*** at Band Camp

Okay so its the third day at band camp, and everything is going horribly. Its only morning right now and were all at breakfast, and there stopping some of the kids at the back of the line from eating, which per say isn't a bad thing because a lot of the kids, and i mean a lot are coming up sick. Eating their food, and then turning pale and running to the bathroom sick.

The last day of band camp and the food decides to be bad. The last day, the day that we know were going home and that we cant do anything about the food being bad. Now if it were the first day then nobody would have been here. They would have sent us home right away for the fear that parents would sue if their kids got food poisoning.

They told us that if we weren't feeling well and if we ate that we didn't have to go to the field, and some kids started to pretend to be sick, but they had to go to the field because the adults aren't that stupid. And anyways, why would you want to stay in the dorms with a bunch of sick people? Just the thought put knots in my stomach and I'm so glad that Shane and I were at the end of the line and didn't eat.

Yes we ate, but not the food from the cafeteria. A few of the adults went to the store down the road and got honey buns and stuff for the rest of us.

After a few hours, the kids who had gotten sick were still throwing up, and the band director had to call poison control. They came over as soon as they could and told us that we couldn't leave the camp and they called the police. When we asked why, they just turned their noses up at us, and turned their backs. What was going on?

I went up to one of the ladies that i could tell would give me answers if I asked the right kind of questions, and I asked her what was going on and why I couldn't leave. She kind of gave me a look that she was contemplating answering me or not, "Why do you need to know so bad?" She said, a little nervous, I could tell she wasn't used to being mean to people.

"My mother is pregnant and she could be having the baby any minute now, they admitted her to the hospital this morning because of her contractions, and I just wanted to know how long it would be until I can go to see if I have a baby brother or sister." I said it in kind of a rush, being truthful, and hoping that she would believe my truth. She did, I guess, because she turned all the way to face me. "These kids don't have food poisoning, its much worse than that. We think that someone, maybe an adult or someone with the right sources could have put arsenic in these kids food." She said, kind of hushed.

I gasped, Julie, I thought. But why? Why would she do that? "What are they going to do?"

"Well their going to search everyones belongings, even the adults stuff will be searched, and then once we know who did this, the cops will take them to jail and everyone else can go home." she said, and then turned back to one of the kids she was next to. She bent down just as he fell and she cradled him in her hands, stroking the hari away from his sweat covered pale face. He looked horrible. His eyes were losing the light, you know the innocent light of being a kid? That one? The light of joy in life, the light everyone has in their eyes, until this point of their life, and his was fading fast.

He took one more breath, coughed and closed his eyes, he knew it was comming, and he was affraid. He started to cry, silent tears. they just rolled down his cheek from under his closed eyes, and down to the nape of his neck. He started to breathe shallowly, and then shallower. Next thing he did was suprising, he opened his eyes, looked straight at the woman holding him, and then into the sky, and he said thank you.

The way he said it was as though he was being saved from something horrible instead of having his life end. He thanked someone for taking his pain away.

The lady wipped some hair that had fallen back onto his face away, closed his eyes and layed him slowly onto the ground below them. She then crossed his hands on his abdomin. "Christine, we have another one, bring the cloth, " she said, and a beautiful young gal came by holding a white sheet. Together they unfeld it, Christine standing at the boys feet, the other lady at his head. They knelt at the same time, covering the young child with the sheet, and then they did something I've never seen before. Still kneeling on the ground, they bowed their heads with eyes closed, and they began to pray.

In usison they both said, "Dear Lord, please take this young soul with you, make him happy like he has made the people around you, and deliver his family from greif, may bhe be remembered in your name, Amen." And then they got up and walked to another child. I could tell that they would repeat this many times today, and i could tell it was killing them to see the young children passing away in such a cluster. I could tell Christine was touched more because as she walked away from the young boy laying on the ground, she wiped a tear away from her eye.