By Scribe
Chapter 24- Shelly
“I hope you both realize that
we’re going to get you for this,” Josh said with a twinkle in his eye and a
mischievous grin on his face.
“Yeah, I’d watch my back if I were
you,” Mark chimed in.
“Oh we’re real scared,”
“Josh, you might THINK that you’re
the master of the gotcha, but I’ve been pulling stunts since you were in
diapers,” I teased.
“That sounds like a challenge,”
Josh replied and pulled me into a headlock.
I tickled his ribs and he quickly
let go. “How about
some breakfast? We don’t have any
fresh food, but we can crack out some of those IMPs,”
I suggested.
“Never mind the combat rations,”
Mark punched his brother on the
shoulder and gave him a look which was supposed to look angry but looked more
loving than anything.
“We were planning on driving into Drumheller today to stock up. The prices at the general store are pretty
steep,” I said.
“Yeah, I figured they would be, so
we loaded up. Anyway, Drumheller is actually about a two hour drive from here,”
“I was wondering why you bought so
much food for only three days,” Mark said with a chuckle. “I don’t eat THAT Much.”
“Josh does,” I deadpanned.
“You’re really asking for it,
aren’t you?” Josh said in mock anger as he launched himself at me and we
started play wrestling. Josh was pretty
strong for his age, but it didn’t take me long to have him pinned. That is, until Mark joined in. Before long,
I was amazed as I watched
Mark. He truly was a different boy. When I had last seen him, he was quiet,
reserved and timid. After only a few
months with
When our impromptu wrestling match
broke up, we all headed to the showers.
I had already showered, but rolling around with two teenage boys in the
dusty soil of the badlands mandated a do-over.
We all showered quickly and
attended to our morning rituals. As
usual, Josh and I shaved together in front of a single sink. Mark didn’t shave, but I wasn’t at all
surprised to see that he enjoyed sitting and watching his brother do it. Watching Mark and Bryan together felt almost
like Josh and me in a mirror.
After heading back to the
campsites, Mark and Bryan went and retrieved an enormous quantity of food from
their cooler while Josh and I setup and lit the Coleman stove. Bryan and I went to work fixing breakfast
while the boys went for an early morning walk around the campground.
“Mark looks fantastic,” I
said. “He seems like a brand new boy.”
“Yeah, it took him a little while
to realize that this was real and that he was safe, but once he did, it was
like someone had thrown a switch. Josh
has changed a lot too. I met him many
times over the years and I see that he’s really grown up.”
“He’s a great kid. He’s been through a lot, and I just want to
protect him and help him become all that he can be.”
“You seem to be doing a hell of a
job, Tom. There’s something about
him. I can’t place it, but he almost
seems magnetic. I look at him and I
can’t help but smile. I can’t help but
like him.”
“I love him to bits. Mark too.
I only knew your brother for a couple of weeks, but somehow he really
got to me. I could see what a nice kid
he is, and I hated to think about how he was being forced to live. That day at the Y he looked so sad and
forlorn. He looked as if he had lost his
last friend in the world.”
“Mark really loves you too Tom; he
pretty much idolizes you. You should
have seen him when he got off the plane,”
“It must have been very
emotional,” I replied as I dropped the first few strips of bacon into the pan.
“It was. I took him home, got him settled in, and took
him out that same day to start buying furnishings for his room. I dropped quite a bundle of some really cool
stuff for his room, but he barely spent any time there for the first little
while. I’d wake up each morning with him
wound tightly around me as if he was afraid I was going to disappear. I don’t think he slept in his own bed for
more than a couple of hours a night until he’d been here for about two
weeks.”
“He’s been through a lot, and I’m
sure it gave him security. Josh
frequently bunks with me too. Josh can’t
get enough physical contact; he lives for it.”
I said with a smile. The smell of
frying bacon and eggs was really beginning to chase away the cobwebs in my
mind.
“Mark’s the same way. Once he realized that nobody was going to
take him away, and that he didn’t have to live in fear, he really began to
relax and be himself. I’ve signed him up
for little league baseball, we hit the gym together several times a week, and
he’s making a lot of friends. He really
misses you and Josh, but I’ve never seen him happier.”
“We both miss him too. He feels almost like a son to me,” I said
warmly.
“The two of us live like room
mates. I don’t really try to be his
parent, but I do feel like a dad. I
really like it. Mark passed along your
theory on dads and fathers and I couldn’t agree more,”
“It still bothers me somewhat but
I’m getting through it. Between Josh,
and my relatives, I’m getting a lot better.
I haven’t had any dreams or flashbacks recently, which is a good
thing. How about you? How are you doing? This must have meant some big changes in your
life,” I said.
Bryan and I enjoyed being able to
spend some time getting to know one another.
We’d spoken many times over the phone but we’d never met before that
morning. It was obvious that we had a
lot of common interests and we became fast friends. Before long, the smell of cooking bacon and
eggs lured Josh and Mark back to the campsite.
“Enter the ravenous eating
machines,”
“Remember guys, the plates and
cutlery are NOT edible,” I teased.
“We have to teach those two a
lesson Josh,” Mark said with a wink.
“Actually, I was planning on
eating the cutlery….” Josh said flatly which caused us all to burst out
laughing.
“I can see that your sanity hasn’t
improved since I last saw you,” Mark chuckled as he shook his head at Josh.
I wouldn’t have believed it if I
hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but in the span of only about fifteen minutes,
an entire package of bacon, a carton of large eggs, half a loaf of bread, most
of a box of Captain Crunch cereal, half a carton of milk, 2 liters of orange
juice and an entire pot of coffee vanished.
Most of it ended up in Mark and Josh’s stomachs. Bryan and I managed to snag a strip of bacon
here and there, but the boys ate the bulk of the food. If I didn’t know better, I’d be tempted to
think that they wouldn’t want much to eat at lunchtime!
“So guys, what do we want to do
today?” I asked. Josh and Mark began clearing the breakfast
dishes up without even having to be asked.
“Why don’t we check out the
visitor centre and then hike one of the trails.
The brochure said the trail takes us past all kinds of dinosaur bones
and things,” Josh suggested.
“That would be cool,” Mark chimed
in.
“Works for me,” added
“Ok then, let’s do it! We’d better bring along some water and some
food for lunch. We have a bunch of
Canadian Forces ration packs which are pretty good.”
“Combat rations?”
“Yeah, they’re pretty good,” Josh
replied.
“Ok, I’ll take your word for it,”
While the boys cleaned up,
“I like your hats guys,” I said as
I approached.
“I’m glad,”
“This is great! Thanks guys,” I said as I hugged Bryan and
Mark.
“Yeah this is cool!” Josh added as he too hugged Mark and his brother.
“It’s a long time tradition in
“We have something for you guys
too,” Josh said and I handed him the bag.
“We got these at the RCMP museum in
“I love
“This one’s for Mark,” Josh said
as he pulled the red pullover out of the bag and handed it to his friend.
“Thanks guys!” Mark said
enthusiastically as he accepted the sweater and pulled it over his head. “This will come in handy tonight when it gets
cool.”
“You’re very welcome bud,” I
said. For about the fifth time that
morning, I got a big hug from Mark.
“This one’s for
“Thanks Josh and thanks Tom. This is really nice. The colour is
perfect too,”
“I’m glad those fit, we had to
guess at the sizes,” I said.
With the exchange of gifts complete,
we all put on our hiking boots, grabbed the backpacks containing the food and
water, and made our way to the visitor centre.
The boys, as energetic as ever, ran ahead and talked together at about a
mile a minute while Bryan and I walked along at a more leisurely pace.
“This place is even more amazing
than I ever imagined,” I said as I looked around and surveyed the badlands in
the early morning light. It was still
early, but it was already quite warm and the sun was beginning to beat down on
us. I was quite thankful for the cowboy
hat perched on my head.
“Wait ‘til you see the
“I could get used to that!”
“Have you ever considered moving
here? Josh mentioned that you’re a
computer programmer and programmers are very much in demand out here. You could get some really big bucks. Look at me, I’ve only been out of school for
about a year and I’m already pulling in $75k and I own my own house.”
“The more I think about it, the
more temped I am. The only thing is
Josh. I’d never leave him, not for any
amount of money. I think it would
destroy both of us. I think once he’s
old enough, moving out here might be a real possibility.”
“Tom, I could get you a job at my
company in a heartbeat. HR is constantly
traveling the country and even parts of the
What
We arrived at the visitor centre
just as it opened for the day. Out
front, there were a couple of large dinosaur statues that were painted in
realistic colours.
Josh and Mark climbed on them as if they were riding them like horses.
Not being a paleontologist, I
wasn’t entirely sure what species of dinosaur they were, but they were greenish
coloured, and sported a number of large horns on and
around their heads. The boys must have
somehow used the horns as a ladder and climbed up.
I snapped off a bunch of digital
pictures and handed
“Looks like you boys found a
couple of horny dinosaurs!” I called out causing
“Let’s get him!” Josh retorted as
he started to scramble down off the back of the large dinosaur.
What happened next was one of
those things that could have ended badly, but instead turned out funny. As Josh threw his leg over the dinosaur’s
head and prepared to jump down he lost his footing. Fortunately, rather than falling to the
concrete sidewalk below, the waistband of his shorts snagged one of the smaller
horns on the dinosaur’s head. In a blink
of an eye, Josh was hanging upside down from the statue with half of his rear
end hanging out. To make matters worse,
while the rest of his body was nicely tanned, his buttocks were almost
shockingly white in contrast.
“GET ME DOWN!” Josh hollered as he
hung there, helpless to escape from his predicament.
Bryan, Mark, and I couldn’t help
ourselves and we burst out laughing. All
three of us were just about in tears and our sides were splitting from laughing
so hard. The more Josh squawked and
hollered, the harder we laughed.
“THIS ISN’T FUNNY!” Josh
shouted. “GET ME DOWN!”
I finally regained my composure
when I noticed that Josh really didn’t find the situation all that funny and he
was really getting angry.
“Hang on there bud, I’ll get you
down,” I said soothingly as I handed Mark the camera and went to help Josh.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Josh
replied smartly.
I grabbed him around the torso and
lifted him up just far enough for me to unhook his shorts. After unhooking him, his weight shifted and
threw me off balance causing us both to fall to the ground. I was still laughing but Josh as having none
of it.
“THAT WASN’T FUNNY,” Josh shouted
angrily at all three of us. “I could
have been hurt,” he continued as he stood up, pulled up his shorts, and brushed
the dirt off himself. I got a sense of
just how angry he really was when he didn’t even try to help me up.
“Josh, I’m sorry that I laughed,
if you could have just seen it, you’d understand,” I said evenly.
“He can see it, I got it all on
tape,”
“GREAT! Now you idiots can all have a good laugh over
it later,” Josh said as he stormed into the building leaving the rest of us
speechless.
I’d never seen Josh get that angry
before, so I decided to give him some space.
I was honestly sorry that I’d laughed at him, but I thought he was over
reacting. He hadn’t been physically
hurt, but his pride had taken a bit of a bruising. I decided that the best course of action was
to let him cool down, and talk to him about it later on.
The three of us, all genuinely
sorry for offending Josh, made our way into the visitor centre. Josh had already gone to look at the exhibits
and was nowhere to be seen.
The visitor centre was actually
fairly small, but they managed to pack a lot into it. To the left of the main entrance there’s a
small theatre, and beyond that was a single large room filled with displays of
various dinosaur skeletons, fossils, and other relics of the prehistoric
past. There weren’t many other people
there that early in the morning, but I still couldn’t spot Josh and I was a
little concerned. I debated calling his
cell phone but decided against it.
We made our way through the
various exhibits and snapped all sorts of photos along the way. One display which really caught our attention
was a display of pictures of more than 100 species of dinosaur whose remains
had been unearthed in the
We spent more the better part of
an hour touring the exhibits, but still hadn’t encountered Josh. As we made our way to the theatre to catch
the next showing of the movie presentation, I decided to call Josh’s cell phone
if he wasn’t there.
We entered the theatre and there
he was. Aside from Josh, who was looking
somewhat forlorn sitting alone in the back row of the seats, there was a family
of four. One of them was a young girl
who appeared to be about seven or eight years old wearing a colourful
bandanna tied around her head.
I motioned for Bryan and Mark to
take seats while I went to the back and sat down next to Josh. At first neither of us said anything.
“Joshy,
I know you’re angry that we laughed at you, but none of us meant anything by
it,” I said softly. “I’m sorry for
laughing; I didn’t realize that it was making you feel bad.” I put my arm around his shoulders.
Josh remained silent for a moment
and then looked at me. It was pretty
dark in the theatre, but I could see the look of distress on his face. “I know.
I’m such an idiot. I didn’t mean
to call you guys idiots and to take off like
this. Do you still love me?”
I was flabbergasted. “Joshy, what kind
of question is that? Of course I still
love you. Nothing is every going to
change that. I was worried sick about
you and I wanted to run after you, but I thought you needed your space.”
“I love you too, but I feel bad
for getting angry at you,” Josh sniffed as he leaned into me and put his head
on my shoulder.
“Joshy,
no matter how much people love each other, it doesn’t mean that they won’t get
angry with each other from time to time.
I might get upset with you sometimes and you might get ticked off at
me. That doesn’t mean that we don’t love
each other, or that we love each other any less.”
“I just don’t understand why I got
so angry,” Josh said softly.
“There’s
probably several reasons. You’re right,
you could have been hurt and it was inconsiderate of us to laugh. Your pride was certainly affected – that was
a pretty embarrassing thing. Finally,
hormones probably played a role.”
“Hormones? Aren’t those thing
things that make me horny sometimes?”
“Yeah, they do that too, but they
also do other things. Mood swings are common
in people your age. When you’re going
through puberty, your emotions tend to be stronger than at other times in your
life.”
“Thanks Dad,” Josh said and gave
me a quick peck on the cheek.
“Thanks for what, son?” I asked.
“Thanks for understanding. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Can I see the pictures?” Josh asked with a grin.
I turned on the digital camera and
scrolled through to the sequence of pictures where Josh got hung up on the
dinosaur and then handed him the camera.
I watched in amazement as his face
cracked into a massive grin as he flipped through the photos. “Damn, my butt is white!” he said with a
laugh.
As he got a laugh at his own
expense, I turned on the camcorder and queued up the sequence that
“I told you it was pretty funny,”
I said between giggles. Josh kept
replaying the whole sequence and laughing louder each time.
As we began to regain our composure,
the little girl wearing the bandanna on her head and her mother came out of the
theatre and went to the water fountain nearby.
Her mother reached into her purse, produced a number of prescription
pill bottles, and handed them one-by-one to the little girl, who swallowed each
one down with a drink of water from the fountain.
She stood about four feet tall and
she was as thin as a rail. She was quite
pale, but she had the most striking blue eyes.
It was obvious that the little girl was wearing the bandanna because she
had no hair. Despite what must have been
a terrible illness, she was still a pretty little girl. She glanced over at us and smiled brightly at
Josh. Josh smiled back and her and gave
her a little wink. I could sense that he
knew she was pretty ill.
She and her mother turned and
began to head back to the theatre when she suddenly tripped and stumbled on an
untied shoelace. She almost went face
first onto the hard floor, except Josh sprang forward and caught her in the
nick of time.
“Oh dear,” the little girl’s
mother said as she reached for her daughter.
“You have to be very careful Shelly, you almost fell.” She smiled
gratefully at Josh who was helping Shelly regain her footing.
“Are you ok?” Josh asked with
concern.
“Yeah, I just tripped on my
shoelace. I get dizzy when I bend down
to tie them,” she said a little sadly.
“My name’s Shelly. What’s yours?” She asked Josh and flashed him a million
dollar smile which warmed my heart.
“My name’s Josh and this is my
Dad, Tommy. We’re from
“Thanks for helping Shelly,
Josh. I’m Debbie Mason, Shelly’s
mother,” the girl’s mom said as she offered Josh her hand.
“Pleased to meet you Debbie, I’m
glad Josh could be of assistance,” I said as we shook hands. I watched Shelly out of the corner of my
eye. She seemed to have brightened up
somewhat since meeting Josh.
“You guys are doing the grand tour
are you?” Debbie asked. “My husband Trevor, our son Eddie, Shelly,
and I are here for a little getaway.
Shelly has always loved dinosaurs and we wanted to bring her here. We’re from
“Mom, let’s go back and watch the
rest of the movie,” Shelly said to her mother.
“Ok dear, let’s go.”
“I want to sit with Josh,” Shelly
announced as she took Josh by the hand and began to drag him into the theatre.
I smiled at Josh as he shrugged
his shoulders and gave me a sweet little smile while being led back into the
theatre by an obviously star-struck little girl.
Debbie smiled at her daughter and
gave Josh a look which conveyed how grateful she was that Josh was being so
tolerant of her daughter.
“Josh is a pretty amazing boy,”
she said when they were out of ear-shot.
“If you don’t mind me saying, you look quite young to have a son that
old.”
“Josh isn’t my biological son,” I
replied with a smile. “Josh and I go
back a couple of years. He had some
family troubles and he adopted me as his dad.
He’s a great kid.”
“Shelly sure has a major crush on
him,” She said sadly.
“I don’t mean to pry, but is
Shelly ok?” I asked carefully.
Debbie looked at me and thought
about it for a moment before continuing.
“No Tom, she isn’t. When she was
four, she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She went through some really brutal
treatments and went into remission for about 18 months. It came back about six months ago. The treatment nearly killed her and it did
nothing to slow the disease. Her
pediatric oncologist has given her about six months.”
My heart just sank when I heard
that. I didn’t know much about neuroblastoma, but I did remember reading that it’s one of
the cruelest forms of cancer and that it’s almost always fatal. To make matters worse, it only strikes young
children. Shelly was such a sweet girl
and the idea that she was never going to grow up, made me sick to my
stomach.
“Oh boy, I don’t know what to
say. Cancer is such a cruel
disease. She seems like such a happy
little girl,” I said choosing my words carefully.
“She really is a happy little
girl. Sometimes she gets a little depressed,
but she tries to be strong for the rest of us.
She really perked up a lot after she met Josh,” she said with a
smile. “I wish I had her strength. The medication keeps the pain under control,
but that won’t last. We brought her here
because we know this will be the last chance that she’ll ever have to do
something like this.”
“I really hope that you all have a
great time and make a lot of really good memories,” I said gently. I wiped a couple of tears from the corners of
my eyes as we both walked back into the theatre.
I got questioning looks from Mark
and Bryan as I entered the theatre and sat down. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered. I smiled to myself when I looked over and saw
Josh sitting with Shelly in the second row.
When the movie ended, we all left
the theatre. Josh came up behind me and
gave me a big hug. “Can we go for that
hike now?” he
asked. I was glad that the old Josh was
back.
“You betcha!” I replied.
“You ok Josh?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry I called you guys
idiots and stormed off,” Josh said sheepishly.
“We’re sorry we laughed at you,”
Mark added.
“Dad showed me the video and it
was kinda funny,” Josh said with a grin.
On the other side of the room
Shelly, Debbie, Trevor, and Eddie were getting their things together and
preparing to head out the door. Shelly
was following Josh’s every move although he didn’t realize it.
Mark and Josh went back into the
exhibits area to take a second look at a display of dinosaur skeletons assembled
in life-like poses while Shelly and her family left the building.
“That little girl has eyes for
Josh,”
“Yeah, she has a big crush on him,
that’s for sure. Poor
little kid.”
“What’s her story?”
I told
“God damn it. She’s so damned young,”
“Who is?” Mark asked.
He and Josh had returned without either Bryan or I noticing.
“That little
girl with the bandana. Her name’s Shelly. She seems to have a major crush on Josh,” I
said.
Josh turned a little red. “She’s a nice little kid but too young for
me,” Josh replied. “She says that she
has cancer,”
“That sucks,” Mark said.
“What kind of cancer does she have?” Josh asked.
“Her mother said its neuroblastoma. She’s
had it since she was five.”
“She told me she wants me to marry
her when she gets better,” Josh said with a laugh. “I told her that we’re both too young, but
maybe when we’re older. Did her mother
say when she would get better?”
I looked at Josh for a moment
before answering. I was pretty certain
that he sensed my answer before I spoke.
“She isn’t going to get better Joshy,” I said
softly. “She was in remission for a long
time but the cancer came back. Her
doctor said she has no more than six months to live.”
Josh turned pale. “She’s just a little girl,” he said. “That isn’t fair. She has her whole life ahead of her.”
“I know Joshy. Sometimes life isn’t fair. Her parents are trying to make her last
months as enjoyable for her as possible.
She loves dinosaurs and she wanted to come here so they brought her all
the way from
“It’s just wrong for a little girl
to get sick and die,” Josh said firmly.
“Believe me Josh, I know that,”
Mark looked down as his feet for a
moment with an expression of pain on his handsome face. He leaned his head against his brother’s
shoulder. Josh did the same with me.
“Terry Fox was right. Somehow cancer has to be beaten,” Josh said
with finality.
We left the visitor centre and
made our way to the trailhead to begin our self-guided badlands hike. There are five trails of varying lengths and
degrees of difficulty. We selected the
longest trail which is about 6 km long.
All along the length of the trail, there were signs and plaques
highlighting important or historical sights.
Every once in a while there was a glass enclosure erected over an actual
dinosaur skeleton. These skeletons had
been uncovered and left where they were found with the enclosures built over
them to protect them from vandalism and the elements. The experience of encountering the remains of
prehistoric creatures in the very places where they fell,
was far more powerful than seeing their posed remains in a museum. Seeing them in their real environment made it
all the more real.
By the time we stopped for lunch,
we were all glad to have worn our cowboy hats and to have loaded on the sun
screen. The sun was beating down on us
and there was little shade. It was a
tough hike but all four of us were in excellent physical condition and we were
all, at least moderately experienced hikers.
We selected a place right at the
base of a rather large hoodoo to prepare and eat our IMPs. The towering hoodoo provided us with shade and
gave us something to lean our backs against as we sat. Josh, having experienced IMPs
once before, took it upon himself to instruct Mark and Bryan on the nuances of
eating combat rations. Both Mark and his
brother seemed a little skeptical about eating two-year-old food, but their
skepticism vanished pretty quickly when they actually tasted it.
“Hey these are actually pretty
good,” Mark said. “There’s a whole lot
of food in one of these.”
“When I was in the army, most of
us wouldn’t eat it all at once. We’d
normally eat the main course and the fruit, then stow the rest of the items in
our pockets to nibble on later. In
combat conditions you don’t want to feel overly full and it’s nice to be able
to have something to snack on when you stop for a rest,” I said.
“Dad, tell them the golden rule of
hiking that you taught me,” Josh said proudly.
“Oh yeah. When I was in
recruit training, this tough as nails old sergeant once told us that when
you’re in the field, you should never stand up when you can sit down. You should never sit down when you can lie
down, and you should never just lie down when you can sleep.”
“That makes sense to me,”
We were all stretched out with our
backs propped up against the hoodoo enjoying the shade. After a while, Josh and Mark got restless and
began climbing hoodoos, checking out the cactus, and looking for wildlife. They were hoping to catch a glimpse of a
snake or a scorpion.
Bryan and I were chit-chatting and
getting to know one another a little better when we heard an excited shout from
the boys. “Dad, Bryan, check this out,”
Josh hollered as he and Mark came running.
Josh was holding something in his hand and I hoped that it wasn’t a
scorpion!
“Look what I dug up,” Josh said
excitedly as he held out a small pointed object.
I picked up the object and
examined it closely. I knew immediately
what it was. Josh had uncovered an
actual dinosaur tooth. Such finds are
pretty common place in the nature preserve areas of the park, which are
accessible only by tightly controlled tour groups, but they were rare in the
public areas of the park.
“Is it real?” Mark asked.
“I think it is. I think it’s a real dinosaur tooth. From the looks of it, I’d bet it came from a
meat-eater.”
Josh was grinning from ear to
ear. “I want to get it made into a
necklace,” he enthused.
“Let’s go see if we can find any
more,” Mark said and the two boys were off like a shot to look for more teeth.
They didn’t find anymore teeth,
but they did find a really nice fossil of what appeared to be some sort of
prehistoric fish. I was glad, I didn’t
want to see Mark go home empty handed.
After our lunch and unexpected paleontological expedition, we resumed our hike. By around
“Hey look, it’s the family from
this morning,” Josh said.
Ahead of us on the trail was the
Mason family. They were all standing
around looking at one of the enclosed dinosaur skeletons. When Shelly saw Josh, her face seemed to
light up. “Josh,” she shouted causing
everyone to turn around and look at us.
“Hey, it’s my girlfriend Shelly,”
Josh said with a grin and ran to the little girl. He picked her up and swung her around before
kissing her cheek setting her down on her feet.
“You must be the famous Josh,”
Trevor Mason said as he extended his hand and patted Josh on the head.
When the rest of us caught up, I
shook hands with Trevor Mason and introduced everyone. Bryan, Trevor, Debbie, and I stood around and
chatted while Josh, Mark, Eddie, and Shelly played around and dug for more
teeth. Both the Mason kids were in awe
of Josh’s tooth and Mark’s fossil. The
four of us watched in amazement as Josh and Mark treated the Mason kids like
long lost friends. Josh, bless his
heart, didn’t complain in the least about the immature romantic efforts of
Shelly and took it all in stride.
“That’s a hell of a boy you have
there Tom,” Trevor said to me after watching Josh pickup Shelly and carry her
around on his shoulders. “I haven’t seen
Shelly this happy in a long time. Debbie
told me how they met and it appears that Shelly has really fallen for him. He’s a good sport for tolerating her like
that.”
“That’s just how Josh is. He’s the most unselfish and caring person
I’ve ever met. He knows about Shelly’s
condition and I think he just wants to do his part to make her happy.”
“This might sound strange,” Debbie
said before continuing. “Josh is a
beautiful boy. It’s kind of strange to
say that about a teenage boy, but I mean it.
He’s a handsome boy, but it’s more than that. His personality and the way he interacts with
Shelly and Eddie is just amazing. I can’t think of any word to describe him
except for beautiful.”
I knew exactly what Debbie meant,
and I also knew that Josh would be embarrassed if anyone pointed that out to
him. He didn’t consider what he was doing
to be anything special. Josh always
treated people the way he wanted to be treated.
He would give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it. He saw a sick little girl and decided to try
to give her a little happiness.
“I love him to bits,” I replied
with a smile.
“Your brother is quite the little
gentleman too,” Debbie said to
“He’s a fantastic kid and he’s
been through a lot. Mark and I know all
about cancer. We lost our mom to breast
cancer a couple of years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Debbie
said.
“It’s too bad that we have to
leave tomorrow,” Trevor said. “The kids
are really getting along well. For a
while there, we were worried that we’d have to go home early because Shelly
wasn’t doing very well. She’s turned
around 100% since meeting Josh.”
“We’re in site 110 and 111; please
don’t leave without dropping by to say goodbye,” I said.
“We’ll swing by for sure,” Debbie
replied.
We gathered the kids and said our
goodbyes then headed back to our camp sites.
When we arrived back at the site, we all made a beeline to the showers
to wash away the dust and sweat that had accumulated on us over the course of
the day. After our showers, Josh and
Mark announced that they were going to cook dinner that night, and that
He lugged the heavy cooler back to
the site and placed it on the picnic table.
He opened the lid, retrieved two ice-cold bottles of Molson Canadian Ice
beer, and handed them to Bryan and me.
He then retrieved a couple of cold Cokes for Josh and him.
I was glad to see that Josh didn’t
appear the least bit worried that we were drinking alcohol. Both boys had bad experiences involving
abusive fathers and alcohol, and it was good to see that neither of them was
bothered by Bryan and me drinking.
“This really hits the spot,
“Camping isn’t camping without
cold beer,”
“Can we have a sip?” Mark asked.
“Sure,” I replied. I handed my bottle to Josh and
“Ok you little lushes,
that’s plenty,”
Both boys pouted as they handed
over the bottles and then went to work on dinner. Before long, the marvelous smell of grilling
hamburgers filled the air and made each of our stomachs rumble in anticipation.
The boys did an excellent job of
grilling the burgers and lightly toasting the buns. Dinner was wonderful and we all ate our
fill. Bryan and I helped ourselves to
another beer each, while the boys made a serious dent in the supply of
Coke. After we ate, we cleaned up the
site and prepared the fire pit for a memorable camp fire that evening.
With our sites prepared for the
night, we lathered up on inset repellant and went for a walk through the
campground. At the far end of the
camping area, we encountered Trevor and Eddie Mason. Debbie and Shelly were inside the tent.
“Hey guys,” Trevor said wanly.
“Where’s Shelly?” Josh asked.
“She wasn’t feeling too well
tonight Josh, she’s having a lot of pain.”
“Would it help if I talked to
her?” Josh asked.
Trevor thought about it for a
moment. “It just might,” he said
thoughtfully before leading Josh towards the tent. A few minutes later, Josh emerged from the
tent with Shelly and her parents. She
looked worse than she had this morning, but I took it as a good sign that she
was up and on her feet.
Mark and Josh spent the next few
minutes visiting with the kids while the adults talked.
“That boy of yours is utterly
amazing,” Trevor said. “What he just did
for Shelly almost defies belief.”
“What did he do?” I asked in a surprised voice.
“First he just held her hand and
talked to her. He asked her about
dinosaurs and which one was her favorite.
She told him that the Albertosaurus is her
favorite. He then told her that he had
something very special to give her if she would be strong and try to make the
pain go away. She nodded her head and he
gave her his dinosaur tooth and told her that he thought it was an Albertosaurus tooth.”
Trevor wiped a tear from his eye before continuing. “She brightened up right away. It was almost miraculous.”
I don’t think any of us had a dry
eye at that point. My heart swelled in
my chest. I was so proud of my boy. That had been the most generous and selfless
thing that I’d heard in a long time. I
had always known that Josh was special, but what he did for that little girl
made me realize that I hadn’t fully realized how special he was. That tooth was his pride and joy. When he found that tooth, he was just as
happy as if he’d won the lottery. It was
special to him, but without a second thought, he had given it to a sick little
girl to make her feel better. In giving
her that tooth, he gave her far more.
Before Shelly got overly tired
out, we parted company and returned to our sites. Before we left, both Debbie and Trevor gave
Josh a big hug and thanked him profusely for what he had done. The attention embarrassed Josh a bit, but he
took it like a man. I was so proud of my
son at that moment.
Back at the campsite, we lit the
bonfire and began the nightly ritual of roasted hot dogs, toasted marshmallows,
and the telling of ghost stories. The
four of us had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. Josh and Mark were just as close as they
always were, and Bryan and I were becoming very good friends. We both felt as though we had known each
other for a long time and were completely comfortable together.
I began to wonder if more than
just friendship might be in the cards for the two of us.
At around
“Don’t stay up too late bro,”
Mark managed to last through two
more of my famous ghost stories before going to join his brother in the tent,
leaving Josh and I alone together. As we always did when we camped out, the two of us snuggled up
together in front of the campfire as it began to slowly burn down.
“So kiddo, how do you like
“I love it. The
“Could you see yourself living
here one day?”
“Living in
“Depends on what?” I asked
“It depends on whether or not you
were with me. I’d love for us to live
here but I’d hate living anywhere that you weren’t.”
I reached over and gave his knee a
loving squeeze. “Same here Josh. Bryan and I were talking earlier today and he
said that there are a whole lot of opportunities in
“You’re not thinking of moving
here are you?” Josh asked in a frightened tone.
“Not without you I’m not. Joshy, you’re going
to be 16 in about two and a half years.
Once you turn 16, you can decide to move out on your own. How would you feel about moving with me to
Josh turned and wrapped his arms
around me and squeezed me tightly. “I’d
love to. Let’s do it. I’d hate to be away from mom, but I’d hate to
be away from you even more.”
“It’s settled then, we’re moving
west in about 30 months!”
We both settled down and
alternated between watching the fire and admiring the glorious display of stars
overhead. It was a calm, cool and
comfortable night. It was nice to wind down
from the hectic and tiring day of hiking.
It was also nice to be alone with Josh.
We were both enjoying being with Mark and Bryan but we needed our dad
and son time too.
“Dad, why do people have to
die?” Josh asked.
“Death is a part of life Joshy. Everyone is
born and everyone will eventually die.
Nobody lives forever. I guess its
just nature’s way of renewing humanity and keeping the planet from becoming too
over-crowded.”
“I can understand why people die
when they get old; after they’ve had a life, but why do kids have to die
sometimes? Why is Shelly going to die?”
“I don’t know Joshy,
I really don’t. Remember what I said
about purpose? It might be difficult to
understand, but there’s always a purpose.
We might not know the purpose and we might not understand it, but I
believe it’s there.”
“I look at Shelly and see how sick
she is and I can’t help but picturing Matthew or Richard sick and dying. That would just about kill me. I can’t imagine how it must be for Shelly’s
family.”
I shuddered at the thought. The truth be known, I had the same thought
when I learned of Shelly’s condition.
The thought of one of those sweet little boys suffering like that made
me physically ill.
“I know son. I had the same thought and it would shred me
inside if one of the twins had to go through something like that. It would kill me if you had to suffer
something like that.”
“You aren’t going to die on me are
you?” Josh asked with a bit of a crack in his voice.
“No kiddo, I’m not. I had a close call there, but I’m not going
anywhere. You and I have our whole lives
together to look forward too. One day I
will die. So will you and so will
everyone else, but it won’t be anytime soon.”
“How can you be so sure? I doubt that Shelly’s parents knew that she’d
get sick and die.”
“I guess its faith Josh. We can’t worry about dying and we shouldn’t
fear it. We can’t change the fact that
everyone, even the people we love most, will die one day and worrying about it
doesn’t help. If we spend our lives worrying
about death, we forget to live.” I put
my arm around Josh and pulled him into my side.
“I think I understand,” Josh said.
“All we can do is enjoy life and
live like every day is our last. Never
hold a grudge, never leave someone we love on bad terms, never go to sleep
angry. We never know when our time is
up, so we have to be ready for it. Being
ready means trying to live your life well, giving and receiving all the love we
can, so that we leave our loved ones with good memories.”
“That’s why Shelly’s parents
brought her here, isn’t it? To make her happy, but also to give themselves some good memories
of their time together.”
“That’s right Josh,” I said warmly
and hugged him tightly. We sat there and
silently watched the dying fire for a few minutes.
“That was an awesome thing you did
for Shelly today. I know how much that
tooth meant to you.”
Josh considered my comment for a
moment. “I know, but I think it means
more to her. I wanted to give her
something to hold onto, something to remind her of this place and something to
remind her of me.”
“Josh, you are the most incredible
person I know.”
“Let’s go to bed,” Josh said. “Can I sleep with you again tonight? I need some comfort.”
“Of course bud,” I said.
Josh went into the tent to zip our
sleeping bags together while I put out the fire and secured the Jeep. By the time I made it to the tent, Josh was
already in the sleeping bag.
I undressed and climbed in beside
him. Josh rolled onto his side and
pressed his back against my chest. I
wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close. “Goodnight son, I love you.”
“Goodnight Dad, I love you too,”
Josh replied. It didn’t take long for
his breathing to become slow and steady as he fell into a deep sleep.
I lay there holding my son in my
arms and listened to him breathe. I was
truly in awe of him. In many ways, he
was mature beyond his years and in other ways, he was still a little boy.
His actions with Shelly were so
adult and yet here he was, truly facing the concept of death for the first
time; needing the comfort of sleeping snuggled up with me, in order to deal
with it.