A Mother's Touch

Have you ever wrestled at night in your sleep only to wake with a layer of the sheet wrapped around your face?  Well, it must of been a good fight.  Fortunately, I woke up with the sun tickling my nose with its flashing rays that ran across my eyes.  So I climbed down my bunk to gather my clothes and head to the bathing house.  In particular, the bathe house was in another logging building not too far from our sleeping tent.  There were a few sinks and shower stalls with a spotted mirror near the exit door.  Jacky was always on guard which gave some of us girls more time to sing while we dressed and reloaded our toiletries back into our pails.  Earlier, I lost my footing and sailed right into the belly of the beast, resulting with the suitcase landing on its back, and I on my behind.  It was a fairly loud thump as if some wrestler from WWE decided to finally take it down.  Even though I tried my best to keep it out of everyone's way, including my own.  Anyhow, I zipped it open and was quickly greeted by the familiar smell of scented mothballs that my mother swore by religiously.  With a quick peak over my shoulder, I decided to throw the rest of the gagging pebbled stones out from beneath my clothes.   After, I fished out my red, blue and white bathing suit because we were scheduled for swimming lessons, yet I was not too thrilled about attending.  Last week when I tried to swim the chlorine soaked my head and the water flooded my nose.   Relentlessly I begged Jacky (the counselor) to excuse me from the activity, which she comfortably denied.  Her charismatic and gentle motherly nature reminded me to be a steady team player as my journey will come to a close in a few days. Therefore, I smothered my sniffles back down my throat and joined the line with my camp mates.  Overall, the walk was brief as I could see the swimming pool area approaching us.  Nevertheless, I picked up my slow gait, however the girls ran down the hill laughing and giggling like a bubbly brook.  My heart was thumping like the beat of an ancient Djembe African drum as if the cheetah was on the run. My emotions were positively high as I felt like a tree without leaves.