Less Than Three

Chapter 43: Holes

Sunday, July 12, 10:15 PM Term of the Day: Odyssey - A long voyage marked by many changes of fortune

*Clicks heels together* There's no place like home ... there's no place like home ... I'm back from the odyssey, zooligans! Did you miss me? I missed all of you. Yeah, even you, Lily P. Now, if you'll excuse me, homecomings make me (yawn) sleepy.

The List:

Things I Love:

long talks

beach rocks

home

Things I Hate:

I am trying to erase the H-word from my personal dictionary. After a bunch of pondering, it seems that most of the things/people I Hated might not have deserved it. I still Hate charred meat though. And running.

For a while, I thought everyone but Craig might be hiding from me. There were no comments on the blog. And, when I skated to the hair place a couple of days after I returned from the beach, I saw no one I knew. Not a soul. What were the chances of that happening? In my little town? Really?

At least I liked my new haircut. It was short, bouncy, and all the parts that had faded to the color of corn dog barf were left on the stylist's floor. I was blonde again ... at least through the end of gymnastics season. After that -- who knows? Maybe purple; I hear it is the color of healing.

***

Thursday, July 16,  2:42 PM Term of the Day: Fragmentation - A piece broken apart from the whole or left unfinished

I have good days and I have bad days. The bad ones remind me that I've become a fragmentation.

Did I mention that I accidentally left my phone at the beach house? Or that I did not realize this until we were many miles into our trip home? I blame it on the days and days of no signal, when I was unable to use it for anything but a camera. My parents, however, did not seem to understand the word: accidentally. Nor did they care how good my excuse was. They refused to turn around. 

"Actions have consequences, Summer," my mother said. 

'Believe me, Mom,' I wanted to tell her, 'I am the world's biggest expert on consequences.'

Anyway, the cottage rental place found the phone and dropped it in the mail. According to the online tracking thing, it should arrive at our post office today. Yay!

5:02 PM Did I say yay? 

Yes, my phone was waiting for me at the post office when I skated over to pick it up. But no, I was not prepared for what was waiting inside of it. 

I had a plan: Send some of the fun beach photos I took to Craig. No one could appreciate pictures of surfing dogs more than he would, right? I charged the phone. I opened the camera app. I swiped and tapped and swiped and tapped, and then .... 

Wander back with me a month or so. There was fishing. There was stinky cheese. And mosquitoes. And Brady was my boyfriend. And we were all the best of friends. And the sun was setting in that 'hopeful' kind of way. Remember?

My dad would probably say 'the camera doesn't lie' and he'd be right ... but how many versions of the truth are there?

Truth #1. Brady with his cap turned backward and that smile lighting his face. He was smiling at me.