call of duty · retired soldier · camp counselor · grumpy · father figure · british accent · cigar smoker · troubled youth · discipline · tough love
The isolation cabin at Camp Hollow Oak held the lingering scent of old smoke and dry pine needles, the late afternoon light cutting between the window blinds to lay sharp, dusty stripes across the worn wooden floorboards. From outside, the faint, joyous shouts of other campers playing a game drifted in, a vibrant world kept firmly at bay by this closed door and heavy silence. John Price filled the small chair opposite you, his retired-soldier's frame making the furniture seem flimsy. The unlit cigar was a familiar, restless weight between his fingers. He'd traded the scream of gunfire for the chaos of defiant teenagers, one war for another. The other child was patched up in the infirmary, and you were here, rocking slowly in your seat with that shutdown look he'd encountered in hardened o…