The Slide that Changed Our Lives

Disagreements

Alanna climbed onto her bike, waiting for her younger siblings to catch up before she started biking. They had been going crazy in the house, not being able to go anywhere or do anything and she had needed a break from working, which she was doing from home, so she offered to take them for a bike ride to give everyone a break, especially her mom. She loved her mom, even if they had different views on some thing. Her mom is a lot more conservative then she is, in the way of not hanging out with people she thought 'below her', which Alanna found to be very wrong and also annoying growing up. If someone had too many tattoos, used the occasional 'bad word' or spent to much money on the 'wrong things', then you didn't dare associate yourself with them. Kind of messed up, but that's just how it was and it was normal until she grew up and realized that it was wrong.

She watched painfully as her siblings made an extra effort not to look at guys who were working for R & R Rentals to help them get their garbage hauled out and get the docks installed. They were driving their side by sides around the community all day, going up towards the landslide, then going back down to the river and going to people's houses. She waved as they went by once, and they waved back, same as the second time they drove by. There were two side by sides, one driven by a guy wearing a red cap and the other had a black cap. Once the guy wearing a black cap pulled up and slowly paced their bikes, then stopped to talk since it was hard to hear over the noise of then engine.

"I'm assuming you guys live down here, right?"

"Yes. Where the Finning truck is parked in the driveway."

"Oh, perfect. We are figuring out who needs garbage hauled out. Do you guys?"

"Our dumpster is full, so that would be awesome," she said.

"Perfect! I'll make sure we get that done," he said, turning the side by side back on.

"Thanks guys," she said as they pulled away. They both waved as they pulled away and they continued biking. As they were coming up to a house, riding on the left side of the road, contrary to traffic, a side by side pulled onto the road from the path down to the river. Right away it pulled onto the right, contrary to traffic to avoid the bikers.

"Wrong side of the road," said Alanna before she even realized it. The driver, who was the one wearing a red cap, nodded his head back and forth with a saucy grin as they drove by. After a couple more loops they headed up to the house to grab a drink and as they stopped on the road by their house, he came by again on the side by side. Again they were stopped on the road in his lane so he steered around them, pointing to his left as he moved over, pointing out what he was doing. Alanna laughed and he grinned as they continued down the road. She looked over at the house to see her mom watching out the window. Great... there came another argument that night about the same topic they'd argued about for years.

Her siblings came back from getting a drink and they headed down the road, the way the side by side had went and they eventually caught up with it. They were on the left side of the road, most likely preparing to turn right to head down to the river, but they stopped to let the bikers go by first.

"Not again," she said as they rolled past.

"Well, it's all your guys' fault," he said, laughing as they turned off of the road and headed down towards the river where they were putting a dock together. Alanna laughed and followed her siblings up the hill, headed to their house. It was nice to actually talk to some people other then her family. Sometimes it was the neighbours and now these guys were around a lot more as well.

Later that afternoon it started pouring rain as the guys were emptying out their dumpster, bag by bag and loading it onto the flatbed of the side by side. Alanna watched them drive to the neighbours as she brought a bag of garbage from the house to the large garbage bag in the garage. The bag was full so she went to end of the driveway and yelled to get their attention. She lifted the bag into the air, then set it down and walked back to the house when one of them waved in acknowledgement. As she stepped onto the porch to get out of the rain, the guy wearing a red cap backed the side by side he seemed to be the designated driver of to the driveway and threw the bag in that back.