Junior Year Box Set

I handed over the pictures. The first few showed the resort and all the facilities. Then there were several photos of hiking trails. Greg barked out a laugh when he saw the picture of the nude people playing volleyball. He finally figured out what ‘naturist’ meant. They were all in their fifties or older. I’d made sure all the photos only showed older people.

“What?” Phil asked.

“This is worse than last time,” Greg complained.

He handed the pictures to Phil.

“I plan on getting an all-over tan,” I said.

“But … but … no way!” Phil said, a little too loudly.

“What are you doing to Phil?” Dad asked Greg and me.

“Dad, this can’t be true. David said you told him where we’re going,” Phil said.

“David, you promised not to tell them. This is a surprise your uncle and I came up with,” Dad chastised me.

I grabbed the papers and handed them to Uncle John. We needed to get a new security person because Paul started laughing. Phil gave me a hard look and then wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the flight. I don’t think he was sure whether we were really going there. I wondered if we could talk him into walking around naked. Somehow, I had my doubts.

◊◊◊

In Winnipeg, we cleared customs and grabbed our bags. We were soon in the air to Red Lake airport, and less than an hour later, we landed.

“We’re going to a fly-in fishing camp about 20 minutes by air from here. The only way in is by air, and they say it’s spectacular fishing. We need to go grocery shopping. Phil, you might want to get some sunscreen,” Dad said.

I grabbed Phil and pulled him aside.

“Want to help me pull a prank on everyone?” I asked.

I figured since we were the youngest, we needed to stick together. He was all for it.

◊◊◊

We bought a couple of big coolers, and I loaded one of them up with meat. I explained to Dad that I didn’t want to rely on his fishing skills to feed us. The real reason was I didn’t want to eat fish for seven straight days. The fish camp offered dinners, but there were full kitchens in the cottages. It was also almost $50 per head for them to cook for you. I had my doubts about the value of that. I was sure that we could fix better meals on our own.

While I worried about food, Greg and Uncle John had wandered off and found a liquor store. They bought several cases of beer.

We were soon back at the airport. The floatplane was a fun adventure. The pilot circled the huge lake and gave us a view of the camp which was located on a small island. They had one side covered in docks next to a large clubhouse, and on the other side of the island were the cottages. Uncle John had rented a three-bedroom.

Once we got to the cottage, we found it was nice and relatively new. It had a green metal roof and wood siding. Inside we found boxes with the Range Sports logo on the side. We let Phil open them and found rods, reels, and other fishing gear. Devin had also sent us clothes to wear on our trip.

Devin had included instructions about the types of fishing we would find and the different rods, lures, and line we would need for each. Greg helped Phil put line on each reel while I unloaded groceries.

The cabin backed up to the lake and had a back door that led onto a balcony overlooking the water. I was sharing a room with Phil. Dad and Uncle John were in one, and Greg was with Paul. I wasn’t sure what Paul was supposed to protect me from, but he walked outside and checked the cabin and the surrounding area.

We were all starved, so I made pasta and a salad. When we sat down to eat, Uncle John laid out the plans for the weekend.

“Last year, we talked about what it means to be an Alpha Male. Certain hormones are predictors for certain behaviors. That was why we had blood tests done.”

“Okay, that explains it,” Phil said.

“If you haven’t guessed, David scored fairly high. What I wanted to show him and everyone else was that the way he acts has a basis in science. It’s also why his parents have done certain things with him to help him develop leadership skills.

“David’s life has gotten more complicated since our last trip. This time, I want to work with him and with the rest of you on getting a handle on trust issues when working with different people. That includes ways to help identify people who you should or shouldn’t trust. I think you could agree that some people just want to get to know David for what he can do for them,” Uncle John explained.

“After dinner, go out and explore the island. We’ll all come back to the cabin and spend time tonight talking about what your uncle has to say,” Dad said.

Greg drew the short straw and had to clean up. While he did that, Dad and Uncle John took Phil to the dock to teach him how to use a spinning reel. I remembered the first time I used one, I ended up with a tangle of line that took me forever to get straightened out. Hopefully, Phil would have better luck. I told Paul I was staying at the cabin, so he tagged along with them.

“I expected you’d go too,” Greg said.