Taste of Fire

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. In the morning, the rose-colored lights did the cha-cha-cha with a tequila sunrise.

My eyes squinting open only to see some light blinding my eyes, as a chorus of birds chattering through the cool morning air. Already I thought? Why are these dang birds so loud? Stretching with a big yawn I turned over and stared across the room, past the dresser drawers filled with clothes all messy scattered out of their home, old school papers laying on the dresser fluttering with the breeze. The gentle wind made the drapes flow like flickering lights with the morning sun beaming through the open window. I always wondered what it would be like riding a Unicorn in a field surrounded by daisies and tulips racing to meet my handsome prince so we can ride off into the sunset together. I chuckled a little, wait I think that would be him on a white horse instead of me on a unicorn, right? Silly me, sometimes I swear I will never grow up. I did wonder if that could happen, I mean to have someone whisk you away stuck by love? Then I remembered what my mom said. She told me not all men were gifts. Some were treasures, and some were less than a buck. If you want to know which ones they are, look at the way they treat their mother.

Now I don’t know what she meant by that, I mean, would I just go over to their house before I talk to him, stand in the kitchen, and observe how he and his mother talk? Would I look through his windows and peek in without them knowing to see how he is with his mom? Maybe I would just randomly go to his house and pretend to sell magazines or even better, offer them some cookies and then see how they would react. I mean do you have to do this before he will come riding on his white horse and take me to his castle in never, never land? Seriously, I had no idea. All I know is if I would even get a boy to give me attention, I would be too nervous to even think of how he treats his mother. To me, that just seemed like some weird saying that my mother’s, great grandmother handed down.

All these thoughts kept swirling around in my head, and just then, my bed started to get super cozy and warm. I pulled the blanket up a little higher and put it over my head I curled up and smothered myself a bit farther into the warmth of bedcovers.

A startling yell came up from downstairs; “Time to get up Kids!” I could hear my mother yelling like it was a fire drill. Was it that time already? Oh yeah, today is the day. We're going to the beach!

I was so excited I forgot all about my thoughts from the morning and sprang up out of bed and ran to the window. The motorhome was straight down from my window so I could see everything going on around it. To my surprise blankets, lawn chairs and bags of food were waiting to get loaded up into their rightful place. My heart leaped for joy! I started jumping up and down and dancing around spinning in circles and yelling,

” Yay! we're going to the Beach!”

Then I stopped stone cold, a shiver ran down my spine. I could hear stirring from my brother’s room.

The thought of waiting for the bathroom because he would beat me to it made me sick. He purposefully does this to me since he knows Mom won't do anything about it. When he’s in there it's so disgusting, like an act of war. It’s as though his soldiers give each other devious glances as they bow down to the grand throne, jump in for the finale, and light off fireworks as they pass through leaving behind nothing but smoke and rubble. He then takes out his sword and say’s.

“Victory is mine!”

When he finally opens the door, it was the alarm that I’d been dreading: the enemy had won with his weapons of the battle. The stench would be so overwhelming it would be like swimming in a pit of cow poo. Whenever this happens, I get upset and turn green because I want to barf, and then he just laughs at me Ugh! I just couldn’t let that happen again. I immediately turned to run out my door, run down the hall, scurried into the bathroom, and slammed the door. With a sigh of relief, I leaned against it, locked it, and yelled;

“Ha! I’ve gained the victory!”

Mocking my brother so he knew that I officially won. Chuckling to myself I started getting ready for our big trip.

It was the summer of 79’ and we are riding to one of my favorite places. I just graduated 8th grade and was going to stay with my cousin who lived on the Oregon coast for a few weeks. Just the thought of the misty mornings and clam digging was the highlight of my imagination! Cherie my cousin, was super gothic. They used to say she will be the last one to get married since she was always the odd one out. They just don’t know her as I do. Some of the things she does are kind of intriguing really. Plus, some of the things that have happened to her are unbelievable. I had to close my eyes and hold my ears just to have her to quit telling me anymore because it was giving me nightmares. After hearing so many things it’s no wonder she is how she is. I already knew visiting with her this summer there was going to be some fire in the mix after all, she does live on the dark side.

This year she told me she is going to take me to a surprising place so I can see for myself. It makes me a little scared but I’m sure it will be fun.

While riding in the back seat of the motorhome I noticed my brother looking back at me with his evil eye. The enemy had been spotted. I rushed to the top of one of the lookout towers and sure enough there they were banners cresting to the east as the army followed. The Castle had never fallen before, especially on the neutral ground of the motorhome. There was something evil in his eye but I was still in for the win and to keep my position.

Just then, I thought, I need to get out of this war shit, it's so childish.

“Knock it off, Jimmy!”

“Mom! Jimmys picking on me!”

Mom turned and saw Jimmy turn around in his seat antagonizing me.

“Jimmy!”

She gave Jimmy that look that Mom does. Jimmy backed down but before he turned back to face the front, he pointed his finger at me and snarled his mouth.

“You just wait, I will have the victory soon!” He let out this sort of laugh “Bawahhhaha.”

I scoffed a little and rolled my eyes. I thought, I'm just going to focus on this trip.

“Mom! I am so looking forward to this.” I exclaimed as we traveled through the open road.

“Good!’ “I think it will be good for you to have some time with your cousin”.

As I sat there and realized what she said, hearing; “time with my cousin” made the hair on my neck stand up. There was a twinge of something haunting me about staying with Cherie. That was something I didn't want to face, so I just ignored that fear and was looking forward to seeing if there would be a prince for me on a white horse and in this soon-to-be summer fun. Hey, maybe those purple clouds will dance? I don’t know, but I couldn’t wait to start my adventures.

Little did I know at the time, my life as I knew it, was over.