Joe Hawkins drove into the campsite early, before all the campers arrived. He hauled firewood from the back of his pickup to beside where the bonfire would be later today. Before leaving, he decided to take a swim in the lake.
"They found his truck, but Joe was nowhere to be found. The camp staff searched and found him, drowned. His foot was caught in a root underwater. They took him to the hospital ... sometimes, hypothermia, people can be revived even after they seem dead."
"So, now what?"
"Now we wait."
"But ... what do we do? Do we take the kids to the campout? Do we call the parents have have them go home?"
"No idea. The police and paramedics are investigating. I think we just wait until they reach a decision."
"Wow. This is so ... wow. I talked to Joe this morning. He was just taking firewood, so tonight the kids could roast marshmallows."
"Let's keep quiet about this in front of the kids until we know more."
"What's going on?"
"The counsellors aren't saying."
"I heard there's an investigation and the camp is closed."
"What? Why?"
"Something about marshmallows."
"What's going on? The counsellors are acting all serious and they aren't saying anything."
"All I know, is 'marshmallows'".
"'Marshmallows'? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know? The camp's been overrun by giant marshmallows? Maybe it's a code name for a Russian spy operation?"
"They had to quarantine the camp. There's this Russian virus, it infected some of the camp staff, and their heads turned into giant marshmallows. They don't want us to catch marshmallowitis."
"I heard someone's in the hospital."
"You'd be in the hospital too if your head turned into a giant marshmallow."
The parents were called. All the campers had to go home. Joe Hawkins had died by drowning, and the police had shut down the camp for the night. They'd have the summercamp cookout the next night, at the Kiwanis club.
"That's a dumb way to die, getting your foot stuck under a root underwater and drowning."
"well"
"I mean, how do you even do that? And who ever heard of roots under water? Did you ever see roots under water?"
"well"
"And what was all the marshmallow nonsense? That was SOOO DUMB. They were just trying to throw us off track."
"what about the Russians?"
"Russian marshmallows. Underwater roots. I don't believe any of it. I bet someone just ran off to Argentina with the check that was supposed to have paid for camp."
ms Lucy Took the Money
she Painted It all Red
she Flew to ArgenTina
With her Friend marshMallowHead
"So the rules are, one person's the secret Russian. They go around and tag people. And when they get tagged, that makes them marshmallowheads, so they have to wear a white baseball cap. If they can tag someone else, then they're marshmallowheads too and they have to wear a white cap too. The winner is the last non-marshmallowhead."
"Where do you get all the white caps?"
"You just take your normal hat and turn it inside out."
"Then the net got triggered, and the marshmallow troll was caught in the tree! Then rather than him eating the little kids, the kids held him over the the fire, until his head got all toasty brown, then they ate HIM!"
Alice sat back in her lawn chair. Her kids were chasing each other around camp. Her oldest daughter had a white towel wrapped on top of her head and was claiming to be a troll. Running around outside and having fun. Ah, summer. In a bit they should go swimming in the lake. And maybe tonight they'd make a little fire, and roast marshmallows.
This was in response to a prompt on reddit.com r/WritingPrompts, "Fairytales are real stories, only over the years the story becomes muddles and enhanced, and some stories change completely from their original meaning, like..."