Weathered Love

SUMMER

The next day, we started our cross-country trek home for the summer. Our parents flew home, but us kids took the car and made a trip out of driving from California to New York. It was a bad idea to start a cross-country trip, in the middle of a California summer, with a hangover. Although, mine wasn't as bad as Mackenzie's, who Ivan insisted had to ride in the back because he refused to try to deal with her getting sick all over his front seat while he was driving.

I managed to wrestle shotgun and completely rolled the window down, laying my head slightly outside the window so that the wind could whisk away my nausea. Our first stop was only a few hours away in Reno, Nevada. We would have stopped in Las Vegas, but it was too far out of the way and we would have been extremely limited in what we would have been able to do anyway.

We stopped at a hotel and settled in, then did some sightseeing. At my insistence, we even went on a hike. We had almost the whole day to ourselves there, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever make it back, so I made sure we tried to fit as much as we could into the day. We got back to the hotel room exhausted and we all slept soundly that night.

The next day, we drove straight to Salt Lake City, Utah, which was a much longer drive than the day before. We got to the hotel, settled in, and went out for dinner. We were going to spend the entire day in Salt Lake City the next day and leave the day after, so we didn't feel the need to try to squeeze anything in that night. After a quick check-in with the parents, we got dressed up and headed to a cute little place we found nearby for a quiet evening.

I ordered a salad and noticed the glances, but I'd gotten used to them. "What are we going to get up to tomorrow?" I asked, directing the attention away from my food choice.

"No more hiking," Ella begged.

"We could just walk around downtown and see what we can find to do," Samantha suggested.

"I like that," I agreed, as did Mackenzie, Ella and Ivan.

"Well, that was easy," Ivan commented. We finished our dinner and thought we were heading back to the hotel, but Ivan instead drove us to a state park.

"Why?" Ella whined.

"Here, hop on my back," I offered her. The pain of carrying her up a hike in unsuitable shoes would have been less torturous than listening to her whine about it the entire way.

"It's not far," Ivan assured us. He was true to his word. Soon we were at a lake, looking up into the dark abyss, littered with millions of twinkling lights. It made me feel so small and I realized how big our universe truly was.

"This is absolutely beautiful," I breathed, sitting down, not caring about ruining my clothes. I stared at the twinkling lights, getting lost in their soft beauty and forgetting where I was.

"Here," I heard Ivan's voice offer in the distance. I noticed him put down a blanket. Where he got it from, I had no clue. But I laid down on it and just gazed at the stars. "I'm glad you guys like this," Ivan started. It was only then that I noticed that the others were also laying down on blankets. "I thought we'd camp here for the night."

"And forego the comfy hotel beds?" Ella incredulously asked.

"There's always one," Ivan sighed.

"Let her drive back to the hotel. We can stay here and she can pick us up in the morning," I offered.

"Let Ella drive my car? No," Ivan firmly insisted.

"Actually, I'd prefer the hotel too," Samantha sheepishly chimed in. "This is lovely, but I'm not crazy about camping," she admitted.

"You guys suck. Have you ever actually tried camping?" Mackenzie inquired. Silence was the only reply she received. "Try it out. If you hate it, well, we have the hotel for another night. It'll be fine," she insisted.