King Duncan

I have a bit of catching up to do.  I have been on three major trips, all with major happenings to inform you all about.  None of these next three posts will involved things related to academia, sports, heffalumps, fabric softener or wooden sculptors of Holly Golightly.

I recently read "Breakfast at Tiffany's."  Truman Capote is brilliant and I am 99% sure that the thousands and thousands of American girls who paste Audrey Hepburn posters on their walls have no idea who Holly Golightly is and if they do I am sure I can say to them "'oh' with recognizable relief, 'oh' with a shameful, rising inflection, 'the movie.'"

Year ten camp was overshadowed by King Duncan.  I call him "King Duncan", because I am teaching Macbeth to my year ten students.  He is not a king and his name is not Duncan, but he is in turn one of my favorite students and is also one of my most challenging students.  He always carries with him a water bottle and a ketchup bottle (In Australian, a Tomato Sauce bottle.)  He is a very picky eater, and what he does eat he suffocates in ketchup.  He suffocated a large bowl of rice in ketchup.

Oh King Duncan, you shouldn't put ketchup on your pancakes...

King Duncan has autism, severe enough that he will say, whenever he is feeling hungry, "I am hungry."  This is a statement of fact, spoken without malice to the air, usually in those quiet empty spaces that hang after sentences.   For example,

Instructor at high ropes course: "Now students, I want to challenge you!  You're going to have to give this rope bridge your all, but I know you can do it if you follow the instructions I gave you and encourage each other... are there any questions?"

King Duncan: "I am hungry."

King Duncan did not participate in the rope bridge. He did however give the rock wall a go, as well as the laser skirmish.  King Duncan however, stole the show on the Flying Fox.  The Flying Fox is a zip line that runs across the lake.  It lasts about fifteen seconds and is a great confidence building activity.  Once the individual decides to jump off the launching platform, they are finishing the activity.  They can scream and flail and crap their pants and yell all sorts of gibberish while throwing any bit of clothing they can tear off of their bodies into the lake, but they will finish the Flying Fox.

King Duncan did none of these things.

Wearing a horizontally stripped shirt and black/blue with white strip/swirl swimming trunks, King Duncan and his ever present water bottle skirted across the lake looking like a content sloth.  Not a care in the world and the hint of his rare smirk/grin on his face.

I had the best view, that of the spotter.  At the end of the line, there are two spotters who work together to slow down the incoming Fox.  It was myself and a very mild-mannered student named Thomas.  When I realized it was King Duncan (who by the way is a husky sort of boy) coming across the lake, I suggested we back up the receiving platform a bit, to give him more time to slow down.  We did.  When he was getting close to us I suggested we just hold our arms with our bodies a bit back from him.  I did.

Thomas however, the quiet but gung-ho type, steps right in front of King Duncan (who, as I said, easily weighs as much as Thomas and then another 1/3) and takes him smack full on.

I was stunned.  King Duncan went floating back towards the lake.  As he spun around towards the platform he saw Thomas on the ground and asked, "Why are you laying down?"
Thomas was fine and King Duncan was retrieved, and I was given the image that will be in my brain even as  dementia eats me up.

So, the rest of camp was fine and altogether uneventful.  Other interesting and good things happened, but nothing that you would be interested in (I'm speaking to the person from Estonia reading this.)

My next two posts will be here probably tomorrow.  I just received an email reminding me that I am a "Big Buddy" for a superhero camp starting this Friday afternoon.  Things are unraveling faster.  Boy.

Cheers,
Melmoth

P.S. I am happy to report that for whatever reason the American dollar is currently 2 pennies stronger than the AUS Dollar.  This is great for me.  Keep up the hard work guys!