As I Am

Chapter Five

Dedicated to the above because her comments always make me feel like I have something to smile about. :)

            Five

          The next morning my mother wakes me up at an unhealthy hour and pries the sheets from my bare legs. The sun has just creeped over the horizon, not yet reaching the shadows with its light.

            “Bama, you have a busy day today,” she says as she opens my glass sliding doors. A gust of chilly air blows into my room, rustling papers on my floor.

            I scrunch my face up and flip onto my stomach to bury my face in my pillow. I hold onto it like it’s my lifeline, saving me from waking up.

            “Why do you hate me?” I groan into the fabric.

            “Bam.”

            “Why?” I drag out the word like the melodramatic teenager that I’ve never been.

            “Your father is taking you out on the boat today. He says there’s supposed to be a group of whales gathering for mating season. You’ll be able to take such beautiful pictures of them!” When I don’t respond, I hear footsteps across the wooden floor and then nothing. A moment later, there’s a weight on my back. Cat starts purring.

            “Not you too,” I mutter, rolling over onto my back. Cat falls onto my mattress but lands on his feet. For a second he looks at me and I can swear that he’s glaring.

            I shower as quickly as possible and throw on a pair of jean shorts and a baggy sweater. As Mom starts calling me from downstairs, telling me to hurry up, I half-dry my wavy hair with a towel and throw it up in a bun.

            In my dad’s rusting SUV, we speed down the road, the only car out at sunrise. We only see one early morning jogger, as the rest of Mermaid Bay is asleep.

            “I think you’ll take some great pictures today, Bam,” Dad says as we pull on the freeway. “Are you excited?”

            “I guess so,” I mumble sleepily, leaning my head against the glass.

            “You’ll wake up more when we get there. I’m hoping it won’t be too windy on the boat, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

            When we arrive at the boardwalk, Dad parks in a spot that has Henry Reed written on a piece of driftwood cemented into the ground. He gets out and goes into the trunk, pulling out a large duffel bag of his own and a beach bag that has my camera and other things I might need inside.

            As we walk towards a large boat, I see two other people on it, working. One man, who looks about my father’s age doesn’t see us yet, but the other is at the dock, untying a thick rope from one of the wooden posts.

            When he sees us, he straightens up and grins. Dad stops in front of him and they do that strange kind of man-half hug.

            “I was wondering when you would get here,” the guy says, who I now know is much younger than I thought. “We were about to leave without you!”

            Dad laughs and gestures to me with his thumb. “I had a carry on today. She’s hoping to take pictures of the whales.” I don’t know when I ever said that but suddenly the boy is looking at me, smiling. “Bam,” Dad continues, gesturing for me to come over. When I’m standing beside my father, he points at the guy. “This is Max. He’s a little older than you, but he probably still knows some cool places to hang out for people your age.”