Continued from Part I

Before packing our belongings, our group of five needed to let our parents know that we’d be coming home earlier than expected. While I don’t know how the other guys broke the news to their parents, I clearly remember using a payphone to call my father and tell him about the situation I was in. Without going into detail, I said that the camp was a really bad fit for me; they wanted me to leave, and so did I.

My father wasn’t upset at me, but he did inquire how I planned to return to Cleveland. I responded that I was working on getting a ride back to NY with four other guys who were also leaving the camp. I had already reached out to my brother Micha who had stayed in his Yeshiva in Queens, NY (Ohr HaChaim) that summer to continue his coursework at Touro College. He had invited me to stay with him in his apartment for the next two weeks. Following Tisha B’Av, Micha planned on driving back to Cleveland with some friends — and they had room in their car for me.

Now our group that had just been expelled from camp were a bit confused. How were we supposed to return to NY? Apparently, the director didn’t share that piece of the puzzle during the part of the meeting that I missed. One member of our group asked the director’s assistant about this minor detail. He was told that was our problem to figure out.

We talked it over and came up with the following plan: Both guys who had driven the camp’s vans were eighteen years old, the other three of us were only seventeen. None of us was old enough to rent a car. However, from previous experience, one of the guys knew that being eighteen was old enough to rent a U-Haul truck. Driving back to “the city” in a U-Haul truck would be such a fun experience!

It then hit us that we were a group of five, and only three could ride in the front of the truck. Where would the other two guys go? In our teenage minds, the answer was simple: Yosef and I excitedly volunteered to ride in the back with all the luggage. If the guys up front agreed to stop every hour to open the truck’s back doors for air, what could possibly go wrong with such a horribly irresponsible plan?

The next morning, a camp van drove the five of us to a nearby U-Haul rental location. The driver was somewhat surprised that we weren’t going to the local Greyhound station. However, we unloaded our duffle bags and suitcases, reassured him that everything was in order, and he drove off.

After filling out the requisite paperwork, our truck was rented. Yosef and I spread our........

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