The summer I met Charlie

part 1

Pre-

The lights flickered on and off for what seemed like forever. How many times could I have blacked out of this fantasy?  I wasn’t expecting for the tables to turn on me. 

But then again, I had never really thought too hard about how I would die.

 Chapter 1.

A brief encounter. 

     The air from my window blew in with the smell of sea salt and smoke from someones bond fire the night before. It was too early to be anywhere close to morning, but my alarm had proved me wrong once again. I threw on a pair of ratty shorts and a t-shirt and began yet another day of my boring summer. I wasn’t suppose to have to stay in California for the holiday, but when my cousin had to move in with us, that all changed. Her parents had gotten into a fight that ended when my cousin’s dad tried to throw a DVD player threw one of the windows. Of coarse he wasn’t in the best state. He was pretty drunk and upset about losing a lot of money that day.

    My cousin, Olive is about the prettiest girl you could meet. She has the mirror image of her father. Curly reddish hair, and dark blue eyes, everything about her shouts Irish. When I was younger and we drove for two days to visit my moms sister and the new addition to the family, we all joked that it was my job, to find a shirt for her that said “kiss me, i’m Irish”. Of course that was only four years ago, so Olive is needing to stay with us, and that means I am on toddler watch. 

    I hated the way my day was starting to feel, ten minutes in, and already regretting the painful choice of waking up at six a.m. But this was my time, aside from the occasional trips to the quick shop on my way home from the beach, or the time when I could sleep... this was it. 

      I grabbed a cereal bar and darted out the door, my sneakers made crackling noises on the paved concrete. My jogging was matched to the crashing sound of the waves. The sound that I was starting to enjoy more and more. We lived on the coast and the water was a deep blue hue. Only at dawn and dusk did it actually resemble something dream like and Caribbean.

 My daily route consisted of running from my house, past the quick shop, and darting down to the beach to where i could dream of what my sleep couldn’t give me...peace. The houses started to become fewer and fewer and then I was completely alone. I turned down the dirt path and watched as the dirt started to gradually change to a mixture of sand, until it was only the color of cream.

    The beach stretched on for miles. As a kid my mother would call me from my place in the sand. She would hunker down low and tell me a story of how the waves can carry magic. How when a wave crashes, the sea foam will carry away all fears. Seeing it now I wish it would also grant wishes too. I ripped the wrapper off my pocket sized meal and started the walk home to my soon to be awakening family and to the new day what I was secretly dreading. My day.

I watched the water for a while. And the crabs that always darted in and out of the waves. Then heaved myself up and began the jog home. It usually took me a good half hour to get here but another 15 minutes more on the way back.

    “I’m leaving now, make sure that when Olive wakes up you have oatmeal waiting, or you know what she will do.”

      “Sure mom. Good luck on the house.”

         And with a click of the door, I am alone,...

    I started with the living room, as it stands our house has never looked this good. It seems that when my summer began two weeks ago I started this crazy obsession of cleaning. I have cleaned all the rooms, Iv’e cleaned the basement, I even ventured into my fathers art studio one day and risked being sucked into the chaos of the inner artist. Everything from paint splattered to the walls, to paint brushes that have about a years worth of paint embedded into them.