Swimming With The Rain

Writing Prompt - Your character is trending on social media for an awful reason...
ONLY THE PHOTO IS AI ❤️

Penny stood underneath the log cabin awning with a cup of dark coffee watching the morning dew settle on the grass. Early morning was her favorite time to look around the Women’s Summer Camp she had started a little over 6 months ago. The melody of the bird’s chatter and the giant redwoods protecting her property gave her time to organize the day in her mind and remind her how thankful she was for this experience.

In the distance, she saw two early morning campers leaving their cabins in search of caffeine in the main hall. Heads down, hands tucked in to the front of their sweatshirt, she smiled knowing that is how she approached her morning before coffee. “No need to bother them, let them experience the morning the way they needed to”, she thought to herself.

Jessica opened the main hall’s door from behind Penny and quickly put her phone away when she saw the morning camper’s. Phones were discouraged on the property, even by staff members. When campers checked in on Thursday, they were required to turn their phones in, and staff members were only allowed to use them within their sleeping quarters. Penny looked over at Jessica and smiled, then they greeted the morning campers with a soft “Good morning”, so as not to disturb un-caffeinated minds.

Once the strong oak doors had closed, Jessica pulled her phone out of her back pocket, handed to Penny and said, “What the hell?” Penny produced a motherly sigh, knowing that the calmness she had been experiencing would now change to work mode. Taking Jessica’s phone, she pressed play on the video and her eyes went wide with surprise, then narrowed with a bit of anger, raised her right eyebrow and a slight grin began to appear.

On the screen appeared the airbrushed 23-year-old that had been a camper last week. While most women appeared for breakfast in casual comfy clothes, Brittany walked in with her makeup perfectly contoured, and long ringlets in her hair that God did not give her.

“Hi! I’m Brittany and all of my followers know that I love trying new adventures and sharing with you, my loyal followers. As you know, I went to a women’s summer camp last week because an adventure out in the trees sounded like it would be a great time. But, guess what. They don’t allow cell phones. Like, how am I supposed to share this place and encourage my followers to check out this new business if I can’t video while I’m there? Not to mention my dogs. I missed being able to look at my house cameras and see how they were doing. And I know that they were sad that they didn’t get to hear my voice for four days. Like, this is a different world and I am not here for it. If they can’t value who I am as a professional content creator, then I cannot support them. It was just an awful way to treat people, and I wanted everyone to know. But, the rest of you, have a sunshine type of day!”

Penny glanced at the total count of 630k reactions, with 5k comments and handed the phone back to Jessica. Staring out across the field, she watched three other campers appear from the cabin trail headed towards them. There was something special about watching these women huddled together, talking and making eye contact.

This is exactly what Penny had in mind when she started dreaming about her business plan, women connecting face to face. She tries her hardest to keep people from creating Facebook groups prior to their trip, but she knew that she could only do so much. Her goal was for women to meet organically, not search others out prior, meeting them with a preconceived notion about their lives, social status, education, etc. There was something magical about watching the New York penthouse woman and the Alabama stay at home mom bonding over the latest episode of Gray’s Anatomy.

Jessica wasn’t one to stand still too long and felt a bit energized with a “screw them” attitude. Being 5 foot tall, Jessica was one of the most caring people Penny had ever known but knew that Jessica came with years of being let down and still reverted to defense mode when she felt that the things she loved were being threatened. Finally, she spoke up in a low voice, “Come on, boss. What are we going to do? Do you want me to comment and tell her to go to hell, or that she’s now on the banned list?”

As the three campers took steps leading up to where Penny and Jessica stood, she noticed the ease with which they moved, something that hadn’t been there two days before when they arrived. Penny was still smiling from the thought bouncing around in her mind and knew what needed to be done. As if in unison, Penny and Jessica greeted them with a cheery, “Good morning, ladies!” After months of doing this morning greeting, they could tell the ones that accepted cheeriness before coffee, and those that needed a nod or a good morning whisper.

“Good morning!”

“Oh, I love seeing this view in the morning! I bet it never gets old.”

“These two are making me laugh before coffee. Isn’t that an unwritten rule?’

Jessica grabbed the door handle to open and while laughing said, “Oh, Penny and I don’t have any form of conversation until we see each other here on this porch in the morning. That’s our signal that it’s safe to talk.”

Penny looking into her almost empty cup, laughed at the accuracy and said, “Okay, Miss three shots of espresso over ice with creamer. I need more, too.”

Breakfast was the only meal that wasn’t a scheduled event on the daily activities. It was more coffee and tea available at 5am with a basket of bagels, muffins, and fruit. By 7am, the kitchen comes to life with the sound of eggs and bacon sizzling in cast iron, and the smell of homemade biscuits coming from the oven. Penny noticed the first two morning arrivals sitting in the chairs near the stone fireplace. One was staring peacefully into the fire, while the other was reading a book borrowed from the camp’s library, and headed over with her grandmother’s coffee carafe, and asked if they’d like more.

Maggie held her cup up while staring at the dancing flames remarking how she could get used to this. Julia put her bookmark between the pages and admitted how she hadn’t had any time to read lately and she was determined to finish the book while here. Penny knew that the decision she was going to make was based on exactly these reasons.

“Jessica, let’s go check out the garden.” Jessica knew that meant Penny needed to walk and talk things out, while having the plants as a distraction. With fresh coffee in hand, they walked through the kitchen quickly, offering up good mornings and toasting with their coffee cups to those in mid-conversation. Finally surrounded by tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn, and watermelon, Jessica stopped and looked at Penny. “Well? What do you want to do?”

Penny was afraid of the answer to her question, but she asked it anyways. “What were the comments like?”

Jessica in a hurry to finally talk about this and get her frustration out, started talking at lightning speed. “I’d say three quarters of her little followers were mimicking her and agreeing that it’s just awful. Saying how we don’t understand their lifestyle and how they make money, and we’re sabotaging them by not allowing them to share things in the moment. That we’re just sooooo awful for doing that to her and they hope we shut down. They want us cancelled.”

Squatting down looking at a watermelon wondering if it was ripe enough, Penny didn’t bother looking up at Jessica, just asked, “And the other fourth?” Penny rose from the watermelons and kept nodding slightly as she walked over to the garden shed to grab a metal bucket for ripe tomatoes, listening to Jessica’s excitement.

“Oh, they’re all about the technology free camp! There were several that had been here before commenting that they loved being without their phone and they were just able to relax and enjoy their time. They also pointed out that we have a photographer that captures in the moment photos. One lady even admitted to it being a bit nerve wracking when she had to give up her phone, but by dinner time, she was having so much fun that she was glad her phone wasn’t interrupting it.”

Stopping next to the sunflowers that were reaching towards the morning sun, Penny looked Jessica right in the eyes. “Invite them. The ones that say that they love this idea. Find the 10 with the most followers and find 10 everyday people. We have a week coming up that we weren’t scheduling, but I think we have a good reason to put one together. We’ll cover the costs and write it off as promotion.” Jessica’s mouth dropped and for once, she was speechless. She knew the money that it took to run the place and losing out on the amount for the week was not a small thing to balk at.

Penny also was aware of the risk she was about to take, but she also knew that the reward for this awful review could turn out to be the best kind of marketing. Penny winked at Jessica, said “Trust me. There is always a method to my madness” and started walking back towards the kitchen. “I’m going to have Meg check to see if some of the corn and watermelons are ready. Those will be so good with our picnic barbecue dinner tonight.”

“Hey, y’all! This is Tina with Travel with Tina! I’m so excited! I just received a message from Camp Self inviting me for a weekend! I didn’t think they sent out invitations, but I am here for it and so excited! Follow me while I prepare for my weekend get away and let’s pack some outfits!”

Hello, my gorgeous daughter. Your mother was just invited to Camp Self for a weekend. Ever heard of it?

How in the world were you invited? I just heard about it the other day from one of the influencers I follow. She said it’s awful because they don’t allow cell phones!

I saw that video! I commented and said that it sounds perfect for me!

Oh my god, mom! Really?!? What if I text you and you don’t answer?

You’re a big girl. Text your father!

Ugh!

“Hi, everyone. You know I am all about self-care and the importance of grounding ourselves and staying away from toxicity. I’m going to hand my phone over for the weekend and ready to spend it with 19 other women soaking up time in the sun and have meaningful conversations. Can’t wait to share some new memories when I’m back. As always, sending love from Amanda.”

Dear HR,
I am requesting PTO for the first Thursday and Friday in June. I have been invited to attend Camp Self for a weekend, and I think it could be a good piece for the show. If so, I would like those PTO hours removed and used as working hours.
Sincerely,
Tabitha

Part 2

Penny was sitting in her upstairs office looking at the upcoming schedule. Her office was in the main log cabin and from her view, she could look to one side and see the majority of the campground sprawled out with tress, flowers, benches to sit on, and the small woman made lake. From behind her, she could see the horse stables and the cattle that grazed the land. With just a few steps in front of her, she could look over the balcony window and see the comings and goings of those sitting in the dining area or browsing their souvenir store.

As she was making her notes from the previous weekend about their campers, what worked and what didn’t, any maintenance issues that needed to be dealt with, Jessica came running in, stopped abruptly, trying to catch her breath. Penny looked up with amusement in her eyes wondering what was so important, knowing that with Jessica, it could be anything from the rabbits that had babies, she found her new favorite song, or she was right about which celebrities were actually dating. However, Penny wasn’t ready for what she heard next.

Jessica put a video in front of Penny and said, “You were right!”

“Hey, y’all! This is Tina from Travel with Tina. I just got back from the most relaxing weekend I have probably ever had. All those clothes we packed, didn’t really need. It just felt so good to wake up, brush my teeth and hair, then walk over to breakfast not caring that my hair was in a ponytail and that I only had moisturizer on my face. Do you know who else didn’t care? The 19 other women! Pictures from the camp photographer are being loaded today and then I’ll share and tell you all about this fab weekend that you have to do! Grab your girls and go!”

She pressed play on the next video, of a teenage girl sitting on her bed with the light ring shining perfectly on her young face.

“So, my mom was invited to Camp Self, we think because she commented on a video by Brittany Brightens Your Life. Brittany said that the camp was awful because they wouldn’t allow phones and my mom said it sounded like her kind of place. Next thing you know, she gets a facebook message inviting her for a weekend. Dude! My mom was there with a bunch of famous content creators, and other women from around the country. I didn’t like not being able to text her, but do you know what I learned to do on my own while she was gone? How to make spaghetti! Okay, so it was jarred spaghetti sauce, but I did it! And then my dad and I sat up playing all these weird board games that I haven’t played since I was like seven. So, it was a great weekend for me and dad to bond. Mom, what did you think?” (Mom jumps in to view) “Ahhhhhmaaaaazinggggg!” (back to daughter laughing) “You’re so weird, mom.”

A mixture of pride, satisfaction, and amazement flashed over both of their faces. They never set out to go viral; the goal was to have the Women’s Camp as a “if you know, you know” type of style. But here they were watching the results of being deemed awful because they understood the meaning of being in the moment and just being yourself.

Jessica pressed play on another video.

“Hi, it’s Amanda. I just got back from Camp Self and I want to tell you that you need to experience this if you need some self-care in your life, which we all do. It’s freeing to hand your phone over, not awful. Do you know what self-care is? Being with others, sharing our stories, realizing that we are not alone in this thing called life. If you feel like doing yoga first thing in the morning, you can. If you feel like sitting on a porch with a cup of hot tea reading a book, you can. If you feel like attempting to win a 3-legged race, you can. Find your self-care. And if you need help finding it, go stay with these new friends of mine at Camp Self”.

Penny had tears in her eyes. She took a chance with this special invitation, and while she liked to play the occasional slot machine, she preferred to play the dollar slots, not the high roller ones. Maybe she did need some of these viral moments, not only to prove to the world that they can survive life without their phones for a few days, but to prove to herself that she was doing the right thing with this endeavor. She looked up at Jessica as they both beamed with this moment of excitement, but Jessica wasn’t finished.

“With your permission, Tabitha would like to come back in a couple weeks to stay one night and talk with us and any other campers that are willing.”

Pulling her head back, Penny’s eyebrows furrowed and she asked Jessica why. Jennica pressed play on the next video.

“Good morning, world. My name is Tabitha MacFarlane and I am a new journalist for CBS Sunday News This Morning. Some of you may have seen a video calling Camp Self awful because they do not allow phones. Now, I’m not calling any names out because that is not the right thing to do. I admit, I was intrigued when I saw the video and even commented that I could use a break from all the crazy hustle and bustle in my industry. I didn’t think much of it and moved on with my day, on my phone. Then I found out that I, along with several other women received personal invitations to spend a weekend at Camp Self to see what they were all about. This is exactly the weekend that I needed. The level of care that was taken by the staff to make everyone feel included, was enough to make even the shyest of campers speak up and introduce themselves. Camp Self doesn’t want to be the largest camp out there; they want to be the one you need when you need to reconnect with others and yourself. So, I say to those of you that want to call this place awful, do you truly know yourself and your likes and dislikes, or do you only know the self you allow to be seen on camera?”

Penny rose from her seat to walk over to the window where the wildflowers danced in the breeze. She could hear laughter down below as the staff members were gathering for the upcoming meeting to review notes from the weekend. To her left, she could see the mare and her foal running around in the grass. The smell of the forest seeped in through the open windows filling Penny’s heart with warmth and reassurance. As she gathered her notebook and pen, she glanced at Jessica and her childlike excitement that couldn’t be contained radiated off, waiting for an answer. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Jessica started a reply on her phone to Tabitha, while Penny started down the wooden staircase smiling with pride for the women in front of her. “Okay, my people. What have you got for me?”