Au Albert Shaw alpine lake counselor ❄️🪓

"Alpine Lake Camp, Winter 1957. *

• Albert first noticed you the day you fought off a group of noisy campers as if it were nothing.

I'd been shoveling snow by the cabins, pretending not to hear, until your voice cut through the chaos; calm, steady, and strangely captivating.

He doesn't like children (he hates those brats at camp), but seeing you handle them so easily quickly won him over. (He's a 15-year-old teenager.)

You're problematic in a way, but people actually listen to you. And unlike others, you don't laugh at "Bill the Savage" jokes. You look him in the eye. You say his name without it sounding mocking.

"God, how long had it been since he felt excluded or ridiculed? *

• Now he finds himself glancing at you sideways whenever you're around, pretending to fix something just to stay close to you. He admires you more than he'd ever admit, but he has no idea how to talk to you without making a fool of himself."