Vacation

Yukari Harano

Huffily, I slouched down low in my seat and glared at the back of the one in front of me. Why - today of all days - had I forgotten to bring my music with me? What in the world had made me rush out of the house without so much as my mp3 player? What had I possibly thought would happen if I didn’t bring even a fm radio on a road trip? Had I seriously thought I could achieve peaceful oblivion with a book alone?

And when the hell had we gone back to first grade?

Glaring at the seat in front of me, I gave into one of my eviler demons and kicked it as hard as I could manage in such a confined space. The hushed giggles that had been interrupting my concentration for the past hour went silent for all of a second before starting up again even louder. Eh gads, did that sound really grate against my nerves.

Slouched against the window beside me, Kiiru cracked one eye open and glared blearily at the not visible occupants of the seat ahead of us. That didn’t seem to phase them in the least. Not that I’d thought it would seeing as how they couldn’t see him. He waited a minute, gave up, and transferred his disgruntled glare to me, pleading silently to be released from his misery.

I did a pantomime of choking them and he grinned in that slow way of his. He made a show of stabbing them and twisting the knife. I snorted in amusement, trying not to laugh too loud.

Kiiru and I were usually bad siblings. We were pretty awful, actually. It’s not anything about physical appearance; that’d be absolutely silly in our family. No, it mostly has to do with the fact that he’s a total geek and I’m about as far from that as I can get. I mean, I’m no jock but I’m definitely not like him.

I know there’s a rule out there that says brothers and sisters are supposed to fight. My family’s really good at following that rule. I made a good use of it and delivered another swift kick to the back of the seat. The giggling stopped and a tousled head poked up over the top. Pale green eyes narrowed back at me and the girl I’ve always considered to be my arch enemy opened her mouth.

“Job. Kari’s kicking me.”

I stuck my tongue out at Saga. What was she? Five?

From the front passenger seat of the wagon, Kai shook his head and flipped the page of his magazine. “You’re not even in the same seat.”

At the same time, our wonderful father heaved a sigh and hunched over the wheel a bit. “Quit kicking your sister.” he told us without much force.

“We’re not sisters!” we both exclaimed simultaneously, glaring even harder at each other.

Job just sighed and went back to driving.

Poor guy. He couldn’t take us anywhere without the world coming to an end. I would have felt like making it up to him later but I’d really felt like he’d sort of deserved it this time around. It wasn’t our fault he’d decided we all needed a vacation. Together. Can you say bad idea at conception?

Another tousled head popped up beside Saga’s. He was actually the person I was kicking. Job hadn’t been stupid enough to put Saga directly in front of me, knowing full well that we’d end up causing trouble anyway. Honestly, though, the two of us can fight like wet cats without being able to see each other so it’s always pretty inevitable that trouble will ensue at some point. The best anyone has ever managed is to just delay its coming. It would have worked pretty well this time if someone hadn’t managed to conjure Trouble by bringing her best friend along. I’m not sure what rates Streets a trip with the family but it’s always a horrible idea to put those two together. It’s just like giving sugar to a hyperactive kid.

Grinning challengingly back at me, he threw something small at me and then both he and my evil little enemy ducked out of view again. In no time, they were back to their demented little giggles that had interrupted me in the first place.

I dug the small thing out of a fold of my shirt. It was a stick of gum. Citrus flavored. Streets is such a weirdo.

Popping the gum in my mouth, I settled on throwing the wrapper back over the seat back and kicking it again. I then pretended to ignore them. Of course, what else could I do? Starting a third fight in the car in one day was sure to get us all grounded and what kind of vacation are you grounded on?

Kiiru grunted and settled back against his window to continue his nap. The rest of the ride passed in relative silence. So long as you ignored the Terrible Two.

-

“Hey, Yukari. Can you gather everyone up for lunch?”

I pretended I hadn’t heard Job’s request and tipped my head at him quizzically. Music tickled my ears playfully as it pumped from my headphones. Turned out I hadn’t forgotten my player, just packed it on accident. How awfully silly of me.

We were staying at Job’s little cabin located deep within the mountains. It was wild to escape the city and just spend a couple of days once a year in the middle of nowhere. Right. Summer made it hot and sticky with humidity and brought out the glorious multitudes of bugs. And instead of spending an afternoon hanging with friends at some pizza parlor or burger joint, we were spending it with family - uck - in some one room shack - double uck - where our nearest neighbor was an hour’s walk away. Did our dad think we were amazons or something? Or maybe he thought we would like to try out for the Boy Scouts.

At least we had a toilet and a shower of sorts. We did have to take turns and post guards when we used the toilet because there was only one and it was located in the corner of the cabin. Did I mention the cabin only has one room? The shower is a bag of water with a tube that Job stuck in the fork of a tree. It’s really not as bad as it sounds: Job had put a wooden platform at the bottom of the fork and had managed to hang a green curtain around it to give some semblance of privacy. You had to be really careful about walking near it though. If you didn’t, you might accidentally get a glimpse of someone in their birthday suit. I was really leery about using the shower this year with Streets around. He’d never struck me as the peeping sort but he was a healthy, growing boy so I never put it past him.

We also had to live off of what we could cook on a little propane powered grill. Or rather, what Job could cook. Outside of him and Kai, the rest of us didn’t know jack about food prep. It was all really trying on some days.

Of course, it wasn’t as terrible as all that. Not completely. If we got bored, we could always go hunt for salamanders and fish in the stream that ran a little ways down from the cabin. There were also all the little waterfalls and pools to play in and in some places the water ran as deep as our knees. We could have water wars and we could play in teams or individually. And if anyone couldn’t stand the group, they could always go for a hike up the mountain until they felt like being social again. Sometimes that may take hours but it was hours to yourself and nature. There was the day last year, as well, where we’d all hiked down to the “neighbor’s” house to borrow their four wheelers and had explored all the little winding roads all over our mountain. There were bonfires at night and smores after dinner. Fireflies to catch in bottles and ghost stories to tell while cuddled up in our sleeping bags on the floor of the cabin. There was fun to be had all around if we knew where to - or wanted to - look.

Today, I didn’t want to look for fun. I’d pretty much found it while blissing away with nature hung before me and Matchbox 20 as my background. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done a good job of hiding my bliss and Job had come out to ruin it. Of course, all he’d had to do was come out the cabin door to find me dangling my feet off of the porch with my arms hugging the rail. It wasn’t a porch really, more a balcony. The cabin had been built right onto the side of a mountain, after all, and it’d needed stilts in order to sit flat. I liked to think of it as a broad window to the world. Saga liked to think of it as deadly.

Our dad stared back at me with a slight frown. Yes, I’d heard him because, no, my music wasn’t up all too loud and, yes, he seemed to be aware of that. A few more seconds ticked by while I continued to pretend I hadn’t heard him before I gave up entirely. Who was I kidding? Blissing was boring shit.

I groaned half-heartedly and pulled myself up using the rail. My t-shirt was cold against my back due to the sweat and my bra was sticking to my skin in a very gross way. Yuck. “Everyone’s down there.” I told him, waving a hand lazily towards the stream below the cabin. It was only what? Ten - fifteen feet away? Easy view from the balcony. Hadn’t Job seen - or even heard - the nasty water fight down below? It looked to me like Kiiru was actually winning. The little squirt wiggled too much for Kai or Saga to get a good grip on.

Job followed my hand and watched the fight for a moment. “Chow!” he bellowed out to the mountain. All heads below instantly whipped around and zeroed on the tall man leaning over the rail. I heard my enemy’s exuberant “awesome!” and the others started to climb up the rocky shore. It took Kiiru several laughing tries to manage to get over the slick rocks.

“Where’s Streets?” Kai asked as they clomped heavily up the wooden steps to the balcony.

Saga shrugged awkwardly, trying to wring water from her long hair. “He was there ten minutes ago when I dunked him and then he left.”

I frowned at her and stopped tugging on the front of my shirt for air circulation purposes. “Isn’t he your friend?”

She scowled back, “Do I look like his keeper to you?”

“Girls.” Job warned softly. We stopped and humphed grumpily. We weren’t allowed to fight over dinner. Of course, we baited each other and teased but actual arguing was strictly against the house rules. It was a good one. Otherwise, we’d never get any eating done.

Our dad turned to me for some ungodly reason and asked me to go find our lost guest. This didn’t seem to make Saga very happy. I know it didn’t make me very happy. She’s the one who brought him; shouldn’t she have to look out for him? But no, apparently Job wanted me to do the task, instead asking Saga to go grab the food and plates and get them outside. She eyed me for a moment before shuffling inside to do as she was told. I stared at Job a little longer before finally going along with it. Had the heat addled his brains some more?

“I saw him go up the dry brook.” Kai told me, not even looking up from his napkin placement around the table. It was a old, folding card table our dad usually kept in the basement. There’s a rip on the corner from years ago when Kiiru had stuck a steak knife point first into it.

“Wonderful.” I muttered back and clattered down the stairs in search of the lost boy.

The dry brook was a little trail of rocks and pebbles that lead to the stream. After storms, it turned into a real babbling brook and you could find salamanders there then. It was mostly dry at this time of day, though. It only really rained at night so it was this neat little place in the mornings. Sometimes, we took a family walk up it.

Streets hadn’t wandered far. He was really just beyond the tree line, probably out of yelling range so he hadn’t heard Job. He looked pretty at home in the middle of the woods sitting on a rock. He had his arms wrapped loosely around his knees and his short blood hair was drying in the brilliant afternoon sunlight, going from dark honey-
brown to burnt gold.

He looked up as I approached, a peaceful smile stretching over his face. He’s strange like that. He didn’t react to things like a normal teenager. Instead of the melodrama and hysterics, he was aware and serene. He said some odd things sometimes that made absolutely no sense, but we were all very used to dealing with that. However, there were times when you caught him, alone or amongst friends, and it was as if he’d found his ultimate zen. His Eden and Serendipity. Now was one of those times.

I blinked and stopped walking. He didn’t say anything, just smiled at me in that peculiar way. What does he see in the world in order to get that peace within him? I wanted to ask but at the same time, I was afraid to break his mood. I wasn’t afraid he’d lose it because this is something so totally Streets that it’d be impossible for him to lose, but I knew somewhere that if I spoke, he’d hide away this feeling he’d gotten hold of and wouldn’t share it again for a while. It sounds so funky to say that, but it’s true. Once you’ve seen true peace and you’ve looked it in it’s hazel eyes, you don’t ever want to let it go again.

Instead of talking, I wanted to do something impulsive. That wasn’t like me and I wondered a bit at the feeling, but I just couldn’t pinpoint the reasoning behind my emotions. It wasn’t as if it was something I’d always wanted to do and hadn’t. It was a completely new urge. I finally made up my mind and closed the distance between us. The smile on his face went away. I could still see it in his eyes though and that gave me the courage to do what I did next:

I kissed Streets.

It was just a small thing, a peck on the lips really, but I’d found that in that fleeting instant I’d managed to capture that peace for myself. Up close, he smelled like sunlight and water and a little like his bubble gum and sweat. Underneath was the scent of damp earth after a heavy rain. His hand was a bit clammy when it grasped my arm and pushed me back. His eyes were wide with surprise. Some of that serenity that I’d been seeking still lurked around the edges of his gaze though and I was glad it hadn’t gone away entirely.

“Lunch, goofball.” I told him, my voice more steady than I felt it should be. Was your heart suppose to be pounding in your throat after you did something like that?

Streets seemed a little unsteady as he nodded and slid off the rock. His cheeks were red, though, and I didn’t know what to make of that. Maybe he’d gotten sunburned.

Shrugging it off, I turned and guided him back to the cabin, lunch, and my family. My heart had calmed back down and had dropped back to its normal resting spot. I could still feel his lips on mine and that sense of utter rightness was still mine.

I never any other weird impulses the rest of the week. At least none that concerned Streets. I did have that moment where I just up and decided it was alright to stick a salamander down Saga’s shirt. That resulted in a mud slinging fight from opposite banks of the stream. I can’t remember who even won.

Compared to that single kiss, the rest of the trip was really uneventful.