1
The clouds parted beneath us, and I could see the sparkling ocean from my window. The crowds on the beach made it look like a freshly disturbed ant hill. I had seen a city from a bird's eye view in movies plenty of times, but seeing it in person was breathtaking.
While I was staring in awe at the scene outside my window, Mom was typing away on her work laptop. The lack of internet didn't stop her at all. She was surely composing some important work-related document, or going over the company's upcoming financial statements again.
It was Friday, a bit past noon. We would be going home Sunday around the same time. I was shocked that it was such a short trip, especially with the price of plane tickets. Alas, money was no object to Mom. Taking a day off work, however, was all but unthinkable. Vacations like this only came when holidays landed in just the right spots. I hoped that being around her easygoing sister might help her relax a little bit.
"We're about to land soon," I said, "Don't you want to at least look out the window?"
She looked up from her laptop for a moment, and gazed out of my window. "It's nice dear," she said, "very pretty." Then she looked back, and typed furiously on her keyboard for a few more moments, before snapping it shut and stowing it away.
"How was your first time on a plane?" she asked.
"It was fun. I feel much better now that I've had time to get used to it."
Normally I took a train to get between home and my university dorm, and we used to be able to reach Aunt Sally's place that way too. A few years ago she decided to move to the coast, and we hadn't met with her, or her daughter, in person since. Mom was always too busy to visit, even though they were the only family either of us had. If I was a bit older, I might have visited on my own, but right now I was pretty busy as well. Even if I wasn't, it seemed a bit awkward to plan that kind of thing by myself.
The landing was a bit nerve-wracking for me, but Mom seemed totally calm. Flying was something totally normal for a woman like her.
Everyone stood up and began fishing around in the luggage compartments. I tried my best to reach my suitcase, which was at the back of the compartment, but I couldn't stretch my arm far enough to reach it. Mom, already carrying her luggage, effortlessly reached it and pulled it down for me.
It was a bit embarrassing that my mother still towered over me at my age. Nonetheless, I thanked her, and she patted me on the back, smiling gently.
Once we were in the terminal, she groaned, and rubbed her shoulder.
"That seat was murder on my back. Would you carry my luggage as well sweetie?"
They were both on wheels, so it was by no means a feat of strength. She was surely just asking in order to massage my pride a bit, after I was forced to rely on her earlier. My pride was not so easily injured, but I happily agreed to carry her suitcase anyway.
She bought us each a coffee at a store in the airport, and then we made our way to the spot where Aunt Sally was waiting. She was the total opposite of Mom. She was slightly shorter than me, with curly blonde hair down to her shoulder, and dressed like she just came from the beach, which she likely had. She had on a bikini top and a long, water-safe skirt. She had put on a light jacket as well, for some semblance of modesty.
She was grinning from ear to ear, and ran up to us as soon as she saw us. She wrapped Mom in a tight hug, during which her face was about level with Mom's chest. Mom looked a bit flustered. She wasn't usually this affectionate with people. We never really hugged unless one of us was upset. Sally hung onto her for quite a long time. Then she hugged me as well, a bit less forcefully.
We exchanged simple pleasantries as we returned to her car. She tossed our bags into the trunk, and we climbed in. Mom sat up front with her, and I rode in the back seat.
"Mark," Sally said, "I can't believe how cute you still look! And you're so slender!"
Sally herself was beyond what most would call a young age, but she seemed to value youth quite a bit. I definitely wouldn't have said she looked old, and she had the sort of energetic personality that one might call "being young at heart." At her assessment of my figure, I just laughed a bit and rubbed my wrist.
"I guess I'm not eating enough these days." I said.
"Don't worry about things like that baby, you look fine just the way you are! I bet you've been getting a lot of attention from the women at school haven't you?"
"Um, not really no."
"Oops, sorry. Men are fine too, dear!"
"Oh, it's not that. I haven't been meeting many people at all. I've been focused on studying and stuff."
That was partially true, as I had been holed up in my dorm room studying, but I also spent my free time playing games by myself or with online friends. If I had tried, I probably could have spent plenty of time socializing.
For a while, Sally and Mom talked back and forth about work and other similar topics, while I read a book on my phone. I vaguely registered that they actually had pretty similar careers, and were talking shop and complaining about coworkers. My ears perked up when Sally mentioned the one member of the family who was currently absent.
"Gina started working at one of those restaurants on the boardwalk a few months ago," Sally said.
"So she still isn't planning on going to college?" Mom asked.
"She's considered it of course. She's a smart girl. She doesn't have any sort of ambitions though. She just wants to read and play games."
"A good job is hard to come by these days without college. She won't be able to rely on you forever."
Gina was a year younger than me. I was 15 the last time we had seen each other. Before she and her mother moved away, we had spent a lot of time playing together. We were both quiet kids who didn't have many friends. While the sisters talked or went out, we would often end up hanging out. Sometimes we just sat silently in the same room and did our own thing, but eventually we started playing together more. We hadn't talked at all since she moved away. I wondered what she would be like now, after all this time.
The towering hotels and condominiums thinned out, and suddenly the road was long and straight, following the coastline. Along that coast were colorful beach houses, evenly spaced and representing the full spectrum of basic candy colors. I imagined most of them must be rentals, but apparently Aunt Sally actually owned one of them.
Sally pulled the car into the driveway of a house painted in various shades of green. I could faintly hear the sound of the waves, and I could see the many people crowding the beach. Though it was basically in the backyard of the houses that lined the shore, it was still a public beach.
We entered into a cozy living room, from which the kitchen was scarcely separated, and were guided around the house. There was a staircase in the living room that led up to the second floor. The house was short, so the second floor was really more of an attic or a loft. It only contained Aunt Sally's bedroom, where she and Mom would apparently be sleeping for these two nights.
Across from that staircase was a hallway which connected all the other rooms.
First there was a 'guest bedroom'--usually a storage room--where I would be sleeping. Piles of junk were shoved into the corner and stacked on a shelf, making just about enough room for an old convertible sofa to be folded out into a bed.
A charming ocean-themed restroom was across the hall. A shower curtain depicted an idyllic underwater scene with a coral reef, and the soap dispensers, among other things, were shaped like fish.
Further down the hall was a broom closet, and finally Gina's bedroom, which had a cute wooden sign on the outside. As Aunt Sally was showing me how to pull out my bed, I heard Gina's door open, and she and Mom apparently met in the hallway outside.
