Roots

Daniel

She smiles back at me which gives me a warm feeling inside. My name is Daniel Nguyen, but I don't look Vietnamese. My mommy is American and my dad is Viet, but I don't see him much. He died when I was born. My mom is a house realtor which is how my path crossed with Jackie's. I was three when I met her, my mom was showing her an open house and we played soccer in the front yard.

"Do you live here?" she asked curiously.

"No, do you?" I asked.

"No, my name is Jacqueline, but my friends call me Jackie, what's your name," She smiled, holding out her hand.

"It's Daniel, Can I be your friend?" I inquire.

"Sure," she sang sweetly.

And so our friendship began, I ended up moving to her neighborhood. We got along pretty well due to the fact that we don't see one parent very often. Her father seemed to always be in the Philippines, if not for work, then for family or vacation. I still can't believe my mother let me go on this trip with only Rachel supervising.

We start packing up for the day, Jackie still gazing at the fire. She has always loved fire, and of course water, which is scary for a five year old. I grab her arm, shaking her back into the present, she looks up at me and I tell her, "C'mon we have to go inside now, it's late."

    "Okay," she replies reluctantly.

    I woke up early the next morning, I look around letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. Tyler is sleeping like a twisted pretzel on the other side of the tent, Jackie is bundled up in her blanket, still wearing her favorite pajamas. I look for rebecca, but like always she is already up outside. I grab my gray hoodie and tiptoe out of our tent. A rigid gust of wind hit my face as I step into the clearing. I walk over to Rebecca, sitting close to the edge of a cliff on a rock facing the ocean. "Rebecca! You're crazy, you're out here too early and it's cold," I say as another chilly breeze blasts around our hair, "You're not even wearing a jacket."

    With a roll of her eyes, she remarks, "Well at least I didn't stand staring at the sky during a thunderstorm, because lightning is SOOOO interesting."

    "Lightning IS interesting," I say defensively, "and I wore a sweatshirt. Also, why do you like wind, it's so... windy..." I blush waiting for her to retaliate. She turns towards me and gives me the kind of look as if to say Are you kidding me, that's the best you could do? But surprisingly she doesn't say anything.

    I walk back over to our picnic table and start making breakfast, yes I make breakfast at 6 years old. My mother, like Jackie's father, isn't always around. I learned to take care of myself last year since my mom has lots of work too, including how to cook breakfast. As I pull together some vegetables for Rachel to cut, Jackie walks out of the tent. "Here, let me help you," she says, brushing her hair out of her face.

    Rachel and Tyler finally wake up, Tyler joining Rebecca by the rock, Rachel helping cut the veggies. I can hear Rebecca lecturing Tyler on how it's not safe to swim with sharks. Jackie and I believe that she acts too old for her age. We finally put our omelettes on the skillet we brought and wait for them to cook. I think back to earlier when Rebecca was making fun of me. She wasn't lying, I did stand in the pouring rain just for the chance to see lightning, electricity is super cool and I love learning about it. That's why fireflies are my favorite type of bug, they have lightning in their butts!!!
   
    "Kids, breakfast is ready," Rachel calls out. We gather at the table scarfing down our meals like wolves. We're all extremely excited about the painted caves, let's just hope the same incident doesn't happen again this year like it did two years ago.