Day Two: The House
Beep beep beep. I groaned and rolled over. Oh, how I hate alarm clocks. I laid there for a good while, until I reached a state of pure boredom. I got off that soggy pancake, known as a bed. I squinted my eyes as the morning light flooded in. I grabbed my clothes and went into the bathroom. I emerged a little while later, clean and gingivitis-free. I pulled on my poor, suffering pair of old Teva sandals. I could almost hear them begging to be put out of their miserable existence. Those shoes had not only served me well for years, but my sister also. I saluted them for being so reliable in our time of need. That soon forgotten, I grabbed my phone and room key, said bye to my parents, and ran off to the street.
I wandered around ‘till I found a neat little shop called the Imagination Station. Now usually, with a name so unbearably cheesy as that, I would have kept my distance from it, and crossed my self for good measure, just to be sure its unholiness didn’t rub off on me. This was a special case, however, as my friend Brooks had ranted and raved about it for a good while, so I walked in. It was pretty neat with some pretty cool stuff. I wasn’t blown away. This changed quickly.
“Hey, are you over thirteen?” asked the shop keeper.
“Yeah...” I was terribly embarrassed. I thought maybe this was a store for small children. I was ready to defend my masculinity with many excuses until he said;
“Come over here, I want to show you something,” he said. Eager to save face, I tripped my way over to the counter. He pulled out a small box, no bigger than a tennis ball. Inside were many shiny balls, resembling BB’s. Was he going to shoot me?
“These,” he said smugly, “are Buckyballs.”
“Oh, uh, cool. Yeah,” I said, trying to sound like I knew a lick about “Buckyballs”.
“They’re rare earth magnets, and they’re extremely addicting,” he said, trying to lure me into a buy, while being genuinely nice at the same time. He had caught my interest. He handed them over and led me to a counter parallel to his.
“Try them out,” he said. Trying not to look like an infant playing with a new toy, I attempted to look bored. This was hard, the fact being these little metal balls were crazy amazing. I would be an old man before I had done every last possible thing with Buckyballs (I encourage you to look them up). Engrossed as I was, I barely noticed the time flying by. About an hour later, I got a call from my parents, telling me to meet them across the street. With great reluctance, I put the magnets down, thanked the clerk, and wandered off.
I met my parents outside of the rat-hole (hotel) and we went to a nice little cafe called Soulshine Bagel. We each got a breakfast sandwich, sat down and ate it (I was inhaling rather than eating....I was so hungry). We were talking and my dad got a text.
“It’s from Mark,” he said. Mark as in, Mark Wilber. You see, we were sharing a cabin in Lake Placid with them until Sunday. Apparently, they had told us where they were, and we were going to meet them. We started the journey to what I would soon find out was the beach. As we approached, you could tell which family was the Wilbers. Just look for a large group of people who were varying sizes, ages, and shapes. The first thing we saw was Isaac waving us down like a director on the runway. We approached them and my parents started talking with the big Wilbers (Mark and Rebecca) and Isaac and I wandered off. My fancy happened to be looking for clams, so Isaac and I dug for some around the sandy bottom of Mirror Lake. After about two, Isaac said that he had gotten me something for my birthday. So, we strolled over to the Wilber’s Audi Q7 (Just imagine me whistling here) and he opened the glossy silver door with the flourish of a confident musician finishing his last note. He pulled out a brown bag with the Starbucks logo on it. Ooooh, coffee? I like coffee! Inside was nothing other than a bag of delicious Starbucks coffee.
“Thanks!” I said, with enthusiasm, inspired by the greatest substance on this floating blue marble. I was about to throw the bag away when Isaac said;
“Wait, look in there. There’s something else in there.” I peered inside and saw a shapeless mass covered in homely brown tissue paper. I ripped the paper off and what emerged astonished and astounded me.
“It’s a mug!” I shouted, “With a cork bottom! It’s practical and stylish! Thanks a lot Isaac!” He mumbled his “you’re welcome” and we set off towards his parents. We got there and, apparently, we were setting off for the cabin. I crawled into the boiling deathtrap, a.k.a, my mom’s dark green Toyota Corolla, and we drove off. We reached a small place, looking more like a cottage than a cabin. Nothing special. We opened our doors, and dragged our luggage in.
“Wow,” I breathed. If ever there was an illusion, this house was it. On the outside, it looked like an older cottage, but on the inside... The ceilings and floors were made of polished wood, pine perhaps. There was a flat screen T.V. in most every room, which hit me like a rock because I was expecting outhouses instead of bathrooms. I mean, surround sound in the living room? Are you kidding? The “cabin” had a very modern feeling to it, with a touch of rustic “outdoorsiness”, so emphasized by the millions of bear knickknacks around the house. I carried my yellow bag up the stairs to the room Isaac and I were sharing, We came downstairs and soon left for a walk around Mirror Lake (Writer’s note: the town is called “Lake Placid” but it’s on Mirror Lake. Go figure).
We reached the lake and began to walk around its oblong perimeter. Nothing much happened, rather than a nice walk. My aforementioned Tevas were hating me more than usual. I torture them with constant use. We made like elderly people and began window shopping. We found a sport store called EMS. I went in (my parents having already been in there, the Wilbers at a different store). My mom looked excited.
“We found some new Tevas!” her jubilant cry mixing in with that of the shoes. The new Tevas were everything I’ve ever wanted and more. I put them on then and there and we bought them. Upon leaving, we put my old Tevas to a long, much deserved rest. The last thing I heard while walking out the door were the shoes, seeming to whisper “Finally!”
My new shoes seemed to pull me along as we began the long ascent to our cabin. We left shortly after arriving to go to a [fantastic] restaurant known as The Tail o’ the Pup. We sat down at the comfy red picnic tables under the pavilion top. A friendly waitress (with a nasty habit of biting her pen while talking) came up and gave us our menus. Isaac and I both ordered “Big Kahunas.” Now, with a name like that I was expecting nothing less than a forklift full of meat on my plate. I was expecting the very fiber of this planet to shake with the sheer power and magnificence of this burger. I expected it to have a gang of religious fanatics, wiling to do its bidding. I expected-
“Here’s your burger, hon,” said the lady, setting the plate down before me. I looked at it.
“Is...is this mine?” I asked, incredulously.
“Sure is hon,” She said with a smile, “enjoy!” Surely there must be a mistake! This...this sandwich was nothing special at all! I checked under the bun.
“That’s the “Big Kahuna,” I shrieked. It’s more like a “Tiny Chihuahua”. I reluctantly took a bite after much indignity. It was actually delicious. I enjoyed every bite of it. All three. After my light snack, I had to do something, so I was staring at the road. Shortly thereafter, a silver Audi TT pulled in. What happened next, you wouldn’t believe unless you saw it.
Now, are there any Twilight fans out there? [Insert many shrill screams here.] Well quiet down! The movies aren’t anything special! Anyways, virtual cameos of Bella and Edward came out. The guy (I’ll call him Eddward), had that shaggy, windblown style of hair, except it was black. He was also very pale. But what really astonished me was the girl (I’ll call her BBella). She looked just like Bella from the movie, except with acne and a large forehead. This strange couple occupied most of my time. When we had to leave, I was almost sorry to stop watching Twilight: Real Life. As we drove off, (and I took one last look at BBella and Eddward) I wondered; why doesn’t he just eat her and get it over with?
We got home and Isaac and I ambled over to the nearest Starbucks, and bought ourselves a pair of mighty fine drinks. He got a grande Vanilla Bean Frappuchino and I got the best thing I’ve ever tasted. You ready for this? I got a grande whole milk, whip cream, extra coffee, Mocha Frappuchino...mmm. We strolled home, sucking on those delicious emerald green straws. It was late by the time we got home so we hung out, and went to bed.
