#camp magic

So I worked at this one camp for a couple of years in the summer. In the off season and the school year before the third year I worked there, I happened to get a rough understanding of how tarot cards work, and how to do a basic reading.

Now, to fully understand this particular anecdote, you have to understand that I both did some genuine exploring of paganism and related traditions, and that I am a psychology major who knows exactly how easy it is to fuck with people. So the tarot cards aren’t something I’d make fun of, or discount, or disrespect, but as I personally don’t really connect to them or feel like I’m doing anything magical with them, I’m cool with using them for entertainment.

And at camp, there’s not a lot of stuff to do, and I was in a subset of the camp with less people and it was raining. There’s only really one building, so basically every staff member was hanging out in or around our conference room, where the computers and laptops were usually kept. I think there might have been a thunderstorm warning, so the internet was kind of a no go, so I got to talking with another staff member about paganism, and it turned out she also kinda liked tarot cards. I ran out to get my set (in the fucking rain too) and we started playing around with them.

Yo, that night was so fucking weird. Like, there’s a lot of wiggle room in interpretation when it comes to tarot cards. And if you know anything about anyone you can pretty much twist it that way. But holy shit, I did a couple for some friends who were really up for it, and every card you would want to come up, came up for them. A friend with a romantic decision had all the relevant cards come up. A woman with her husband in the hospital got all the ‘be strong, it’ll be fine’ cards.

Everybody knows that person who’s a born skeptic. Who wants to test it out himself and prove it wrong. Hell, I am that person sometimes. I had the delight of pulling cards for three of them, who ‘‘asked the deck’‘ a question they wouldn’t tell me. And they totally could have lied to me afterwards about what the question was, but the fucking cards showed them related answers, I swear. I specifically remember pulling like 8 cards out of twelve out of the suit of pentacles for this one guy, which is a suit that deals with success in mostly the financial/career arena. I asked him at least three times if it was about a goal, or about money, and he said no during the reading, so i thought the mojo was gone and I was going to end up a little humiliated. I felt bad, and annoyed, but whatever right? It’s basically chance. After, he told me what the question was: ‘‘Will I be financially independent’‘. Ha. HAHAHA. WTF.

“How long had it been…since you really felt happy? I mean seriously.”

They only just crossed paths once in a while during his school years, but for some reason the brunette couldn’t shake him from his mind. A golden haired, handsome, icy cold stare oh-I-wanna-get-me-some-of-that kind of guy. He was a popular kid. Maybe that’s what made him so desirable…so untouchable. The hopeless fool of an artist couldn’t even look at him that long without getting shoved into some lockers by his groupies.

It wasn’t that Usopp didn’t stand out. At least in his opinion, he stood out for the wrong reasons. He sighed, glancing around at the various bus stops at the terminal. Not exactly what the fresh out of school art teacher expected as his first gig but hey, who was he to complain coming from nothing? He read the paper:

Bus stop # 19283

Time: 3:00pm

Camp magic

Camp magic really, could they have been any more creative? Usopp groaned, wiping his face with his hand. “Maybe it’ll be fun. Oh yeah, tons of fun. Babysitting and finger painting with a bunch of rich kids who know nothing about art…”