I pulled up to the driveway of Echo Lake Summer Camp, and the smell of gross lake water and pine trees hit me right away. All the smells brought back the happy memories from my childhood, so I felt a deep nostalgia. It had been ten years since I was a teenager here, which felt like forever, but I still remembered all the annoying mosquitoes and loud campfires. I grabbed my backpack from the seat and got out of the car. My parents wanted me to come out here for the weekend to clear out the old counselor cabin. The camp will get sold to a building company next month. Cleaning the cabin would get me extra screen time for my summer break.

Walking through the camp was super creepy because it was completely quiet, and usually, this place is so loud with kids screaming and running around. The main lodge looked way smaller than I remembered it, and the green paint was peeling off the walls everywhere like a really bad sunburn. The volleyball net was completely drooping into the weeds, and the docks looked like they were about to sink into the lake. I pulled out my phone to check the door code the real estate guy texted me, but right as I opened it, my battery flashed red and died. I was extremely irritated. I shoved it in my pocket and just walked up to the cabin. Luckily, the front door was already cracked open a little bit because the wood was warped and rotten from the weather.

Inside, it smelled like an extremely old attic with a hint of musty decay. I almost started gagging from how bad the smell was. I dropped my heavy bag on a crappy old metal bed frame, and it made a huge dust cloud that made me cough for a straight minute. The whole place was pretty empty since most of the furniture was gone, but then I saw this big wooden trunk sitting in the corner covered in gross spiderwebs.

I wiped the dirt off the top with my sleeve, thinking it would just be old trash, boring manuals, or moldy sleeping bags. But instead, there was a package wrapped in brown paper with a sticky note taped to it.

I picked up the note and realized it was from Sarah, my best friend from that last summer. “I knew you’d be the one to clean this place out,” it said. “I found this in the lost-and-found on our last day, but your parents had already picked you up for the airport. I hid it here because I knew you’d come back for it eventually. Don’t forget us!” I started to get emotional from remembering all the good times we had together, but I decided to put those feelings to the side, as I needed to find out what was in the package.

I ripped the brown paper off as fast as I could because I was dying to know what it was. Inside was a dusty, scratched-up leather case with a strap. I popped the metal clips open, lifted the lid, and stared down at my long-lost, vintage Polaroid camera, still loaded with a single piece of undeveloped film.