Andrew invites Todd Johnson to Camp Argonaut

Todd sat in the coffee shop drinking his Almond Joy frappuccino. He was working on a project on his laptop when he got a phone call. It was Andrew. "Hey, Andrew, what's up?"

"Can you schedule time off for June 17 through June 26?"

"Yea, why?"

"I found out about a camp, Camp Argonaut that I think you'd love."

"Well what's it about?"

"It's a camp for men to explore who they are?"

"Meaning they're going to make a man out of me?"

"No, nothing like that. They don't have an agenda. They just give you the opportunities to try out different things you might want to try but it is completely up to you how much or how little you participate. They have different cabins and each cabin has its own theme. There's a jock cabin, a bear cabin, a twink cabin and a femboi cabin. There are other cabins too. I'm going to the jock cabin."

"So everyone there is gay?"

"No, actually. About half the campers are straight. This isn't a sex camp. You may have sex if you choose to but that's not the point of the camp. The point is introspection, a chance to strip off societal expectations and take a really good honest look at yourself. I think you need that."

Todd didn't answer. He sat there thinking. This might just be exactly what he needed but he was also scared. What if he didn't like what he saw when he took a really good honest look at himself.

***** A few months later *****

Todd sat on the bus heading for Camp Argonaut. Andrew had taken a different bus. The busses were all small but held about twenty passengers each. There were quite a variety of different men on the bus ranging in age from 18 to 94. Although there were the usual bus high-jinx, everyone was relatively well behaved. Todd got to know a few of his fellow passengers.

The bus traveled for several hours through the wilderness. At one point along the way, they stopped at a convenience store but that convenience store was the only building amongst nothing but trees. There were no other buildings along the way.

Then they arrived at the camp. There were three main buildings, twelve small cabins, and a few buildings that were pretty much sheds. There was a primitive swimming pool and a sports field.

As soon as they were off the bus, a few of the men stripped naked but most of the men kept their clothes on. There was a line of tables set up for registration and Todd gathered his things, placed them in a pile on the sports field, and got in line for registration. They made sure he was supposed to be there and then they gave him orientation on where things were and what the schedule was. Todd liked the flexibility in the schedule. He wasn't required to attend anything but had several options to choose from.

He gathered his things again and made his way to his cabin. He chose the explorers cabin which was for those guys who didn't feel comfortable in any of the other cabins. It had eight bunks but each bunk held two guys. By the time Todd got there, all fifteen of the other spots had been taken so Todd was stuck sharing an upper bunk with another guy. He was there laying out his sleeping bag. The guy looked very ordinary.

Todd asked, "Do you mind if I bunk here?"

"I suppose. But know this, I'm a married man so don't get any ideas. I don't want to wake up to your gay hands all over me."

"Why do you assume I'm gay?"

The man sighed, "I'm sorry. This is hard for me. I just found out my brother is gay. Everything I ever believed just came crashing down around me and the only reason I'm here is to try to understand my brother." He started crying. He actually broke down crying.

Todd thought about comforting him but how do you comfort a homophobe. "You'll get through this. Everyone here will help you get through this."

Between sniffles, the man said, "My name's Tyler. Tyler Hansen."

"Todd Johnson."

"I don't like that your first impression of me is that I'm a crybaby."

"It's really okay."

They were interrupted by an announcement that dinner was ready.

"Are you coming to dinner?"

"Yea, just give me a moment to pull myself together."