by C. M. Boers
I dwelled on it for a few minutes and the next thing I knew it was morning. Not surprisingly, mom wasn’t out of bed when I went downstairs. Dad had started making breakfast, and his specialty was just about ready: pancakes. I loved them. He made them special for me with blueberry eyes, strawberries for a nose, and bacon for a mouth.
We ate in silence for the first time since he had been there. I could feel the tension in the air, but it was nothing compared to when my mom walked into the room. The room seemed to ice over. A chill shot down my spine. The amount of coldness in the small space between mom and dad chilled my bones. Nobody even greeted anyone; she didn’t even say good morning to me. It was at that point that I knew he had heard mom come in late last night too.
I couldn’t get out of the room fast enough. I didn’t know if she felt proud or ashamed, but one thing for sure was that I was ashamed of her.. For the first time ever I felt like the mom; I expected more from her. I would never disrespect her the way that she was disrespecting me with her behavior.
School was very uneventful despite Pete’s sour attitude. The past couple days he’d been extremely petty, which went right along with his temper. He didn’t just request a new seat assignment from our teacher in math class, he also got some of the other students in our class to move away from me as well. I was alone in the little circle of desks that surrounded mine. Pete had been right about one thing, I was sorry—sorry I ever went out with him, sorry I ever had my stupid plan, and sorry I ever laid eyes on him.
My disgust with his actions stayed on my mind as I went home after school, only to be greeted by the same tension from that morning. I didn’t know what to say to either of my parents, so I did the cowardly yet responsible thing and went upstairs to do homework. I could hear their muffled voices after I left the room. They sounded furious with each other. My mom’s antics were affecting my time with my dad, and it wasn’t fair. Shortly after starting my homework, my dad came upstairs.
“Hey kiddo, how are you doing?” he asked causally like there wasn’t a reason he had come up to see me. I knew better.
“I’m fine dad,” I answered.
“You’re mother and I are in a little bit of a spat. I guess we were a little crazy to think we could live peacefully under the same roof, even if it was only for a week.” He frowned. “I guess it was inevitable that there would be some bumps here and there.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t agree with your mother coming home in the middle of the night like she did last night and I’d be willing to bet you heard her.” He looked at me pointedly, and I could only nod in response. “It isn’t setting a good example for you. Your mother thinks it’s only because I’m jealous.”
“I don’t think it is setting a good example either. She already knows I disagreed with the way she was presenting herself; I told her so yesterday before she came home so late. That is precisely why I haven’t been speaking to her.”
“Oh,” he sounded surprised. “You’re so grown up.” He sat back looking at me in awe. “When did that happen?”
“Dad,” I blushed.
“What? You are. That was the type of answer I would have expected to come out of an adults mouth. You have matured so much in such a short time.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I just wanted you to know what we were arguing about so there was no confusion.”
Dad always explained their fights to me instead of keeping me in the dark. In the past he always said he probably shouldn’t because it was above my head, but he said he would want to know if it were him. Mom, on the other hand, would deny that they were fighting. She always had a problem admitting that they had problems in their marriage. I gathered that this was a good part of the reason we moved to Arizona after the divorce; mom couldn’t face her social circle after having a failed marriage. I can’t say that I blamed her for that part. It was embarrassing to say that you failed at something so important. I hoped to never have that kind of disappointment.
“Thanks dad.”
He grabbed me by my shoulder and pulled me into his chest. “Boy have I missed you kiddo.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
Despite the fight between mom and dad, she pretended nothing was wrong and decided we should all go out to dinner, then to play miniature golf. Neither dad nor I really wanted to spend any time with her based on how she was acting, but we did anyway to avoid throwing fuel on the fire.
Even though we were hesitant about going, we all ended up having a blast. By the end of the night, we were laughing and had forgotten our troubles. Even mom and dad were joking with each other. That surprised me the most.
By the time we got home it was 11:30. After a long night and lots of laughter, we each fell into our beds and were asleep in minutes. My stomach ached from the countless times I was in a complete belly roll laugh. It had been a long time since I had that much fun, and I suspected it was the same for both of my parents.
As Friday rolled around, I realized that the week with my dad was coming to a close. At the same time, we still had the weekend together without the interruption of school. I had a few ideas that I wanted to run by dad for things we could do over the weekend. I thought sightseeing and exploring new places together would be great, since it was something we both enjoyed. Mom was never the outdoorsy type and was usually a spoilsport when it came to those activities. The whole reason I hadn’t explored the area was because my mom wasn’t into it. The only person that I knew would appreciate it like me was my dad. There are a few lakes close by that I wanted to check out. I had also heard that Papago Park was pretty, and the Grand Canyon was on my list too, but it seemed to be a little much for only a weekend trip. I couldn't wait to run them by my dad, but when I got downstairs he had already left. I couldn’t figure out where he kept disappearing to. My ideas would have to wait.
When Eli picked me up for school I wondered if he knew anything about the lakes or Papago Park. I wanted to pick his brain about other places to go as well.
“Hey, have you ever been to any of the lakes that are close to us?” I asked.
“Yeah, I have been to most of them—Saguaro, Canyon and Roosevelt. Why?”
“Well, I was thinking about talking to my dad about going to the lake this weekend for a day trip, but I haven’t been able to go to any of them, so I don’t know which would be the best to go to.”
“Personally, I like Canyon Lake the best. Since Saguaro is the closest to town it is also the busiest and the smallest of the three too. Roosevelt is nice, but it’s a little farther than Canyon for about the same scenery. Canyon, that’s the one I would recommend going to.”
“Thanks, you wouldn’t want to join us would you?”
“I would, but I am working tomorrow.”
“Oh, that sucks! You think you could get off? It sure would be nice to have someone there that knows the area,” I said, surprised I hadn’t thought of it sooner.
“I can try. I’ll see what I can do.”
When I returned home from school my dad still wasn’t around. It baffled me. Eli didn’t come in, just dropped me off. Thankfully I didn’t have any homework, especially since it was my only weekend with dad. Before I could even get upstairs with my bag, the front door opened and dad walked in.
“Hey honey!” he said cheerfully.
“Hey dad, where were you?”
“Just out, I needed some time away from your mother.”
I understood immediately. He used to disappear a lot right before they decided to get a divorce, so it all made sense now. It was his way of dealing with frustration and anger.
“Oh. So, I have some ideas to run by you for what we can do this weekend.” I quickly changed the subject.
“Oh yeah?”
“Since I haven’t had a chance to go exploring since I’ve been here I thought we could do it together. We could go to the lake or go to Papago Park or both! What do you think?”
“That sounds like fun,” he said.
“I invited Eli, I hope you don’
t mind. I figured he would be able to show us around since he knows the area better than both of us.”
“Sounds good to me. You two sound like you’re close,” he said questioningly, with his brows furrowed.
“He’s my best friend,” I answered smiling.
“Are you sure it isn’t more?”
“Of course it isn’t. We’re just friends dad.”
“So if he isn’t, is there anyone that you are dating?” he asked trying to be casual. He was anything but casual.
“I was, but not anymore,” I answered vaguely.
“Oh, that bad huh?”
“Yea, I don’t really want to talk about it,” I said hoping he would leave it at that.
“Okay, okay—point taken,” he said light-heartedly. “I think they both sound great! What lakes are around here?”
“Well, I asked Eli for his opinion since he knows this area and he recommended going to Canyon Lake. He said that it is the best for scenery and it isn’t very busy. How does that sound?”
I felt my pocket vibrate and almost instantly I could hear the chimes of my ring tone. I yanked it out quickly and ran upstairs to my room as I answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey Abby. Guess what?” It was Eli.
“Did you get off work for tomorrow?” I asked hopefully.
“Yep! For the whole weekend! Turns out they didn’t really need me this weekend anyway.”
“That’s great! My dad liked the idea of going to the lake and Papago Park. So I was thinking the lake tomorrow and park on Sunday.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
“What time do you think we should head up to the lake?” I asked.
“Well, it will take us around two hours to drive there, so maybe around eight. Does that sound about right to you?”
“Yeah, and we can have a picnic. I’ll pack us turkey sandwiches, chips and sodas, oh and some water.”
“Mmmm, sounds yummy to me. Don’t forget your suits; we can go swimming.”
“And sun block!” I said getting excited.
“I'll see you at 7:45 tomorrow morning?”
“Yep, see you then!” I hung up and was down the stairs in a flash.
“That was Eli, he’s coming.” I beamed.
“That’s great, we’ll have our own tour guide!” he joked. “Let’s go make some dinner.” He put his arm around me as we strolled into the kitchen.
While we made dinner, I told him about our picnic plans. He seemed eager about the weekend, maybe even as eager as me.
The next morning Eli got to my house as planned, right on time. Dad answered the door and called up to tell me Eli was there, but I was still getting ready. I had packed our picnic lunch the night before, which included six turkey sandwiches with cheese, two for each of us, and then I bagged up chips and also cookies for dessert. All I needed to do was put it on ice in the cooler that my dad picked up from the convenience store up the street.
“We can take my car if you guys want, the convertible top would make the drive more scenic,” Eli suggested.
“That’s very nice of you to offer, that would be nice,” my dad responded politely.
I knew my dad would be elated when he saw Eli’s car. Dad was really into classic cars. Really, I mean what guy wasn’t?
We walked outside with our arms loaded with towels, cooler, and sun block, ready to start the day.
“Wow, that is some ride you’ve got there Eli,” my dad commended him.
We loaded the trunk and climbed in. I squeezed into the backseat, which was actually a bit more roomy than it looked.
My dad and Eli had something to bond over right away: the car. The entire first hour of the drive was filled with talk of cars. I didn’t have a clue about anything they were saying so I stayed out of it; but even if I had wanted to get into the conversation, I’m not sure I could have gotten a word in edgewise. At one point they were saying something about horses, or horse power, I’m not sure—they might as well have been speaking another language. I didn’t have a clue what horses had to do with cars.
Driving with the top down was something I couldn’t get enough of. I felt like a dog trying to see it all, trying to watch out of both sides of the car. The wind whipping through my hair as we sped around curves and wound through the mountains was an amazing feeling.
We arrived at the lake just after 10 and parked near the marina. The air was warm and comforting, and the bright sunshine sparkled off the water. We all had worn our swimsuits under our clothes, and we walked down onto the beach to enjoy the lake. We swam for an hour and a half until we grew hungry, and then we ate lunch on the dock, sitting on our towels and allowing the dry air to evaporate the water from our skin. Afterwards we walked down to the marina. As Eli and I walked around the store, little did we know that dad was preparing a surprise. We came out to find him standing beside two jet skis.
“Are those for us?” I asked.
“Yep for the day,” he beamed.
“Oh my gosh dad! That’s awesome!”
“You like?”
“Like? I love!”
“You don’t mind sharing with Eli do you?” he asked.
“Of course not!”
I couldn’t imagine trying to drive one myself. I had never driven anything in my life and I figured it was probably better that I start with something that doesn’t sink.
“Alright, let’s go,” my dad exclaimed.
We put on the life jackets and before we knew it we were speeding around the lake. We had the jet skis until 5 p.m., and we were on the lake with them the whole time. It was the first time I had ever been on a jet ski, and Eli confessed it was his first time too. Eli seemed to really let loose and relax, more than I’d ever seen him. We traded off driving, but I preferred to be the passenger. My favorite part was jumping the waves. A few times we both flew off and landed in the water, but then we’d both come up for air laughing.
Once we returned the jet skis we finished off the extra sandwiches in the picnic basket before heading home. I think we were all grateful that I had prepared two sandwiches per person; it was a two-hour drive home and there wasn’t anything to eat till we returned home. The sunshine had left us famished.
I was sad to leave; it had been exhausting yet amazing and I never wanted the day to end. I fell asleep on the way home and didn’t wake until my dad lifted me out of the car. I couldn’t imagine how he had wedged me out of the backseat, but he seemed to have managed.
“Thanks, Eli...” I struggled not to doze off.
The next thing I knew it was morning and I was waking up in my bed. We were expecting Eli at 12:30 to go hike around Papago Park—although from what Eli told me it wasn’t really a hike since there were stairs going to the top. Either way, Eli had assured me it was beautiful from the top.
I rolled myself out of bed, feeling like I’d only slept a few hours. I felt greasy from the sun block I’d worn the day before, so I hopped in the shower before heading down to breakfast. It was already 11, but I was sure that my parents would have breakfast waiting for me.
It turned out that my dad was still sleeping as well so my mom didn’t even make us breakfast. As I appeared downstairs though, she was ready and waiting to whip up whatever I wanted for lunch. I decided on some of my favorite comfort food: boxed macaroni and cheese. She made two boxes, knowing I’d eat a whole one on my own. I wasn’t surprised to see dad wander in just as the macaroni was being dished up.
CHAPTER Ten
Eli had been right. The top of the mountain at Papago Park boasted a beautiful view of the city. One side gave expansive views of desert hills while the other overlooked Tempe Town Lake, which was yet another place I wanted to roam someday. We wandered around for a couple hours before deciding we were ready to leave.
Our time at Papago Park was fun and warm, of course. I was famished. We decided to go out to dinner at a Mexican eatery near the park that we had seen on our way. I couldn’t help but think that I was going to gain we
ight if this visit was any inclination of how my dad and I were going to eat during his visits. Then again, I couldn’t complain it was nice not to worry about wasting our time together cooking and doing dishes.
Mexican cuisine is one of my favorite foods, as there are always a lot of choices on the menu. Plus, the atmosphere is usually so inviting. This restaurant in particular was festively decorated, and our table was bright green with a red lamp hanging overhead.
My favorite dish is a deep fried bean and cheese burrito served with rice and beans. That night the dish sounded extra delicious since I was starving. Dad ordered a shredded beef enchilada and Eli choose a steak-filled quesadilla. While we waited on the food we munched on the chips, salsa and beans they provided at no charge.
Before the meal came I headed to the restroom. Once I had done my business and washed my hands, I opened the door and was confronted by none other than Pete. Fear washed through me, but was quickly swept away by relief when I reminded myself that my dad and Eli were in the next room.
“Well well well—look who we have here,” Pete spit out, getting in my face.
“Hi Pete, I was just headed back to my table,” I said, trying to discourage him from continuing the conversation. I attempted to squeeze past him, but his stocky body blocked my exit.
“Oh, so Eli is your boyfriend now?” he asked snidely.
“No, I told you he’s just a friend, not that it is any of your business anyway,” I said as I tried again to slip out of his reach and back into the dining room. Before I could manage it, he pinned me between his arms against the wall. If I looked straight ahead I was staring at his chest, and if I looked up my face would be inches from his. So I chose to turn my head to the side.
I wished there was some explanation for his actions. This was Pete. His temper was a bigger part of him than I could have ever guessed. I knew now that it was who he truly was, an extremely angry person who could not control his temper. It was like he was blinded by fury. Unfortunately for me, the attack was probably preemptive since he was there in the first place and must have been following us. What could I do to get away from him without causing a scene? The last thing I wanted was for my dad to get involved; I would then have to explain to him the rest, because he would never believe it was the first time.