"BLUE LU! BLUE LU!" My father hollers at me from a small distance away. He frantically waves his arms as if I could miss him. He was wearing this painfully bright neon shirt that was in fact so dazzlingly intense that you could mistake him for the sun's younger, less impressive brother.
Sometimes it sort of concerned me that he was so enthusiastic about my presence. I almost felt ashamed that he saw me only occasionally as if I was liable for that. He embraced me with his big burly arms and then kneeled down so he was looking directly into my eyes. His gaze was so deep and potent that it felt like he was boring into my soul. But not in a bad way, in an endearing way. I could always rely on his brilliant green eyes to reinstall our familiarity with each other after a month of not being together.
We started trudging up the mountainside to the main lodge where all of the visitors could check in and receive their keys. I let him remove my bag from where in hung on my shoulders, and take it to the back until we could place it in a reliable spot. My shoulders started to curl over and sag once the pressure was taken off of them.
"How was your ride up?" My father asked.
I shrugged. "Pretty and uneventful", I murmured lifelessly. "I'm so excited for you to be here for Wilderness Fest," he continued. The best thing about my dad was his vivacity. He was always perky and eager even when there wasn't anything to be anticipated. It was a totally different vibe than the one I got from my mom. She was more uptight, not that I preferred either of them. They both had their great qualities.
The words "Wilderness Fest," brought me back to my dad. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that!"
I'd been to Wilderness Fest in previous years, but this year it fell on my birthday.
My birthday in New York was so ridiculously basic it made me nauseous. Me and my mom would go out to a fancy sushi place, she would give me some sort of jewelry or makeup which I would stash in the bottom drawer of my dresser, waiting until I was mature enough to want to use it.
Mom would buy us a dessert to share. Mom didn't like to get me any refined sugar so she never got me my own thing. She wasn't really an advocate for junk food. Actually she was really passionate about 'fueling our bodies with the most effective fuel' (AKA healthy food). But I never felt particularly fueled by salads. Mom says all the nuts and seeds she mixed into the vegetables are supposed to satiate me. "I'm not a bird mom," I constantly seem to have to remind her.
Anyways, the best way to describe Wilderness Fest is that it's like Christmas for supermarkets.
It's a money making mechanism for us but for the guests, it's a meaningful experience full of bonding activities and strengthening your spiritual connection with the outdoors. I will say it's a smart strategy. And this year I'll get to spend my birthday eating pizza and multiple different types of desserts and throwing darts at balloons and helping fry funnel cake. It was like a full blown carnival set up just for me.
It was humid in the lodge. My dad didn't like to keep the AC running when lodgers weren't in the wooden building because it was considerably extortionate. Of course I understood the logic but still, it felt sort of like being baked alive. These were the dog days of summer up in Minnesota. We usually only got it for a couple of miserable weeks. Well, my dad did. I only got it for one before I had to catch a train ride home.
I saw Trish buzzing around the back room.
She was a pretty Hispanic girl with curly black hair and almost black eyes. She had a curvy shape that made her look warm and welcoming but she really was the polar opposite. She was sarcastic and sort of passive aggressive. I walked up to her. "What are you doing?" I asked her. She grunted. "Looking for replacement tweezles. Gosh I hate that word, don't you? It's like a mix between tinkle and wee," then she released another grunt before going back to sifting in the supply closet.
I knew the most altruistic thing to do would be to assist her, but I really didn't want to. I wanted to go find my dad and ask him a very important question. I apologized to Trisha and began sprinting to the second main building, where my dad spent most of his time. Then I tripped over a freshly fallen log. There was one of the new changes, I guess.
YOU ARE READING
SAVING FALCON
General Fiction----September Realistic Fiction Challenge---- Luanne Hayes visits her father once every month at his WIlderness Adventure park, Falcon, but everything changes when she learns that due to financial struggles, her father might have to close the p...
