's head as his hands flowed down the boys side and found the boys bottom. Sammy moved his feet that were laying on Adam's groin and let them fall to each side of Adam. Sammy knew where his teacher wanted to go, and would have loved to have stayed up to enjoy the touching, but he was much too comfortable and his eyes refused to cooperate and stay open.

For Adam's part, he was very far from disappointed once he realized Sammy was sound asleep as Adam stroked the bottom of the boy's scrotum and massaged that very soft sensitive place between the boy's anus and the base of his testicles. Different people have different spots on their body that they love to be touched, and Adam knew that for Sammy, he was precisely there. The bond between the boy and the teacher was such that the boy could drift off in peaceful sleep and to Adam it showed a sense of love and trust that he hoped the boy would never lose.

Sammy's first full day at camp began with the faint call of some horny rooster somewhere off in the distance. The light was beginning to make shadows on the trees outside the window, and the smell of pine told Sammy he wasn't in Florida. At some point in the night he had slid off Adam, and the boy was now alongside his teacher with the man's arm laying over his shoulder and laying on his tummy. Most nights going to bed with Uncle Adam were very special to Sammy, but he also knew that sometimes, especially if he was very tired or had a very busy day, it wasn't nearly as much fun as the mornings, especially when the two of them awoke really early before everybody else woke up and they had what Uncle Adam called 'private time,' Sammy liked to play with his friends, and even some other very special Uncles like Uncle Sid, or Uncle Dan, but for whatever reason, Sammy's private time with Uncle Adam was always somehow very special to the boy. Sammy lifted himself back on top of Adam and curled his leg up. When Adam awoke, he would know he was ready to play, and he would make Sammy know once again the magic that only this Uncle could bring to him with his touch, with his kisses, and with his love. Sammy waited a good ten or fifteen seconds without moving and realized he would now need to go to Plan B. If Uncle Adam didn't awaken when Sammy got on top of him, the boy knew he would awaken if he flexed his penis against Adam's stomach. It might take five or six flexes, but it always worked.

"Good morning sleepy head," Adam whispered on about Sammy's 5th knock on his abdomen wall.

Sammy giggled as Adam's hands came around and cupped one cheek in the palm of his hand and stroked the other with his hand as the teacher's fingertips caressed the boy's anal crease. Sammy knew well that for the next better part of an hour the world consisted of two people, Sammy and Adam. The boy knew his teacher could bring him easily to climax in under two minutes if he chose to, but he never did. Sammy's body would know every pleasure the man could produce for him, from his toes, to his ears. Only when Sammy was consumed with passion would Adam allow the boy to release himself, and this was the best way the boy could imagine to begin any new day.

The configuration of the bunks afforded visual privacy from one another, but did absolutely nothing concerning sound. Some people play very quietly, and then again, some do not. Sammy, Jesse and Trevor were anything but quiet. When they played, the entire cabin knew it! By 7:15 the boys knew it would be politically correct to start the day without interfering with anybody's fun, and the day started with a vengeance beginning with a tug of war between the puppy's and a pair of somebody's underwear in the middle of the living room. Fortunately, the boys were now in summer camp, and most of the time, you were lucky to see them in shorts let alone a pair of underpants.

As Adam took the first morning showers with Sammy, Joey and Trevor, Sid made the coffee and put orange juice out for the boys. Anthony took Spencer, Christopher and Matty in with him, which left only Jesse and David to shower with Sid. Both boys sat down with their juice and headed for the television awaiting their turn to shower.

Sid came in the bathroom and gave Adam his cup of coffee as the man sat down on top of the toilet seat. Adam took a sip of coffee and handed it back to Sid and heard the tv.

"How do you think it would go over if tvs were shut off for the summer?" Adam asked Sid as he kneeled down to wash backs.

"No Uncle Adam, you can't do that!" Joey protested.

"Well, Thank you for your opinion, but I was talking to Uncle Sid," Adam told the boy.

"Why would you not let us watch tv?" Sammy now asked.

"Well, because this is summer camp. Things at camp are different than at home, We're here to play baseball, and go hiking and boating and fishing and camping. Not to sit in front of a stupid tv all day inside a cabin! We could stay home and do that," Adam replied as he reached legs and ankles. The tv wasn't all that far from the bathroom and Jesse now injected himself into the conversation.

"But it's too early to start doing any of those things right now, we haven't even had breakfast yet!" the boy said.

"No, but we still need time in the morning to straighten up the cabin and clean up a bit, if you sit in front of the tv now, we'll have to come back after breakfast and do those things when you could be going out and play

instead," Adam replied.

"I just think its silly to drive almost a thousand miles to sit down to watch tv!" Jesse was clearly disappointed.

"Ever?" he asked the teacher.

As his boy's exited the shower, Adam followed and tried to begin drying the boys. Neither Sammy nor Joey would sit still long enough and both boys headed for their juice still dripping wet and really not caring. Sid got into the shower followed by Jesse and David trotted himself in and promptly sat down to await his turn at being washed.

"Well, when I was a little boy and went to camp we had "Movie night" two night's a week. We don't have any movies, but we could tape a few tv shows together each week and show them at the lake for an activity night," Adam suggested.

"Just two nights? What are we supposed to do the rest of the time?" Jesse replied.

"Try camp stuff Jesse, that's why we're here remember?" Adam said.

"Sounds boring Uncle Adam!" Adam picked up his coffee and shook his head as he left for the bedroom. Obviously, weaning the boys from the tv was going to be harder than weaning Kenny from Jeanette's tit the man thought to himself.

Breakfast that first morning was scheduled for between 7:30 and 9:00 in order to feed everybody. Bert had already been advised by the kitchen that one sitting was impossible, so beginning at lunch, there would be two sittings per meal. The Lower Camp and the Pine Ridge girls would eat first along with their staff and the second sitting would contain the Upper Camp and Senior boys with the rest of the staff. The arrangement worked out pretty well for everybody except Bert who ended up finding himself eating six meals a day and gaining 15 pounds [7 kg] before he returned to Florida.

"So should we head down to chow early or would it be better to wait until later? Kevin asked Sid as the men stood out in front of Kevin's cabin while the boys loaded laundry bags and swept up the cabins. Sid didn't really know, and neither did any of the other men. In all probability, the Lower Camp was already at breakfast since the little one's were up and around by 7:00 every single morning come rain or shine anyway, but were the girls there already or would they show up closer 8:30 or so?

"I guess we just take our chances. If the Mess Hall is packed, the kids will just play around until there's room," Sid suggested. "Besides, we can always eat out on the picnic tables."

By around 8:00 the cabins were somewhat cleaned up and laundry bags littered the porches waiting to be picked up by the Senior boys. With a jingle of bells, Sid's cart slid down the path to the Lower camp with half a dozen boys arms and legs flying in all directions. The trek off the hill was a winding path though the woods and Adam took his first notice of the damage done to the trees of the camp by Hurricane Isabel nine months earlier. Isabel spared the school in Florida, but it didn't spare three cabins and hundreds of trees that now littered the deep woods. Uncle Dave and his crew of Senior boys were going to be very busy Adam noted.

Just before the carts moved out of the woods, the lake and some of the cabins that encircled it became visible through the thinning forest. The camps lake isn't huge, it could be walked around in probably a little less than an hour, and dotted every two or three hundred feet or so a cabin sat, either directly on the lake shore, or on the opposite side of the path that encircled the lake. Adam looked over the embankment and caught a glimpse of his cabin from last year where he began his life at Green Tree with Sammy, Jesse and David. Now, he knew the cabin held the Camp Kenny boys and he wondered exactly who lived there. He decided he'd find out just out of curiosity. That cabin held a very special place in his heart, it was where his new life began almost exactly one year earlier.

The scene at the Mess Hall was as expected. The little one's had come early, but after eating, they were still there socializing. Some little one's were already knee deep in water which was about 250 feet [75 m] in front of the Mess Hall, and except for the girls who were reportedly on their way, close to 400 campers and staff were milling around.

The kitchen wasn't happy. What began as a planned sit down breakfast was quickly turning into a picnic and the kitchen didn't have the silverware, cups and plates to feed everybody at a single sitting unless they used plastic and paper. The chef was ready to cut Bert's dick off!

"Where is Bert?" Adam asked as he looked around.

"Probably hiding!" Sid responded as he handed Adam another cup of coffee.

"Boy's if you want to make Chef John really happy and maybe even get an extra jelly donut, collect a bunch of empty plates and cups and bring them to the dish house OK?" Sid told a group of about ten boys standing around. As ten boys went grabbing for every dish they could find, Sid sat down next to Adam chuckling.

"For an extra jelly donut, those boys would go out and collect land mines!" he said. Adam smiled and shortly thereafter, the very distinct sound of Bert's antique car horn honked as it approached.

"Boss, if was you, I'd keep a low profile around the kitchen," Sid said as Bert came up with a boy on each hip.

"I already heard about it," Bert said as he lowered each boy to the ground.

"What the hell is the big deal, we eat off paper every bivouac. We ate off paper last night for christ sake!" Bert told the group as he took Sid's coffee and took a drink.

"Boss, John doesn't want to be the only non-temperamental Chef in the world, it would ruin his image!" Sid chided.

"Besides, he says that we only keep enough plastic and paper on hand for one meal at a time. The rest is in the warehouse because he doesn't have the room to keep it here," Bert still wasn't happy. He didn't like getting his balls busted.

"He's bull shitting you Sid. How fast would we have built him a storage shed off the fucking kitchen if he just opened his mouth?" Sid raised his hands in surrender.

"First day boss, let's nobody panic," he said to his boss.

Bert now looked around, "Where's Dave?" he asked his assistant.

"Not sure Bert, we just got off the hill ourselves," Sid replied.

"Get a message to him Sid, I want a double-wide trailer attached to the side of the kitchen in 72 hours. If that ain't enough storage space for John, we can always bury him in it!" Once again, a mini meeting broke up in chuckle's.

Once word got out about the extra jelly donuts, a small army of Upper Camp boys were returning dishes, cups and silverware to the dish room. When the Chef found out that the boys were told they would receive jelly donut rewards, Sid's penis was now on the chopping block. The kitchen ordered enough jelly donuts to go around once, not 2,3,or four times! It was probably a very good thing that right after breakfast, Sid went to the stable to tend his horses.

Following breakfast, Adam sat on a table as the crowd thinned. By about 9:30 or so, Adam checked the last staff member off his list. The people he gathered attended camps as children, or, were activity prone either in sports, or recreation, some in arts and crafts and organization. Most Green Tree staff led very sheltered and secluded lives. Therefore, Adam's committee was heavily laden with the women of Pine Ridge School.

"What Bert expects us to do is to put together a structured summer camp organization.

Most of the people here have been to camp before, and that's primarily why you're here. I will coordinate the proposal we send on to Bert, but we all need to keep in mind that he always has the last say, we might want to propose something he cannot approve of for reasons we won't know," Adam began.

"I think the reason we're here is best exemplified by my immediate situation. I have eight boys in my cabin and I don't have the foggiest clue right now where any one of them are.

I'm sure they're fine, and in the past that system worked well, but we're simply too big now to just let the kids loose in the morning and hope for the best."

Over the next few days and roughly 375 man-hours of brainstorming, a core formula for the operation of a summer camp children's program was ready for presentation to Bert. It was tweaked from time to time but basically, the campers days were structured into reasonably supervised activities, sports and recreational teams were organized, programs were developed, and Adam got his beloved bugler's which in and of itself created a new tradition because every boy wanted to become the next years bugler.

A camp band was started, and they still produce music today that most people would rather forget as soon as possible. The boys are all very well loved, but listening to music off-key can drain the pope's good nature!

At school, Adam taught math. Now, he volunteered as the baseball coordinator setting up schedule's for the individual cabins to play each other. The camp had three baseball fields in the Upper camp and twelve teams. The Senior boys put together another five teams, and the girls wanted to play softball with four more teams. Adam spent hours upon hours figuring out a precise schedule to keep everybody happy and playing and then ripped it up.

"I'm going horseback riding then, I've got boating, I have band practice, I 'm playing tennis." Getting the boy's to structured activities was easy. Getting all eight in the same place at the same time was impossible on a regularly scheduled basis. Even then the games had to be restructured, Geppetto boys don't play nine innings of a ball game, at least not without a few intermissions.

For Sid, he knew as the horseback riding stablemaster, he was in for a hectic summer.

For one, he had an additional 40 boys since last year. He also had 90 girls and another 10 women, and roughly 65 of them rode dressage. With a dozen horses, each girl could ride for a period three times a week and Sid left it up to his assistant Patty to figure out the details.

It was now time for Sid to do a little creative scheduling for the boys however. He had roughly 250 boys under 16 who expected to ride. He had another 60 or so boys and men over 16 who would ride 'if the opportunity arose'. He had 36 horses and hoped none of them went lame. Sid did have one good thing going for him; the upper camp boys almost always rode double. If none of the horses went down, he could schedule each boy three times a week, with a sleepover on horseback for the senior boys once a week.

Kevin's responsibility at camp would be as the Music/Drama Instructor, a role he was now familiar with from school. What had begun as a way for the Green Tree staff to integrate the teacher/houseparent from the Albemarle School's way of doing things to the Green Tree way of doing things had blossomed beyond everyone's expectations. He organized the boy's first presentation of Peter Pan over Christmas which was a huge success with the boys, and had spent the passed six month's gearing up for a presentation of "Oliver Twist". Originally, the play was to be performed at school, but since the impending arrival of the girls, it was put off and would be presented at camp instead.

With the combination of the play, now a camp band and buglers to teach, Kevin had more than his plate full. At the same time, he also had Michael in his cabin, who at ten years of age, was as attached to Kevin as Sammy was to Adam. At Albemarle, what the man did with his students was a very deep dark secret known only to him and the boys he slept with. At Green Tree, none of the staff had time for that sillyness and Kevin was ripped out of the closet in record time. Now Kevin and the rest of the boys and men from Albemarle were Green Tree students and Albemarle no longer existed.

Kevin's cabin sat to the right of Adam's in the Upper Camp. All the cabins sat along the tree line at the very edges of the ball fields in a horseshoe shape, and overlooked the entire upper campus from any cabin's front porch. Trees separated each cabin so that you couldn't see your neighbor, but when things got a little quiet, you could certainly hear them, especially when screen doors slammed and showers reached their peak.

Kevin had an assistant, a Senior boy named Greg who was originally assigned to monitor Kevin when he first came to Green Tree nine months earlier, and who now chose to stay with him, primarily due to his attachment to Bruce. Greg was now 17 and Bruce had turned 10 in the Spring. eight other boys rounded out Kevin's cabin for the summer, and at an even dozen, Kevin had a full cabin, a happy cabin, and a damned noisy one to prove it!

The last of the three cabins that made up 'The Mafia' was headed by Dan and Etienne. Both men were Geppetto boys who had grown up at Green Tree, and had gone on to college. They were both now teachers at the school. Their cabin sat to the left of Adam's and Sid's, and with 11 boys, they had one more than the ideal. A request went out for a volunteer to go to Adam's to even out the population and to Adam's complete delight, 12 year old Brian stepped forward. Adam now calculated that he had an unbeatable baseball team with the combination of Spencer, Jesse, David and now Brian. Adam had visions of a camp pennant dancing in his head.

Still without an activity schedule, the boys spent their first day pretty much clustered around the go-carts, horses, rowboats, sailboats, canoes and both the lake and the pool.

Nothing had yet been organized for the pool, so swimming that first day was a split session, mornings for the boys and afternoon for the girls. The situation was reversed for the lake, and everybody got to go swimming and boating without contracting any 'cooties'. Bert smiled for the first time since breakfast when a girl told him that.

After breakfast, all the boys from Upper Camp returned to the cabins to brush their teeth, finish cleaning up the cabins, and decide where they could now find the most fun. With Sid almost always at the stable's and Adam now in a meeting, Anthony would be the central coordinator for Sammy and the boys in his cabin. Anthony didn't have to know exactly where each boy was at all times, but he did need to have a general idea. The boys would also need to know where they could find him if necessary. That wasn't going to be hard. Wherever Anthony went Spencer made sure he was with him, so the boys all knew that Anthony would be at practice for the play in the gym.

When Spencer became involved with the production of Peter Pan, his interest concerning the theater grew tremendously. Adam had chalked it off to the fact that the boy's were put into harnesses and 'flew', but Spencer thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience, and had signed up for Oliver as soon as it was posted by Kevin. Now, Spencer would play Oliver which took everybody at the school by complete surprise. The production was the musical version, and Spencer had singing solo parts. Spencer was probably the shyest and most retiring boy at Green Tree before Bruce came along, and now, he would be singing in front of almost 600 people. Adam wasn't sure he himself had that much guts! Then again, as Kevin found out, Spencer sang like a bird but nobody including Spencer knew it until it was audition time!

Up until that point in time at camp, the boys generally found themselves at the stables, at the go-cart track, at the pool, at the lake either swimming or boating, or, in the rec hall trying to beat the pin ball machines. When Sid arrived at the stables with Sammy and his crew, there were already very close to 50 boys all staring at Sid looking for a horse to climb on.

Like all smart stablemasters Sid and his crew of Senior boys knew that if the boys got on the horses and rode to their heart's content, Sid and the Senior boys would be mucking a whole lot of stall's and laying an even larger amount of straw. Since the boys could first take out horses on their own at age 8, they knew that first you shoveled, then you rode! Much to many counselor's dismay including Adam's, this did not deter the boys one single bit. They seemed to love to wallow in the stuff, and they was never a question in any boys counselor's mind what activity the boys had involved themselves in.

As Sammy got out of Sid's cart, he made a bee-line for the barn and climbed into the loft that held both the hay and straw that the horses would need. Sammy and his friends knew that if they found a free pitchfork, it was the golden key to a horse that morning.

The camp woods were already honeycombed with bridle paths, and with the addition of the State lands that were handed over to Fema's control following Hurricane Isabel, the camp was now very close to 12,000 acres [50 km²] of extremely private property that were very aggressively protected by the Federal Government by every department that Homeland Security could muster. The bridle paths were now six times more than they were the year before, and like the trails on a ski slope, you could ride for 15 minutes, or you could ride for hours without retracing your steps. None of the boys could wait to get on a horse and go exploring with a very close friend either in front or behind them. Usually both.

By about 10:00, the boys that were there the earliest were being loaded onto horses and were leading the horses out of the corral towards the trails that the boys all knew as Lookout Point. It was a favorite spot on the mountain for the boys, it overlooked the area West of the camp and from there, they could look into Virginia and see the Blue Ridge Mountains off in the distance. Interstate 77 wound it's way up from Charlotte and the boys could see the car's coming down off the mountains from Virginia and passing into North Carolina. The point also contained a small lean-to campsite that the Senior boys used for overnight encampments, and it was just one more reason the Intermediate boys wanted to become Senior boys as soon as possible.

Just before 11:00, Sammy, Joey, Trevor and Billy from Dan's cabin were called by a Senior boy and went flying out to the corral as two horses, both saddled and blanketed awaited them.

"Uncle Sid is asking all the boys to put on shorts before you leave camp."

A Senior boy told all four boys as they approached. He pointed to a large box that had dozens of pairs of gym shorts in them.

"How come?" Sammy asked.

"The girls are here working with their horses, and Uncle Sid thinks it would be polite if you had pants on when you left," he told the group. Sammy's eyebrows lowered.

"What do you mean their horses. Do they own their own horses?" he asked. The Senior boy smiled.

"No Sammy, all the horses belong to the camp, but the girls horses aren't trail horses, they're a special kind of horse," he told the little boy.

"They don't walk?" Sammy asked. Again the Senior boy had to smile.

"Yes Sammy, they can walk but they have been taught to do a special kind of walk called Dessage that they do with the girls," he told the boy. Sammy thought for a few seconds.

"And when they do that, do the girls ride double too?" he asked. At this point the Senior boy had to laugh.

"No Sammy, the girls don't ride for the same reason we do," he said. Sammy looked at Joey and Trevor. Both boys shrugged their shoulders.

"Seems stupid to me!" Sammy said as he picked up a pair of shorts from the box and pulled them on.

The four boys walked their horses out the gate and walked past the girls who were in the adjacent corral. Many of the girls were grooming the horses, but a few were in the riding ring. As every boy leaving the corral did before Sammy, they all look at the girls as they passed. The girls had silly looking round black hats on. They had silly looking black pants and riding boots on, they had whips in their hand that they never used, and they had frilly little white shirts on. Sammy and his friends passed through the last gate leading to the trails and Sammy turned around and looked at Billy sitting in back of him. Neither boy said anything, all four just giggled as they gave the horses a small kick and went trotting off into the woods headed for Lookout Point where they could get out of those stupid shorts and really start to have fun!

Lunch faired better for the Chef and Bert than breakfast did. The first sitting went smoothly, and the second sitting was just about to begin when Bert remembered why every now and then, he wished he was just a normal everyday counselor or teacher rather than the Chief Administrator. The lower camp was just about to leave when a consistent bell began ringing across the lake. Each cabin in camp had a ship's bell attached to the front porch, and one of it's functions was to telegraph an emergency. Within seconds, the bell's tolling had Dave in a pick-up truck with half a dozen Senior boys piling into the back and five or six golf carts tearing out of the area in front of the mess hall headed to the sound of the bell. Bert's cart was one of the first to leave with Jeanette and Kenny.

"The safety team will take care of the problem boys and girls. Until we find out what's going on, let's finish lunch," Sid now told the group as the fun and jokes disappeared.

"If anyone's still here from the medical team, secure supervision for your group and report to the infirmary." Almost as soon as Sid sat down, Adam watched as two tanker/pumper trucks passed the mess hall with another pick-up from the maintenance area filled to capacity with more Senior boys. It would be kind to say that the mood around the mess hall at that point was a tad gray. The little one's didn't really have a clue what was transpiring, but the older one's and the Intermediate boys were distressed and some of these boys didn't handle distress very well, especially boys like Spencer, Bruce, Caleb and Christopher. With Bert gone, Sid watched Caleb retreat to the protection of Johanna, and instinctively knew it was time to change the mood of the campers.

"Adam! That's the dumbest, stupidest thing I ever heard in my life! What do you mean you can eat more meatballs than I can! Don't you know I'm the champion meatball eater in all of Green Tree! I challenge you here and now to a duel!" Sid yelled to his friend as he stood up.

"Bring us two bowls of meatballs and I'll show this clown who's the boss!" Sid said towards the mess hall. It took Adam a very few seconds to figure out where Sid was headed. Adam stood up as he shook his head.

"Sid, calm down and sit back down. You're much too old to be trying to impress these very pretty girls. I'd make you look stupid in a meatball eating contest, I don't think someone your age could eat more than two or three without needing a nap!" Adam taunted the favored counselor.

"Bring on the meatballs!" Sid exclaimed at the top of his lungs as his hands rose towards the sky.

Upon hearing the alarm bell, all the counselors knew as well as the Senior boys that something was wrong. The camp does not have cell phones, telephones and walkie talkie systems for security reasons and the bell told everyone that an emergency had occurred. At that point, nobody knew what the emergency was. Bert had an emergency team in place, and when the alarm sounded, they responded according to plan. Dave had arrived first at the cabin to find a counselor named Martha sitting on the front porch of her cabin with her three year old charge. The girl had put a jar of food in a pot of water and was warming it for the boy. As she took it off the stove, the bottom of the pot hit the ridge on the stove and she was scalded by boiling water. The boy was uninjured, but she had second degree burns on her stomach and leg. By the time Bert arrived immediately followed by four more carts, Dave was bringing the girl to Bert's cart for transport to the Infirmary and passing the boy onto another staff member.

Organizationally, the emergency was handled as scripted by Bert, but there were going to be more than a few hundred hours of 'safety checks' in camp before Bert was satisfied that this incident was behind them. It took probably a half hour in all, but once Martha was bandage and returned to her cabin, Bert returned to the mess hall.

What began as a nice clean affair with two bowls of meatballs in front of Sid and Adam inside the mess hall basically progressed to a meatball fight between the two men as the boys and girls cheered each side on. Sid 'won' the fight at his 18 meatballs to Adam's 15 as Adam buried his face into his bowl and admitted defeat.

The arrival of Bert back in the mess hall told both men that whatever the problem was was under control, and both men left the mess hall to take a very much needed shower at Bert's Place. Sid left a meatball on the soap dish!

Walking back to the mess hall where the boys were now eating lunch, Adam looked over to his friend.

"You gotta give me warning when you plan to pull this stuff!" he said to Sid.

"I did Adam, I stood up. Whenever Bert and I go at each other for the kids, one of us always stands up. It's a signal," Sid said as he smiled at Adam.

"Think back."

Adam smiled once again and shook his head. Would he ever be as smart as these two he wondered to himself.

As fully expected by staff, ramifications to Martha's accident began almost immediately. Bert was almost consumed by concern not only for the children of Green Tree but for the staff as well. That was understandable, most staff use to be students of the school so to Bert, they were one in the same. Bert's major problem with Martha's accident was that it was almost completely preventable, yet, it could have been so horribly worse. The word 'IF' didn't leave Bert's mind for days after.

"Thanks for keeping things nice and quiet around here while we were gone," Bert said as the two men re entered the mess hall.

"Boss, count on us!" Sid said as he sat down.

Bert shook his head and chuckled as Caleb handed Sid a half chewed pickle.

"Sid, I want Safety Inspections on all cabins tomorrow. Make sure all staff are aware of policy and procedures. We have a Safety Manual, I want you to make sure every staff member has one and reviews it immediately," Sid burped as he swallowed his pickle.

"Done boss," he said as Caleb giggled.

Dave came back with his boys who sat down with their friends as Dave sat down next to Bert.

"Close call." Dave said as he poured himself an ice tea.

"We got lucky, I've never seen Joshua when he wasn't riding on her hip," Bert replied very somberly. Dave nodded.

"What about John's storage shed?" Bert now asked his Chief Engineer.

"To put it in properly, we'd need to dig a foundation and bring in concrete for a slab." Dave said.

"Even if I poured it today which is impossible, it wouldn't be cured in less than four days. For now, we're going to put it on a base of railroad ties and in the fall, it can be re lifted and have the foundation put in." Dave told Bert.

"When?" Bert asked.

"The ties will be here this afternoon and the trailer will be brought over from the Fema depot tomorrow.

It's still going to take a day to electrify and get the plumbing up and running. We also have to build shelving inside the trailer, it's bare to the walls." Dave replied.

"You should have it in 72 hours, but we also killed two birds with one stone on this deal."

"How so?" Bert asked.

"The trailer is normally used by Fema as an Emergency Center Office. It already has four toilets on one end and if we place it alongside the Mess Hall wall, we have a ready made girls bathroom that eliminates the need for portable toilets that I'm told the women think are disgusted."

"You're kidding! What's disgusting about good old Porta Potties?" Sid now asked. Bert shook his head.

"Caleb, don't give Uncle Sid any more pickles, his brain is fermenting."

After lunch, Sammy and a small gaggle of boys who had already gone horseback riding headed for the go-cart track. The camp had 24 carts and the system up to that point in time to get to ride them was to sign up for a half hour period on a first come, first to ride basis. The boys could tell by the length of the list that was already posted that they MIGHT get to ride in two hours or so. The boys left their names on the bottom of the list and headed at a full gallop back down the trail and went sailing.

One of the many perks of being an Intermediate boy was in being able to take rowboats, canoe's and sailboats out on the lake, either with a friend or two, or even all alone. Every cabin along the lake had its own boats at the shoreline, but the camp also had a dock and boat house that held dozens more. Now that the lower camp was strictly for the younger boys, the boats were being moved to the boathouse to avoid accidents if a five, six or seven year old decided to go for an unsupervised ride. While every single boy in school was taught to swim even as babies, the possibility of a boat over turning and the toddler getting trapped underneath was a risk Bert wasn't ready to take.

Usually, the boys headed for the canoe's, but when a stiff breeze blew across the lake as it was now doing, the boys were rigging Sailfish and Sunfish as fast as they could to join the flotilla racing around the lake. During school, Dan supervised the outside swimming in the Lagoon. At Camp, he was the Waterfront Director and controlled the entire lake.

"How's it going boys?" He asked Sammy and the boys who were rigging the centerboards and rudders to the boats.

"Fine Uncle Dan." Billy, who was one of Dan's boys responded.

"When are we going to start water skiing?" he asked his counselor.

"Probably on Monday," Dan replied.

"Do you know how to water ski?" Dan asked the boy.

"No Uncle Dan, But Jesse said that you would teach me just like you taught him," the boy replied.

"And me too!" Sammy said as he slid the boat off the beach and into the water.

"Didn't you Uncle Dan?" he asked. Dan smiled.

"It was either me or one of the Senior boys Sammy, I'm not sure."

"No, it was you, I learned with Joey remember?" the boy replied. Dan smiled.

"I,m sure you're correct," Dan said.

"Last year you said we could go over the jump like the Senior boys do Uncle Dan. Are we still gonna do that?" Trevor now asked. Dan didn't quite remember who taught Sammy to ski, but this conversation he did recall very vividly.

"I said last year that I would speak to Uncle Bert, Trevor," the man told the boy.

"Well, did ya?" Sammy asked "We have talked about it a few times, but I haven't received permission yet," Dan told the group.

"How come?" Joey asked.

"Ski jumping is very serious stuff Joey, your Uncle Bert doesn't want anyone getting hurt," he told the boy.

"We won't get hurt Uncle Dan, you won't let us." David now replied. Dan once again smiled.

"And who was it that fell out of a tree last year?" he asked David. David giggled.

"I will bring it up to Uncle Bert again, but whatever he decides is Law," Dan told the boys as they pushed off and climbed onto the sailboats.

Dan watched as the boys darted down the lake to join their friends who were clustered in a small cove across the lake. Half the sailboats were on their sides as the boys climbed on the centerboards and dove into the water again and again. As the counselor walked back towards the boathouse a Senior boy passed him with a gas tank and a fishing pole.

"Keep your eye on Jimmy's Cove, they're congregating over there," Dan told the boy.

"OK Uncle Dan. Peter and Larry are already on Lake Patrol," he told the man.

"I saw Peter. Where's Larry?" Dan asked as he turned around and looked across the lake. The boy put down the gas tank and pointed "See the big willow tree in front of Boys 16?" he said.

"There's a big bass that likes to feed there and Larry's trying to catch him. He's under that tree."

Dan raised his field glasses and could see the red color of the jet ski "Remind him that he's out there on Safety Patrol. He can't be seeing too much from under that tree," Dan said.

"Make sure everybody has all their safety gear with them. Uncle Bert is going to be on the warpath because of today," Dan told the boy.

"OK Uncle Dan," the boy replied. Dan checked to see if his sled was ready to leave the dock. The camp had four jet ski's, but Dan's was the one the Senior boys drooled over. Theirs had a 60 horsepower engine that could zip across the lake at lightening speed. Dan's on the other hand had a 90 horse power engine that could take him anywhere on the lake in under 30 seconds if he had to get to a boy in trouble. Dan himself was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor and he had six Certified Senior Life Guards at his disposal to keep the camp safe, but he still knew that Bert was going to be all over him like flies on shit, it was just a matter of time. Today wasn't going to be the best day to ask Bert if he could start flying eight to 12 year old boys off a ski jump at 40 miles an hour he decided.

Jeanette's day was fairly routine right up until the alarm bell rang. As the Head of the Lower Camp, Jeanette and her assistant Johanna were now in camp for a little over three weeks and the boys she was in charge of were now pretty well settled down to their routines of camp life.

As the head of the Lower camp, she was responsible for the youngest of the boys, from her personal responsibility of two year old Kenny all the way up to the seven year olds. There were roughly 80 of them, and now with the addition of the Pine Ridge girls, she was taking in the youngest of the girls as well. They ranged in age from three to six and there were 38 of them. With almost 120 small fry, Jeanette and her staff of 25 had a full plate from 6:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night and that was IF nobody was sick or teething.

Jeanette rode with Bert on the way to Martha's cabin, and like everybody else, had no clue what the emergency was. She only knew that the bell was never rung continuously except for emergencies.

"Where do you think it is?" Jeanette asked as she held Kenny in her lap. Bert shook his head.

"It came from somewhere between Boys Four and Boys Eight. I couldn't tell," Bert replied.

"Who's still back there?" Bert asked. Jeanette shook her head.

"I don't know. Sometimes the girls stay back if someone's sick or is sound asleep," she replied.

"It could be anybody."

"This is bullshit, I don't know if we're dealing with a fire, an injury, someone choking, a missing kid. Nothing!" Bert said as he vented to nobody in particular. Jeanette looked ahead and saw Dave's truck on the path.

"That's Martha's cabin," Jeanette told the man.

"Did you see Martha or Joshua at lunch?" Bert now asked.

"No, I don't think so," Jeanette replied as the cart pulled up in back of Dave's truck.

As Bert's cart pulled up, Dave was walking Martha from the cabin and approached.

"She's been burned, take her to the infirmary." Dave told his boss as the girl got into the cart's back seat. A Senior boy was holding Joshua, a three year old who clung to a toy boat but was in a pretty good mood.

"We'll bring Joshua in the truck Martha." Dave told the girl and backed away from the cart. Bert swung the cart around and now passed other cart's still arriving.

"Martha what happened?" Jeanette asked the girl who was in pain, but not crying.

"I spilled hot water on me when I heated up Joshua's food," the girl replied.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Is Joshua burned?" Bert asked the girl.

"No, he was playing in the living room when it happened." Martha told the Administrator.

As Bert pulled up to the infirmary, the fire trucks passed heading the other way. Bert shook his head. There had to be a better way he said to himself. The infirmary crew was already outside when Bert arrived and Martha was taken inside with Jeanette following.

Bert waited for Dave and went in once Joshua arrived as Bert looked at the boys body.

Joshua still clutched his toy boat and was fully ready to play as he sat down with Kenny on the floor.

Bert and Dave went to the clinic where Martha was now laying on an examining table. It would be the subject of debate for a long time, but when Martha was burned, she was wearing both a shirt and was in a pair of shorts. She had second degree burns on her stomach and her right thigh as well as the top of her right foot. The debate was whether or not she would have been better off clothed or unclothed, since the burn on her stomach was created by contact with the hot water on her shirt fabric attaching to her skin, not from direct spillage. The burn on her thigh was worse where the shorts covered than where bare skin was, so again, the hot clothing didn't protect her, it kept the heat in contact with her skin for a longer period of time. The debate ended one night when Sid shrugged his shoulders.

"So, what do we do, keep the girls naked all the time?" Sid then raised his hand.

"I for one vote for naked. All girls should be naked 24 hours a day," Sid ducked as the pillows came flying at him.

With Martha now laying naked and having cream and bandages applied, Bert approached the girl and brushed her hair back from her forehead.

"I'm sorry, it was a stupid accident!" Martha said to the man. Bert shook his head.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about, accidents happen and we're all just happy you didn't get more seriously hurt," he told the girl as he kissed her on the forehead.

"Joshua is right outside. He's fine," Bert said to the girl.

With Martha being treated, Bert went back to Martha's cabin and reviewed the scene in the kitchen. The stove was still on, and a small pot and spaghetti Os were all over the floor in front of the stove. Bert looked at the microwave stove that sat on the counter and shook his head. The Safety Manual contained the suggestion to heat food up in the microwave whenever possible rather than use the stove, why hadn't Martha done that? If Joshua had been standing by Martha at the stove, or worse, was being held by the girl, the boy would have received very serious burns. The thought sent shivers through Bert. As much as he wanted to admonish the girl, hadn't she been through enough already? Bert left the cabin as Gloria pulled up in front. Explaining the situation to Gloria, he told the woman to have a crew clean up the kitchen.

"I want you to go over every building in the girls camp with a fine tooth comb. Conduct a full Safety Inspection tomorrow and make sure the girls know what our policies are," Bert told the girl. Gloria nodded her head. She had been with Bert long enough to know he was going to react very negatively, he always did after every incident.

While Bert spent the greater majority of his afternoon reviewing and making some changes to the Safety Manual and then having it reprinted, the boy's on the lake pretty much forgot about time and played until well after 4:00. By the time someone remembered the go-karts and they all ran up the hill, their names had already come up and they had missed their turn. Undeterred, and since they were already up on the hill the boys decided it was time for a swim in the pool.

General swim for camp was from three to five. Before that, the pool was pretty much reserved for swimming lessons and the lower camp boys and girls. Now that the girls had arrived, the schedule was rearranged, and the girls had open swim as well. It wasn't the most welcome decision Bert had ever made, since it pretty much closed the pool down for the Upper Camp boys except for general swim. When the boys grumbled to Sid about the situation, he had a classic Sid response; "Look on the bright side guys, if the girls have the pool, they won't be polluting the lake and clogging it all up with perfume and silly girl stuff. You'll have the lake all to yourselves!" he told the boys.

As Bert and the staff knew very well, the pool was going to be the key that opened the camp up to cohesiveness. Breaking down barriers were already in play by using the Camp Kenny boys to get the girls to drop their inhibitions. The girls were now swimming with the two to seven year old boys naked, and no longer thinking anything about it. But, there's a few inches difference between a two, three and four year old and a 10, 11 and 12 year old. Then again, for the Upper Camp boys, it was one thing to run around with your male friends starkers, girls were a completely different story!

General swim began at three and the girls were already in the water playing with the little one's as the intermediate boys began to arrive. Gloria watched in amusement as one by one, the girls appeared back in the water with underpants or shorts on. She had rarely seen the boys at school swimming in clothing, but she was seeing it now. As the hour progressed, more and more boys trickled into the pool complex, and as the boys started to out number the girls, they got progressively bolder as one by one, a pair of shorts or a pair of underpants came flying through the air and landed on the pool deck.

It was no surprise to Gloria whatsoever that she was looking at the youngest, or the boys who had been at Green Tree the longest getting naked the fastest.

"How's it going?" Bert asked as he sat down next to Gloria.

"It's better than watching a movie." Gloria said as she shifted Timmy to her other breast.

"It's almost a game of cat and mouse or peek a boo. The girls pretend they're not looking, and the boys pretend that exposure is an accident."

Bert smiled. Caleb was in the pool with a girl of probably 9 or 10 when he spotted Bert and climbed out of the pool on a dead run.

"Hi Uncle Bert!" the boy yelled as he climbed up Bert's legs and into his lap. Bert gave the boy a hug as Caleb soaked the man's shirt and shorts.

"How's it going pal?" Bert asked the little boy as he gave him a kiss.

"Fine Uncle Bert. I'm playing submarine with Ginger," the boy replied.

"Ginger?" Bert asked.

Caleb nodded his head.

"Ginger is that little girl over there climbing out of the pool." Gloria told the man as she pointed out a girl with long brown hair. Bert watched as the girl got out of the pool and approached.

"Hello Ginger," Bert said as she came up to the man. Bert received a very shy "Hello." from the girl.

"Caleb, want to come back into the water and swim?" she asked the boy.

"Are you staying here Uncle Bert?" Caleb asked.

"I'll be here for a little while, but swim is almost over if you want to go play," Bert told the boy.

"Watch this Uncle Bert!" Caleb said as he started to slid to the floor and leave with the girl.

"I hope she doesn't think those underpants are doing much covering up," Bert said quietly to Gloria as the two campers left. Gloria laughed as she looked up. If Ginger had any secrets, they no longer were. The girls underpants were all but transparent as she approached the pool and Sammy and about ten of his closest friends who were now entering the pool went by. Sammy had seen all the pictures, but this was live and he did take notice as Caleb jumped into the pool.

Bert now watched Sammy and his friends curious as to their reaction. The boys all stood by the edge of the pool as they looked for their friends in the water. A pair of underpants flew over Sammy's head and landed at Bert's feet in a soggy heap.

"Sorry Uncle Bert!" a boy yelled up from the water. Bert waved as Sammy now stood there talking to Joey and Trevor.

"A buck says they go in bare assed." Gloria now said to Bert.

"You're on," Bert said just before Sammy's shorts hit the concrete. Once Sammy was naked, it was a foot race to see who's pants were next. Within under five seconds, all the boys were in the water and a pile of shorts littered the deck.

"You owe me a buck dummy!" Gloria told her boss.

"How'd you know?" Bert asked the girl. Gloria pointed to the pair of underpants at Bert's feet.

"Tommy dared them."

"That's cheating, I didn't hear anybody make a dare!" Bert said.

"Tough!" Gloria replied.

As fast as the pool could strip the swimmers of their inhibitions, it paled in comparison to the sauna and the steam room. For the boys, the pool was declared a 'public' place by staff. Camp and School rules were that you did not 'play' in public area's, you played in private areas like your bedrooms, out on the lake away from the beach, on horseback or on the trails, in the woods, or, in the sauna and steam room. The girls were informed from the very beginning that these places were 'safe' places for the boys to play and if they didn't want to become involved, they just might not want to find themselves there if the boys were around. The girls had already seen the effect the sauna and steam room had on the little one's, and they were just 'beginner's'. The girls were not forbidden to go there, but if they did find themselves there with a boy, they were advised that they had waived the right to declare 'innocence'. For now, the girls merely watched as the boys traveled back and forth, but they were becoming very curious as to what transpired beyond those shower heads.

Bert stayed on at the pool watching the campers for about another ten minutes. Just before he was about to leave a girl approached Gloria.

"Can Timmy go swimming with us?" she asked the caretaker. Gloria tickled the boys cheek who had been half napping and half having a relationship with his favorite pacifier as the boy opened his eyes. "Timmy want to go in the water?" she asked the boy. Timmy released her breast and started to rise up.

"Give me those pant's over there Rebecca," she said to the girl pointing.

As Gloria wiped away some milk from the boys chin, the little girl handed her the pants.

"Timmy has a full tummy, and it's time for him to make poopey, so keep these on him." Gloria told the girl as Timmy stood up in her lap and she pulled up a pair of baby swim trunks.

"He may tell you he needs to make, but in the water, he sometimes forgets," the girl said as she kissed the little boy on the cheek and handed him over. The girl giggled a little. Bert watched as the girl walked away carrying Timmy.

"I don't think his feet have touched the ground for the past two weeks." Gloria said as Timmy squealed as he entered the water with his arms rapped around the girls neck.

Staff considered the first General Swim a very good start. The boys had yet to see their very first set of big tits on a girl other than their Green Tree staff which the boys really didn't consider as being tits per se. The women of Green Tree had baby milk, not something that could be played with or something that you could find in a girlie magazine. To the boys, there was a very distinct difference, at least for boys between the ages of eight to 13 or so. There was absolutely nothing sexy about Gloria, or Jeanette or Johanna's tits, every intermediate boy in Green Tree knew they didn't fuck and they didn't do sex! They were just Mothers.

As for the girls, this was the third time they had seen the boys swimming, and they certainly accidentally saw a few more boys things than the evening before, but for the most part, these boys were just a little bigger than the one's from Camp Kenny, but, some of them were kind of cute 3; Maybe a little.

Still, there was the steam room, and some of those boys could certainly produce a bigger boner than any of the boys from Camp Kenny when they got to change diapers or give them a bath. For those attending, General Swim was the topic of conversation on both campuses just before light's out and those not there today, were curious to go and have a look for themselves the next day.

General Swim ended as it had for years with Uncle Sid passing by the pool and jingling his bar or ice cream bells on his way from the stables back to his cabin. One moment, the boys were in the pool, and the next, they were leaping out of the water and out of the steam room heading for the doors and back to their cabins, the fastest boys got to jump on Sid's cart and get a ride if he was going in their direction, and Sammy, Joey, Trevor, Billy and David climbed on board as the girls watched as a whole bunch of wet shiny asses disappeared across the baseball fields.

"Do they always play so loud." One girl asked Gloria as they got into the woman's cart and headed over to the girls campus.

"Usually they're a lot noisier." Gloria replied as the girls looked at each other."I think today they were on their best behavior because they knew you were there."

Chapter Ten

The Birth of Sidney Bertram

As Adam walked in, Greg and Bruce were already there. Bruce had spent the better part of the morning with Kevin practicing for his part in Oliver Twist, and the afternoon boating on the lake and then going horseback riding. Both Bruce and his Senior Counselor were preparing to shower, and Adam watched as the boy undressed. At 10, Bruce still had the body of a child, but one that fairly stood out in the crowd. He had gained probably 10 or 15 pounds [5-7 kg] since arriving with the Albemarle boys in September, and was no longer a very shy and depressed boy who was placed on suicide watch when he first arrived.

The weight he had gained went to all the right places. His ribs were no longer visible. His legs and arms didn't look like sticks anymore and his bottom now filled a pair of underpants to the brim. Greg and Bruce lived with Kevin in his cabin, and Adam was curious why the two were showering in his.

"Uncle Dave is fixing the hot water heater Uncle Adam. It stopped working," Bruce told the man.

"Uncle Kevin told everybody to come over here or go over to Uncle Dan's until it's fixed."

"Where are the other boys?" Adam asked.

"Not back yet I guess," Greg replied. Adam nodded his head as the two began showering. Bruce was chattering away like a magpie with Greg as the man brought in a pile of towels he knew most of the boys would never pass over their bodies. They preferred the air dry method, and that didn't depress the hell out of Adam all that much.

Adam smiled as he listened to Bruce. If you had told the man he would be witnessing this level of security and stability from the boy nine months earlier, he would never have believed it. Bruce's first four years of life was a horror story straight out of hell in foster care, and the next four years were spent hiding in a closet at his old school. Now, he and the other Albemarle boys were indistinguishable from Green Tree boys who had been loved and protected all their lives in many cases. Adam didn't think you could fix a broken boy, he was proved wrong by Green Tree staff. Bruce had attached himself to the 16 year old Greg and the bond between the two was as tight as the one between Adam and Sammy or Anthony and Spencer.

Adam heard the horde long before it came crashing through the front screen door. Sid's six passenger golf cart had 11 boys hanging off it, and Adam's boys headed directly for the kitchen and retrieved a handful of Oreo's and milk. Sid now came in and collapsed into his chair that looked like it went through a war. Jesse presented him with a bottle of beer and then went heading for the tv with the rest of the boys.

"How did your meeting go?" Sid asked.

"We got a lot accomplished, we're making a list of activities up and we'll post them up for volunteer's to supervise," Adam told his friend.

"Like what?" Sid asked.

"Tennis, archery, arts and crafts, nature. The usual stuff," Adam replied.

"So are you planning to keep the boys together in groups and have them all go to the same activities together?" Sid asked.

"We don't know yet, we haven't really figured that out. We're just putting together things to do right now, once we know what's available, we can figure out how to structure their day," he told his friend.

"I know how you can structure their day," Sid replied.

"How?" Adam asked.

"You can't! They won't follow each other around like a bunch of lemmings. They've been use to being allowed to run free at camp, and they won't give that freedom up without one hell of a fight," Sid advised.

"What would you do?" Adam asked.

"First, I'd get some of the boys on that Committee. Since you're deciding what they're going to be doing with their time, they should have a say in the matter. Then I'd figure out how to make the activities elective, but accountably structured. That's all that Bert is really looking for: knowing where they are. He doesn't really care what they're doing."

"Whatcha doin Uncle Adam?" Sammy now asked as he climbed onto Adam's lap.

"I'm just sitting here taking some advice from a man that smells like a goat!" Adam replied as he gave Sammy a kiss on the cheek. Sid smiled.

"Don't you pay any attention to him Sammy, he's just trying to find a way to take all the tvs in camp away from you guys," Sid told the little boy as he got up from his chair. Adam closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Sammy as he stood up with the boy.

"Don't listen to Uncle Sid, he's just old and cranky and gets mad when we don't let him watch Sesame Street," Sammy giggled a little, but this was the second time he heard something about no tv.

"Is Uncle Bert going to let you take away the tvs Uncle Adam?" Sammy now asked the counselor.

Adam looked at Sid.

"Thanks pal," he said as he turned back to the boy.

"I haven't asked Uncle Bert to take away the tvs and I'm not going to. But I do think it would be better for you guys to be outside playing and having fun instead of sitting inside all day watching the tube," Adam said to the boy.

"What would you think if I did ask Uncle Bert to take them away?" he asked Sammy. Sammy shook his head no.

"We would go to Uncle Bert and tell him to stop you," Sammy replied very matter of factly. Adam looked back at Sid.

"Like I said," Sid replied without elaborating.

Most of Kevin's boys converged on Adam's cabin for showers. Adam was feeling really proud of himself for being able to attract so many of the boys. He had been at Green Tree for almost exactly one year now, and he knew he was a popular teacher/counselor, but was also well aware that with the boys, Bert, Sid, Jeanette, Gloria and Johanna were at the very top of the heap. With the welcome reception at the beginning of camp, and now this turnout, Adam was quite proud of himself.

Then he found out that Dan had run out of Oreo's and Adam still have four bags left. Somehow, Oreo's can humble a man.

At school, evening showers were held after dinner. In camp, the boys showered before dinner mainly because of the horses. Dave came over from Kevin's cabin just before dinner to announce that the hot water heater was fixed, but not before Adam's cabin was fairly totaled by roughly 16 boys, two puppies and five adults.

"Look on the bright side Adam, at least it's not a Pizza party!" Dave told his friend.

Dinner went uneventful except for Bert distributing new copies of the 'Official' camp Safety Manual. Every staff member in camp would have bet on it, and Bert reminded all staff that the Safety Committee would pick up their old manual the next day when they did their inspection.

"Fucking joy!" Dan said as Bert went on to the next table. Sid and Eitienne laughed.

"Ya knew it was coming," Sid chuckled. "It always does after every accident.!"

"The bitch of it is that everybody in camp is going to be hounded till next week by Bert except for Martha," Dan told the group.

"He won't say a word to her because she's already paid the price," Sid nodded his head.

"I guess this is the first accident you two have been involved in," Sid said to Adam and Kevin.

"Bert always goes off the deep end whenever anybody gets hurt, so you can expect him to be paying everybody a visit for the next few days. Make damned sure that you don't leave any knives out on the counter, or razors in the bathrooms, or disable any child guards on cabinets or drawers or you will be hearing from Bert!" Sid told the men.

"He's been down to the waterfront four times today!" Dan said as he ate an ear of corn. Again, Sid nodded.

"He's been up to the stable five times, so I got you beat!" Sid responded. Both men again chuckled, but it wasn't a laughing matter and everybody knew Bert's concern.

After dinner, Gloria's second full day of camp with the Green Tree Senior boys now in attendance was scheduled to end with a social campfire between her senior girls and the senior boys at the lake. It would be the first gathering of the two groups who were both aged 13 to 16, and to the campers it was a huge deal. Outwardly, both groups appeared nonchalant and aloof about the coming night, but that pretty much ended once both groups returned to their own compounds to prepare. From the boys, "Who cares?" gave way to finding the best clothing to wear and worrying about that stupid zit. From the girls, things went from "They're a bunch of geeks!" to something fairly close to panic as Gloria and her staff wondered what all the fuss over the 'Geeks' was all about. By 7:00, Bert learned that his 'Stupid' commissary didn't have things like eye liner, mascara, rouge, lipstick or perfume.

To separate the seniors from the intermediates, Sammy and his friends would be going to the 'Canteen' the upper camps combination ice cream and soda shop. The boys loved going there because it had a jute box, pinball machines, computer games, bumper pool and ping pong tables. It was only open three days a week, and it served ice cream, soda, hamburgers, franks and pizza. Normally, access could only be achieved by gaining a certain amount of 'points' by a boy, and usually, you worked a week to get enough points to go there. This was a very special place to the boys, and tonight, it was free! (Except the stupid girls would be there too).

With two parties going on simultaneously, Bert spent his night shuffling back and forth from the lake to the upper camp as Sid held down the fort at the lake with Dan while Dave kept the lid on the Canteen. Adam smiled as the most often heard comment from staff of the night was 'Be gentlemen' as Sammy and his friends stood by waiting for a machine to get free.

"Now you know how we felt when we first came last year," Kevin said to Adam as both men watched the changes that were occurring before Adam's eyes. Adam smiled.

"None of these boys have ever been around girls in their life, but they're behaving exactly like my friends and I did at camp when we intermingled," Adam responded.

"It's universal I guess," Kevin replied.

"So how did it go tonight?" Adam asked Sammy as the boy climbed on top of Adam's chest.

"Great Uncle Adam, I had a great time!" Sammy exclaimed.

"Did you meet anybody new?" Adam asked.

"New? There are no new boy's in camp," Sammy told the man as he picked up his head off Adam's chest and stared down at the man from inches away.

"Is there?" he asked.

"No, I don't think there are any new boys, but there certainly are new girls!" Adam told him.

"So what?" Sammy asked.

"So, did you meet any of them?"

"What for?" Sammy asked his teacher. Adam smiled and wrapped the boy in his arms and hugged him. Adam kissed him on his ear.

"What for is something in the future Sammy," Adam said to the little boy as he continued to hug him as hard as he dared. Sammy raised his leg up alongside his teacher. Whatever was in the future was in the future. Tonight, he had Adam, and he knew exactly where he wanted his teacher to be.

From a social standpoint, the senior campfire was a resounding success. It began with a beach very full of wall flowers and a group that was about as integrated as a meeting of the klan and the rainbow coalition. Bert's goal was to socially integrate the groups as soon as possible. At the same time, that didn't mean it was wide open season on beaver. That did not seem to bother the 13 and 14 year old boys too much, but the 15 and 16 year olds did have very high hopes. Both schools had spent months in preparation telling both the boys and the girls that being 'social' didn't have to end up in a prone position, but tell that to two teenagers and then get the fuck out of the way! Once again, the golden rule was that no meant no, and don't be caught crossing the line or the shit was gonna flow faster than a horse could produce it. (The Gospel: According to Sid, Chapter 5, Verse 16.)

As usual, Sid was in charge of the music and as usual, the boys were use to what they were about to hear. At 49, Sid came from another musical time. A better time most sane people would agree, but the girls were not use to Sid, nor to his music. After about 15 minutes of listening, one girl asked Sid if he had any other music, and after listing about 25 groups names and songs, the girl gave up. Sid never heard of any of them, and really didn't give a shit either.

Sid most probably couldn't run a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner, but he could run a 36 pot sound board in a recording studio single handedly and not miss a note of any instrument. He also has the equipment to make the crowd at Red Rocks or Saratoga envious. Sid's goal was to 'liven' up the party by the song, and by the time Little Feat cruised into 'Dixie Chicken' Sid knew he had about 50 new converts to real Rock and Roll. The very first social of the camp seniors broke up with no new non virgins as far as the staff knew, and they considered that a pretty good success. As for the boys and girls, if anyone had 'scored', nobody said anything about it, but they all wanted to meet again.

Adam's day began as it did just about every morning in camp to the sound of the roosters as Sammy began to stir next to him. Many of Adam's boys popped out of bed like a piece of toast, but Sammy wasn't one of them and Adam had learned long since that to make the little boy move before he was ready wasn't the wisest move in the world. Sammy needed time to figure out what planet he was on. None of this depressed Adam because the mornings always presented the two of them with prime private time.

With a small breeze whistling through the pine trees Sammy raised his arms over his head and stretched straight out with a very big yawn. Adam smiled as the blanket slid off the boy revealing an erection that strained for the roof rafters. During the night, Sammy had moved off Adam and the boy was now laying alongside the man. Sammy rolled over and moved back on top of Adam and slid his legs and lower body between Adam's legs as Adam used both hands to run his fingers up and down the boys spinal cord from his neck to his tail bone and back again. Adam kissed the top of Sammy's head as he felt the boy's body get goose pumps. Adam moved the quilt over Sammy and cupped his hands on the boys bottom. Sammy giggled a little as he flexed his penis. He was fully ready to play.

Lifting his leg up, Sammy knew well that Adam would now begin to make love to him as somehow, only Adam could and make him feel so wonderful. He loved to play with his friends, but for whatever reason, he and his teacher weren't just playing and making each other feel good, when Sammy gave Adam his body, there was an absolute difference to the boy that he didn't fully understand. His Uncle Bert had told him he was feeling love, but he loved all his friends too and they did the same things together. Sammy closed his eyes as Adam took his penis in his hand and massaged it. He loved all things related to playing, but Adam also knew that above all, Sammy loved to be suckled and the boy knew when Adam pulled on his thigh, he wanted him to turn himself around. There were a lot of ways Sammy liked to wake up, but this was his favorite as his teacher brought him to climax for the first time that morning.

Adam and Sammy lay together for a long time before Sammy moved again.

"I gotta pee Uncle Adam," he said as his head rested on Adam's stomach.

"Hi," Christopher said as the boy came into the room followed by Matty and both sat down on the bed.

"You finished Uncle Adam?" Christopher asked. Adam smiled and kissed Sammy's penis one more time.

"I guess so," he told the boys as Sammy giggled.

"Me and Matty already played, wanna take a shower Sammy?" he asked his friend. Adam picked up Sammy by his hips and turned the boy around. Patting him on the bottom, he said "Go" as Sammy headed for the bathroom. "Let's get cleaned up guys," he told the boys as he got out of bed.

"Geez Uncle Adam, do you think I'll have as much hair as you got when I get big?" Christopher asked the man as they walked to the bathroom.

"Most probably Christopher, maybe more," he told the boy. Christopher now smiled and looked at Matty.

Both boys were a year older than Sammy, and at ten, both boys were attending Green Tree since they were five years old. They began with the girls in Camp Kenny, and this was their third year at camp. Both boys pretty much arrived together at school and almost instantly attached themselves to each other. Like many of the boys who were not raised as very small babies at school, they arrived with many problems and it took many months before either would interact with staff or their peers, with the exception of the female staff. To be sure, Spencer and more than a few other boys were more dependent and depressed as these two boys were, but it still took the better part of four months before they began coming out of their shells. Matty was still a bit withdrawn, but he now had many friends, and even a few favorite teachers and counselors. Matty didn't talk very much, and had a severe speech impediment, but the boys Individual Service Plan as formulated by Bert and the girls was to not chastise or correct his speech, in fact, it was to be ignored. Saying "What?" to Matty was completely against Bert's rules for campers or staff.

Fortunately for Adam, he had a nephew in Connecticut that spoke exactly like Matty and Adam had learned years before to understand the boy. To Matty, although he said nothing, Adam was a Godsend. Many people at school and at camp didn't correct his speech, but the boy instinctively knew that they didn't understand him either. A smile, a pat on the head, an answer coming from someone that had absolutely nothing to do with his question or statement told Matty that he was being treated nicely, but so what?

When he spoke to Adam, there was no question in his mind that Adam understood him.

Gloria and Jeanette understood him, but they took almost a year to do it and now, he was an Intermediate boy and not in proximity to them. Uncle Bert understood him, but he wasn't there all the time. Now, Adam was. When the little boy first realized almost a year earlier that he had a close staff member that understood him, he found a quiet place and cried from relief.

Within the confines of Beach View, Matty was pretty much at home. All the boys, Sid and now Adam had no difficulty with understanding him, and both Sid and Adam knew exactly how to deal with the boys impediment. Matty now not only had speech, he had speech teachers that were improving Matty's speech without the boy even realizing it. The only problem Matty had in more than two years was in the early Fall when a newer boy from Albemarle came into contact with him and wanted to know why he talked like a baby.

This problem didn't come up again, the boy was popped by Christopher and learned a valuable lesson.

As for Christopher, he and Matty were inseparable. Christopher had lost his Mother a few months before he arrived and emotionally was a basket case. Gloria took over where his Mother left off, and Christopher eventually thrived on her attention, but it took gallons of tears to wash away the boys sense of loss and hurt. Now at 10, staff wondered what Christopher and Matty were going to get into next.

Sid arrived in the kitchen as the coffee was being poured. "It's D-Day good buddy, make sure this place meets code before we leave." he advised his friend.

"Do you really think it's going to be that bad?" Adam asked. Sid chuckled.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Bert was up and about at 5:00 this morning," he told Adam.

The mafia came off the hill together just before 8:00 and pulled up to the Mess Hall just as the girls were leaving for their cabins. With two sittings for meals now in place, the upper camp boys rarely came into contact with the staff girls except at the lake and pool, and it wasn't sitting well with many of them. Many of these boys spent years with these women, and were use to sitting down and eating with them on demand. What was now developing before everyone's eyes was a mini reunion between each meal. Both Sid and Bert watched it develop and did not like what they were seeing.

"This double sitting stuff isn't going to work," Sid said as he sat down with Adam, Dan and Kevin.

"What does Bert say?" Dan asked.

"Same thing, this shit is too stressful on some of the more dependent boys, especially the one's who've just moved up," Sid replied.

"To look at Arthur, it's like he's saying "Goodbye" to his Mother three times a day."

"What's Bert going to do?" Adam now asked.

"Well, after he rips everybody's asshole out for not having an up to date First Aid Kit today, he's going to start figuring out with Dave how to double the size of this building in 1 day or less," Sid responded.

"Remember that $100.00 bet we made about when Bert started in this morning?" he said to Adam.

"Well, he was walking in on Jeanette changing Kenny at 5:30 this morning with a clip board in his hand!" Dan looked at Adam.

"You made a $100.00 bet with him?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I bet him $100.00 that he could take a shower and still smell like horse shit, so it's a draw." Bert arrived at the table as the last of the milk was being cleaned up when the boys sprayed it all over the table.

"Glad to see you boys are in such a good mood. We have Safety Inspections this morning and you're all invited," Bert said as he passed out the inspection schedules to all staff.

"Each Senior staff member has a check off list of safety items I want checked. If it isn't there, make a note of it and get it. I want full compliance by noon and I'll pick up the list after lunch beginning with the lower camp." Normally, Sid by now would have a few good zingers to add to the conversation. Sid knew that Bert was not in a kidding mood.

"Right after breakfast Dan let's go over the lake and pool procedures. Sid, let's review the stables about 10:00 or so?" he asked his second in command, Sid nodded his head.

As Bert moved onto the next set of tables, Sid picked up a small pile of papers.

"Thank you Martha!" he said almost to himself.

Bert's arrival at Jeanette's earlier in the morning scared the hell out of the girl. For one, Bert didn't announce his arrival and Kenny woke up needing a change. She was bending over him cleaning the two year old as he lay there on a changing table playing with his toes when Bert came into the bathroom.

"Jesus Christ you scared the shit out of me!" Jeanette said as Bert came in the doorway.

"Sorry, but I just wanted to leave this paperwork," Bert responded.

"Bert, what the hell time is it? The sun isn't up yet!" Jeanette said as she settled the boy she had startled back down.

"After 5:00 I'm sure," Bert said. Jeanette wasn't impressed.

"Go make some coffee. I'm never going to get him back to sleep now," she said more than a bit irked.

"I've got some more paperwork to distribute," Bert replied.

"At 5:00 in the morning? Bullshit. You'll scare half my people to death. At least wait until the sun's up!" she advised her boss.

As Bert went into the kitchen and prepared a pot of coffee, Jeanette returned to the bedroom with Kenny who was now ready to start his day. She pulled on a pair of Carter's on the baby and then went to the closet to get a bath robe for herself. It wasn't the first time Bert had seen the girl completely naked and it most probably wouldn't be the last, but she wasn't about to go walking around at five in the morning stone cold naked. Jeanette sat down on the side porch outside her bedroom that overlooked the lakeside. The moon was now gone and there was the faintest shimmer of light as the forms of the tree trunks could now be seen against the starlit sky. The smell of pine needles mixed with coffee as Kenny made it abundantly clear that it was time for chow. Jeanette opened her bathrobe to the boy who needed no further encouragement as he latched onto her breast. The girl wrapped the boy up in her terrycloth robe as Timmy began his meal in earnest.

"Sorry about scaring you," Bert said as he put down her coffee and sat himself down. Jeanette shook her head.

"How did you know I would even be awake?" she asked.

"Your cabin was the only one with a light on," Bert replied.

"Lucky me," she said as she looked down at Kenny who was fully awake.

"How's Martha?" Bert asked.

"Probably sound asleep," she replied.

"Which is exactly where you should be. None of this stuff can't wait until at least the sun comes up."

"You're right, I just couldn't sleep," Bert replied.

"Martha is perfectly fine. She has a burn and she'll get over it. It was a stupid accident that will probably never be repeated. Take it easy Bert, you can't protect the world from every accident," Jeanette counseled her boss.

"You think I'm wrong?" Bert asked the girl.

"No, I think you're over sensitive to people getting hurt. Whatever you do, don't take a job as an ambulance driver or you'll never allow people to drive cars," she replied half smiling.

"Have the Safety Inspections and make sure everything is in its place and then sit back and watch the river flow. That's all you can do."

In the five short minutes the two were talking, the trees had become more clearly defined and now the water on the lake was clearly visible as an owl hooted across the lake talking to its buddy and a lone set of mallards swam passed the cabin leaving a small wake behind them. The water was dead calm and except for Kenny's stomach being filled, there was dead quiet. With Kenny fidgeting Jeanette knew the boy had emptied one breast and was going to be looking for a refill real fast. Switching the boy around to her right breast, Kenny settled himself back down to a comfortable spot as Jeanette re wrapped the boy up in a cocoon of terry cloth. Jeanette bent down and gave the boy a long kiss on his forehead as the boy reached his hand up and felt the girls cheek and ear.

Bert sat back and thought about the girls he had brought into Green Tree with the Feds battling him every step of the way. In the end, he snuck them in and by the time they learned of the girls existence, it was much too late to remove them from the boys and visa versa. Bert had 12 girls who worked with the youngest boys in Camp Kenny and he wouldn't trade anyone of them for the most learned child care expert in the world.

"If it wasn't for the hurricane, we wouldn't be here right now," Jeanette said as she watched the lake becoming clearer and clearer with each passing minute. Bert nodded his head.

"That would have been a damned shame," Jeanette said.

"The pictures show nothing of the place. They don't do it justice," Bert smiled and again nodded.

"So I guess you're happy with being here?" he asked.

"Well, its not Brooklyn or Hackensack, but it'll do!" she replied. Bert spent the next 15 minutes or so not really thinking about anything. It was the first time he had taken time out for himself in well over a month. With the increased oncoming light, sounds were now being heard. Screen doors opening and closing, the sound and smells coming from the kitchen preparing for breakfast, some horses in the upper camp. Then, the unmistakable sound of toddlers in the showers. A new day had dawned.

"OK Uncle Bert, now you can go do your thing," Jeanette told her boss as she got up from the lounger.

"Time for tubbies with Timmy Kenny," she said to the boy as he gurggled a giggle. She bent down and gave the man a kiss.

"I forgive you," she said as she walked back into her bedroom. Bert smiled as he left on his rounds.

Adam had seen the Safety Manual before, and even moved it around a few times but he had never actually opened it. As it was, Adam knew that each house at school and each cabin at camp had redundant equipment from one end of the residence to another. From fire extinguisher's to first aid kits to smoke alarms, you couldn't turn around without running into something. Now, he held a list with over 250 items on it that he had to personally verify and test if necessary.

"Open the hot water tap fully and test with a thermometer after the water runs for four minutes. Record temperature indicated," Adam read as one of the items on the list.

"You're joking!" Adam exclaimed.

"Got any idea how hard Bert would climb up your ass if one of the boys got scalded in the shower?" Sid asked.

"The very best way to avoid problems is to follow the directions and submit the report. If a problem develops, you're off the hook," Sid told his friend.

"Isn't this a little excessive compulsive?" Adam asked.

"It flows back to his wife and son's death. He won't consider not turning over every stone to protect his staff and student's," Sid replied.

By noon time, Adam was finished with his inspection and report. The boys were not happy campers because the horses were shut down, the go karts were shut down, the pool and the lake was shut down and they were tightening seats and chains and handle bars on their bikes instead of playing. By second sitting lunchtime, the mood picked up for the boys when they learned that all area's had reopened. Bert's inspections were concluded by 5, and Bert could now concentrate on two new area's; A secure intercom/security system for the camp, and, how to eliminate the split meal situation. As Adam returned to his meetings on putting together a camp activity schedule, the boys took off like rockets to the upper camp and the stable's.

Since arriving at camp almost a week earlier, and for the previous five months before that, Kevin was emersed in putting on a production of Oliver Twist. The huge success of Peter Pan had both the staff and the boys thoroughly supporting him, and because of the girl's recent arrival, the decision to put on the production was delayed until the boys came to camp rather than put it on at school as originally planned. Kevin had adapted the script somewhat, and for one, Bill Sikes (Kevin) was no longer a murderer who kills Nancy (Jeanette) and Fagin (Peter, a Senior boy) was no longer a scheming Jew. He was just a scoundrel. Finding boy's to get involved wasn't only not a problem for Kevin, he almost needed a cattle prod to hold them back, such was the success of Peter Pan. As for casting, Kevin discovered that Spencer could sing. Spencer's involvement as one of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan convinced him that he would like playing Oliver, and he was accepted by Kevin. Jesse would play the Artful Dodger, and Kevin had no problem finding the rest of Fagin's boys, all 20 of them with another 25 boys in the opening scene at the orphanage.

Sammy did take part in Peter Pan as a Pirate boy and very much enjoyed his acting debut, but once he found out nobody was going to get to "Fly" in Oliver, he opted to assist Dave on scenery instead. For Adam's part, as a staff member who played the piano, he was a member of the band, since it was going to be presented as a musical. Very little anticipation brought the production of Peter Pan to the boys just before Christmas, now, they were fully involved, and as show time drew closer, so did the excitement. For the girl's it was much to do about nothing. The boys would jump and run around the stage for an hour or so and they'd have to politely sit there and clap on cue. They would be in for quite a surprise, and so would the new found "Star", Spencer.

During tryouts, Kevin had discovered that Spencer could hold the high notes in crystal clarity. At 9, he had an exceptional alto soprano range and could easily hold the notes without straining his voice. Spencer was very athletic, and Kevin guessed that until his voice cracked, he could give the lead in the Vienna Boys Choir one hell of a run for his money. To prove his point, he taught Spencer to sing the Ava Maria in Italian. Most of the school staff shivered when he performed it at the campfire at Easter Sunrise Service on the beach back in Florida, and very few had dry eyes despite the fact that this was about the most agnostic crowd Adam had ever been involved with. Adam knew that if these bunch of heathens could be moved, Spencer could bowl over the Pope! Casting Spencer as Oliver and teaching him "Where is Love?" was the easiest coaching Kevin had ever done with a boy.

One of the keys to Kevin's success was his style of directing. For one, the cast was taught their parts, and he never had the boys do the complete show together prior to putting it on. The cast knew almost as much of what was coming as the audience did. That, Kevin felt, kept the cast as interested in the performance as the audience was. He also never rehearsed publicly, they were closed. There was no full dress rehearsal, and nobody, not even the cast saw the completed show until the curtain fell. It wasn't the easiest way to do the job, but it has worked very well now for three years.

The show was put on after dinner on Saturday. Dinner was at the lake as usual, and Dave and his crew had already built a high riser and five scenery changes. The boys attention was immediately forthcoming, the girls took 10 or 15 minutes to decide that what was going on in front of them was interesting enough to watch. Gloria was intensely interested in the girls reaction, as was Bert and the rest of Gloria's staff. If there were any doubts, they melted away with Spencer's solo. Spencer finished and Kevin damned near had a heart attack. If a pin dropped, it would have been heard for probably three or four of the longest seconds in Kevin's life and then the applause started not only from the girls, but by the entire camp. With a cherry red face, Spencer left the stage after the curtain closed.

It took probably five minutes before the show resumed, mostly due to the fact that the boys in the next scene weren't quite ready to follow Spencer's act. They hadn't seen him rehearse or sing it before and they were taken by surprise. Once again, the staff had very few dry eye's and Spencer now had the pick of the litter. He had about 40 girls mostly between the ages of 10 to 14 ready to do his bidding for the asking.

The show was almost an hour and a half long, and by the final curtain, Green Tree girls were as sold on student productions as the boys were.

Spencer was embarrassed by his new found celebrity, but he accepted it gracefully especially since he spent most of the rest of the evening with Johanna on one side of him and Anthony on the other. The entire staff couldn't have been more proud of him.

In just a little less than a week of camp with the intermediate and senior boys, the assimilation of the girl's into the Green Tree way of life was well underway, By Monday,

all but the oldest of the girls were comfortably swimming nude both in the pool and the lake during general swim when the boys were also there. It took a few days, but eventually the boys showed fewer and fewer erections, especially if the girls didn't encourage them. It also helped a great deal to have the lower camp boy's there to "Keep the lid on" since the little one's always came with their staff, and these women were not seen by the intermediate boys as being anything sexual, they were Mother's.

As was planned, the girls from the Pine Ridge School that had now joined with the Green Tree boys were split into three groups by age. The three to seven year olds were moved from their campus to the lower boys campus and would remain living with the boys through the camp season which would end in mid October. The eight to 12 year old girls remained living in their campus separated from the boys, but during the day, both the boys and the girls activities were conducted together for the most part. The Senior girls, those aged 13 to 16, like the boys, were considered Junior counselors and helpers to the younger groups and used in support of the camp for kitchen, laundry and maintenance activities, but at night, they were then generally free to socialize until bed time.

At least until the Green Tree boys all returned to school, Gloria's job at camp became easier with the youngest of her charges now in the lower camp. The 23 year old head of the girls campus still had a two ½ year old boy on her hip who was totally dependent upon her. There were many former boy's in the lower camp who would retreat to her security from time to time in an emergency, and, a group of almost 40 teenage girls who were fully sexually viable. The girls now had a pool of prospective partners in a ratio of four to 1 (their favor) to choose from when they decided to give the green light and open their legs for a group of boys their age who would fuck a 1955 Buick. It was fair to say that Gloria had some challenges ahead!

As did all the senior and junior girls, Gloria lived in a cabin on the girls campus. In addition to Timmy, she had a staff of eight women who had arrived with the girls from their old school in Montana. During the day, she also had at her disposal a crew of older senior boys and their staff, another 12 people who performed general duties during the day. Gloria figured with a staff to camper ratio of roughly one for every two girls, she might be able to prevent any full blown orgies once the girls got over their shyness.

In addition to Timmy, Gloria had four girls in her cabin, two 13 year olds and two 14 year olds. If problems were going to rear it's ugly head, this was the age group it was going to come from, and all staff knew that very well. Sugar and spice notwithstanding, a teenage girl who's ready to play can wear out a bull at stud let alone some poor 12 to 15 year old ready to get some tit for the first time in his life. To be sure, Gloria had her hands full as she awoke Monday morning.

As he normally did, Timmy awoke with the day's first light. In summer, we're talking about 6:15, maybe 6:30 if Gloria got lucky and it was cloudy out. Contrary to all advise from the experts, Timmy, like all boys at Green Tree, slept with his primary caretaker.

At 2½ he didn't have his own bed and when he finally moved out of Gloria's he would be sleeping with a friend of his choice, very probably two year old Kenny who now lived with his caretaker Jeanette on the lower campus.

When Timmy woke up, he woke up hungry. He usually also woke up wrapped in a three pound diaper, and at 2½ had mastered the art of taking it off. It would take another year or so to master the art of putting it in a waste basket alongside the bed or in one that was always placed around the cabin, but he did know how to give it to Gloria she she could dispose of it. With a squishy plop, it landed on her stomach as Timmy climbed for his breakfast.

"Good morning." Gloria said to the little boy as she laid back down after getting rid of Timmy's latest present.

"Mik" was usually the first word the boy said in the morning, and Gloria heard it as usual.

"Sorry Timmy I think I'm all out of mik today" Gloria said to the boy. Timmy giggled as he pulled the sheet down and dove for the girls breast. The routine between the two rarely changed and Timmy knew that the milk was always there and he knew how to get it.

Usually in the mornings, Gloria would lie with the boy in bed until he had his fill and then get up to start their day together. It was a typically beautiful North Carolina summer morning, and being from Florida, Gloria was basking in the lack of oppressive humidity and the lush green foliage that surrounded the campus. The girls camp was situated on a plot of flat land that looked out towards the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia, with fog shrouded valleys stretched out that had ribbons of clouds meandering through them. In Florida, everything was sea and sand and palm trees. Nice, especially when it's 30 below [-34°C] up North, but rather boring after a few months. Here, she looked out over a million dollar vista that only Uncle Sam could afford.

Gloria picked up a comforter on the way out to the front porch with Timmy still firmly attached to his breakfast. Sitting down in a rocker, this would be the quietest time she would have all day long, and as she adjusted Timmy's body and wrapped the both of them up in the comforter, she quietly hummed nothing in particular as Timmy fought off being lulled back to sleep. Gloria had a good fifteen minutes basking in the solitude and serenity laid out before her. Timmy had emptied one breast and was barely toking on the second as Gloria heard the snapping of twigs and the recognizable sound of a humming electric motor. Bert's golf cart appeared coming up the hill and Gloria knew the coffee had arrived.

Timmy was an early riser, but the earliest riser of them all was Bert who routinely got up between five and 5:30 every morning. After a shower and some paperwork, Bert's routine was to visit with the Camp Kenny boys back at school, and now, with the girls campus and then the lower campus before breakfast. The Director knew everybody's wake up schedule, and he knew he could always count on Timmy to have Gloria awake for the mornings first cup of coffee.

Gloria smiled as Bert leaned over her and gave her a kiss on her forehead and then reached down and did the same to Timmy. As he usually did, Timmy opened his eyes but said nothing as he continued his meal and re closed them. Gloria took a sip of the coffee Bert brought her and continued to rock as Bert sat down and took his own sip.

"How are things going?" Gloria asked her Director. Bert nodded his head.

"Pretty smoothly, I spoke with Adam last night and he's come up with a camp plan that I want everybody to review and give me feedback on," Bert replied. Gloria now nodded her head.

"Half my girls are on his Committee. I've pretty much been kept in the loop as far as the plans so far," she told him.

"I also think we've come up with an intercom system that will be secure and acceptable to Alexandria," Bert said.

"What's their problem?" Gloria asked.

"Mainly security issue's. They don't want a system that anybody can tap into for information. It's like the cell phone and Walkie Talkee ban. We can't use anything wireless." Gloria didn't like talking about security issue's and as she almost always did, she changed the subject.

"What about double sittings?" she now asked her boss.

"I've talked with Dave. Now that he's finished putting in the new storage shed for the Mess Hall and the Girl's bathrooms, he's going to concentrate on doubling the size of the dining room so we can all eat together," he told the girl.

"The problem is, we keep coming against the "Domino effect". Every time we solve one problem, it creates another. He's trying to figure out how we can stop that," Bert said.

"Like what?" Gloria asked.

"Well, doubling the size of the Mess Hall sits us all down together, but the kitchen and dish room would then have to be expanded. The kitchen can put out meals for 300 at a time right now. You can't just double the load without adding stove's, sinks and and everything else that goe's with it like dishes and pots and pans. As it is, the bakery is maxed out. That's the next domino."

"Must be fun being boss." Gloria said with a small smile on her face.

"Hi Uncle Bert." A girl in a pair of the sheerest baby doll pajamas Bert had ever seen in his 45 years said as she and her roommate now came out of the cabin.

"Good morning Caroline." Gloria said to the girl as both girls came over to her to get a closer look at Timmy.

"Good morning Judy." Both girls said good morning, but what both really wanted was Timmy who had pretty much emptied the well and was now just contemplating the universe and the size of his bladder. Timmy never stood on formalities and wasn't about to start as he let the river flow. With a small stream flowing off the rocker and onto the porch, Gloria sat now forehead to forehead with the boy.

"You are so bad!" she said as she kissed the little boy on his nose. Bert chuckled.

"It's a good thing your Aunt Gloria is into golden showers girls," he said as he lifted himself up out of the chair.

"See you all at breakfast," he said as he walked down the stairs chuckling to himself.

"What's golden showers?" Judy asked as Gloria got up and un wrapped the boy from the blanket.

"Never mind, it's just something dirty old men get into." Gloria said as she handed Timmy to Caroline and headed for the showers with the girls. Judy looked at her friend.

"It's when a boy pee's on you silly!" Caroline told her friend.

"Yuck!" exclaimed the girl.

In the upper camp, life was just beginning again as the sound of screen doors slamming shut and showers being turned on drifted across the ball fields. Either because a horse knocked down a fence rail scratching itself, or a gate was left open in the corral, there were about a dozen horses grazing on the ball field when Billy in Dan's cabin next door to Adam's noticed them and set off a mad scramble by about two dozen naked boys chasing the horses from one end of the fields to the other. Adam and Sid watched the boy's as the scene unfolded before them. Sid shook his head.

"One little bucket with some grain in it would have solved the problem. Now I'm going to have to round them up from here to Tennessee," he said as he re entered the cabin.

"Should I tell them?" Adam asked. Sid smiled.

"They know it, they just want to do it the hard way!" With the slam of the screen door, Spencer now awoke to the door, and to the clamor outside. Getting up, he looked out the window and then went to the bathroom. Climbing back into bed, Anthony was awake, but not fully ready yet to move. He also knew that Spencer had not yet played with by his counselor, and until he did, Spencer didn't want him getting up.

"What's all the ruckus about?" Anthony asked the boy as Spencer got on top of him and pulled up the sheet.

"The horses got out and Sammy and the guy's are getting them back in." Spencer replied as he opened Anthony's legs with his feet and slid himself down groin to groin. Anthony wrapped his arms around Spencer's back and massaged both sides of the boys rib cage.

"Did you see that girl who talked to me at dinner last night?" Spencer asked as he stroked Anthony's chest absentmindedly.

"Which one? They all wanted to talk to you." Anthony replied.

"The one with the long blond hair." Spencer replied.

"In the blue shorts?" Anthony asked. Spencer nodded his head.

"Did you think she was pretty?" he asked.

"She's very pretty. Do you like her?" Anthony asked. Spencer picked his head up off Anthony's chest "She's a girl, why would I like a stupid girl!" Spencer asked.

"Then why ask if she's pretty or not?" Anthony asked.

"She can be pretty without me liking her right?" Spencer asked a little miffed at the implication.

"I don't need any stupid girls!" Spencer said as he laid his head back down.

Since Saturday nights performance, Spencer had found himself surrounded by very adoring female fans. The boy was extremely popular with his friends because he could hit a home run at will. He could swim like a fish and dive like a pro. He was a great athlete and a prize on any team. Spencer was quite happy with his popularity, but it had to come from his male friends. Now after singing, he had girls making goo goo eyes at him and the feeling for him was a bit freaky. For one, he was never around girls for the past five years except for the female staff at Camp Kenny when he first came, and he was afraid of women prior to his arrival for extremely good reasons. He had the physical scars on his body to validate his fears. To Spencer, girls were nothing more than very young women who would hurt and abuse him at the first opportunity if he were stupid enough to allow it.

Anthony was very aware of all of these facts, but he himself was powerless to deal with Spencer's problems. At 18, he was little more than a boy himself and besides, he loved Spencer to his very core. As Anthony lay there with Spencer on top of him he wished he had the wisdom to talk to Spencer like Bert, Sid, Gloria, Jeanette or especially Johanna could, but he was too close to the boy and much too much in love with him to ever deny him anything that the boy ever asked of him.

Spencer rolled off Anthony's chest and lay flat alongside his counselor. Anthony knew how to relax Spencer when he got upset and Spencer knew well that Anthony would not disappoint him as he opened his legs as Anthony kissed his way down to bring the boy to total release of his stress and built up tension. Spencer did not need silly girls, nobody knew how to please him better than Anthony could.

Spencer's mood picked up dramatically after morning playtime. His Uncle's Sid and Adam were teasing each other unmercifully during showers and during cabin clean-up.

To listen to the two someone would think they intensely disliked one another, but yet, every morning, they were back at it. Spencer knew differently. He knew that not only these two Uncle's, but all the Uncle's not only loved each other, but they loved the boys as well. But it was a lot of fun to listen to!

He didn't even care when he was the only one stripping all the beds in the cabin and loading laundry bags out onto the porch for pick-up as his friends continued to chase the horses from one end of the campus to the other. Anthony had made the morning right again.

The boys were at it for a good 45 minutes before Sid was ready to call a halt to the round-up and get the boys ready for breakfast. They were still bare assed naked and now covered in dirt, mud and horse shit.

"Come on Spencer, let's show these green horns how its done," Sid said as he and Spencer left for the stable's in Sid's golf cart with Spencer driving. The horses were now in three groups with one group down at the lake when Sid and

Spencer re appeared at the corral and opened the gate. Both had a galvanized bucket with a few quarts of grain in each and a stick. Sid stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave a whistle. Sitting down on the top rail by the gate Sid and Spencer then banged the buckets with the sticks. The last of the three horses came trotting up the trail from the lake and walked into the corral as Sid closed the gate behind them.

"No fair Uncle Sid, we was having fun!" Jesse said as he came puffing up the hill.

"Well, your Uncle Adam said that if you don't get some water on your hides and get the twins under cover there won't be any breakfast, so the round-ups over!"

Breakfast was a little late for the boys in the upper camp. They had showers to take, they needed to dress, and none who were involved in the round-up had had morning playtime and as Geppetto boys, that wasn't an option. The situation was explained to the chef who fully understood, but his soft boiled eggs didn't. John the chef was himself a Geppetto boy as was all the staff except for Outside Uncles and Bert. He had been sent to school in Poughkeepsie, NY at The Culinary Arts Institute and was a cracker jack Chef. He was generally a mild mannered man, but in fairness, running a kitchen with a staff of about 50 men and boys and cooking for what was now 600 people isn't the easiest job in the world, and timing is everything if you wanted your meat cooked a particular way or if you want wanted pancakes for 600 to all be hot, or ice cream to all be frozen. As Bert knew, John could get a little "Testy" now and then, and he chose to deal with it with camp humer.

It kept the campers very up beat and happy, and it kept John from chopping someone's dick off.

Towards the end of the breakfast, Bert approached the mafia's table and sat down to join the boys. Sitting across from Sid, he held a little girl in his lap and introduced the girl to the group.

"This is my friend Carrie, she's three fingers old and she likes Barney!" Bert told the group. Bert gave the little girl a slice of orange.

"Sid, pass me the soft boiled eggs," Bert asked his Assistant.

"Sure boss," Sid replied and reached for a bowl of eggs.

Most of the boys paid no attention at first, but soon it was becoming apparent to them that something was developing between these two as it did every three or four days. Sid opened about five eggs and they were all hard boiled.

"Sorry boss, there all hard boiled," Sid replied.

"Well, you're my assistant, do something about it!" Bert replied as he stood up.

"The menu posted says we're having soft boiled eggs for breakfast. So where are they?"

Sid looked around the tables asking for soft boiled eggs from the boys. By now, most of the boys knew something was up and snickers could be heard by Adam and Kevin who were clueless, as was everybody else in the Mess Hall except for Bert and the Chef.

"Sorry boss, they're all hard boiled. Want some egg salad?" Bert shook his head.

"No Sid, I don't want hard boiled eggs I want soft boiled eggs just like it says on the menu," Bert looked around the table "Jesse, go tell Uncle John that Uncle Sid wants to see him." As Jesse took off for the kitchen "You tell him I want soft boiled eggs Sid. That's your job not mine," Bert told the man Sid knew something was up and he also knew that somehow he was in the middle of it. Sid looked over to each side of him.

"I smell a rat. You smell something funny?" he asked both Christopher and Matty. Both boys giggled as Chef John appeared with a bowl of eggs in is hand.

"What's the problem?" John asked Sid. Bert looked at Sid.

"So tell him," Bert told his assistant.

"Bert says there are soft boiled eggs on the menu and he wants them." John leaned over the table and put two eggs down in front of Sid.

"So give him these." John said.

"Those are hard boiled eggs. He wants soft boiled eggs," Sid replied.

"These are too hard for you?" John now asked Sid. Sid didn't know what was coming, but he knew it was something.

"Yep!" Sid said reluctantly. John picked up an egg out of the bowl and put it on top of Sid's head and slapped his hand down.

"How about now?" he asked as he picked up the bowl and returned to the kitchen.

"Didn't I tell you guys I smelled a rat?" Sid said to Christopher as the Mess Hall exploded in laughter.

"You realize of course that this means war right?" Sid said to Bert as Bert took his leave.

Sid was drying off in Bert's cabin after a shower when Bert returned.

"What did you do run out of hot water up there on the hill?" Bert asked Sid as the men went into Bert's office.

"Shit no. We got plenty of hot water but I ain't fucking up my bathtub with a bunch of egg guts," Sid told his boss. Bert chuckled.

"Sorry about not putting you in the loop, but I wanted spontaneity and John was ready to go off after all his eggs hardened," Sid shook his head.

"God forbid John's eggs harden!" Bert smiled.

"No problems boss, but remember, fairs fair."

"Three things," Bert told his assistant as they got down to business.

"A hardwire security/intercom system is being installed this week in all cabins. It makes Alexandria happy because they can remotely monitor the system and shut it down if someone tries to tap into it," Sid nodded his head.

"Two, Dave is working out the kinks to get us up and running on a single meal sitting. It will be a temporary fix until the fall when we can get the Corps of Engineers in here once we're gone and they'll build the real thing this winter."

"How long?" Sid asked.

"Dave says he can have us all together in a week using doublewides along the side and back of the Mess Hall temporarily like we just did for storage."

"What about security. How are we gonna have all those Fema people running around our kids?" Sid asked.

"We're not. All the trailers will be put in Wednesday morning between eight in the morning until eight at night. Our people will be up on the hill

for the entire day on bivouac. They'll never meet," Bert replied.

"And three?" Sid asked.

"We're going to be daddies," Bert told his assistant as he sat back in his chair.

"Do I know the mommies?" Sid asked after a very pregnant pause. Bert smiled.

"No, both girls are in New Hampshire right now. One is due in two weeks and the other is due in late September." It was now Sid's turn to smile.

"Alexandria figures they haven't given us enough to do? The last time I counted, we had every tit accounted for. Are these kids coming with their own milk supply?"

"No, the children will be born in New Hampshire and the Mother's are then immediately giving them up. One girl is 14, the other is 16," Bert replied.

"Anybody in New Hampshire ever hear about birth control or abortion?" Sid asked.

"The 14 year olds parents wouldn't allow it on religious grounds. The 16 year old came to their attention too late for an abortion.

"I know it's a moot question, but why us? Why not keep them in New Hampshire?"

"That's precisely what Alexandria wanted to do but New Hampshire pressured the boys in Harvard to have them sent here."

"Why?" Sid asked "Because they've been reading the reports on Kenny, Timmy, Caleb, Justine, Spencer, Arthur and every other boy that's passed through the girl's hands. They know they could raise them, but not nearly as well as the girls can" Bert told Sid.

"Well shit then, let's start putting out reports that all our kids are basket cases!" Sid half joked.

"Just for the hell of it boss, where are you going to find two more pair of tits?"

"Johanna is leaving tomorrow for Boston. She will be at the birth and immediately take over the baby. Jeanette and Gloria will find a surrogate for the second baby before its born and have her lactating," Sid sat back. This was a huge problem, but basically, it was a problem for the girls at Camp Kenny.

"One more moot question. Boys or girls?" he asked "Both boys," Bert responded.

"Any more good news?"

"No, and I'll be telling the rest of the staff by memo at lunch about this. Keep the news about Johanna quiet until she touches base with her kids. We don't need kids like Spencer going off the deep end if she disappears without advance warning," Sid nodded his head.

"That's going to be a real funfest for Johanna. I forgot about her and Spencer," Bert nodded.

"She didn't."

With the play now out of the way, the boys routine returned to normal. After breakfast they all returned to the cabin to finish morning cleanup and then sat down with Adam who asked them what their plans were. Even without a formal schedule of activities set for the boys yet, there was plenty for them to do. Adam's chief problem with the current system was that he never really knew at any given moment even roughly where the boys were. If one got into a problem, how could he or anybody else help him?

"Don't you think it would be better if you knew that at a certain time you could ride the go carts, or take out a horse, or play on the pinball machines? Sammy, you've been at camp now for five days. Have you gotten a turn on the go carts yet? he asked the boy.

"No, but I keep my name on the list!" Sammy exclaimed.

"Yes, and every time your name comes up, you're off doing something else. What we're doing is setting aside a specific time so that it's reserved for you to ride," Adam explained "But Uncle Adam, suppose we're out at Look-Out Point or Indiantown or out on a boat.?" the boy asked.

"That's the point Sammy in the past the camp had enough horses or boats or go carts to let everybody do what they wanted to whenever they wanted to do it. Now, we have too many campers to continue the old schedule," Adam explained.

"With the new system, you get to choose every activity and know that its set aside for you."

The boys chief problem with what they were hearing was that it sounded an awful lot like school; very organized! Camp for the boys was never organized, it was foot loose and fancy free and they liked it that way. In the end, Adam concluded that Sid was right, it was going to be a tough sell to make everybody happy all the time.

3 day's into the task the Committee was ready to present Bert with a draft proposal and he generally agreed with most of it. With roughly 100 upper camp boys, and an additional 40 or so girls who were in the same age range, the camp had the facilities to keep all the kids happy, just so long as they all didn't want to all do the same exact thing at the same time. The camp day would "Officially" begin at 7:00 in the morning with the blowing of

Reveille, and end at 9:00 with the blowing of Taps. All camp life revolved around the stable's, the lake, the pool and the go cart track. To the campers, most everything else was "Fluff".

As an old camper himself, Adam wanted a camp atmosphere adopted for the campers, and that included several programs that, up until that point, didn't exist. These included

a flag ceremony in the beginning and end of the day when the entire camp assembled and were basically given the days schedule. He also wanted a merit badge system similar to the one used in the boy scouts. For Adam, individual cabin names and personal flags were very much a part of camp life, and lastly, he wanted a reward/token system to allow the campers to earn points towards Canteen purchases. As Adam well knew, his job was made a whole lot easier; Uncle Sid was also an old camper like he was, and if Adam had Sid on his side, he already had 80% of the battle won in selling it to the boys.

On the other hand, having Sid in your corner was a double edged sword. Adam had decided from the gitgo that a bugle system was going to be introduced and had Kevin immediately begin teaching several Senior boys bugle calls. None of the boys read music, so they would have to put to memory 10 calls. Some were fairly basic and familiar to the boys like Reveille and Taps. Others, like Fatigue (Change of activity) Mess Call and To The Colors were repeated so often during the day that matching the tune to the name was fairly simple for the boys. The boys got a little stuck on matching three of them, and Sid put his two cents in.

On about day four of rehearsal's Kevin asked the boys to play Assembly. It would be called for twice a day for Flag Pole. All three boys rehearsing drew a blank. Sid and Adam were there, and Sid looked up.

"Boy Scout" he said. All three boys grinned and one by one played Assembly. Adam listened and was curious. After the last boy finished. All three giggled and continued on.

"What the hell does boy scout mean?" Adam asked Sid.

"That's how you remember Assembly," Sid told his friend.

"How's that?" Adam asked.

"Oh simple good buddy, you just put the call to words, and it helps you remember the notes."

"How can it do that?" Adam asked.

"Tell him Jeffrey," Sid told one of the boys. The boy giggled and stepped towards Adam.

"There's a boy scout in the grass, with a bullet up his ass. Take it out, take it out, like a good girl scout." he sang in cadence. Adam and Kevin looked at each other.

"Who taught you that?" Adam asked the boy.

"Uncle Sid!" Jeffrey said beaming.

"Wanna know the words to Swim Call?" Adam shook his head no.

"Stay away from your Uncle Sid, he's rotting your brains out," Adam told the boys.

The initial reaction to Adam's Flag Pole Ceremony proposal was cool, if not downright frigid. It took a great deal of convincing that he was not proposing putting up old glory

and having the boys standing there saluting it. These were Geppetto boys and they felt as much allegiance to the flag as Jews do to a swastika.

"The purpose of assembling the boys at the flag pole is just to get them organized in the morning and give them instructions about the day. We aren't raising an american flag, we're going to raise the Camp Green Tree Flag," he told the Committee.

"We don't have a flag." Dave said.

"We will just as soon as the kids make one up, not only for the camp, but for each individual cabin," Adam replied. Dave looked at Sid.

"It's what we did when I was a kid," Sid said without being asked.

Adam had an easier time with his merit badge proposal, it would be modeled after the boy scout system and each individual activity director would submit the criteria for awarding the badge.

"It's really important that you make the awarding of a badge difficult, but not impossible. If the badge is easily awarded, it won't have any meaning to them. They have to really work to get the badge and be proud of what they've achieved or the program is useless," Adam advised.

Selling the reward system for Canteen points was a little more difficult, because all staff knew the boys would be balking at this one big time! Going to Canteen for the intermediate boys in the past was free for them during the summer. At school, they needed academic points to "Buy" things at Canteen. Now they have to "Buy" things during the summer too? "They're going to see this as a step backwards. Why should they start paying for something they always got for free?" One staff member asked.

"In the past they got to go to the canteen once each week for free. Now, they can go seven nights a week if they have points," Adam told the group.

"Bert's never going to go along with loading them up with all that candy, soda and ice cream," Dan said to his friend.

"No, of course he won't. And as long as we don't award 100 points for doing nothing, the kids won't be able to afford to go and splurge seven nights a week either," Adam responded.

"Sneaky son of a bitch ain't he!" Sid quipped to the Committee.

Bert had two problems signing off on the proposal once it was presented and as expected by Dan, his first was the amount of sweets the campers could have access to.

The compromise made was to combine commissary points and canteen points. The boys now had a choice; Batteries for their flashlights and Pokemon cards, or ice cream soda's and Hershey bars.

Bert's other problem was the use of bugles. They were very distant, and usually in the woods, but the camp had neighbors.

"The locals have been told were a Federally operated children's camp. Why shouldn't we sound like one?" Adam asked the Director.

"Personally, I'd be more curious if I never heard a sound coming from a place I was told was a children's camp," Bert sat back in his chair.

"It makes perfect sense to me boss," Sid told his Director. Bert smiled.

"Sid, you're just looking for an excuse to turn up those amplifiers of yours and shake Mount Airy out of bed with Freebird pegged on 10."

Sid shook his head.

"Boss ya really hurt my feelings. I was thinking more along the lines of Sprit in the Sky," Bert approved the bugles but not Spirit.

The date to begin the new camp program would begin on July 1, and would coincide with the ending of the split meal sittings. Dave had three doublewides attached to the Mess Hall; two for seating, and one to expand the kitchen and bakery. Chef John wasn'toverjoyed at the new arrangement, but then, he never was. A new Dining Hall and kitchen would be built during the 2004/2005 winter, and it would eventually meet with his complete approval.

Sammy and his friends all watched the preparations of the "new" camp with a little interest; very little. They saw nothing wrong with the old way of doing business, but this stuff seemed to make Adam happy, so, let him spend hours and hours in meetings while they went boating, swam, rode horseback and played all day. Sammy and his friends were very good at playing, and finding out by the General Swim that so were the girls.

In the beginning the boys were a bit miffed at having to share their facilities with these stupid smelly girls, but as the days passed and the girls rode the horses, and swam in the lake and in the pool, they seemed to smell less. In the beginning, they wore silly make up sometimes that made them look like clowns to the boys. Now, they had the same dirt on their faces and horse shit on their feet that the boys did. In the beginning, they wore dresses and skirts that couldn't get dirty. Now, they were shoeless, in shorts, generally shirtless like the boys and some could even climb trees almost as good as the boys. It was true they could never win in a pissing contest, but once they got over the stupid giggles, they were as game to drop their shorts in the woods and play doctor as any boy was.

Sammy and his friends concluded by week two that girl's were OK until their tits started to grow and then they got stupid; all except for Jeannie and Carla who had small tits, but didn't care if a boy saw them or not and didn't go running for a shirt.

The very first overnight of the year was going to be coming up in two days and all the boys were looking forward to it. They weren't overjoyed when they learned a week ago that they would be spending the night at Indaintown with girls coming along, but now, it just might be a hell of a lot more fun they they thought it would be. Sammy had only one question on his mind; Did Geppetto girl's wet the bed like Geppetto boy's did?

Johanna receive a note from Bert to meet with him at his office and didn't really give it a thought. The girl had now been at Green Tree for five years arriving when she was only 15, but had already been assigned by Bert as Prime Caretaker to two boys that were now well on their way to independence. In Bert's evaluations of her abilities, Johanna was on a par with Gloria and Jeanette when it came to her ability to deal with the emotional problems that came with many boys who were not raised from infancy at Green Tree. Spencer for one was a Prime example.

Another aspect of the girl that set her apart as far as Bert was concerned was the fact that Johanna, Like Gloria, Jeanette and three other girls in Camp Kenny were lactating. They had agreed, years before in some cases, to be induced to produce breast milk to feed the youngest , and sometimes the most emotionally fragile of the boys of Green Tree. Nutritionally, Bert saw little difference between breast milk and formula or cows milk, but emotionally and psychologically, he doubted very much that a box of rice cereal or a plastic bottle could produce the same sense of love, security and bonding that a woman's breast could for a baby or a stricken child. At the same time, the girl agreeing to be a surrogate Mother had to have her feet planted very firmly on the ground herself, both emotionally and psychologically. Bert knew bonding was a two-way street and that wasn't a puppy or a kitten she would be nurturing.

Johanna walked into Bert's Cabin and was a little surprised to see Jeanette there as well sitting with Kenny on the back porch.

"I just passed Caleb on his way to the lake Uncle Bert. He told me to remind you that you promised him to take him out in a row boat." Johanna told the man as she gave him a kiss on his forehead. Bert looked up at the clock on his wall.

"The boys got a memory like a steel trap!" he said as he picked up a file on his desk.

"There are three other girl's who are qualified to take this on. If it's something you wouldn't feel comfortable about, I'd have absolutely no problems with it," Bert said to the girl as he passed her the file. As Johanna read, Bert went to the kitchen and brought back an ice tea for Johanna and a pear for Kenny. As he sliced the pear and gave it to Kenny, Johanna read on. The file was about five pages long, and when she finished she gave it back to Bert.

"Suppose the girl has the baby and then decides not to give it up?" Johanna asked.

"Then we walk away," Bert responded.

"It doesn't say where the baby is going to be raised. Does that mean whoever takes it over has to stay there?" she asked.

"No, if a Green Tree girl accepts the baby, she brings it back here to raise." Johanna sat back and held her ice tea.

"The girl is due in two weeks. She's too young and too small to have the baby vaginally and is scheduled for a cesarean next week. Whoever decides to raise the boy will have to be there to receive him and will be the only Mother he ever knows," Bert said.

"It's not a short term commitment, this will be for the long haul."

"Whose name would he carry?" Johanna asked.

"Yours if you took him."

The decision by Johanna to raise the boy as his Mother wasn't taken lightly by the girl, nor would Bert have allowed it if it was. Bert also considered future ramifications down the road, not the least of which was "Why do you have a Mother and I don't?" from boys 5, eight and 10 years from now. In 2004 he didn't really have any answers to those questions, but he figured he had time on his side to come up with something.

The debacle with Sid concerning the trip to Boston for Anthony's accident convinced Alexandria that the best course of action was to keep away from commercial airlines, and Johanna was scheduled out of Charlotte by Government jet to Laconia, New Hampshire the next afternoon. Johanna had several boys firmly attached to her, and all staff knew that the girl couldn't disappear for a week without heavy shit raining down, especially from Spencer. Johanna and Spencer were not bonded, they were cemented together.

"Whatever the fuck you do, don't mention Boston to him!" Bert suggested before the girl met with Spencer to tell him she would be gone for a week.

"Hell no, tell him you're going to visit a sick Aunt and as soon as she gets better you'll be back," Sid suggested.

Johanna, Bert, Jeanette and Adam all looked at Sid.

"What?" Sid asked the group.

"As soon as the baby is born and able to fly, I'll be back here." Johanna told Spencer as they sat on the front porch of his cabin.

"When?" Spencer asked.

"Next Tuesday or Wednesday. As soon as I know for sure I'll call Uncle Bert and he'll let you know."

"Why can't they just come here and have the baby here?" Spencer asked.

"Pregnant women aren't supposed to fly that close to their due date Spencer, her Doctor's wouldn't allow it," Bert interjected. Spencer was not a happy camper, but he reluctantly agreed.

"We better have a damned good back-up lie if her fucking plane falls out of the sky!" Sid told his boss as the two returned to Bert's office.

"I didn't think about that Sid. It would probably be a good idea if you left me with your last will and testament just in case it does!"

"Oh shit boss, you know how loud babies can scream once they get airborne!" Sid said.

"Buy ear plugs," Bert responded.

Sid and Johanna were driven to Charlotte the next morning and arrived in Laconia by 1:00. The short drive to the New Hampshire School on Lake Winnapesaukee was a very nostalgic one for Sid. As a boy he had spent years here with his Uncle Kenny who had literally risked his life to protect Sid and three other boy's from scheduled castration, and the man was hardly in a joking mood when he met the last of his boyhood friends who was still at the school working for the benefit of the Geppetto boys who followed him.

"We've heard a lot of stories about Uncle Sid from Uncle Barry." A boy of about 16 said to Johanna as he showed the girl to her Suite. Johanna smiled.

"I think it would be fair to say that you were given a very sanitized version of the truth about Uncle Sid," she told the boy. The boy was very quick on the take.

"So you think he's worse than Hugh Hefner?" he asked the girl.

"Closer to Larry Flint!" Johanna said without hesitation.

"But we most certainly do love him!" The boy smiled. Whoever the girl was, she was quick, she was smart, and she was very pretty he thought to himself.

Once her bags were brought in, the boy opened the door to the adjoining Suite.

"Uncle Sid will be staying in here. The door locks from either side," he said. Johanna smiled.

"A lunch is being sent up for you now. If you want something else, all you have to do is pick up the phone," he told the girl "Uncle Matthew would like to have dinner with both you and Uncle Sid if you're not too tired. We eat at 7:00 and anybody can show you the way to the Dining Room." Johanna smiled at the boy.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Leonard, Ma'am," he responded.

Johanna again smiled. "I'm not a Ma'am, I'm Johanna," she said and shook the boys hand.

Once the boy left, Johanna sat down on the verandah overlooking the Lake. It was another scene only Uncle Sam could afford. The school sat on a peninsula of land that was accessible only if you could traverse first through a National Guard Armory and then a live fire shooting range undetected. You could approach the school from the water if you chose to, but the rock ledge that surrounded the peninsula had sunk or damaged at least 10 local boats in the past few years, so most boats with any brains stayed beyond the marker buoys offshore. From the lake, Johanna's Suite looked like a very dismal old military barracks in dire need of rehab. From inside, Donald Trump's interior designers would have taken notes.

Chef John would probably have been a little pissed off, but Johanna's lunch impressed the hell out of her. In fairness, Maine Lobster that had been walking around the day before was something not available to John, but between it and the cracked crab salad and New England Chowder, if this was lunch, what the hell was for dinner? Halfway through, Sid came in and he had his friend with him. As all three enjoyed the meal Johanna listened and liked Barry more and more. He wasn't as spunky as Sid, but listening to the two of them recall old times she could certainly picture the two of them cavorting through their childhood and from what she could figure out, a hell of a lot of cavorting was done on Block Island before the boys even got to New Hampshire.

Dinner in New Hampshire was much more formal than at Green Tree, but then again, Green Tree was in camp mode. Still, Johanna found herself with Sid and the Senior Staff of the school rather than with the "Rank and file" she was use to. The boy's themselves didn't look all that different, just a little more "Reserved" and a little more "Polished" than the boys she knew at Green Tree. It was Friday, and the boy's ate Prime Rib or Swordfish and so did the staff.

"I wonder if Uncle John would like to trade places with their Chef for a few months?" Johanna asked Sid.

"I'm gonna tell him you suggested that!" Sid replied as he ate. Johanna giggled as she was poured some wine by a waiter.

Conversation at dinner was kept very light by the school staff, Johanna felt comfortable around them, no doubt encouraged by the constant referrals of experiences between members of the staff of New Hampshire and Green Tree. Johanna, up to that point in time had led a very sheltered life and other than the staff and boys of Green Tree, she had no experience at socializing and one of her chief concerns was in meeting new people. The atmosphere she found herself in was relaxed, casual and warm. She liked these people.

Unlike the Albemarle School, New Hampshire and Green Tree held very close ties and stayed in close touch with each other due in large part to the fact that both Bert and Matthew, who headed New Hampshire, were close friends and classmates at Harvard and both had the same Mentor. Those staff who had friends at Green Tree were asking the girl about people she knew and the common thread made the conversation very non-stressful for the girl.

The evening ended back at Sid's Suite where the three talked, mostly by the men telling war stories. By midnight Johanna was tired and left the two men to have one more drink during a night when she watched Sid drink more than she had ever seen him do before.

Sid always drank a few beers a day, usually in the late afternoon or evening. Sometimes at lunch he might even have one or two. Tonight, she watched him drink one screwdriver after another and that was after dinner and a few glasses of wine. Later in the evening, a great deal of the talk between Sid and his boyhood friend was about their Uncle Kenny, and there was very little joking going around between the two.

Johanna awoke to a glass breaking outside on the verandah. Getting up, she put on a bathrobe to find Sid picking up pieces of a broken glass that had fallen off the table next to his chair.

"Sorry, my arm bumped it off the table," Sid said "Sid, leave it until morning. It's too dark to be picking up broken glass, you're going to cut yourself." Johanna told the man. Sid nodded his head and sat back down in his chair.

"A lot has changed," Sid said.

"The place is a lot different than when I was here." The tone of Sid's voice told the girl the man was extremely melancholy. For the 20 year old girl, this was unknown territory for her. She was 15 when she first met Sid five year's earlier, she had never known the man to be anything but upbeat. Sometimes outrageously so.

"I don't doubt that it has Uncle Sid, you left here 20 years ago. Everything changes in 20 years," she said, Sid again nodded.

"It's getting really late, let's go to bed." Johanna told him.

"You go ahead sweetheart, I'll go to bed in a few minutes," he replied.

"Uncle Sid, it's getting cold and we have to be up early tomorrow morning," the girl lied. Sid put his face in his hands.

"It's all changed." he repeated.

Johanna knew nothing about men who had too much to drink, but she did know the look and sound of depression when she saw and heard it.

"Uncle Sid, stand up. We're going to bed right now." reaching out she took the mans arm.

"Stand up Uncle Sid!" she directed. Sid got up and began to turn towards his room.

"No Uncle Sid, you're not sleeping alone tonight," she told the man.

"Well thank you dear, but I'll be all right," Sid replied somewhat muddled.

"Uncle Sid, come into my room or I'm going to be on the phone to Uncle Bert right now!" Sid looked at the girl.

"That's silly. Your Uncle Bert isn't awake right now," he told the girl.

"He will be if you don't start walking," she told him as she took hold of his upper arm.

"Come on," she said as Sid followed the girl.

"Sit down," she directed the man. Sid sat down and the girl unbuttoned his shirt and took it off.

"Lay down Uncle Sid," she told him.

"Darlin, people are gonna talk," Sid slurred.

"That's nice, now lay down," she replied as she placed her hands on his shoulders and guided his upper body towards the pillow. Taking off his shoes and socks, she undid his pants and pulled them down and off. Sid was sound asleep.

The morning sun was halfway down the bedroom wall before Johanna awoke with Sid curled up next to her. She had awoken with the man before and knew she probably would again, but this morning wasn't like the others, they had slept together, but nothing more.

Johanna didn't have the man in her bed to make love, she had him there to protect him from himself. A Geppetto boy depressed is a recipe for disaster and Johanna knew that very well. Johanna got out of bed and went to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, she picked up the phone and ordered some coffee for her and Sid. Halfway though her shower, Sid came in looking not like the fittest man Johanna had ever seen; certainly worse than she had ever seen Sid before.

"Good morning Uncle Sid. I called for some coffee, it should be here soon." Johanna told the man. Sid sat down on the toilet and again had his head in his hands.

"Johanna, I apologize," Sid began to say.

"Uncle Sid, you didn't do anything wrong, you fell to sleep in my bed, and I decided to sleep with you," she told him.

"I didn't do anything?" Sid asked.

"Yes, you snored a hell of a lot, but you always do." Johanna replied.

"Why didn't you sleep in my bed?" Sid asked the girl.

"Why, wasn't I safe?" she asked. Sid shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Too many screwdrivers Uncle Sid," the girl advised. Sid nodded his head.

"Did I make a damned fool of myself?" he asked.

"No Uncle Sid, I don't think that's possible. But you do know where too much alcohol and memories of lost loved one's can lead," she told the man.

"You pushed it beyond where you're capable of going," Sid shook his head.

"What happened to the little girl I met chewing a wad of gum not so long ago?" he asked.

"She met a nutty old man who made her laugh and who cared about her as much as she cares about him!" Johanna said as she got out of the shower and kissed him on the forehead.

"Now go take a shower and stop looking at me like that you dirty old man!"

Whether it was the air, or the surroundings, or the company she was keeping, Johanna

sat down with Sid for breakfast on the verandah with the best tasting coffee she ever had in her life. Sid's friend Barry joined them, and he smiled when the girl commented on it.

"Some men are deeply into exotic wines or art. For some it's fine music. Here, Matthew is into coffee," he told the two.

"If you want to make his day, tell him you liked the coffee and he'll give you the school." Barry said.

"But I really do!" Johanna replied.

"What is it?" she asked. Barry shrugged his shoulders.

"Nobody ever knows and Matthew never tells. He gets coffee from around the world and mixes them up like a scientist and then makes us the guinea pigs," he said.

"His morning coffee is usually a mix of Jamaican Blue Mountain, Brazilian and some Italian blend just to rip you out of bed!" he told the two.

"Just be careful. If he offers you a small demitasse that looks like it's mud, you'll be awake for a week!" The laughter had almost died down when the school's Director appeared.

"It sounds like Barry's been spinning his tall tale's again. Let me guess, his stint on the Grand Banks." Matthew said as he sat down. Barry shook his head.

"The man's never been right yet! We were discussing Juan Valdez!" Barry told his boss.

"You liked it?" he asked Johanna and Sid.

"Hell no, they couldn't figure out if it came from Firestone or Goodyear!" Barry said before anybody could reply. Matthew shook his head.

"You don't suppose Bert needs another helping hand down there do you? Barry needs a change of scenery."

The joking and fooling around continued through breakfast, and Johanna even received a commitment from Matthew to send her back to North Carolina with his special breakfast blend.

"It won't do any good though, whether it's the altitude, or the humidity

or the water, it never taste's the same unless it's brewed right here." Matthew told the girl.

She found his words to be true, it was still good, but it wasn't the same.

The next three days were spent with Johanna preparing for the arrival of the baby. For one, because she was not a primary caretaker of a nursing boy back in Green Tree, the supply of milk her body was producing was less than a full nursing Mother. The supply needed to be increased, and only pumping on a more regular basis would induce her body to produce more. Since learning of the arrival and accepting the baby, she had begun to pump every three hours when she was awake. Nutritionists from Harvard were called in, and her blood was tested along with her milk and she was now taking vitamins and minerals that a newborn would need. She also received a list of things she should not eat or drink, and another of what she should. Johanna balked at boiled beef liver, but did agree to eat a small portion of chopped liver if it was put on crackers.

The days went quickly, and other than having to replace a few drinks in Sid's hands now and then for an iced tea or lemonade, Sid maintained. Finally, on Saturday morning, The expectant Mother was wheeled into the delivery room and the operation would begin.

The girl was accompanied by her Mother, who had no interests in meeting Johanna.

"That doesn't really depress me." Johanna replied when told. Johanna wasn't a great fan of "Born again Christian's" and according to the file, the Mother was flamer.

"She only has one request," the nurse told Johanna.

"She want's the baby circumcised because that's what Jesus did." Johanna looked at Sid incredulously.

"She drags a fourteen year old girl through a pregnancy and a Caesarian section because she's a Christian and now she want's the baby circumcised? Leave the baby alone, if God wants a piece of his penis, let him come down and take it himself," she told the nurse. The nurse looked a little stunned and then looked at Sid.

"Bad hair day," Sid told the nurse as he led Johanna to a chair.

The baby was delivered and drew it's first breath of air at 7:15. Neither Sid nor Johanna were in the delivery room, but it was clear that he had arrived. About 60 seconds after the first cries were heard, two nurses came through the doors and approached Johanna who was sitting in her chair with a warm wet towel laying on her stomach. The nurse gave Johanna the baby as the girl pulled the towel off and laid the baby on top of her. Sid watched as the baby's eyes blinked open and shut. And seemed to be rooting around as its arms and legs never stopped moving. Johanna shifted the baby sideways and tickled its cheek as the baby's head immediately turned to the direction of the tickle and found his first breakfast. It took three false starts, but on the third try, Johanna's nipple disappeared.

"He's latched and drawing." Johanna said to nobody in particular.

"He's a seven on the Apgar scale." one of the nurses told Johanna as she washed the boys trunk and legs off. Sid looked at the baby who didn't quite look like he had expected. He looked kind of like a skinned cat. He had some kind of yellow jelly all over his body and in the folds of his shin, and he had a tail on the end of his belly button with a clamp on it. He had some hair, but again, it was matted with the same yellow jelly. He was longer than Sid expected and his arms and legs seemed out of proportion to his body. He had a skinny little winkled bottom, and even though he was laying on his stomach, Sid was looking at a bright red sack the size of a tennis ball between his legs.

"Does he have a hernia?" Sid asked a nurse. The nurses all smiled.

"Most Fathers ask that when their sons are born." one told Sid.

"His scrotum is swollen and will go down to a normal size in a week or so," Sid nodded his head.

"What's a 7?" he now asked.

"An Apgar score between seven and 10 is a very good score," she told the man.

"How come he's not a 10?" Sid asked.

"It's OK Uncle Sid, most babies are a 7, he's fine." Johanna replied.

"I'll explain it all later," she told him.

Another nurse came into the room and now placed a plastic bracelet on the baby and one on Johanna.

"Doctor Jacoby will be here in about five minutes, he will be the attending pediatrician," the nurse told Johanna.

"Has a name been chosen for the baby?"

"Yes." Johanna replied as she looked down on the boy.

"His name is Sidney Bertram .........." she told the nurse. The nurse smiled.

"Sidney. That's a nice name," she said. Johanna smiled while Sid glassed over. Nobody had asked her what she would name the boy, it was a complete surprise to him.

Sidney's first breakfast was a brief one. Within a minute, he was down for the count as the nurses wrapped him up like a cocoon in receiving blankets and then he disappeared through the doors. The Doctor came in and greeted Johanna and Sid. and very shortly thereafter Sid and Johanna were alone.

"What now?" Sid asked.

"Now we wait for lunch, but he may not nurse for another six to 10 hours." Johanna said as she slipped off her hospital gown and put on her clothing.

"They gave me a beeper and when he wants to be fed, they'll call," she told the man.

"6 to 10 hours? I thought babies ate every three or so," Sid said as the walk down the hall.

"Not newborns. Usually they don't start eating for a day or two. But Sidney wasn't vaginally delivered, so he hasn't been getting the hell kicked out of him for for past few hours." Johanna replied.

"Messy business this being born stuff," Sid replied. Johanna laughed and took Sid's hand in hers.

"Let's go see if we can scare up some breakfast."

"Why did you name him Sidney?" Sid asked the girl.

"Because I wanted to name him after two men who I knew he would grow up with and learn to love and respect." Johanna replied. Sid said nothing and Johanna didn't really think he needed to.

Even without a P.A. system, the news back at Green Tree traveled through the camp like wildfire. The most common quote heard once the pictures arrived by fax was "Look at the size of those balls!" Sidney Bertram made an immediately favorable first impression on everyone as the girls mapped out plans to explain medical reality to the unenlightened.

By Tuesday morning, The Pediatrician signed off on releasing the baby and allowing him to fly. He had a little jaundice, but other than that, the doctor was happy with his condition.

"I will forward all my records to the Pediatrician down In North Carolina." Dr. Jacoby told Johanna as he flipped through the file.

"There's a comment here that the baby is to be circumcised," he said.

"Do you want that done now?" he asked Johanna.

"Not at all!" Johanna said with her blood pressure rising. The Doctor looked again at his notes.

"Must be a mistake," he said as he drew a line through it and passed it to Johanna to initial.

Sid's departure from New Hampshire was a somber one, Barry was the last survivor with Sid of the original four boys saved by their Uncle Kenny 45 years earlier, and now with both men approaching 50, neither really knew if they'd see each other again. While they both wanted to be with each other, neither could conceive of leaving their respective homes.

"We've always got vacation time." Barry suggested.

"Right, we can figure out a good time and we can both spend a few weeks with each other once we get back to school," Sid replied. The two men parted, but each knew it wasn't going happen.

"You'll be back here in September for the next one, won't you Sid?" Matthew now asked. Sid nodded.

"Maybe so, I won't know until Bert makes that decision," he told the Administrator.

With 10 pounds of coffee and a seven pound baby, The jet lifted off from Laconia at 1:00

with very strict instructions to the pilot's to keep the air pressure under control and balanced from Johanna. Two hours later, Sidney was screaming his ass off as Johanna walked the isle of the plane trying to get him to suckle and break the pressure in his eardrums by swallowing. Johanna was convinced the pilot's could balance the cabin pressure if they really wanted to.

"Ma'am, you'll have to be seated, the pilot is about to land the aircraft," the airman said.

"I'll sit down when the baby stops crying. Tell that pilot to fix the pressure or we'll be up here for awhile," she told the Air Force attendant.

"Sir?" the airman asked Sid almost begging. Sid shook his head.

"Sorry sonny, she gets it from her Uncle George W. Nobody can reason with her since he took office," Sid thought the boy looked a little pale as he went forward.

"Uncle Sid, you're such a bullshitter!" Johanna said as she smiled.

"Maybe so, but I'll bet the baby stops crying." The plane landed about 20 minutes later with Sidney Bertram sound asleep pressed against his Mother's breast.

As the jet ramp lowered and Sid and Johanna left the plane, both were surprised to see a van with Bert, Jeanette, Kenny and Spencer inside. As the door flung open and Spencer charged out, Johanna gave Sid the baby.

"Don't drop him," she told Sid as Spencer took a flying leap into Johanna's arms and wrapped himself around the girl. With Bert now out of the van, Sid walked over to the man and opened the blanket.

"So this is Bertram Sidney huh?" Bert said. Sid covered the baby back up.

With Sid driving, the group was headed back to camp once the van was loaded with the luggage "You told him she was related to the President!" Bert said when he heard the story.

"Hell no boss, I never mentioned anything about any President. I said George W. He's old AA friend of mine. You know they can't use any last names!" Sid replied with a very straight face.

"Ain't my fault if the boy got confused."

The van pulled onto campus as Mess Call was being blown. The sound brought a smile to Sid's face.

"So now we're officially a camp," he said as he heard the second bugle on the upper camp. Bert smiled.

"The kids really like it," he told his friend. Sid nodded his head.

"Me too," he said as the group walked towards the Mess Hall in a fast growing sea of swarming kids around them.

Bert was a little paranoid at dinner because the commotion over Sidney's arrival was holding up serving the meal and the Director didn't know how John was going to accept this latest affront. Much to his surprise and delight, John came out and looked at the baby and then went back into the kitchen not really looking all that pissed. A minute later, he came back out with a commercial sized roasting pan and put it on the table. The pan had been lined with a bunch of kitchen towels, and for the next 15 minutes or so, the entire school body filed past the sleeping baby who looked like he was ready to be stuffed and basted as he lay there in his Birthday Suit so that everyone could count all his finger's and toe's. Not unexpectedly, his scrotum got the most attention, and the women just shook their heads and let the comments slide for the time being. Medical 101 would come later.

The week's absence by Sid and Johanna brought changes to the camp that very few of the staff who were there paid that much attention to because for them, it happened in slow motion. But to both Sid and the girl, it was a change of practically night and day. When the two left, seeing the lower and upper camp boys and girls naked together either at the pool or at the lake was fairly common, but outside of those two area's, nudity was unknown. Now, wherever either of them looked, little bare asses were all over the place, and they were generally together. In the rec hall, in arts & crafts, riding bikes, jumping rope or playing tag, the place looked like Sunnydale Nudist Colony. The teenager's still kept their drawers on while on dry land, but both Sid and Johanna looked out onto the lake after dinner and watched as a raft with probably 15 senior boys and girls shared it in the all together.

"You been feeding them Viagra since we left?" Sid asked Bert as the three stood at the waters edge. "Why? You don't see any flagpoles out there do you?" Bert asked.

"Sid strained his eyes a little harder.

"No. How come?" he asked. "Old hat I guess. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all," Bert replied Sid looked back out at the dock.

"I think we better get the boy's eyes checked, they're going fucking blind!" Sid responded. Johanna shook her head.

"He is so bad!" she said as she walked away towards the Mess Hall to retrieve Sidney.

"So Svengali, tell me how you tricked her into putting your name before mine," Bert now kidded his friend. Sid smiled.

"Did you know she was going to do that?" he asked. Bert shook his head.

"The subject of naming the baby never came up other than her asking whose surname it would carry," Bert told Sid.

"It makes you feel kind of responsible," Sid now said. Bert nodded.

"Hey Uncle Sid!" Sammy yelled as he came running out of the water with spray flying everywhere. Sid scooped Sammy up and gave him a huge hug and kiss and before he was done with Joey, Trevor, Christopher and Matty, he was about as wet as the boys who now stood around the two men. Sid looked over and two little girls stood off to one side who had come out of the water with the group of boy's.

"Who's this?" Sid asked Sammy.

"This is Jeannie and this is Carla," Sammy replied pointing to each girl.

"We're going up to the hill, are you going too?" Sammy now asked.

"I'll be up in a little while sport, first I have to see my namesake brought to his cabin for the first time," Sid told the group. Sammy was disappointed, now they'd have to run up the trail to the upper camp instead of getting a ride.

"OK. Bye!" Sammy yelled as the group retreated up the hill with bare asses shining and hair flowing.

"I must be going blind myself. I thought two of those boys were girls!" Sid said.

"You better get use to them, they've attached themselves to the mafia big time," Bert replied.

"No shit!" Sid said as he watched the girls disappear up the hill.

Bert smiled.

"That's what Adam said last week when he walked into a show and tell session in the cabin."

"No shit!" Sid repeated.

Johanna's return to camp came with a surprise. She had been moved out of a larger cabin she had been living in with four boys and two girls, and now occupied a smaller two bedroom cabin with two senior girls who had volunteered to help her with the baby. Both girls were 16, and came with Gloria's endorsement. Bert had sent Jeanette to Asheville to purchase baby furniture and Dave needed to rent a truck to bring all the stuff back to camp. Sidney Bertram spent his first night at Camp Green Tree with his $2,500.00 crib. The crib was very nice, but Sidney never slept in it, he slept with Johanna from day one and still does.

The little baby was put down in Johanna's bed and for the first time in a week, Johanna sat down on the back porch of her new cabin and simply rested. The cabin sat at the shoreline on pilings which kept the cabin level with the slope of the land and the girl watched as the senior campers with rowboats, canoe's and sailboats occasionally drifted by. She thought the school in New Hampshire was very nice, had a great staff and was in a beautiful location but here she was home and here, she was a new Mother.

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