Waking up in the morning with my dad home is different from any other morning. He's as quiet as me normally but unlike me, he's mastered the ability to shift between his normal introverted nature and a more extroverted persona, when I opened my eyes, it was already 10:50 am "wow" I thought did I sleep that much? I got home around 8:18 pm and went to sleep around 9:16 pm. That the most I've slept in a while. I got up and headed towards the bathroom intending to take a shower and start my day. While standing in the hallway I could see my dad play fighting with my brothers, while simultaneously playfully annoying my mother, by touching her face and gently flicking her ear.
Staring at the scene unfolding in front of me made my heart flutter filled with butterflies. I chuckled watching my little brother Samuel, trying to protect mom, "Stop daddy mommy is busy!" he shouted with his hands stretched out wide, feet planted firm, in a stance that could only be described as crab-like. "Aww, my little knight," my mother said with a slight laugh whiling smiling from ear to ear.
After watching my father and brother play fight, I entered the bathroom, the first thing I noticed as always, was all the drawings on the wall, mostly all weird contorted faces, body parts and animals fur. "Geez, I must have been a pain in the ass to raise such a nuisance," I thought. The drawling's were mostly mine from childhood. Nearly every inch of the bathroom was covered in my drawling's, no matter what anyone said or how much trouble I got in, I'd always add at least one more drawing to the wall whenever I was in the bathroom. After turning on the shower and waiting for it to heat up, my mother called out to me. "A please don't use up all the hot water!", which was quickly repeated by my younger siblings. "It's not funny anymore!" I yelled back. Seriously my long showers have become a running gag in my family. It's not like I intentionally seek to take long showers it's just something that happens. "Dad can you drive me up to the cabin later today?!" I called out while getting into the shower. "Yeah, I'll take you, but it'll have to be around 5:00 (pm). I'm going to the beach today; you should come along". "Alright," I said slightly uneasy.
My shower went on for just about 48 minutes, my mind was occupied with thoughts of the cabin, "its slowly taking over my mind", I thought. Geez, I can't stop thinking about what I could possibly do with the cabin. "A! come on its been damn near an hour!" the sudden yell from my father startled me, shaking me out of my deep thoughts. "Alright stop yelling!" I shouted, honestly something about showers made me feel "safe" like nothing about the outside world was real. I got my daily routine done and decided to head over to my dad, "you said something about the beach, right?" I said still kind of tired. "Yeah, Richard and I are going surfing. I want you to come. Go get dressed". I could tell he wasn't asking me if I wanted to come but was instead ordering me. "Give me a few minutes". I said only really wanting to read more of [beginner's guide to core creation]. "Fuck," I thought everyone knows I hate the beach.
After getting into my wetsuit and getting into the car, I asked my dad again about taking me to the cabin and about the renovations we could make to it. "We don't have the money to make any really noteworthy renovations, but we can probably add a better bed.". He said, "yes we do" I whispered underneath my breath. He said we didn't have the money but in all honesty, we did have the money, it's just we switched from wholesome family fun to aggrieve financial gain, nowadays every conversation I hear my family talking about is about how to make more money. How to get into better colleges, etc. Now everyone's obsessed with winning the game called life. Id honestly say they're repulsed by longshore, every day is a failed escape for them. But I'm left asking the question "when did we stop loving our home. The place we all grew up in?" "we're here A, grab your surfboard in the back". My dad said, while hopping out of the car, damn I nearly fell asleep. "Yes sir," I said, stumbling out of the all green jeep. My board was bright blue with a picture of a hentai girl in her swimsuit, after trying to clear the sleep from my mind, I headed down to the beach, seeing my brother Richard talking to my dad about something.
"Well, well If it isn't the king of longshore himself". He said, mimicking a superman pose and smiling obnoxiously. "Here In the flesh douchebag". I said I was trying to be as mean as possible to Richard. Believing that to be the only way to gain some semblance of respect. The king of Longshore joke had to do with me telling everyone that I could feel the aura of all those who possessed the strange aura In town. Growing up Richard unintentionally taught me many lessons, one is to never allow someone to belittle you, if you believe that person could somehow tarnish your reputation, and well being bullied by Richard most my life taught me that standing up to every one of his sly remarks was the only way to avoid being made the butt end of every joke. Before I knew it, we were staring each other down, Richard was just about 6"0 and like my father he had a bulky build. "Enough boys!" my father said, it wasn't a secret that Richard and I never got along. All his extreme extroverted mannerisms came off as ignorant and douchey to me, and well my meekness and introverted mannerism came off as weak and wimpy to him. We'd clash over everything for no other reason than, we found each other's way of life to be incompatible.
"Let's go boys!" my father shouted, racing towards the sea. Today's weather was ungodly, the level of heat made the sand on the beach feel like molten lava, just breathing in the air made me want to vomit, the feeling of dryness in my mouth made the act of just opening my mouth to talk feel like a chore. I couldn't figure out how my dad and brother managed to run around in such heat, but there they were racing towards the sea. Honestly, I've been coming out far too frequently, I quickly made my way over to the both of them, not by choice, of course, I ran only because I wanted to get my feet off the burning sand. When In the water, I felt somewhat relieved and at ease.
The beach was packed full of people, everyone knew one another, I can honestly say I knew everyone here, from the red-headed tall skinny boy, named Pete who happened to be dating the short quite girl Suzan, to the old lady with sunken eyes, I've engaged with all the people here at least once, everyone was running from one location to another, trying not to stand on the sand for too long. It was honestly a funny thing to witness, but seriously, no matter how hot it is the people of Longshore always come out to the beach. It's practically tradition, we'd be out here even in a heatwave. "Dad we've been here forever" I shouted.
"A come here I have something to ask you", my dad said, with his natural booming voice. Honestly whenever I hear him talk it makes me remember all the time's Id cry whenever when he'd reprimand me as a kid. While sitting on his surfboard, looking out towards the empty sea. My dad was an ogre looking fellow, not that he was ugly or anything. Just that he had a body that would put most heavyweight powerlifters to shame, but oddly enough he had a kind caring face. With eyes that made him look incapable of violence, which just made his huge body even stranger. "Can we leave now?" I said completely unable to muster much energy. "How do you feel about working at the halfway?" the question threw me off, I remembered my mother saying that my dad was on board with me working there. After being dazed and honestly dumbfounded, I quickly gained my composer "I hate the mere thought of working there. Dad, I'll get a job just not there!" I shouted. My dad didn't say anything he just looked at me his eyes piercing into my skull. The thing I never liked and somewhat hated about my father was the look in his eyes. They were like an endless calm sea of fire, "Alexzander, you haven't thought about this, much have you? Yes, you could get a job anywhere else in town but the pay would be at most 8 dollars and even then you wouldn't be able to gain any noteworthy job experience. What would you put on your resume, "I helped move crabs for my neighbor" is that what you'll say?". He said with a light laugh. "No of course not, I could work at the bookstore or any one of the coffee or clothing shops," I said, "I've already checked you waited too long all those positions have been filled. You're like your mother when she was younger, she was the smartest yet when we graduated high school she chose to stay here, always believing that this town was enough" he said with a big smile on his face, he always had a smile like that when thinking about my mother,
"Exactly this place Is enough everyone is kind here, we have everything we need," I said honestly trying to convince him of forgetting this money-obsessed path my family was going down. "Let me finish, A. She believed that she had everything she wanted then when she was a teenager that surfed all day and did nothing but hang out with friends. But life's not all fun and games. There came a day when she realized that she'd grown to stagnate every day was the same. So I hope you understand, this town is fun and yes moments like these are honestly beautiful, but there comes a time when you have to grow, and well the moment you try to grow in this town, is the moment the invisible walls rear there ugly head, do you understand A." Yeah, I get it" I said, still not understanding everything.
We waited for my brother to get done with his conversation with a group of old high school friends. They were really just his lackeys from high school not really friends but they still had a few things to talk about, my brother was slightly similar to my father but not to the same extent, Richard was a goofy extremely loud person who you knew not to take seriously but still could stand being around. "Let's go, dad, he drove here himself". I said not caring much about saying bye to Richard. Alright don't be so moody A" he said while getting in the car.
We stopped at home and got changed, grabbing some cleaning supplies, I also grabbed the [beginners guide to core creation] deciding that today was the day id try someone the wonky things written inside. When we got to the cabin, my dad was honestly surprised by how much had changed. This was a place that we use to frequently come, nearly every summer. What should we start with" he said looking somewhat lost? "I'd say we should just look over the leaves and focus on getting the inside cleaned, seeing as that's where I'll spend most of my time," I said arms crossed and gazing at the cabin. When my father saw me, he gave me a hard pat on the back, saying "Let's get this done in an hour" with a huge smile on his face.
"Do you want to get anything else done?" my father asked, "no this is good," I said, gazing at the beauty of the cabin, with everything polished and clean, you could actually see just how amazing this place was. Alright, it's getting dark. Lets head home" my father said getting up off the floor after fixing the wobbly table. "Dad, can I stay the night here?" I said somewhat panicked. I wanted to read more about qi and actually try some of the meditation. After what seemed like an hour of convincing my father and a phone call to my mother, I was allowed to stay the night at the cabin, but I had to promise to be tutored every other day and work at the halfway gas station. A small compromise I thought, if this qi thing is real then I can finally escape. This mundane life.