Many Summers Ago (chapter four)

    “Hey, cut it out!” I screamed playfully as Amelia continuously splashed me.

    “Not until you surrender yer vessel, ye matey!” Amelia declared in a pirate voice.

    “Never, ye scalawag!” I mimicked her accent and giggled.

    “Arrr! Then this means war! Prepare to be boarded!” 

    At that moment, Amelia climbed onto my inner tube and created waves that made me feel like I was about to fall off the inner tube.

    I screamed like a young child as Amelia laughed heartily.

    “Okay, okay! I give up! You win! You can have my vessel,” I offered, sliding off of the inner tube.

    “Arrr!” Amelia followed me, leaving the inner tube behind. “I changed me mind! I don’t want yer vessel; I want yer…yer…I want yer sunscreen!”

    “My sunscreen?” At that, I laughed uncontrollably.

    “Yes, yer sunscreen! This summer heat is going to be the death of me! I’ll have red rashes fer weeks if ye don’t surrender yer sunscreen!” Amelia exclaimed.

    “I won’t give it to you, but we can share,” I countered.

    “It’s a deal!” 

    Laughing the whole way back to the shore, Amelia and I then applied more sunscreen and picked up our sandwiches for a bite to eat. 

    “Hey, my sandwich is literally a sand-wich!” Amelia chuckled.

    “Mine too,” I declared. “Oh well, I’m hungry enough to eat my sandwich even if it has actual sand in it! Swimming always makes me hungry.”

    “Swimming makes me hungry, too. I wonder if our parents like swimming and if swimming makes them hungry. I always think about them and think of what they would do or like or anything of the sort concerning what I’m doing,” Amelia confided in me.

    “Yeah, I do, too. But we won’t have to wonder for long because we’re going to find them. All in good time.”

***

    I blinked a few times and my eyes flickered open. I realized I had fallen asleep! On top of that, I had dreamed about the conversation Amelia and I had had years ago when we went to the lake nearby with some of the other kids from the orphanage. 

    I recollected that we were only nine or ten at the time, and here we were now: on our way to finding our long lost parents. 

    I stood up and continued down along the path, now looking for anything of Amelia’s that would help me find her. 

    As I walked, I wondered why that specific time had come back into my mind during my dream. I wondered why it wasn’t something else that I dreamed about—something that was actually dream related versus something that actually happened, just many summers ago.

    Although I thought it was strange, I shook off the feeling and carried on. 

    I found out, though, that the feeling would not go away the farther I went, the closer I got to finding Amelia.

    Then, another story came to me: the story of when we decided to escape the orphanage to find our parents…

    It had been twelve years, our whole lives at the time, that we had been at the orphanage. We had enjoyed it there from the people to the opportunity to the shelter and food, but we both felt like we were missing something in life: a true family. Yes, we had each other, but that wasn’t the same. I mean, Amelia and I were sisters, but we did not have a mother or a father that we lived with. We both felt like it was time we did, so we plotted to flee from the orphanage and find our long lost parents. 

    Our ploy was exactly what had just happened. When I say exactly, I mean not really, not very much, nada, zip, zero, no. The only thing that went according to the plan was the first part of the escape—the part before the lever and tunnel and yeah.

    Anyways, everything was falling into place now. What happened many summers ago—what I just reminisced—was or had happened! Just now! A few hours ago! And although the tunnel thing was not part of the plan, I had high hopes that I would find Amelia, and together we would find our parents!

    As I continued along, I glimpsed something shimmery…like the glass I saw before the fork in the trail!

    I smiled and hurried over to see if it was what I hoped. It was. It was a glorious piece of broken glass! It was the most beautiful piece of broken glass I had ever seen! Why? Oh, why, indeed! Oh, it was the most beautiful piece of glass I had ever seen because it meant Amelia had been here! And if Amelia had been here, that meant I was on the right track.

    Right track. At that thought—quite a funny memory of which I will explain—I cracked up. I snorted and laughed until I was coughing and crying.

    Three summers ago, Amelia and I had been allowed to go on a hike with a few of the other kids from the orphanage. We just hiked nearby, not more than half a mile from the orphanage, and we really should have known where we were going because we had hiked there a bunch of times in the summers, but we didn’t. We got lost while Amelia was leading. It had been quite a while—much too long compared to the usual amount of time—and I thought we were lost, but Amelia didn’t. She kept on guiding us farther and farther until she admitted that we weren’t on the right track. Finally, Mr. MacCroix found us after looking for ages.

    My mind raced back and forth between the summers Amelia and I had spent together. Between then and now, everything was different. I mean, all of my life, all of those fun times we shared many summers ago, Amelia and I had always done things together, and that’s why things were special. 

    Even though I felt like giving up, I didn’t. I knew I couldn’t. No, although Amelia and I were apart, we would soon be together again; this would be a summer to remember.