Pipestone Bible Camp

After lights out on the first night of my last year at Pipestone Lake Bible Camp, I stared up at the bunk mattress above me, listening to the crickets outside and the whispered giggles of my girlfriends in the cabin. I felt a little silly still going to my childhood bible camp at the age of 18, but at the same time it was so hard to let go. I didn't feel ready to be out in the world, yet, and college was only a few weeks away. Pam, the camp counselor reminded us again that there was no talking after lights out, and the giggling eventually died out. This year was our wistful goodbye to the camp of our childhood and our excitement, fueled by years of fun memories and many joyful summers, made it difficult to sleep. We were good girls at heart, though, and did our best to comply. The snickers were gradually replaced by heavy sleepy breathing and the occasional soft snore. My mind drifted on the night, almost asleep, when a slight squeak and a click quickly brought me back. Counselor Pam had left our cabin through the back door. Curious, and no longer sleepy, I followed her out of the cabin, through the woods, to the chapel where we attended church services twice every day.

From the light outside the pole-barn style chapel, I saw that Dan, one of the boys' counselors, was waiting for her there. I wondered if they were planning some kind of camp event together, but then my face warmed because it soon became obvious that they were flirting with each other. As they talked, Dan leaned down and kissed Pam's upturned lips. His arms went around her and their kissing turned into wet kissing. I could see their tongues touching and going into each other's mouths. Dan's hand moved up to Pam's breast and squeezed it and I squirmed and looked away, uncomfortable. This was something I shouldn't allow myself to see. It might lead me into temptation, or make me think that things that were wrong were somehow acceptable. I couldn't let my eyes lead me into sin. I decided to leave, but what I saw next shocked me into stillness: Pam suddenly went to her knees and unzipped Dan's shorts. Kissing was one thing, and at bible camp, even that one thing wasn't good, but this was something else entirely. Dan's penis popped out of his shorts and hit her on the cheek, making me gasp and flinch. I couldn't believe she actually let it touch her face like that, and she didn't even wipe her cheek. She just smiled up at him and took it in both her hands, rubbing it up and down.

Dan bent his knees a little, pushing his hips forward and leaning against the chapel wall, and staring at Pam's face like he couldn't believe she was real. His penis got even bigger as she rubbed it again and again. Dan's hips were swaying along with her motions, moving like he was a puppet on a string. He put his fingers into her hair and then I gasped, because then he took his penis and rubbed it around her wet lips and pushed the thick tip inside her mouth. Pam opened her mouth wide and sucked on it, moving it in even deeper. Dan's eyes closed and he leaned his head back, resting it on the wall, a low groan coming out of his mouth.

I stayed crouched in the woods nearby watching, terrified I'd be caught out of bed, but also shocked, embarrassed, and to my horror, aroused. Though we were eighteen, the campers weren't even allowed to be alone anywhere together, much less kiss, and here our pious camp counselors were doing... this. This was exactly what they told us we should never do, touching each other and doing sexual things outside of a holy marriage. They said it was especially shameful for the girls because it would cheapen us, ruining our hearts for the one man God had chosen for us to marry. That was what they said, but I knew Pam and Dan weren't married. They weren't even that much older than I was, and yet there they were.

Pam leaned up and held onto Dan's hips, and the wet noises he made going in and out of her mouth got faster. Dan put his other hand in her hair, too, and began pumping his hips against her face. Pam sounded like she was almost choking as he did it, a "gluk, gluk, gluk, gluk, gluk" noise coming out of her, adding to the slurping sounds filling the night. Dan's breath quickened, turning into breathy grunts increasing in pitch, until he hissed and he made a sound like a dying bird through his clenched teeth. His hips were shaking and twitching and then my breath stopped, seeing that he had pulled Pam's face all the way to his hips in his clenched hands.

Startled out of my trance, I turned to run back to the cabin, but smacked into someone who had also been watching them, standing just behind me. I almost screamed in surprise, but he put his hand over my mouth, his other arm steadying me so that I didn't fall. I recognized him as one of the boys from the camp. He stood barefoot in his pajamas like me, tall and skinny, his dark hair longer than the country boys wore theirs, styled in a way that looked almost like Elvis. I didn't know his name. I guessed he had trouble sleeping, too. He put a finger to his lips, and his eyes were kind, pleading for my silence. I swallowed and nodded, and he dropped his hand from my mouth. We stood breathless, staring at each other in awkward silence, strangers bound in a pact of secrecy. Wordlessly, we parted, racing back to our cabins before our counselors could get back and lock us out upon returning from their chapel meeting.

The next morning, Pam woke us for breakfast and morning chapel. Twelve girls crowded into the bathroom, negotiating the use of 2 power outlets between us, as we did our hair and makeup. I snuck looks at Pam while using my corner of the mirror. She looked bright-eyed and happy, as usual.

As I waited for breakfast with my girlfriends, holding my tray, I noticed the tall boy from last night joining the line with a friend. Everything about him seemed elongated and gangly, like an adolescent giraffe. He smiled and laughed easily with his friend, who then nudged him and nodded toward me, obviously drawing his attention to the girl who was staring at him. I immediately blushed and looked at the floor, returning my attention to the line.

I and most of the girls from my cabin sat down at a table together, some of the boys mixing in, taking advantage of the precious few moments we were allowed to mix with the other sex. The tall boy and his friend sat down at the empty space on the other side of the table from me. I looked down at my tray, certain I wouldn't be able to swallow a bite. "Oh my gosh, Melanie! You're absolutely covered with mosquito bites! You must taste good!" Lisa said, laughing shrilly as she pulled my arm out over the table, drawing everyone's attention to the red spots all over my arms, neck and face.

"Oh, that's nothing," announced the tall boy's friend, "My boy Kurt, here's, got it even worse," he said, pulling Kurt's arm out and comparing his bites with mine. Our arms brushed and I glanced up at him, surprised to see that he was blushing, too. Neither of us had noticed the mosquitoes eating us alive last night. "Kurt's a city boy, though. Nice thin skin for our country skeeters. I'm Paul Peterson, this is my cousin Kurt Wyman. Where are you lovely ladies from?" he asked, prompting my girlfriends to giggle, flirt and talk about our rural Minnesota town, as Kurt and I pulled our arms back, furtively looking at each other.

After breakfast, we all walked to chapel together, Kurt slowing his long legs to keep pace near me, and Paul talking up all the girls about which extracurricular activities we would be choosing. "What are you signing up for, Melanie?" Kurt asked quietly, holding open the door to the chapel for the group.

"Um... music and archery probably. I mostly just wait for the swimming," I said with a smile, forcing myself to look up at his face for more than two seconds.

"Me too," he said, our arms brushing again as we entered the chapel.

Paul shepherded Kurt and I into the same pew, as he kept chatting up the others. I could feel my girlfriends' curious and scandalized looks when Kurt and I sat down together, hating how self-conscious it made me feel. We sat next to each other through the service, the Pastor teaching us about our responsibilities to seek righteousness and avoid even the appearance of sin. Those who truly loved God, would surely delight in pleasing Him, and not in the things of this world. We were saved by God's grace and forgiveness, but apparently, we weren't supposed to need those things after being saved, I thought. I felt Kurt's hand brush mine, and my eyes flicked up to his, wondering if he was trying to hold my hand, but he wasn't. He was watching the Pastor, as straight faced as a monk. Embarrassed at my thoughts, I turned my attention back to the sermon, but then Kurt's hand actually took mine and, holding it low, pointed my finger at something. I looked in the direction it pointed and saw Dan staring at Pam who was moving a sucker around her wet lips absentmindedly, then sucking it into her mouth. I gasped silently and then I felt Kurt's body jiggling next to me, laughing at my surprise. Our hands stayed close, touching but not holding, for the rest of the chapel service.

After chapel, Pam led our cabin in a morning devotional lesson on what we could do to remain pure in a sinful world. It was the standard list of things that good girls didn't do, but some of the finer points got a bit contentious. Could good girls wear makeup? At what age did good girls go on dates? Was it sinful if our nipple bumps showed through our shirts, or did we have to use padded cups on bras to be pure? One girl said that her mother even put bandaids over her nipples when they went to church, just to be sure there were no accidents, so invisible nipples were apparently very important to purity. Panty lines were also a problem because they might tempt the boys to think too much about impure things, so it was important to wear modest underwear that covered the entire bottom. "What are you thinking about, Melanie?" Pam asked, looking at me and smiling with the lips that were wrapped around Dan's penis last night.

"I guess I was just wondering if the boys were getting advice on what kind of underwear they needed to be pure..." I said. Pam smiled dazzlingly and my girlfriends laughed. We all knew they weren't getting any such advice, because if for nothing else in life, the responsibility of preserving purity was on the girls.

In the afternoon, our entire cabin changed into our modest one-piece swim suits with padded bra cups, covered ourselves in our towels and t-shirts and walked to Pipestone Lake. After demonstrating our swimming abilities for the lifeguard, we were allowed to freely roam outside the shallow areas reserved for the non-swimmers.

The cool lake water felt like heaven after a sweltering day, swirling around our bodies as we relaxed and showed off for each other. I was floating on my back, my breasts and the slight rise of my belly above the surface of the water, when I felt a slight tickle on the bottom of my foot. I wiggled it, scaring away whatever curious sunfish was brushing against me before it decided to take a nibble. Then, I felt something tickle the back of my knee and I turned myself vertical in the water, looking around. My girlfriends were screaming and having a splash fight, and on my other side two boys were talking. The boy with his back to me was slim with squared shoulders and when he moved to the side, I saw that the other boy was Paul. I watched as Kurt slowly turned in the water, showing a mischievous grin lit his face and then melted away before he turned back to his cousin. The darkness of the lake water had hidden his tickling touch from his cousin's view. Feeling daring, I lay on my back in the water again, floating as I had been before. The tickling fish returned, brushing the bare skin of my arm, my ankle, my shoulders, and down the line of my back. Suddenly feeling scared that I had allowed too much, I flipped in the water, swimming quickly to shore and returned to my cabin alone.

That night, I didn't sit with Kurt in chapel. I took a seat near the front, far from where he sat with Paul in the back. I didn't turn my head to see if he was looking at me. I paid attention to the sermon like a good girl. A good girl wouldn't have allowed Kurt to touch her bare skin under the surface of the lake. A good girl wouldn't have enjoyed it. During the sermon, a bat somehow got into the chapel, making the girls scream and some of the guys, too. The pastor tried to calm us as the staff tried to get it out, warning us that Satan only wanted to distract us from the message. Yeah, too late. Satan had already distracted me, I thought.

That night, I stared unblinkingly at the bunk above mine, listening to the crickets, the breathing and the snores. The feel of Kurt secretly touching my body in the cool water was replaying itself in my mind again and again. My body was tense with a twisting restlessness that just wouldn't leave me alone. Sleep was impossible. A squeak and a click told me that Counselor Pam was sneaking out again. Sneaking out to touch and be touched. Good girls didn't want to be touched. I was starting to doubt that I was a good girl. I followed her.

I hid in the woods behind the chapel, watching Pam and Dan kissing and touching. Dan lifted her shirt and then her bra, exposing her round full breasts. Bending down, he began licking them, flicking his tongue on her nipples, and nibbling them with his lips. I imagined how it would feel to have Kurt kissing and sucking on my breasts and a slight sound escaped my mouth. I gasped in surprise as a hand came from behind me and covered my lips. I turned to see Kurt smiling down at me. He put a finger to his lips and looked at me questioningly. I bit my lips and shook my head slightly. I knew I couldn't stay silent. Kurt nodded, still smiling, and turned my head back to Pam and Dan, his hand still covering my mouth. Now, biting and tugging on her nipples with his teeth, Dan lifted Pam, pressed her against the chapel wall, put his hand under her skirt and began rubbing under her panties. Pam was getting more and more excited, curving a leg around his hips and moaning. "Have you ever done that?" Kurt whispered in my ear. Breathing hard, I swallowed and shook my head. "It's amazing..." he murmured.

Dan let Pam slide to the ground again and got down on his knees, pushing her skirt up, still rubbing under her panties with his fingers. Pam was pinching and twisting her own nipples, now, groaning in pleasure. Dan started sliding her panties down her thighs and I gasped, making Kurt laugh quietly. Once he had taken her panties off, Dan stuffed them into her mouth, lifted one of her legs over his shoulder and put his face between her legs, licking and sucking her. I turned wide-eyed to Kurt who was still watching them, "Oh... I would do that... just look at what it's doing to her... I would totally do that for a girl," he breathed. Pam's head was tossing from side to side, her hips bucking, her panties muffling her cries. It looked like Dan was shoving his fingers into her again and again while he licked and sucked between her legs. Suddenly, she stiffened like she was almost in pain, and then after a long while she melted against him and became loose again. I looked at Kurt, almost alarmed, he glanced at me and seemed confused by my expression. "She came," he whispered. "Haven't you ever done that with a guy... or, you know... yourself?" Feeling foolish and naïve, I shook my head and looked away. He turned me by my shoulders to face him, his eyes still kind, and smiled. "Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of... just um... you touch yourself down there, especially that little thing on top of... well... um... can I just show you? No funny stuff, I swear. I just want to show you so that you know what I'm talking about, okay?" Blushing, I nodded.

Kurt tentatively raised my night shirt, took my hand in his and pressed it against my belly. "Okay, I'm going to go under your panties now, all right?" I nodded. I felt my hand wrapped in his, slipping under the waistband and going down to my pubic hair. I shivered when I felt him using mine to feel around, looking for whatever he wanted. "It's all right, I just need to find it. Oh wow, you're really wet..." he said, appreciatively. Then, our fingers touched a place that made it feel like electricity was running through my body. "There it is. Right there. Now, just rub it like this," he whispered, moving my fingers, "and just do it until you feel something explode and go through your body, and inside you it will squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until it's done."

He kept my fingers rubbing as he talked and it felt like I was falling apart and twisting in knots at the same time. Then, before I wanted him to, he slipped his fingers out of my panties, put them in his mouth, and sucked on them. "You try it," he prompted, his eyes glowing in the moonlight. He watched me, still sucking on his fingers, his eyes glowing.

He walked behind me and put his arms around me, "Okay, now keep rubbing it like I did," he whispered in my ear. I could feel his warm breath in my hair, his chest rising and falling against my back with each breath. "Go a little faster as you get more excited... that's it," he whispered, and I began to squirm against him, rubbing myself. "That's it... oh, man you're so beautiful right now... you feel it coming don't you?" I began panting and making noises I didn't know I could make, as the feelings in my body built higher and higher. Kurt put his hand gently over my mouth again, muffling the sounds coming out of me. "I could listen to that all night, but keep it up and you're gonna get us caught, sweetheart," he laughed. My hips began bucking just like Pam's had and my body went rigid, sensation exploding through me and all by itself something deep inside me clenched and clenched and clenched again. I shook with release, Kurt holding me tightly against him whispering encouragements in my ear. After it passed, Kurt held me, supporting me, while I trembled, gasping for air and feeling strangely weak. Before my self-consciousness could come roaring back, he turned me around, his eyes alive, and whispered "now, was that the best thing ever or what?"

Still feeling lingering thrills of sensation all over my body, I nodded weakly. "It was... thank you..." I said, not knowing what else to say.

Kurt held me closer until he noticed that Pam and Dan were getting dressed again, "Looks like we've got to go, but man, I'm going to be awake all night long, just thinking about this," he said, smiling down at me. Then, looking unsure, he swallowed "You're not... you're not going to avoid me again tomorrow, are you? Please don't. We only have a few more days together, you know?" he said, quietly, squeezing my hands.

I squeezed his hands back. "I... I won't avoid you. I'm sorry. I got shy. My friends always tease and embarrass me when I meet someone nice, and then I just want to hide, but I don't want to miss any time with you, either," I said, smiling back at him.

We spent every moment of those last days together that we could. Laughing at Paul's outrageous flirting during meals, swimming and touching each other under the permissive veil of the lake water, and sitting together in chapel, morning and evening, with the sides of our legs brushing lightly against each other.

At the final night's campfire when Kurt and I were huddled together under his jacket, the counselors separated us, having finally noticed how dangerously close we had become. Kurt sat across the fire watching me, while Pam led us in singing gospel songs while Dan accompanied on the guitar. I watched as a mischievous look came across his face when he intentionally caught my eye. He looked from Dan, to Pam, and then nodded to the chapel, and raised his eyebrows to me in question. I bit my lips and nodded, smiling. There was no way I would be missing our last night together.