Week 4 Story Lab: Summer of 1986

1986 Banner, Source

Story Lab; Microfiction

Summer of 1986

It was not hard to make friends in a small town like Verona, Texas. When you go to school you are practically assigned a couple dozen friends for life, no one really left our small town, and no one really came in. There is something to be said about this sort of extreme consistency, but I never really found it bland. I had my couple of friends, of course, but it was more obligatory friendship rather than a close bond, and maybe that’s why I was seeking more. In the summer of 1986 my mom had heard on the radio about a few girls my age going missing in some of the neighboring towns, the reporter summed it up to them running away with their boyfriends, so mom quit allowing me to see Peter and sent me away for the summer to make some new friends. Mom said the girls who ran away with their boyfriends were just bored and needed stimulation, thus earning me a one-way ticket to the YWCA camp that a few of my friends were going to. 

            One of the first friends I made at camp was named Lisa, well, I guess that was more of a forced friend since she was a camp counselor, but she introduced to me to Abigail and Sharon, who became my friends almost instantly, so I am grateful for that. The 3 of us we inseparable for the first few weeks, and then we met Melissa Rossiter. For some reason, I didn’t recognize her when I first met her, but she was one of the sweetest people I had ever met. Slowly, it just became Melissa and I. Abigail and Sharon sort of phased out of the group. A few weeks later, Sharon went home without telling anyone, I wonder if her mom came and picked her up and was too embarrassed to tell anyone, she was always pretty quiet and never really opened up to anyone except for Melissa. She was really good about that, she slowly became one of the best friends I had ever had, and before too long, it was almost time to say goodbye. I knew saying goodbye would be hard, we had spent nearly every second of everyday together, she introduced me to cool boys who lived by the camp, she told me how to get away with smoking cigarettes, and the best ways to sneak out of the house without mom noticing.

            The last few days of camp consisted of an activity’s tournament, tug-of-war, races, canoeing competitions, archery, etc. Melissa never really liked going to the activities, she said she was too cool for them, that the games were for little kids. Something about her, maybe it was because she smoked cigarettes and wore makeup, but she looked older. More mature. She told me that it is because she lost her virginity that she looks older, that the same thing will happen to me when I lose mine. Melissa convinced me to skip a few of the activities, but I could not get away with missing out on all of them, so I tried to convince Melissa to come to the games. Eventually, she did! She came one of the races that I was competing in, she swore she could beat me in a foot race. Oddly enough, Lisa, the camp counselor could not find her name on the activities board list. Melissa and Lisa got into a screaming match, Lisa insisted that she was not supposed to be at the camp, but how could that be? Melissa had been here at camp alongside me the entire time! I was so mad for her; I was even more mad when I found out that she had to be sent home. I never got a chance to say goodbye to my best friend. I laid up all night thinking about how much I was going to miss her, I never got her address to send her letter, or a phone number to maybe give her a call one of these days. We had so many good times together, she introduced me to some older guys who were really cool! We hung out by the river sometimes and they always offered to take me on road trips, I just knew my mom would be mad if she ever found out. I just know that she taught me so much, and I will always be grateful for the friend that she was.

            When mom came to get me from camp, I was sad to leave, but excited to see Peter again. I had missed him so much; I hope he missed me too. I told mom all about the fun adventures we had, minus the things that would get me in trouble. We had a long way home, so we listened to the talk radio in the car for a lot of our drive. About 2 hours into the drive, we switched to the news radio. There was a forest fire in some town that started with a D, a car accident down I-35, what’s new? Random arrest reports. I had begun to fall asleep in the car, mom woke me up, “did you hear that? They just made an arrest at the camp you were just at!”

            Rubbing my eyes, my ears perked up at the radio commentators voice-

            “an arrest was just made in connection to the disappearance of over 10 young women, ranging from ages 9-16, police just arrested 26-year-old Melissa Rossiter on multiple counts of human trafficking and child endangerment…”

            “multiple young girls left dead or in critical condition… many yet to be found”

Author's Note:

       I originally wrote the idea for this story in a creative writing class, but I really enjoyed the plot twist so I expanded upon the flash fiction and made it into more of a full-fledged short story. I really enjoyed how the story came out, the story that I wrote is entirely original, but I was admittedly inspired by the hit TV show, "Stranger Things" for the setting. I would still tweak a few more things about the story, but I am just now sure how to effectively alter them without ruining the story. Feel free to provide suggestions in the comments!