4. Time Stood Still
I was a camp counselor and out on a retreat (we camped a few days in the mountains away from the camp). We were all settled down a little before pitch black night time rolls in. Me, the other adult counselor, and 10 kids aged 10-ish are just kicking it when one of the kid goes wide eyed and silently points at something behind my back.
A deer has wandered up to us and is just standing there five feet away, just looking at us. It was freaking magical. I could hear her breathing and I made eye contact with her. Time stood still and we were all entranced. This was a camp about appreciating nature so all the kids were as impressed as if like Mickey Mouse and Batman had shown up.
We all stood in perfect silence for five seconds appreciating the rarity of the moment. Kids standing still with the firewood bundles in their arms, one kid halfway bent to the ground to pick up a bag of marshmallows, one kid kneeling still where he had been tying his shoes.
I hear one kid behind me sigh exasperatedly and jump to his feet and my blood beings to boil because I know who it is and I know he is going to ruin this, on purpose, because everyone is focused on something that isn’t him. He hits the deer in the head with a rock and everyone goes nuts yelling at him, which makes him HAPPY, he is grinning ear to ear and dancing and laughing like a mad man because their attention was all he wanted.
“It’s just a stupid deer it’s not like you’ve never seen a deer before besides no one was going to listen to my stories with a stupid deer around.”
I looked at the other counselor and we were both thinking the exact same thing.