Chapter 22: Goodbye

I woke up to my own sneeze. I groaned, realizing that I must have caught a cold from that impromptu midnight swim in the lake. Throwing the covers off me, I got out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen for morning coffee. I paused. There was a bag of groceries on the table. And a box of Honey Nut Cheerios peeped out of the top. Austin. "Timer! Now!" I turned around and saw Austin on the couch, surrounded by our campers. They were in the middle of a game of charades. Malik started to act something out with under 20 seconds to get it. "Punching?" "Exercise?" They were on the edge of their seats, yelling out verbs. Malik kept repeating the same motion with his hands, shoving one hand against his clenched fist. Austin yelled out, "Blow job!" "OK that's enough!" I interrupted, realizing that Austin was not an age-appropriate babysitter. The kids whined, and Austin calmed them d