By: Jonathan Shan

For many summers, I have begged my parents to go camping with my best friend, Joseph, and their family, at a small camping resort near the Great Lakes in Canada. I was hoping we could camp there for about a week and spend our time fishing, admiring the night sky, breathing in the natural fresh air, and cooking food on top of a campfire. This year, my parents had finally agreed to take us camping next week since school would be over, and I was ecstatic. I couldn’t wait to tell Joseph at school tomorrow.

The following day I woke up earlier so I could catch up with Joseph, who got to school much earlier than everyone else, and because I wanted to share the incredible information with him. I ate my morning eggs and toast, packed my stuff, and walked to the car. My mom got into the driver’s seat, looking at my grinning face.

“What’s up with you, honey?” She asked.

“Nothing mom, I just want to tell Joseph that we can go camping next week!” I said excitedly.

“Ok, hon’, well, what do you want to do when we get there?” She asked, crossing the crossroad leading to my school.

“Maybe fish a little, set up a campfire, and chat?” I thought

“That could be nice.” She spoke. We spent the rest of the car ride brainstorming everything we needed and what we might do while camping.

She dropped me off at the main entrance, and I saw Joseph sitting on a worn-down metal bench, reading a book. I ran up to him, and he raised his head as he saw me coming.

“Joseph!” I called

“Yeah, Sam?” He responded

“Guess what?” I said, with a wide grin on my face

“What?” He said, confused

“We can go camping next week!” I exclaimed

“Really?”

“Yes!” We were both jumping up and down with excitement, as we had never gone camping.

The day had finally come. We packed our supplies, fishing rods, food, water, and lighters and headed to meet up with Joseph and their family. Joseph’s family had all their stuff packed and at their house, ready to head to the road together.

We had reached our destination before sundown, and everything looked nice. There was a beautiful shoreline with a long dock extending above the water. Next to the coastline was a wide clearing in a forest with a few other happy campers residing here already. Birds were chirping, and the view was astounding. High, green mountains on the horizon reached the skies, and the water reflected the fantastic colors of the sunset. Crickets and other insects were buzzing and beeping as stars I could never see in my neighborhood glowed in the sky.

We settled down to a semi-empty yet open space where it was close to the water and had a firepit. Our tent was not quite big enough for both families, but they also brought a tent, so we also had twice as much space!

“Hey Joseph, do you want to go evening fishing?” I called out while walking to get the fishing materials.

“Yeah, maybe we could cook them as well.” The thought of catching something out in the wild with my hands and eating it was fantastic. We had very little luck, although we did catch a small fish the size of my hand. We gutted and cooked the fish with my dad’s help, and it wasn’t that bad. We went to sleep to get ready for the following day. The bedding wasn’t that comfortable as I had just laid on a thin sheet of wool on top, but I still got some shuteye.

The following day, I woke up cold and did not want to wake up no matter how much Joseph bribed me. Eventually, I gave in and sat up, groggy. I wiped my eyes and brushed my teeth with the toothpaste I had brought. I met Joseph sitting on the dock, holding a fishing rod and intently looking at the line.

“Yo, any luck so far?” I sat next to him, watching the crabs scurrying away on the wooden poles holding up the dock.

“Nah, I thought I got one, but it was just a stick.” He said, disappointedly holding up a muddy wet stick.

“Well, I saw some crabs there, which looked pretty big. Wanna try catching them?” I suggested, pointing at the underside of the dock.

“Hmm, well, I’ve never tried crab before, so let’s try it then.”

“Alright, lemme get a basket,” I said. We hung a bit of meat from yesterday’s dinner in front of the crabs, hoping for one to grab it. A few crabs just stared while the biggest one scrambled to reach for it. It caught the bait, and we waited till it had both claws on it and munching it. We yanked when we thought it was time, and the crab popped right out of the water. It landed on the dock. It tried scrambling off the port, but I caught it with my bag.

“Lunch!” I exclaimed as Joseph yelled in excitement. Joseph’s dad came out to look at what was happening.

“What are you boys up to at nine in the morning?” He said.

“We just caught a gigantic crab,” I said, showing him the basket.

“We can boil it later and eat it; meanwhile, try and catch some more crabs, so we have more to eat,” he said.

We stayed until two in the afternoon, catching four more crabs. The sun was high in the sky, and it was hot, but we took turns holding each of us holding a big umbrella. We brought one more for lunch and saved the last three for dinner. We returned with our catch and set them down next to the fire pit. Joseph and I played on the beach as the parents talked.

We would be walking around the shoreline around eight. It took some convincing but eventually, we could go. We walked along the shoreline and lay on the sand chatting. I saw something wading in the water about 20 meters behind Joseph. It was dark, but some moonlight was shining through the clouds. I thought it was just a camper taking a late-night swim, but when I looked closer, I saw a pair of moose horns. That’s when I froze.

“Joseph, whatever you do, do not look behind you. And trust me, you don’t want to know what’s behind you.” I said quietly.

“Uh, is this a prank?” He whispered back. But when he saw my pale, frightened expression, he knew it wasn’t.

“Just keep talking like it’s not there, and don’t make sudden movements,” I said. I tried to bring up a topic on what we might do over the summer as I saw the thing, get out of the water. The moonlight barely illuminated the face and body enough to tell its features. It had a moose-like skull as a head with desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. It had long, gaunt limbs with its arms hanging right above the ground and was standing on two long, hairy legs. Hair was whipping in the direction of the wind and looked like a resurrected moose. It started slowly limping toward us, and I realized I hadn’t been talking for a while, and Joseph was looking at me, horrified. It got closer, and the whole forest was silent, as if holding its breath, as I was. I could hear a low hum coming from it.

Wait, no, the sound came from all directions. It stopped four meters behind Joseph, and I could swear it was talking to me. Like it wanted me to help it. Joseph had heard this too because his face turned into confusion. I looked at Joseph and signaled him to run. We broke into a sprint, and I could listen to sand munching behind us as it called out for us to wait in a shallow tone. We ran into our tents, sweating, and our parents worriedly asked us what was happening. Shaking, we spoke the only words that came to our lips.

“We saw the wendigo.”