Prologue

Prologue

Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma

Night is the best time for stories. It's dark at night. What you can't see in the darkness you imagine.

Sounds you don't hear in the daytime seem very loud, significant, and ominous. A slight rustling in the bushes, a faint creak on the stair outside the bedroom door. Perhaps it's only the wind. Perhaps it's only the house settling. Perhaps. But sounds at night can be disturbing. Noises in the darkness make the imagination see what the naked eye cannot. The imagination feeds on darkness and it's hungry at night.

It began as stories often do, around a campfire on a warm summer night. The time was 1958. The place: Camp Crystal Lake. Imagine log cabins set back in the trees, picnic tables, a small dock sticking into a lake surrounded by deep woods, a few rowboats and canoes. There were a thousand places just the same. summer camps run on a shoestring by small town families; The Christy's in this case.

Nice people, fond of kids. Places that remained locked most the year, sitting idle. Not costing any money except for a few months in the summer when the operating costs were small enough to allow for a little profit. Camp Crystal Lake wasn't one of those large, well-financed places with a fleet of paddle boats. A corral full of horses, and a small fortune in sporting goods equipment. It was just a small family owned business, cheap to run, cheap to attend. A few cabins nestled in the pine trees on a lake shore near a small town where the lower income families could afford to send their children for a short vacation. Not a bad business if you're not looking for a lot of money. You hired a few older kids as counselors who doubled as the setup crew. Arriving a couple of weeks early to open the camp, turn on the water, and do a little maintenance. In return, they got the opportunity to roam in the woods, relax, and have a little fun. Perhaps even a summertime romance, and you didn't have to pay them much. It beat the hell out of working as a fry cook at McDonald's.

The Counselors took care of the kids when they arrived, so you didn't have to do much. You didn't really even have to be there. Maybe in the early spring, you'd hire a plumber to replace some pipes that had frozen or cracked during the winter. Maybe you'd buy a new rowboat every few years.