The Voyage of the Unsinkable II

Chapter II

    Alice stayed at my house that night. When we got back from the river, we cleaned up all the wood scraps from building the canoe and had a little bonfire with the smaller ones. My mom made us dinner, grilled chicken breast and rice. After dinner, we watched some TV- a show about a US Marshall in Kentucky. It was on cable, which we didn’t have, so we streamed it. We weren’t cavemen, just didn’t watch enough TV to want to pay for cable. When my parents went to sleep, Alice and I did our favorite thing- we grabbed the ladder from the garage, and climbed up to the roof to watch the stars. My dad would always get really mad when we climbed up on the roof, something about ruining the shingles. I felt bad about doing it, but I figured we weren’t hurting the roof too bad.

    “Did you see that?”

    “What?”

    “Shooting star! Look.” I looked up, and there was indeed a falling star.

    “Make a wish, Alice.”

    She laughed. “I wish we could go up there. The sky, I mean.”

    “Well. Let’s get a plane ticket. Or climb mountains or something.”

    “No, Charlie. I want to fly.”

    “We’ll fly one day. I promise.”

    We fell asleep, there on the roof. It’s terrifying to think about, that if you roll too far you fall to your death, but there’s something peaceful about it. Honestly, the roof is where I get some of my best sleep.

    We woke up about quarter to five, when my dad started his truck for work. He wouldn’t see us until he left the driveway, so we just hung tight. I pulled her in close and gave her a kiss on the side of her head.

    “Ready for our first real voyage?”

    She stretched and yawned. “Yeah. I’m really excited.”

    My day left the driveway and we hopped down from the roof. My mom would still be asleep, so we didn’t have to worry about getting busted for sleeping on the roof. I made us some cappuccinos, with little turtles made out of latte foam.

    “What do you want for breakfast?”

    She yawned- not a morning person like I am. “I dunno. Pancakes.”

    It was always the same, whenever she stayed over. For some reason she always went bananas over my pancakes. Don’t get me wrong, they’re pretty good pancakes, but sometimes I want to make some french toast. I tuned the radio to NPR for some sweet classical jams and started mixing up the batter. She dropped her head on the table between sips of coffee, and mom shuffled out, still half asleep.

    “Hey ma, do you want some pancakes?”

    “What time is it? Did you sleep on the roof?”

    “What? Come on, ma. It’s five.”

    She shuffled back to into her room for bed, and I dropped some batter onto my hot griddle. In a cast iron pan I started frying some sausage. The sweet sound of a Mozart concerto filled the air. This was bliss, I thought to myself, and smiled. I flipped over the pancakes and took a drink of my coffee. There’s something about that time of day, with a few pancakes and saugage, and the girl you love, it’s pretty cool. I gave her a big buttery stack with some real maple syrup- none of that Mrs Butterworth maple-flavored corn syrup trash. On the side, some sausage links and orange juice.  She smiled at me and said thank you, and then we ate. After we ate, I took a shower and got dressed then went out and tied the Unsinkable to the top of my Pontiac while I waited for her to get ready. At about 8:30, we were on our way to the Mighty Mississippi.