Summer Nights

The Beach

I looked out the window, the sky was a peaceful blue, I placed my face towards the wind coming in through the window.

My thoughts were startled by a pair of giggles. "Were you daydreaming Sam?" Mat laughed out loud. His curls bouncing with his giggles. 

"As a matter of fact Mat, I was." I replied with a smile

"Of who or what?" His older sister Heather continued giggling, poking her brother's ribs.

"Of being free" I sighed deeply "Like a bird..."

Both of the kids seemed to dream along with me as I finished my words. I had decided to finally take a vacation from working in my father's bakery and Elen and Neal Smith had invited me to babysit their kids for the summer at a private beach, somewhere on the California coast. It was something I definitely couldn't pass up.

I had just turned 21 and was taking some time off from making big decisions in my life. You know, the ones that involve deciding whether you want to go to college, get a full time job or just be a bum. While I was making up my mind, my dad pretty much forced me to work at the family bakery.

The family bakery had started with my mom and dad. However, somewhere along their journey my mother had gotten tired of the bakery and taking care of kids routine and had left all of us. I was 10 when she left, she couldn't handle my dad working two jobs, the duties in the house and three kids tugging at her 24/7, she packed her things and snuck out one night. 

Haven't seen her since.

Usually she never comes to mind, but I felt a little guilty for leaving my dad to tend to the business by himself. This is when thoughts of her irresponsibility came into mind. I didn't hate her or anything of that sort, I just knew that my dad struggled much more than us with her disappearance.

The kids bickering about whether they wanted the window up or down, brought me back to reality. Heather was 15 and Mat had just turned 12, they were a handful, but I got along well with them.

"We are almost there guys don't get anxious" Ellen yelled from the front of the SUV.

I'm pretty sure she was more anxious than us. I was feeling excitement, pure freedom. I wanted to put my feet in the sand and bathe in the salty water. In all honesty what I really wanted was to show the kids a fun time.

"We're not anxious mom jeez" Heather rolled her eyes at her mother and whispered "She is annoying sometimes"

I patted her knee "Don't be like that with your mom..."

"Why not, she never pays attention to us at home. She brings us on these supposed vacations, because she doesn't trust anyone to stay with us in her glamorous house. Not to mention that everyone knows each other on this beach, so they don't really have to worry about where we are." Heather rolled her eyes, she seemed really unhappy with her parents, she crossed her arms and continued staring out the window.

Although Ellen had said we were almost there, it was a long ass hour later that we reached our destination. We parked in front of a two story house, it looked like two fancy boxes stacked ontop of eachother, with a lot of windows.

The kids and I hopped out of the car. I stood there admiring the big house, the tall palm trees, and the beautiful blue sky. Hell, I lived smack in the middle of smoggy Los Angles in a two bedroom apartment that I shared with my dad and two sisters and for the most part was falling apart. 

This was heaven.

"Wow it's beautiful" I thought out loud.

Neal patted my shoulder "Well I hope you don't mind sharing rooms with Heather..."