Matt The Ninja

This story is about my friend Matt Morrell. He was one of my best friends growing up. He was one of those people that you just liked because he was always up for anything. We used to play Dungeons & Dragons at his house and he was usually the dungeon master. OK, now that you know I was partially a geek in high school...

Matt always liked to hear about camp but he didn't go with us when my brother and I left at the beginning of the summer. Partially because he couldn't afford it and because his parents weren't interested in him leaving home for that long. One summer, however, my Dad figured out a way to work a deal so he could go for 2 weeks and if he liked it and his parents were ok with it, he could stay the rest of the session. I am not sure how he did this, but who cares, Matt went to camp. We got in to the same tent, tent 2 to be exact. We had a great time. This particular story is about one of those times that I look back on and just smile.

See, Matt was taking karate classes, and we used to wrestle and fight and pretend that we were ninjas. We used to sleep outside in a tent in my back yard sometimes. In the middle of the night, we would get up, put on all dark clothing and sneak around my neighborhood. We would do things like turn people's lawn furniture upside down or move potted plants in to the middle of the street... just stupid mischief.

This translated well to camp. When Matt came to camp, we used to sneak out every night. In fact, we were always tired at breakfast and our counselor, Josh, used to ask us why were so tired. We would laugh and quietly joke how we never got caught. One night, someone else in our tent woke up while we were getting ready to sneak out and he said, "man, am I hungry." Matt, in his ever adventurous attitude said "let's raid the dining hall." Other members of our tent started to wake up and luckily, our counselor was out on a late night himself. No one else was brave enough to go but they were bold enough to dare Matt. So, Matt the Ninja, standing by his idea, started to make his way to the dining hall.

Our tent was close enough to the dining hall that we could see all the way up the moon-lit dirt road to the front door. Matt made his way through the shadows silently and across the front of the camp store, and in to the dark loading dock area of the dining hall. While he was in the dining hall completing his raid, two people came by and sat on the wooden swing that was in the shadow of some trees just off to the left of our tent. We couldn't see who it was, but feared for the worst. A few tense minutes later, Matt reappeared and moved effortlessly back in to the shadows. He emerged from the tree-line only 15 feet away from our tent with so many snacks, cupcakes, chocolate milks and cookies that both of his arms were full. He looked left, then right, then moved toward our tent.

When he was only steps from the tent-flap a single beam of light flashed on to Matt from the swing area where, my Dad (senior unit director) and his assistant were patiently sitting waiting for Matt to pass. The words "Mr. Morrell, what is that you have in your hands, hmmm?" We all started laughing because the Ninja had been caught in the act! Now, those of you who know my Dad must know that this event did not go unpunished. Matt had to clean up the dining hall and return all of the things he took right at that moment. Also, because I didn't stop Matt from stealing the yummy little items, I was also randomly punished and forced to help Matt clean the dining hall. My Dad has a sense of humor like that...

Even though Matt got caught doing that it was totally worth it to him. He was a brave guy and I never remember him being afraid of anything. A couple of years ago, he died in a car accident. I think about him all the time and wish that I could talk to him about that night. Still, it just makes me smile to remember him sneaking around, pretending he was a ninja.