Games without frontiers - Preview

This is just a preview. I hope to keep working on the story. Please tell me what you think of this part

contains references to sexual abuse. Please take care reading this.

In a small house in the southeast corner of Calgary, Alberta . . .

“Thank you for seeing us home, officer Martin.”

“You’re welcome, Mrs. Bellion. With the trial now over, we shouldn’t need you or your family again.”

“Yes, I’m really glad it’s over.”

“That part is over, Mrs. Bellion. Helping your child heal has hardly begun.”

“Poor Todd. What can we do?”

“There is a place, called Be Brave Ranch, they’ve had a lot of success helping kids who have gone through what he’s gone through.”

“Yes, but what about . . . the other problem?”

“I checked, and they said they can help there too.”

*****

I looked at my still empty suitcase, knowing I was only delaying the inevitable.

In an hour, I was expected to leave home and go to a camp, a camp that supposedly was going to help me deal with having spent the last two and a half years being raped by a doctor.

Going to be with a bunch of strangers was bad enough, but I also had my gender issues, which had been used against me by the doctor.
My mother assured me the camp would not judge me for my desires, and since everything had come out during the trial, I had to admit it was unlikely I could hide things now.

I just hoped she was right, but to be safe, I was wearing boy clothes for the trip to the camp.

My mom took me to the spot where the camp bus would pick me up, we unloaded my suitcase out of our car, and we waited.

Just before my anxiety could get so bad I would have fainted, the bus arrived.

Unlike most camps, the bus did not advertise where it was going. In fact if we hadn’t been looking for it, we could have missed it entirely.

A woman got off the bus, and asked my mom if I was the one they had expected.

My identity confirmed, the woman put my luggage into a storage space under the seats, and I gave my mom the biggest hug I could while she whispered "you're going to be okay."

Finally, I let go, and the woman who had put my luggage in offered me her hand to help me board the bus. I accepted her help, more for the emotional support than the physical support, and then went onboard.

The trip was uneventful, and soon we were approaching the gate of the ranch.

To my eyes “Ranch” didn’t seem to cover what I saw.

The complex was HUGE.

I had expected us to have to share cabins, as was the case in the other camps I had gone to, but they had individual cabins, which I guess made sense when dealing with a bunch of kids who had survived sexual abuse.

Besides the cabins, the place had a large barn with horses and other animals, an actual indoor pool, and a large building with a cafeteria, a games area (used mostly on rainy days), a first aid room, and offices for the staff.

Finally, the tour ended, and we were seated in the cafeteria, and an older woman came in and stood in front of us.

“My Name is Andrea. I’m the head counselor here. You may have noticed during your tour that no one gave you a schedule. That’s because there really isn’t one. And I’m going to explain why. We want you to help make the schedule. We want you to feel a part of the decision making process. It's a vital component of our work here. That is because all of you have been referred to at some point as a ‘victim’. The thing about being a victim is a lack of power. Here, we want you to take back your power, to move beyond being a victim. To transition first to being a ‘survivor’ and finally to being a ‘warrior’.”

She spoke with certainty and passion, and she made me feel like it was really possible.

I could become a Warrior.