Free Surviving the Fog by Stan Morris

over a cup of pens and pencils, he
got up.
    "Then, I'll see you in the morning," he
called as he practically ran out the door.  He made his way to
his old cabin and to his own bunk.
    The next morning, they began the task of
moving one of the cabins.  It was slow going.  First,
they discovered that they would have to unbolt the wood braces
connecting the corners.  Fortunately, the campground was new,
and the nuts and bolts had not yet corroded.  Then they
realized that it was difficult to remove the canvas cover without
damaging it.  Then they found that several kids were needed to
brace the walls while they were lowering them from vertical to
horizontal.
    Finally, they were ready to move the floor.
 But even with kids surrounding and lifting, the wooden floor
wouldn’t budge.  Depressed, they stood around arguing until
Ahmad discovered that the concrete piers beneath the floor had
metal straps that were bolted onto four by four wooden posts which
were then bolted onto the floor frame.  Ahmad crawled under
the floor, and he unbolted the posts from the frame.
  Then, with kids working shoulder to shoulder, they
lifted the heavy floor and moved it to one side, away from the
concrete piers.  By this time it was late afternoon, and Mike
called a halt to the work.
    The next day, they discovered how heavy the
concrete piers were.  Mike almost despaired at this point,
until one of the boys remembered that there was a steel dolly in
the shed.  Using the dolly, and with two people pulling and
one person pushing, they were able to move the concrete piers over
the bridge to the boys’ side.  Accomplishing this cheered them
considerably, and in the afternoon they moved the walls over to the
boy’s side of the river.  Once again, Mike called a halt to
the work.  He wanted to wait until morning to begin the
difficult task of moving the heavy floor over the bridge.
    Just after they called it quits for the day,
Mike had to deal with a new problem.  A girl approached him as
he was talking with John.  Her name was Erin, and she was a
beautiful blond and blue eyed girl who was very popular with both
the girls and the boys.  She was followed by three other
girls.
    "Mike, we want to talk to you," she began.
 Mike discovered that he was a little irritated that she had
not called him, “Chief.”
    "Yeah, what is it?" he asked brusquely.
    "We've noticed that you're only asking
certain people's advice when you have a decision to make.  Why
is that?  Why don't we vote on these things at Meeting?"
    "Because these certain people are people I
trust," Mike responded.  "That's why I ask them."
    "But that's not fair, Mike," Erin argued.
 "You have to let everyone vote."
    "No, I don't.  That's why I'm the Chief.
 See, there is a vote taken.  Only, I decide who gets to
vote.  People who have been helping out a lot get to vote.
 Not you."
    "So how do we get to vote?  How long
before we've helped out enough that we get a vote?  Do only
the boys get to vote?" the girl angrily asked.
    "Yeah, pretty much," Mike replied curtly.
 He was tired of this conversation.
    "Does Desi get to vote?" another girl
asked.
    "Yeah, so?" Mike replied.
    "She gets to vote because she's John's
girlfriend, doesn't she?" a third girl charged.
    "Yeah, so?" Mike repeated.
    "So is that what we have to do?" said Erin,
really angry now.  "We get to vote if we have sex with one of
the Spears?"
    "Yeah, that's right!" Mike snapped.
 "Now get lost!"
    The girls' mouths dropped open as they stared
at him in shocked silence.  Abruptly they turned and stormed
away. Mike was just realizing what he had said.  He turned to
John who was shaking his head sadly.  He blushed red, and then
yelped when John bopped him on the top of his head with a fist.
    "Not cool, dude. Not cool at all," John
said.
    “She started it,” Mike whined.  John
rolled his eyes.
    "Yeah, I know.  That was stupid," Mike
sighed while rubbing his head.
    "Yeah, there's going to be a lot of