My summer between my junior and senior years was interesting. No wait that really isn’t the right phrase to describe my summer, it should be more like; My summer between my junior and senior year was the best summer of my life, but sadly also the worst. I gained something I didn’t know I could have, but I lost something I will never be able to gain again.
It all started when my retired parents got the great idea to move from our home state of Michigan, to the much more hot, much more humid, much more new state of Alabama, specifically Dauphin Island. Dauphin Island is a small island off the coast , I never really new it existed and neither did any of my friends from Michigan, until the day I got home from track practice and my parents told me in song; yeah don’t be fooled I did just say song, my dad the lead guitarist with an acoustic and the back up singer, and my mom on the tambourine and lead singer. I want to say the song kind of reminded me of a Cher, Madona mix. Creepy right? But sadly 16 years of living with my parents had taught me to expect these things, so ,to their surprise, when they told me we were moving the summer of my junior year I accepted it without a fight. I remember hearing them debate the next day in the kitchen ,when they thought I wasn’t listening, about whether or not I was taking any drugs because of how lackadaisical my response was to their announcement . I had such a lackluster response because I knew there was no way to win this argument, because if there is one thing my parents are worse at then being normal, its accepting what they do isn’t normal.
I finished the last 30 days of my junior year somberly, and the day I finished school, it was the 4th of June, I came home to find all my things packed and already placed in the large white moving van, with an dolphin majestically jumping out of the deep blue ocean painted on the side, sitting in our driveway. When my parents had said we were going to move after school ended, I had no idea at all that they meant right after school ended. That combined with the thought of being with my parents in a cramped van for the next 18 hours put me in one of the not better moods I’ve been in, in my life.
I fished out my Ipod from my backpack as I threw it in the back of the van, packed full ¾ of it being my parents musical instruments; and after 18 hours of nonstop driving, obnoxious sing alongs, which I chose to with hold from. and countless prayers to god to smite my dads acoustic guitar , which he found perfectly ok to play at 2 in the morning as I was trying to sleep, we arrived in Dauphin Island, Alabama.
I wasn’t that surprised you had to travel over a bridge to reach the island. It smelled of fish, and all I really noticed was palm trees, and small abandoned ugly buildings. We took a left at an intersection and 2 minutes later we found our house.
It was on stilts and stood like some 50 feet from the ocean front. There were stairs up to the floor which I assumed was our house. Underneath that floor was a hammock that had a hole in the middle rendering it useless. The outside of the house was painted a bright almost neon orange. I almost didn’t want to go inside, I was so afraid that the inside might contain something worse than neon orange. Sadly it did. The whole inside was painted pea green, every room, every wall was painted that deathly color. At least the bed is comfortable I thought to myself as I put my suitcase in the room I choose to become my room, and I found out as I laid in my bed that, that last statement about my bed was completely wrong. “Mom please tell me we have a t.v.” I yelled at my mom, praying to god she would say yes.
“Nope” thanks god. “Your father and I have decided we can live with out T.V.”
“Cool mom I’ll just add that to the list of your guy’s great ideas, like playing guitar at 2 o’clock in the morning in a packed van.”
“Did I sense some sarcasm in that?” my mom asked, I sighed threw my hands over my head and said
“No mom” this statement was most defiantly tinged with sarcasm.
“Good” my mom said “You know I really appreciate it that you are making a list of all our great ideas, you should show it to me one day” I made a mental note to enlist my parents in the first “How to read sarcasm” class I found.
I looked outside and saw that it was already getting dark, it must have been a lot later than I thought. I left my things packed and got into bed. I did find one good thing about this god forsaken island. It was hot enough there, the need for Pj’s was non existent.
I woke up the next morning, to the sounds of seagulls chirping, or doing whatever seagulls do, outside. I stumbled out into the kitchen, and there I found everything unpacked. Turns out my parents decided to stay up all night and get everything unpacked. On the counter was a note it said
“Your father and I decided to go to Mobile to get some food, and some other things for house, plus your father said there is a great harmonica store in Mobile.” Great another annoying musical instrument my dad needs. I made a mental note to add this to their list of not so great ideas. This list happened to be much fuller then their list of great ideas, very much fuller.
I threw some toast in the toaster, burnt it, then threw some more toast in the toaster, and this time kept a much better eye on it. I covered it with some crunchy peanut butter. I really hated crunchy peanut butter, but my dad always bought it. He said it reminded him of his childhood. I spent ten minutes picking the peanuts out of my peanut butter spread on my toast, and then ate it cold. I threw my swimsuit on, a gift from my parents I found laying on my bed, after I ate breakfast. Ironically it was same color as the outside of my house. I would have rather swam naked than wear that ugly thing, but I guess it’s illegal to swim naked in Alabama. So I, with much pain, put it on.
Even though it was like nine in the morning, outside it was already baking. I sprinted across the hot sand and dove into the water smashing into a wave just forming a white cap. I rose out of the water scraped the water from my eyes and looked at the beach. A family with two little kids sat fifty feet from our house, they had a kite tied down floating in the air. A man jogged by them he had an Ipod strapped to his arm. This man looked like an intense jogger. I walked out of the water and laid down on the sand cupping my hands over my eyes to block out the sun. I laid there for about five minutes then decided it was getting to hot, so I got up and began to spring towards the water.
Then someone yelled “Hey I wouldn’t do that if I were you” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around “unless you fancy being stung by jellyfish” That someone turned out to be a girl, a very hot girl for that matter. She stood there looking at me with a annoyed face, her hands rested on her hips. On the ground next to her was a big old white cooler. I spent the next two days trying to remember what she wore that day she first talked to me, but all I could remember were her eyes. They were a striking green, but not some normal green, it was like they demanded your attention. She had a strand of her black hair running along the side of her face, all it did was make her green eyes more noticeable.
“What do you mean, unless I fancy being stung by a jelly fish?” I asked putting a lot of sarcasm on “fancy”.
“Well its jelly fish season dumb shit, and jelly fish sting people.” I knew this was a insult but I found it strangely attractive.
“Thanks for the advice?” she went to lift the cooler by her feet, she was obviously struggling to lift it. “Hey you need some help? I asked running up to her.
“No I got it” she grunted still not budging the cooler.
“You know I could help you, it would be no problem. I happen to be pretty strong.” I said jokingly flexing my unimpressive biceps. This made her smile.
“Fine she said, but only because you owe me for saving your life from the man eating jelly fish.”
I laughed at this and grabbed one of the handles to the cooler, she grabbed the other and awkwardly we lifted the cooler. I was a lot heavier than I thought. It was a miracle she some how got it as far as me. “What’s in this thing a bunch of boulders” I grunted as we started to walk along the beach.
“No” she replied “Just a bunch of people I killed this morning” she said. Sarcasm flowed from her voice.
“ You like to kill people too?” I said jokingly.
“Yeah its ok” she replied. There was an awkward lull in our conversation before I said
“So where are we headin with this thing?
“My house”
“And that is..”
“Where I sleep silly” she said cutting me off. I just laughed I had no snappy comment for that one. “So where you from?”
“Northern Michigan” I said
“So your Canadian?”
“Nope I’m American”
“Would it make you more comfortable if I finished all my sentences with hey, like the Canadians?” she asked. I stopped in my tracks, and dropped the cooler.
“You know I completely offended” I said sarcastically.
“Oh man someone’s got sand in their vagina.” she shot back “Now clean yourself up and help me lift this damn thing it weighs a ton.”
“Fine but only if you apologize” I joked
“Fine” she whined “I’m sorry you got sand in your vagina and its making you pissy”
“You know I’ll take it, so how much longer until your house?”
“Only like 5 more blocks”
“Sweet” I said as we grabbed the cooler and started to walk the beach. We walked the rest of the way cracking jokes and insulting each other. It turned out to be a day I wasn’t going to forget for awhile.
Her house looked a lot like mine except it was painted a decant color on the outside. Specifically a light blue, almost sky blue. We set the cooler down about 20 feet from the house closer to the ocean than the house. The beach was peppered with sea shells. “So what is in this cooler?” I asked reaching down to open the lid.
She shot her hand down pinning the lid down.
“Nothing” she said shooting a smile my way. I would remember that smile for a lot longer than would want to.
“So, my name is Mike” I said sticking out a hand offering a handshake.
“That’s cool” she replied. I drew my hand back hurtfully
“Man you just shot me down, that was harsh.” I joked back
“How bout I make it up by inviting you to the fire I’m going to have tonight”
“Deal, by the way I’m going to call you Jack, until you decide to tell me your name.”
“You know I’ve always liked Jack” she shot back.
“Alright Jack I’ll see you later I gotta get home for lunch, when does your fire start?”
“When ever it gets dark” she said waving as she walked towards the stairs up to her house.
I walked the rest of the way home thinking about Jack, or that girl, all those thoughts stopped when I realized my parents were back home, indicated by the van parked in the driveway and my dad dragging what looked like a new guitar out of the back. When he saw me he waved. “You like my new guitar” he asked showing it off over his head.
“Oh yeah dad” I said sighing “So what’s for lunch?” I asked
“whatever your mom feels like cooking, we were thinking goldfish, grilled cheese, and tomato soup”
“You guys would cook that” I said in disbelief.
“Hey what’s that’s supposed to mean?”
“Nothin” I said shaking my head as I went up the steps, looking at the clock and calculating the hours until it would get dark, and I could see Jack again.
The rest of the day passed about as normal as a day could pass with my family. My dad sat down after lunch and played one of his hippy songs on his new guitar and turns out he found this new thing that allowed him to play the harmonica at the same time. It turned my house into a mini blues concert or hell on earth take your pick. About 8 o’clock I decided to tell my parents that I had been invited to a bonfire.
“Mom, Dad” they stopped playing there song, the sound of the guitar stood in the air for a few seconds. I started again after a short pause. “I met a girl”
“OOOHHH Mike met a girl” squealed my mom interrupting me. Then she began rambling off question after question like she always does when I talk about a girl. “
“Mike won’t be answering any questions until he has at least finished his first comment” I said purposely in 3rd person. My mom stopped her blabbering. “So as I said before I met this girl, and she said she was going to have a fire, and she invited me… Can I go?”
“Really that’s all you wanted, I thought you were going to tell us you got caught doing something naughty” said my dad throwing a wink my way.
“Richard don’t give the boy any ideas” squealed my mom slapping my dads arm playfully.
“So can I go?” I said changing the subject before it got anymore awkward.
“I vote yes” said my dad “but your mom holds the swing vote”
“Hmm” she said pretending to act like she was thinking. “How much do you love me?” she asked
“How much do I need to for you to say yes?” I asked
“You know that’s not the answer I was looking for” she warned her arms crossed.
“What if I said more than Dad” I asked
“Then you would get a yes vote.” she replied
“Alright sorry dad, but mom I love you more than dad”
“Whoa were supposed to be friends.” my dad said pretending to be hurt
“Sorry dad but the girl is pretty cute”
“What about bro’s before hoe’s” he asked
“That goes out the window when the girls higher than a 8” I said
He accepted it, and that gave me two yes votes. They went pack to their songs, and I went to my closet to find something to wear.
By 9 o’clock it was dark, and I was ready to go. “Don’t stay out later than 3” my mom said standing at the door as I walked down the street to Jack’s house.
You could see the fire from a good distance away, and you could the hear the people talking from almost farther away. It looked like 6 or 7 people were there. I walked up and joined the circle a little awkwardly. “Oh hey guys it’s the Canadian I was telling you about” said Jack putting her arm around my shoulder. In her other hand she held a bottle of Bud Light. I saw the cooler just outside the circle filled to the rim with ice, bottles of bud light peppered the ice.
“What’s up Canadian?” some guy asked me, he was a bigger guy with a shaved head. He saluted me with his bottle before he took a swig.
“Oh he is as cute as you said Anna” snickered some girl sitting next to the big guy.
“Oh shut up Ashley” laughed, I guess her name is Anna now, kicking sand in the girl’s direction.
“You want a bud?” a tall guy asked sitting by the cooler
“You know why not” I said, I didn’t really drink back in Michigan. But that night I felt different. I felt like this was a new place, so I thought I should do something different. Turns out something different meant getting hammered. After an hour or so at the bonfire, people started asking me questions about moose hunting, and I started telling stories about how I had taken out the state record size moose. I don’t even think I own a gun.
After about another hour or so of telling them more stories about Michigan, the big guy and the girl, left holding hands, they must have been a couple. The tall guy and another guy that looked a lot like him left 20 minutes later. Soon everyone began to file out. The last person to leave was a girl, she was short, and had freckles all over her face. “You sure I can leave you two alone?” she asked jokingly
“Ha Ha Ha” laughed Anna sarcastically
“Well nice meeting you Mike” she said waving good bye and walking into the darkness.
Anna came down and sat next to me, we were both pretty quiet for awhile staring at the fire. Then she said “You know there’s a couple buds left you want one” You know why not. Turns out the buds loosened us up, and we started cracking jokes and laughing. We ended up laying in the sand making sand angles together.
We were quiet for a second again, laying on the sand looking at the stars.
“You know I never noticed how pretty the stars are” she said
“Your pretty” I replied obviously drunk.
“You know you should get going it’s getting late”
“Yeah, yeah, sounds good.” We stood up and there was an awkward pause before I said “You know it was nice meeting you today”
“Yeah you too”
“What you up too tomorrow?” I asked
“Looks like I’ll be hanging out with you” she replied. She opened her arms up offering a hug. I hugged her. I felt like this felt really right, like we were made to hug each other. I had only known this girl a day but I was crazy about her. The next thing that happened between us may have been the bud’s fault but I hope not. As she pulled away from the hug I put my hand in the small of her back pulling her back in, that’s right I was making the move.
When our lips touched she tensed for a moment then she relaxed and kissed me back. I had to force myself away from her. I said goodbye, and just to lighten the mood I grabbed her hand and kissed it saying “sleep well milady” in a corny British accent. This had the desired effect she laughed and drew her hand away and whispered
“see you tomorrow mi lord” in a British accent that made mine look even more cornier than it already did. I smiled and turned around to go home, I waited until I was out of her sight before I began to skip with joy.
The next couple of weeks went great for Anna and I. She showed me around the island, introduced me to all her friends. The best part was she didn’t seem to phased about what had happened at the fire, really she seemed more playful.
I learned there was a darker side to Anna though, she wasn’t this perfect girl. She dreaded to go home, and when I asked her why, she always skipped my question. One time while we were walking through the park, I saw a bruise on the inside of her arm, I think I had found my conclusion to why she avoided her home.
A month went by and we began to become closer than ever, I almost every hour of every day with her. Then one day she seemed really down, I asked her what was wrong, and she began to rant about how her mom and her had been really close, then her mom passed away from cancer four years ago. She dealt with it by writing she said. I asked her to show me some of her writings, she told me she rather wouldn’t.
Then she told me her dad had become really depressed when her mom died, and had taking to curing it with heavy drinking. She told me that he wasn’t a nice drunk, like all of her friends, which we partied with almost every weekend. That he yelled at her for the slightest mistakes she made, and once or twice he had hit. I had a feeling it was more than once or twice. She began to cry and I hugged her closer telling her that she was tough and I would help her through this. I walked her home that night, she said her dad went off to work in Mobile Wednesdays through Saturdays, that day was a Thursday. There was nothing for her to fear at home. She hugged me goodnight, I didn’t try to make a move I knew it wasn’t the time. That’s why I was so surprised when she kissed me, dragging me into her house. The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed the next morning.
I woke up the next morning to her calling my cell phone. “Hey sorry about last night” she said “ I was scared”
“Hey it’s ok” I said. “ You know I really didn’t mind it, I enjoy kissing you” I realized how dumb that sounded after I said. She laughed and said
“what you up to today?”
“I guess I’m hanging out with you” I replied.
“Sounds great” she said cheerfully “see you soon”
“See yah” I said hanging up the phone.
I ran out into the kitchen and poured my self a bowl of cereal.
“Hey bud what you up to today?” my dad asked resting his hands on my shoulders.
“Hanging out with Anna” I replied
“You two dating?” He asked.
“You know I don’t really know” I said but I thought about the question a little bit longer.
“Hey I have a song that would sound like it was written just for you, you want me to sing it?
“Thanks dad I might have to take a rain check on that” I said finishing my cereal, and walking toward my bedroom to get dressed. 10 minutes later I was knocking on Anna’s door, she opened the door, and came out grabbing my hand and leading me down the sidewalk. She was wearing a tank top, and some shorts. He black hair was up. I never told her but I lover it when her hair was back, it left her perfect eyes uncovered. “So where are we going?” I asked further intertwining my fingers with hers.
“Just for a walk”
“I just walked all the way to you house” I whined
“Will this shut you up?” she asked leaning in and pecking me on the lips. I just laughed and let her lead me. We walked about 20 minutes until we came to the beach.
“I dunno I just like looking at the water”
“Sounds cool to me” The reality is anything we did would sound good, just as long as she was there.
We sat there talking for at least an hour before she said “ You like pasta?”
“Yeah it’s alright”
“Well you want to come over for dinner, I making pasta and it gets pretty lonely when you eat dinner all by yourself all the time”
“Yeah sounds awesome”
“It’s a date” she said standing up and pecking me on the lips “come over at five” she yelled as she ran back down the beach in the direction of her house. I sat on the beach just thinking about nothing for awhile, before I decided to get up and walk home.
The dinner went awesome, as did the rest of the weekend, she never called me on Sundays, and if I tried to call her she never picked up her phone. That’s why I was so surprised that rainy Sunday night when she called me crying. “ I’m leaving” she cried out “I have to get away”
“What the hell?” I asked
“I have to get away from him”
“What did he do?” I asked, I could begin my rage rising. I had never met her dad but I hated the man just because he hit her, I had wanted to turn him in but Anna told me not, she made me promise not to.
“He brought a new woman home!” she yelled “He’s trying to replace my mom!”
“Anna where are you?” I asked putting on my jacket it was raining outside.
“I’m in my car heading towards your house” she replied
“Why my house?” I asked
“I have to pass it to get the bridge so I can get off this god forsaken island”
“Can you at least pick me up so we can talk about this” I pleaded.
“Fine I’m pulling into your drive way right now” I heard her brakes squeal as she came to a stop. I ran outside, not listening to the yells of my dad demanding where I was going, I jumped in her car as my came running down the steps. She peeled out before he could even get close to the car.
Turns out her dad had found a new girlfriend, and she found this appalling, they had gotten in a argument, and she said she was leaving, then he had said that he wanted her to leave, that she was nothing but a pest to him. She told me she was going to find a place in Mobile, and she said she could find a waitress job easy. When I asked her about us, all she said was “I don’t know anymore.”
She had driven across the bridge and was on the mainland now it was raining, hard and she was having trouble seeing. The next thing I now I heard brakes screeching, horns honking, then blackness.
I see my dad, he looking down at me calling my name. The lights are bright, but in the bed not far from me I see Anna she has tubes connected to her arms, nurses are standing over her. Blackness
My dad is over me again, his hand is laying on mine, I can’t feel my legs. He’s talking to a doctor. I think. Anna laying in the bed next to me, the nurses are gone. Blackness
My dad is still over me, so is my mom, she is crying. They are both talking to a doctor, I look over for Anna but she’s gone. Where’s Anna? I’m starting to panic. I jolt up.
“Mike” my mom screams seeing me sitting up
“Where’s Anna?” I ask. My mom looks at my dad, tears begin to well in her eyes, her and the doctor leave the room.
“Dad where’s Anna” I asked sensing what was coming next
“Mike you were in a car crash, you’ve been out three days straight, Anna was in critical condition, they tried to save her” he paused
“Dad what are you saying?” I asked I could feel the panic rising
“She was already to far gone they said” my dad finished. A tear rolled down his cheek, I sat there motionless.
“Your lying” I said
“Mike” my dad replied
“Your lying”
“Mike no I’m not”
“YOUR LYING” I screamed tears began to pour from my eyes. My dad reached down and hugged me, I could feel his tears mixing with mine on my cheek. I fell asleep crying that night.
The next morning I tried to get up, but my legs weren’t moving. I tried again, but again no response. When I thought about I couldn’t feel anything from my waist down.
1 week later
I tried to sit through her funeral, I couldn’t make it through the whole thing I didn’t want to think of her as dead.
2 months Later
I laid on my couch listening to my dad playing guitar, I hadn’t really talked to him since the hospital, I just kind of sat and slept on this couch, I was to embarrassed to get in my wheel chair and go other places. “Dad?” I asked he looked up almost startled
“Yes Mike?” he replied putting his guitar down
“Dad can you teach me how to play the guitar?”
“Of course” he said picking up the guitar and moving closer to me
6 months later
My dad and I were due to play in the pub that night, We just finished writing the song we were going to finish with that night, a week before. He asked me what I wanted name the song. I think we both already knew that answer, I said I wanted to name it “Anna”
It all started when my retired parents got the great idea to move from our home state of Michigan, to the much more hot, much more humid, much more new state of Alabama, specifically Dauphin Island. Dauphin Island is a small island off the coast , I never really new it existed and neither did any of my friends from Michigan, until the day I got home from track practice and my parents told me in song; yeah don’t be fooled I did just say song, my dad the lead guitarist with an acoustic and the back up singer, and my mom on the tambourine and lead singer. I want to say the song kind of reminded me of a Cher, Madona mix. Creepy right? But sadly 16 years of living with my parents had taught me to expect these things, so ,to their surprise, when they told me we were moving the summer of my junior year I accepted it without a fight. I remember hearing them debate the next day in the kitchen ,when they thought I wasn’t listening, about whether or not I was taking any drugs because of how lackadaisical my response was to their announcement . I had such a lackluster response because I knew there was no way to win this argument, because if there is one thing my parents are worse at then being normal, its accepting what they do isn’t normal.
I finished the last 30 days of my junior year somberly, and the day I finished school, it was the 4th of June, I came home to find all my things packed and already placed in the large white moving van, with an dolphin majestically jumping out of the deep blue ocean painted on the side, sitting in our driveway. When my parents had said we were going to move after school ended, I had no idea at all that they meant right after school ended. That combined with the thought of being with my parents in a cramped van for the next 18 hours put me in one of the not better moods I’ve been in, in my life.
I fished out my Ipod from my backpack as I threw it in the back of the van, packed full ¾ of it being my parents musical instruments; and after 18 hours of nonstop driving, obnoxious sing alongs, which I chose to with hold from. and countless prayers to god to smite my dads acoustic guitar , which he found perfectly ok to play at 2 in the morning as I was trying to sleep, we arrived in Dauphin Island, Alabama.
I wasn’t that surprised you had to travel over a bridge to reach the island. It smelled of fish, and all I really noticed was palm trees, and small abandoned ugly buildings. We took a left at an intersection and 2 minutes later we found our house.
It was on stilts and stood like some 50 feet from the ocean front. There were stairs up to the floor which I assumed was our house. Underneath that floor was a hammock that had a hole in the middle rendering it useless. The outside of the house was painted a bright almost neon orange. I almost didn’t want to go inside, I was so afraid that the inside might contain something worse than neon orange. Sadly it did. The whole inside was painted pea green, every room, every wall was painted that deathly color. At least the bed is comfortable I thought to myself as I put my suitcase in the room I choose to become my room, and I found out as I laid in my bed that, that last statement about my bed was completely wrong. “Mom please tell me we have a t.v.” I yelled at my mom, praying to god she would say yes.
“Nope” thanks god. “Your father and I have decided we can live with out T.V.”
“Cool mom I’ll just add that to the list of your guy’s great ideas, like playing guitar at 2 o’clock in the morning in a packed van.”
“Did I sense some sarcasm in that?” my mom asked, I sighed threw my hands over my head and said
“No mom” this statement was most defiantly tinged with sarcasm.
“Good” my mom said “You know I really appreciate it that you are making a list of all our great ideas, you should show it to me one day” I made a mental note to enlist my parents in the first “How to read sarcasm” class I found.
I looked outside and saw that it was already getting dark, it must have been a lot later than I thought. I left my things packed and got into bed. I did find one good thing about this god forsaken island. It was hot enough there, the need for Pj’s was non existent.
I woke up the next morning, to the sounds of seagulls chirping, or doing whatever seagulls do, outside. I stumbled out into the kitchen, and there I found everything unpacked. Turns out my parents decided to stay up all night and get everything unpacked. On the counter was a note it said
“Your father and I decided to go to Mobile to get some food, and some other things for house, plus your father said there is a great harmonica store in Mobile.” Great another annoying musical instrument my dad needs. I made a mental note to add this to their list of not so great ideas. This list happened to be much fuller then their list of great ideas, very much fuller.
I threw some toast in the toaster, burnt it, then threw some more toast in the toaster, and this time kept a much better eye on it. I covered it with some crunchy peanut butter. I really hated crunchy peanut butter, but my dad always bought it. He said it reminded him of his childhood. I spent ten minutes picking the peanuts out of my peanut butter spread on my toast, and then ate it cold. I threw my swimsuit on, a gift from my parents I found laying on my bed, after I ate breakfast. Ironically it was same color as the outside of my house. I would have rather swam naked than wear that ugly thing, but I guess it’s illegal to swim naked in Alabama. So I, with much pain, put it on.
Even though it was like nine in the morning, outside it was already baking. I sprinted across the hot sand and dove into the water smashing into a wave just forming a white cap. I rose out of the water scraped the water from my eyes and looked at the beach. A family with two little kids sat fifty feet from our house, they had a kite tied down floating in the air. A man jogged by them he had an Ipod strapped to his arm. This man looked like an intense jogger. I walked out of the water and laid down on the sand cupping my hands over my eyes to block out the sun. I laid there for about five minutes then decided it was getting to hot, so I got up and began to spring towards the water.
Then someone yelled “Hey I wouldn’t do that if I were you” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around “unless you fancy being stung by jellyfish” That someone turned out to be a girl, a very hot girl for that matter. She stood there looking at me with a annoyed face, her hands rested on her hips. On the ground next to her was a big old white cooler. I spent the next two days trying to remember what she wore that day she first talked to me, but all I could remember were her eyes. They were a striking green, but not some normal green, it was like they demanded your attention. She had a strand of her black hair running along the side of her face, all it did was make her green eyes more noticeable.
“What do you mean, unless I fancy being stung by a jelly fish?” I asked putting a lot of sarcasm on “fancy”.
“Well its jelly fish season dumb shit, and jelly fish sting people.” I knew this was a insult but I found it strangely attractive.
“Thanks for the advice?” she went to lift the cooler by her feet, she was obviously struggling to lift it. “Hey you need some help? I asked running up to her.
“No I got it” she grunted still not budging the cooler.
“You know I could help you, it would be no problem. I happen to be pretty strong.” I said jokingly flexing my unimpressive biceps. This made her smile.
“Fine she said, but only because you owe me for saving your life from the man eating jelly fish.”
I laughed at this and grabbed one of the handles to the cooler, she grabbed the other and awkwardly we lifted the cooler. I was a lot heavier than I thought. It was a miracle she some how got it as far as me. “What’s in this thing a bunch of boulders” I grunted as we started to walk along the beach.
“No” she replied “Just a bunch of people I killed this morning” she said. Sarcasm flowed from her voice.
“ You like to kill people too?” I said jokingly.
“Yeah its ok” she replied. There was an awkward lull in our conversation before I said
“So where are we headin with this thing?
“My house”
“And that is..”
“Where I sleep silly” she said cutting me off. I just laughed I had no snappy comment for that one. “So where you from?”
“Northern Michigan” I said
“So your Canadian?”
“Nope I’m American”
“Would it make you more comfortable if I finished all my sentences with hey, like the Canadians?” she asked. I stopped in my tracks, and dropped the cooler.
“You know I completely offended” I said sarcastically.
“Oh man someone’s got sand in their vagina.” she shot back “Now clean yourself up and help me lift this damn thing it weighs a ton.”
“Fine but only if you apologize” I joked
“Fine” she whined “I’m sorry you got sand in your vagina and its making you pissy”
“You know I’ll take it, so how much longer until your house?”
“Only like 5 more blocks”
“Sweet” I said as we grabbed the cooler and started to walk the beach. We walked the rest of the way cracking jokes and insulting each other. It turned out to be a day I wasn’t going to forget for awhile.
Her house looked a lot like mine except it was painted a decant color on the outside. Specifically a light blue, almost sky blue. We set the cooler down about 20 feet from the house closer to the ocean than the house. The beach was peppered with sea shells. “So what is in this cooler?” I asked reaching down to open the lid.
She shot her hand down pinning the lid down.
“Nothing” she said shooting a smile my way. I would remember that smile for a lot longer than would want to.
“So, my name is Mike” I said sticking out a hand offering a handshake.
“That’s cool” she replied. I drew my hand back hurtfully
“Man you just shot me down, that was harsh.” I joked back
“How bout I make it up by inviting you to the fire I’m going to have tonight”
“Deal, by the way I’m going to call you Jack, until you decide to tell me your name.”
“You know I’ve always liked Jack” she shot back.
“Alright Jack I’ll see you later I gotta get home for lunch, when does your fire start?”
“When ever it gets dark” she said waving as she walked towards the stairs up to her house.
I walked the rest of the way home thinking about Jack, or that girl, all those thoughts stopped when I realized my parents were back home, indicated by the van parked in the driveway and my dad dragging what looked like a new guitar out of the back. When he saw me he waved. “You like my new guitar” he asked showing it off over his head.
“Oh yeah dad” I said sighing “So what’s for lunch?” I asked
“whatever your mom feels like cooking, we were thinking goldfish, grilled cheese, and tomato soup”
“You guys would cook that” I said in disbelief.
“Hey what’s that’s supposed to mean?”
“Nothin” I said shaking my head as I went up the steps, looking at the clock and calculating the hours until it would get dark, and I could see Jack again.
The rest of the day passed about as normal as a day could pass with my family. My dad sat down after lunch and played one of his hippy songs on his new guitar and turns out he found this new thing that allowed him to play the harmonica at the same time. It turned my house into a mini blues concert or hell on earth take your pick. About 8 o’clock I decided to tell my parents that I had been invited to a bonfire.
“Mom, Dad” they stopped playing there song, the sound of the guitar stood in the air for a few seconds. I started again after a short pause. “I met a girl”
“OOOHHH Mike met a girl” squealed my mom interrupting me. Then she began rambling off question after question like she always does when I talk about a girl. “
“Mike won’t be answering any questions until he has at least finished his first comment” I said purposely in 3rd person. My mom stopped her blabbering. “So as I said before I met this girl, and she said she was going to have a fire, and she invited me… Can I go?”
“Really that’s all you wanted, I thought you were going to tell us you got caught doing something naughty” said my dad throwing a wink my way.
“Richard don’t give the boy any ideas” squealed my mom slapping my dads arm playfully.
“So can I go?” I said changing the subject before it got anymore awkward.
“I vote yes” said my dad “but your mom holds the swing vote”
“Hmm” she said pretending to act like she was thinking. “How much do you love me?” she asked
“How much do I need to for you to say yes?” I asked
“You know that’s not the answer I was looking for” she warned her arms crossed.
“What if I said more than Dad” I asked
“Then you would get a yes vote.” she replied
“Alright sorry dad, but mom I love you more than dad”
“Whoa were supposed to be friends.” my dad said pretending to be hurt
“Sorry dad but the girl is pretty cute”
“What about bro’s before hoe’s” he asked
“That goes out the window when the girls higher than a 8” I said
He accepted it, and that gave me two yes votes. They went pack to their songs, and I went to my closet to find something to wear.
By 9 o’clock it was dark, and I was ready to go. “Don’t stay out later than 3” my mom said standing at the door as I walked down the street to Jack’s house.
You could see the fire from a good distance away, and you could the hear the people talking from almost farther away. It looked like 6 or 7 people were there. I walked up and joined the circle a little awkwardly. “Oh hey guys it’s the Canadian I was telling you about” said Jack putting her arm around my shoulder. In her other hand she held a bottle of Bud Light. I saw the cooler just outside the circle filled to the rim with ice, bottles of bud light peppered the ice.
“What’s up Canadian?” some guy asked me, he was a bigger guy with a shaved head. He saluted me with his bottle before he took a swig.
“Oh he is as cute as you said Anna” snickered some girl sitting next to the big guy.
“Oh shut up Ashley” laughed, I guess her name is Anna now, kicking sand in the girl’s direction.
“You want a bud?” a tall guy asked sitting by the cooler
“You know why not” I said, I didn’t really drink back in Michigan. But that night I felt different. I felt like this was a new place, so I thought I should do something different. Turns out something different meant getting hammered. After an hour or so at the bonfire, people started asking me questions about moose hunting, and I started telling stories about how I had taken out the state record size moose. I don’t even think I own a gun.
After about another hour or so of telling them more stories about Michigan, the big guy and the girl, left holding hands, they must have been a couple. The tall guy and another guy that looked a lot like him left 20 minutes later. Soon everyone began to file out. The last person to leave was a girl, she was short, and had freckles all over her face. “You sure I can leave you two alone?” she asked jokingly
“Ha Ha Ha” laughed Anna sarcastically
“Well nice meeting you Mike” she said waving good bye and walking into the darkness.
Anna came down and sat next to me, we were both pretty quiet for awhile staring at the fire. Then she said “You know there’s a couple buds left you want one” You know why not. Turns out the buds loosened us up, and we started cracking jokes and laughing. We ended up laying in the sand making sand angles together.
We were quiet for a second again, laying on the sand looking at the stars.
“You know I never noticed how pretty the stars are” she said
“Your pretty” I replied obviously drunk.
“You know you should get going it’s getting late”
“Yeah, yeah, sounds good.” We stood up and there was an awkward pause before I said “You know it was nice meeting you today”
“Yeah you too”
“What you up too tomorrow?” I asked
“Looks like I’ll be hanging out with you” she replied. She opened her arms up offering a hug. I hugged her. I felt like this felt really right, like we were made to hug each other. I had only known this girl a day but I was crazy about her. The next thing that happened between us may have been the bud’s fault but I hope not. As she pulled away from the hug I put my hand in the small of her back pulling her back in, that’s right I was making the move.
When our lips touched she tensed for a moment then she relaxed and kissed me back. I had to force myself away from her. I said goodbye, and just to lighten the mood I grabbed her hand and kissed it saying “sleep well milady” in a corny British accent. This had the desired effect she laughed and drew her hand away and whispered
“see you tomorrow mi lord” in a British accent that made mine look even more cornier than it already did. I smiled and turned around to go home, I waited until I was out of her sight before I began to skip with joy.
The next couple of weeks went great for Anna and I. She showed me around the island, introduced me to all her friends. The best part was she didn’t seem to phased about what had happened at the fire, really she seemed more playful.
I learned there was a darker side to Anna though, she wasn’t this perfect girl. She dreaded to go home, and when I asked her why, she always skipped my question. One time while we were walking through the park, I saw a bruise on the inside of her arm, I think I had found my conclusion to why she avoided her home.
A month went by and we began to become closer than ever, I almost every hour of every day with her. Then one day she seemed really down, I asked her what was wrong, and she began to rant about how her mom and her had been really close, then her mom passed away from cancer four years ago. She dealt with it by writing she said. I asked her to show me some of her writings, she told me she rather wouldn’t.
Then she told me her dad had become really depressed when her mom died, and had taking to curing it with heavy drinking. She told me that he wasn’t a nice drunk, like all of her friends, which we partied with almost every weekend. That he yelled at her for the slightest mistakes she made, and once or twice he had hit. I had a feeling it was more than once or twice. She began to cry and I hugged her closer telling her that she was tough and I would help her through this. I walked her home that night, she said her dad went off to work in Mobile Wednesdays through Saturdays, that day was a Thursday. There was nothing for her to fear at home. She hugged me goodnight, I didn’t try to make a move I knew it wasn’t the time. That’s why I was so surprised when she kissed me, dragging me into her house. The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed the next morning.
I woke up the next morning to her calling my cell phone. “Hey sorry about last night” she said “ I was scared”
“Hey it’s ok” I said. “ You know I really didn’t mind it, I enjoy kissing you” I realized how dumb that sounded after I said. She laughed and said
“what you up to today?”
“I guess I’m hanging out with you” I replied.
“Sounds great” she said cheerfully “see you soon”
“See yah” I said hanging up the phone.
I ran out into the kitchen and poured my self a bowl of cereal.
“Hey bud what you up to today?” my dad asked resting his hands on my shoulders.
“Hanging out with Anna” I replied
“You two dating?” He asked.
“You know I don’t really know” I said but I thought about the question a little bit longer.
“Hey I have a song that would sound like it was written just for you, you want me to sing it?
“Thanks dad I might have to take a rain check on that” I said finishing my cereal, and walking toward my bedroom to get dressed. 10 minutes later I was knocking on Anna’s door, she opened the door, and came out grabbing my hand and leading me down the sidewalk. She was wearing a tank top, and some shorts. He black hair was up. I never told her but I lover it when her hair was back, it left her perfect eyes uncovered. “So where are we going?” I asked further intertwining my fingers with hers.
“Just for a walk”
“I just walked all the way to you house” I whined
“Will this shut you up?” she asked leaning in and pecking me on the lips. I just laughed and let her lead me. We walked about 20 minutes until we came to the beach.
“I dunno I just like looking at the water”
“Sounds cool to me” The reality is anything we did would sound good, just as long as she was there.
We sat there talking for at least an hour before she said “ You like pasta?”
“Yeah it’s alright”
“Well you want to come over for dinner, I making pasta and it gets pretty lonely when you eat dinner all by yourself all the time”
“Yeah sounds awesome”
“It’s a date” she said standing up and pecking me on the lips “come over at five” she yelled as she ran back down the beach in the direction of her house. I sat on the beach just thinking about nothing for awhile, before I decided to get up and walk home.
The dinner went awesome, as did the rest of the weekend, she never called me on Sundays, and if I tried to call her she never picked up her phone. That’s why I was so surprised that rainy Sunday night when she called me crying. “ I’m leaving” she cried out “I have to get away”
“What the hell?” I asked
“I have to get away from him”
“What did he do?” I asked, I could begin my rage rising. I had never met her dad but I hated the man just because he hit her, I had wanted to turn him in but Anna told me not, she made me promise not to.
“He brought a new woman home!” she yelled “He’s trying to replace my mom!”
“Anna where are you?” I asked putting on my jacket it was raining outside.
“I’m in my car heading towards your house” she replied
“Why my house?” I asked
“I have to pass it to get the bridge so I can get off this god forsaken island”
“Can you at least pick me up so we can talk about this” I pleaded.
“Fine I’m pulling into your drive way right now” I heard her brakes squeal as she came to a stop. I ran outside, not listening to the yells of my dad demanding where I was going, I jumped in her car as my came running down the steps. She peeled out before he could even get close to the car.
Turns out her dad had found a new girlfriend, and she found this appalling, they had gotten in a argument, and she said she was leaving, then he had said that he wanted her to leave, that she was nothing but a pest to him. She told me she was going to find a place in Mobile, and she said she could find a waitress job easy. When I asked her about us, all she said was “I don’t know anymore.”
She had driven across the bridge and was on the mainland now it was raining, hard and she was having trouble seeing. The next thing I now I heard brakes screeching, horns honking, then blackness.
I see my dad, he looking down at me calling my name. The lights are bright, but in the bed not far from me I see Anna she has tubes connected to her arms, nurses are standing over her. Blackness
My dad is over me again, his hand is laying on mine, I can’t feel my legs. He’s talking to a doctor. I think. Anna laying in the bed next to me, the nurses are gone. Blackness
My dad is still over me, so is my mom, she is crying. They are both talking to a doctor, I look over for Anna but she’s gone. Where’s Anna? I’m starting to panic. I jolt up.
“Mike” my mom screams seeing me sitting up
“Where’s Anna?” I ask. My mom looks at my dad, tears begin to well in her eyes, her and the doctor leave the room.
“Dad where’s Anna” I asked sensing what was coming next
“Mike you were in a car crash, you’ve been out three days straight, Anna was in critical condition, they tried to save her” he paused
“Dad what are you saying?” I asked I could feel the panic rising
“She was already to far gone they said” my dad finished. A tear rolled down his cheek, I sat there motionless.
“Your lying” I said
“Mike” my dad replied
“Your lying”
“Mike no I’m not”
“YOUR LYING” I screamed tears began to pour from my eyes. My dad reached down and hugged me, I could feel his tears mixing with mine on my cheek. I fell asleep crying that night.
The next morning I tried to get up, but my legs weren’t moving. I tried again, but again no response. When I thought about I couldn’t feel anything from my waist down.
1 week later
I tried to sit through her funeral, I couldn’t make it through the whole thing I didn’t want to think of her as dead.
2 months Later
I laid on my couch listening to my dad playing guitar, I hadn’t really talked to him since the hospital, I just kind of sat and slept on this couch, I was to embarrassed to get in my wheel chair and go other places. “Dad?” I asked he looked up almost startled
“Yes Mike?” he replied putting his guitar down
“Dad can you teach me how to play the guitar?”
“Of course” he said picking up the guitar and moving closer to me
6 months later
My dad and I were due to play in the pub that night, We just finished writing the song we were going to finish with that night, a week before. He asked me what I wanted name the song. I think we both already knew that answer, I said I wanted to name it “Anna”
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