MITE Epilogue: Gratitude
Old Man Jack's Fishing Camp
The Next Day
10:00 AM
After 2 nervy days of waiting, the large sign with the new children's camp name emblazoned on it finally arrived at the old fishing. Ricky had obviously seen the finished product for himself, but he was the only one who had so far.
As such, he had spent part of the morning attempting to wrap a large, long blue tarpaulin around the seemingly humongous outdoor sign, and once he finally succeeded in doing so, he wrapped an equally sizeable red gift ribbon around that.
Ricky was dressed in a plain red t-shirt, a pair of khaki board shorts, and a pair of gray steel-toed work boots. He sighed deeply as he finished doing what he was doing, after which point, he turned to see Dawn coming outside. She was dressed in a white cotton tank top, jeans, and her white running shoes.
"Hey," Dawn said as she put an arm around her brother and ushered him into an impromptu side hug, "You get this big, old sign all set?"
Ricky nodded. "As all set as it's going to be," he replied.
Dawn then briefly turned to look at the cabin behind them. "This place really looks great," she said with a smile and a noticeable bit of pride in her voice.
Ricky rested his head on his sister's shoulder in retort. "Yeah," he said, "Everybody did an awesome job helping us out. There's no way we could've pulled this all together by ourselves."
Dawn grinned. "Well," she replied, "I could have."
Ricky lifted his head back up and giggled before playfully punching Dawn in the shoulder. "Shut up," he said before they both broke out laughing.
The sound of an approaching vehicle aroused the siblings' attention. They looked out to see a large yellow school bus coming up the driveway. The hiss of an air brake was soon heard as the far-reaching conveyance came to a stop and the foldout door came open.
A very diverse group of 12 children, ranging in age from 8-13 years old, all disembarked from the bus. Two male and female adults, who were obviously chaperones, came out at the end of the line.
The man was a tall, white gentleman appearing to be in his early to mid-20's with short brown hair and a pair of dark-rimmed glasses who was clad in a dark green t-shirt bearing the name and logo of Collier County/Everglades Unified Youth Camp as well as a pair of beige shorts and a pair of what looked to be very well-worn black Converse sneakers. He also wore a stick-on name card which identified him as: "Randall".
Meanwhile, Randall's older counterpart was a much shorter dark-haired Hispanic woman who looked to be in her mid to late 40's. She wore a dark green t-shirt that matched Randall's and her look was rounded out by a faded pair of blue jeans and a pair of light brown hiking boots. Her stick-on name card identified her as: "Marisol".
After politely ordering their young charges to line up neatly in front of the covered sign, the pair of adults walked up to the Harper siblings, at which point Randall extended a hand to Ricky. "Mister Harper, I presume?" he inquired.
Ricky kindly reciprocated the gesture by giving the man a firm handshake. "Yes, sir" he replied, "Ricky Harper. I'm the owner of the property."
Randall nodded. "I'm Randall Feinstein," he explained, "I'm the head counselor for the Collier County and Everglades Unified Youth Camp." He then gestured to his colleague, Marisol. "This is Marisol," he continued, "She's one of our longtime counselors."
Marisol then extended her hand to Ricky. "Marisol Velasquez," she said with a very heavy Cuban-sounding accent, "It's very nice to meet you, Mister Ricky."
Ricky chuckled at the woman's somewhat overly solicitous flourish on his name. "Nice to meet you as well, Marisol" he replied as he returned her handshake, "And you can call me 'Ricky'. The 'Mister' really isn't necessary." He then motioned to his sister with his eyes. "This is my sister, Dawn" he continued.
"Hello," a smiling Dawn said to both as she shook their hands, "I've just been along for the ride to help my brother."
Randall smiled at that. "I see," he replied, "It's so nice to meet you, Dawn."
"Likewise," Dawn said.
The two counselors then turned back to the children. "Alright, our awesome young friends" Randall said in an equally sweet and take-charge kind of tone as he gestured to Ricky, "Ricky here is going to show us the new sign for your new summer camp."
Ricky swallowed a small amount of nervousness and cleared his throat before walking over to the still tarp-covered sign. It was then that he looked up and noticed that Timmy and Rachel Thundercloud had also arrived and were watching as well.
"Is everybody ready?" Ricky shouted.
"YEAH!" All 12 kids seemed to shout back in unison.
Ricky then grabbed the back of the tarp. "Okay," he continued, "One...Two...Three!"
The now very enthused property owner then pulled back the large, draped tarpaulin with all his might. A large stone sign was then revealed with the name "CAMP SOARING THUNDER" in large, bolded metal lettering.
The adults erupted with applause while the young kids all hooted and began playfully dancing around and hugging one another in celebration. The Thundercloud twins, meanwhile, each wiped happy tears from their eyes, touched by Ricky's gesture.
Seeing this, Ricky then gestured in the direction of Timmy and Rachel. "I'd now like to recognize the two wonderful people who very much inspired this new name," he said, "Everybody please give a round of applause to our friends, Timmy and Rachel Thundercloud!"
The dozen children and their two adult counselors did as Ricky suggested, giving the Thundercloud twins a very well intermingled round of applause as Timmy and Rachel made their way toward where Ricky and Dawn were standing.
Once they reached the end of the crowd, Rachel hugged Ricky very warmly for an extended beat before kissing his forehead. Timmy echoed his sister's affectionate sentiment by hugging Dawn and kissing her cheek.
"Thank you, guys, so much," Rachel quietly said to Ricky as she wiped away her tears.
Timmy nodded in agreement. "Yeah guys," he said, "Our dad would be so proud if he were here."
Dawn took in the twins' sweet-natured words for a second. "How is he doing?" she inquired.
"Really good," Rachel replied, "He's starting to take a lot more steps without the walker and without needing a whole lot of extra help from us or Grandpa."
"That's great," Ricky said, "We're so glad he made it through his accident."
Timmy nodded once again before clearing his throat and changing the subject. "So," he said, "'Camp Soaring Thunder', huh? How'd you come up with that?"
"Well," Ricky replied, "Dawn and I jotted down a bunch of potential names since we've been here. 'Camp Soaring Thunder' made the most sense."
"'Soaring' because we're trying to help the kids move up and consider their futures," Dawn added, "And Thunder because of you guys. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we wouldn't still be here if it weren't for you two."
Timmy kissed Dawn passionately on the lips. "I feel like I have to ask," he said, "Does this mean that you guys are sticking around here for a while?"
Ricky then put his arm around Rachel, at which point she kissed him on the forehead. "I called the University of Pennsylvania in Philly this morning," Ricky explained, "I told them I wanted to take a 'gap year' off to explore some other feasible options. So, yes, I'm definitely planning to stick around here for a while."
He then gave a look to his sister. "What about you, Dawn?" Ricky asked.
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
1 Month Later
Dawn Harper exited the College of Arts and Sciences building just after finishing one of her afternoon classes.
She was dressed in a black pullover hooded sweatshirt emblazoned with the university's name and associated logo on the front, a pair of black and white-striped Adidas wind pants, and a new pair of white Adidas running shoes. She also carried a brand new Jansport backpack on her back.
Dawn quietly maneuvered herself through what seemed like a huge sea of other young collegians before coming to a dead stop upon seeing a very familiar face just behind the crowd.
Timmy Thundercloud was standing there, dressed in a black leather jacket with a plain white cotton t-shirt underneath, beige khaki pants, and black combat boots. He smiled warmly at his paramour, at which point Dawn's gaze met his. She gave him an even bigger smile in return.
[Final Author's Note: That's it with this one, folks! I hope you all enjoyed this kind of story from me. Like I said in my beginning author's note, doing this style of story was somewhat of a departure from my usual crime and mystery-centered stories that I guess I've become kind of known for by now, so I hope you guys found it enjoyable. I'm going to take my customary breather for a bit, but you know I'll be back on here before you know it, so Stay Tuned y'all, and thanks for everybody's support up to this point! Peace!]