Let's Go For A Ride

The Sally Ann Tales: Let's Go For A Ride: Mom whose name is Eiko Mathison, is in the kitchen cleaning and washing dishes. She is keeping busy putting the house in order. She hears the noise the kids are making in the background. 

  Dad whose name is Robert Mathison and everyone calls him Bob, is in the living room watching football on the big screen television. It is Sunday so he will be watching the football games all day long, changing channels in between commercials. He already watched the ten O'clock games. It is now halftime during the one O'clock games. He could hear the kids getting loud in the background. 

  Kris is eight years old and Marianne is seven years old, and they are coming out of Kris's bedroom heading down the hallway going towards the family room yelling on the way. Kris yelled, "Stop hitting me"! Marianne yelled back, " You stepped on my bare foot "! Kris shouted back, " Wear shoes "!

  Coming up to Mike's bedroom, the door is closed but you could hear the sound of an off key trumpet. Mike is five years old and practicing hard for the school band. He is getting better than last week. 

  Marianne opened Mikes bedroom door hard and his model airplane fell to the floor and shattered to pieces. Marianne said, " You are playing too loud ". Kris said, " why don't you play in the garage "?

  Mike annoyed, said to Marianne, " Hey, you broke my model airplane ". Marianne replied, "I didn't mean to ". Kris chimed in and said, " She broke it on purpose ". Marianne shot back a reply to Kris, " Mind your business ".

  Mike heard enough of his two sisters so he stormed out of the bedroom and headed towards the garage, trumpet in tow. 

 Sally Ann is ten years old and in the family room listening to her favorite music on the family stereo system. She has earphones on and singing her heart out. The yelling outside the family room is so loud, Sally Ann can't enjoy her music. 

  Sally Ann hollers to her two sisters arguing outside the family room, "Be quiet ! I'm listening to my music ". Kris yells through Sally Ann's earphones, "You're singing too loud"! Marianne pipes in, "Yeah, and you can't sing anyway "! Sally Ann answers back to Marianne, "That's mean". Marianne disagrees saying, "No, just telling you some hard truth ". 

  Sally Ann feeling hurt said to both sisters, "I'm telling Dad". Sally Ann starts to rise up from her sitting position getting ready to head towards the living room. She didn't get very far because as she turned around, Dad was standing in the entrance of the family room with arms folded and a stern look on his face.  

  Sally Ann, Kris, and Marianne said in unison, "Uh, Oh". All three girls are scared now thinking they are in trouble. Dad said in an even tone, "Let's go, we are going for a ride ". All three girls still mad at each other said all at the same time, "I don't want to go ".

  Mom gets her purse and gets ready to get in the car. Dad gets his car keys and raises his voice a little to be heard, "Sally Ann! Kris! Marianne! And Mike! Let's go. We are going for a ride ".

  It is now three thirty in the afternoon and all of us kids are thinking, "Where can we possibly go at this late hour "? We all get in the car, shoving each other as we pick our favorite seats for our ride. All buckled in our favorite seats. We all have frowns on our faces, and our arms are folded across our chest. We are all still mad at each other. Dad breaks the silence, "Okay, here we go ".

  Half an hour later into our ride on the freeway, Dad makes a right turn going up towards a mountain. We all turn our heads in curiosity. Another half an hour we are almost at the top of the mountain. 

  Mike startled all of us pointing towards the side of the road and said, "Look! A snake "! We all look at the side of the road, watching a great big snake slithering into the bushes. We all are excited and in awe saying, "Wow"!

  Sally Ann said, "I see a deer "! Kris and Marianne both said, "Really "? The deer ran away before anyone else could see it.  

  We are so far up the mountain that we can almost touch the clouds. Dad is starting to drive down the mountain. Marianne said, "Ewww, what's that smell "? Kris couldn't resist and replied, "That's you, Marianne ". Sally Ann in turn said, "No, look! A bunch of cows. There are so many. How awesome ". 

  Mom turns on the radio to a familiar song. We all sing in unison all the way down the mountain. We see an occasional squirrel, a windmill, a rainbow next to a waterfall on the way down the mountain. 

  Driving back to the city, there are lots of restaurants. Mike's stomach growled.  He said, " I'm hungry ". It is now five thirty in the evening. Dad drives around looking for a place to eat. He decides to stop at a buffet restaurant. We all ate our favorite foods until we were stuffed. 

  After dinner we walk towards the car and Dad says, " Hold on there kids, we have one more stop ". We all watch Dad as he starts to walk next door. Our eyes grow big as we see Dad walk into the ice cream shop next door, waiting for us to walk in behind him. We each get an ice cream cone and eating it in the car on the way home. 

  We all forgot what we were fighting about early on in the day, but we all are a happy family again driving towards the sunset all the way home. The End. By Sally Jenkins