My 18-year-old godson had his senior camp at a lakefront retreat over the summer, but they were short on volunteers and his mother couldn’t make it, so she asked with me to go in her place. I was a bit reluctant, but I owed her a favor because she’d recently helped me with the legal side of an inheritance dispute. Anyway, it was only going to be three nights, so I agreed.
When we all reached the lake and set out find our allotted cabins, I was surprised that I was going to be bunked with my godson and his best friend. When I queried management about the arrangement, they said that usually only male teachers bunk with male students and females with females, but for the last couple of years there had been a drop off in both male teachers and volunteer dads, and this year there just weren’t enough to go around. The reason I drew the short straw was because I wasn’t at the volunteer meeting in which everything was arranged. But they assured me it would be fine: it was only three nights and our cabin had been divided in two with a screen, and my godson and his best friend would take one half while I took the other.