Address Unknown 

Erin Finnerty

Hi baby!

How’s it going there so far? I have to admit, I was really nervous sending you off! I know you were nervous too—I was so proud that you could put that big feeling into words! Once it’s in words, it’s not so scary anymore, right?

It’s only been two days, so of course not much has changed here! I think Nacho misses you. I gave him an extra cricket but he’s just coiled up, watching as they hop around and try to escape.

I miss you so much already. Camp is a tradition we can’t break, whether we like it or not we’re always called back. You know how Nacho needs to molt? Kids have their own version of that. Just make sure you come home in one piece lol!!

Send me a note when you get a chance. I put paper and stamps in your trunk. And wrote out the envelopes already. So no excuses!

Love, 

Mom

P.S. Make sure you unpack everything in your trunk!

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Mom I hate camp when are you coming to get me? Theres a real lake, its full of water and the consilers say theres even fish in it and that they bite you!! So Im not going swim. I also hate the bunkhouse when I woke up today I had fur in my mouth. Also I hate singing songs at the campfire but the consilors say it’s ok to scream the songs because there are no inside voices here and I like when we throw things in the fire at the end. The first niht we threwgh ashes from the last seasons fire and the consilors say these words nobody understands

I still hate camp when are you coming to get me????

Love,

August

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Hi honey,

I’m sorry to hear you don’t like camp so far. I’m sure that will change though, and anyway it’s against the rules for me to come get you, so you’ll just have to make the best of it—that’s what kids do at camp.

That’s so cool, that the lake is still there! Why don’t you practice the swimming strokes that I showed you on kitchen floor? Remember: your hands are ice cream scoops and you scoop-scoop-scoop ice cream into the mouth of the shark that’s right behind you. Okay Toots, I have three questions that I want you to answer in your next letter:

1. What activities are you doing so far?

2. Who are some of the people in your bunkhouse? Is one of them named Silvanus?

3. Knock knock! (okay, not actually a question)

Love, 

Mom

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Hi mom, so far I did crafts, we made lanyurds and popsicle stick birdfeeders. Yes there is Silvanus; he made a friendship bracelet and tied it to my wrist and said we are friends forever now.

Mom why did you send the little sleeping bag its too short to cover me. My head and my feet get cold at night.

Love,

August

ps Who’s there?

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Hey honeybear!!

One of the BEST PARTS about camp is getting care packages!! So here is your first

official one.

Sorry the sleeping bag seems too small; it’s the right size though. It was mine when I went there! If you’re cold, make a cup with your hands and whisper into it to warm them up. You can whisper all kinds of secrets into your little hand-cup at night, in that sleeping bag, and they will stay safe there. I did this too at camp. (My secrets are still in that sleeping bag!) I hope you enjoy the things I packed here. I made these cookies JUST for you—eat one every night and DON’T SHARE! I am very serious about this. I put nuts and other major allergens in them, so you could possibly kill someone if you shared them, and then I will find out. Just hide them in your trunk.

I hope you have fun with the Mad Libs—they’re so hilarious! I thought you might like to fill them in with a friend, like maybe Silvanus? I’d love to see what he writes in.

Also enclosed is a selfie of me and Nacho, and tape to stick it on the wall next to your bed.

Finally, you’re not the only one making crafts! I made you a necklace. It’s one of your baby teeth, see? I made myself one too. (It’s so wild that your teeth used to be INSIDE ME!) We can both wear them, and think of each other.

Make sure you put yours on right now.

Miss you and love you!!

Xoxoxo Mom

P.S. Yoda lady.

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Hi Mom,

This week we did archerry its you shoot a bow and arrow. Silvanus is my teacher, he stands next to me when I shoot and even though its really hard to for most people to make the arrow go straight mine went straight to the BULLSEYE every time. Silvanus says he is a lucky charm. Silvanus says since I’m so good at archerry he will teach me other skills and we will maybe go camping, like real camping in the woods.

Mom my blanket is getting smaller, my feet stick out past my ankles!!! They are COLD!! And my ear is cold too so I am wrapping my head in my tshirt. Can you send a bigger blanket? The cookies are good I hid them in my trunk.

Love,

August

ps. Yoda lady who, hahahaha

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Hey hon,

Care package time! Here’s what you get:

* More sunscreen. Please make sure you’re using this!

* 18 packs of tropical fruit gum–plenty to share!

* Nacho molted AGAIN. (The third time since you’ve been gone!?) You must miss

him, so I put his skin in here. It looked a little empty by itself, so that’s why I glued

on the googly eyes. Guess what I used for those eyebrows—fingernail clippings! You

can keep it next to your pillow, so you don’t feel lonely.

* A garden trowel. I want you to do me a big favor. Go to the dock of the lake, figure

out on your compass which direction SSE is, and walk about 200 steps in that

direction, until you get to a small clearing. Find the big oak tree that has my initials

carved in the bark. Dig down into the ground there and keep digging until you hit

something hard. Dig it out and bring it back to your bunk and just put it in your trunk in the bag marked “dirty laundry” and DO NOT OPEN IT. I repeat: DO NOT OPEN IT. If you open it, I will know, and you would be spoiling a camp tradition and it would be ruined forever. Let me know when you did this, ok?

Thank you for your letters, baby—you’re so good about writing to me. I have them all

taped to the walls, so I can be reminded of you.

I’d love to hear more about what Silvanus is teaching you! Also, do not tell him about the thing you dig up; it’s a secret camp tradition just for our family.

Love, 

Mom

P.S. Knock knock.

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Hi Mom, This week we did axe throwing!! The way you do it is you rap both hands

around the handle and bring it all the way over your head and then Throw as hard as you can and let go. I want to get a Axe when I get home.

Also I’m swimming now. 

None of my clothes fit me right. Send bigger ones! Also send a vest with pockets, Sylvanus says I will need this soon. 

Mom a mouse found the cookies in my trunk and chewed one of them up and then it died in my trunk, I guess it had nut allergys. I asked Sylvanus what I shoud do about the mouse and he said to save it for arts and crafts. (It’s like a joke between us.)

Love, 

August

Ps who’s there

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Hey hon. Did you do the thing I told you to, with the little shovel?

In this package I’m sending you a something super fun—a disposable camera! I’d love it if you could take pictures of the people you’re spending so much time with. Then I could imagine them too and it would be like I’m there with you. People can be camera-shy though, so it’s probably best to just take pictures at night, when they’re asleep. I included a pre-paid return envelope, so you can mail the camera back to me. Just give it to one of the counselors in Crow’s Nest Cabin. Don’t ask Sylvanus to send it out; he’s been doing so much, I don’t want to burden him with more.

Love you + miss you so much,

Mom

P.S. Wire

P.P.S. When you mail the camera back, please put one of your t-shirts in the envelope too. I miss your smell!

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Hey Mom. Yes, I did the thing you asked. What even is that thing I dug up? It weighs a ton and stinks worse than my bunkhouse. 

I don’t know how the camera works, there’s like no picture anywhere on it? Also a mouse pead on it so its probably broken now.

When are you sending the stuff I asked for?

Love,

August

PS wire who

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Hi honey, I was thinking about you this morning, and remembering when you were a toddler and sneezed and oatmeal flew out of your nose, how you cried, and I said your face is a gumball machine for hungry moms and I licked the oatmeal off and you laughed. You could always glide between moods like that, and even if you were sad, you’d always come back to me.

When you were little, you would ask so many questions, like how come the sun lights up Earth but not outer space, and can spiders talk in their dreams, and did it hurt when that shark bit my toe off. Every question was another invitation to fill you up with knowledge. Be cautious in who you accept knowledge from.

Enclosed is the vest you asked for. Notice that I sewed a compass inside the top left side. It’s very important that you not remove it. It was my compass when I went to camp, and the fact that it’s so old means that it contains years of orienteering knowledge. The compass "knows,"so to speak.

P.S. Wire you so far from home, I guess it’s my own damn fault for sending you there! Haha +xoxoxo.

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Mom! this week Silvanus took me real, actual camping, just the two of us.

First we SHOT A DEER and dressed it in the woods. Afterwards we built a fire and cooked strips of the meat. Silvanus says it’s best to eat when only lightly roasted, so you don’t burn off the deer’s life force. After we ate the venison I shared with him those cookies you sent me. Before you have a heart attack, YES, I did ask him if he has any allergies (of course he doesn’t). It felt good to give him something in thanks for all he’s given me. For some reason that night they tasted like the deer we’d just eaten. (What recipe did you use anyway?)

After we ate, we stayed up into the night, sitting at the fire. Silvanus told me this camp legend about a camper who took a dare to walk across the lake and was never heard from again, but some people swear she’s been trapped at camp ever since, trying to escape. He says this is a special place, and I get it now. 

Silvanus did these animal calls just by cupping his hands and blowing, and the animals came but they turned their backs to us, which he said is a sign of respect.

I’m learning so much from him; it’s like I can feel myself actually growing. When we got back to the cabin the next day, I swear I had to duck to get through the bunkhouse door.

He told me to tell you that he’s looking out for me. He made you a bracelet too (see inside)–wasn’t that so cool of him?

Love ya!

August

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Baby—what is happening there? I got a voice mail from the nurse that you had SURGERY? And that it’s "no big deal?" But nobody answers when I call? Am I dreaming all of this or what? PLEASE let me know what’s going on.

Honey, you know I can’t be there with you, which is killing me, so I set Nacho in the grass and told him to go find you.

PLEASE tell me that you’re okay. I’m terrified with worry.

Love, love, love,

Mom

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Mom, WOULD YOU RELAX? Everything’s fine. I was having stomach pain after the camping trip, and I had to go to the hospital, but it turns out it was just appendicitis. The appendix wants what the appendix wants, and it wanted to get out. I think it was my appendix. I don’t know, you can ask the hospital. They explained everything to Sylvanus. 

I’m back at camp and the nurse said she’s never seen anyone heal so fast. I’ve never felt stronger in my life than I do right now.

Not sure if you got my request for shaving supplies. Either way, disregard it—I’m keeping the beard.

Thanks for all the care packages. Feel free to ease up on the games though. Nobody plays tiddlywinks or hoop-and-stick anymore, lol.

K/I/T,

August

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August, I’m having a hard time understanding what’s happened. I grew that appendecks inside of me, and then someone took it out of you? Im just so confused why would you let someone do that? Did you think about what it will be like for the appendecks, now its all alone. Nacho wont be able to find you not even if you put a cooky out for him

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Hey fam,

This’ll be my last letter for a while; need to keep it brief. I’ve advanced to demi-counselor, and moved out of that runty bunkhouse. I sheared the lintel clear off on my way out—ha! (Heads up: there’ll be a surcharge on my camp account for this.)

The baby tooth necklace is in the trunk, and the trunk is at the bottom of the lake. Sylvanus suggested I put it there, for safekeeping. He was certain you’d know how to find it, if you ever reappear here.

Tonight’s the end-of-camp bonfire (farewell to that dinky sleeping bag btw), and tomorrow we stash the ashes, for next summer. Sylvanus says the pause between seasons is an illusion, and the next cycle has already begun. He told me that camp only ends when you stop growing.

No need to come get me; I’ve got it covered from here.

A

PS: Knock knock

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