3 Stepbrothers

Clear Skies

He paddled in right beside me and gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we can stop here if you don't want to keep going." He grinned, "Besides, if the lifeguards see us at the buoy we'll get in trouble. The sand bar is only a couple feet away, we can make it." He grabbed my hand and pushed it through the water jolting us forward. "We're almost there."

The water became warmer and clearer as we pushed on. It was as if the sand took a dip and then rose again, like the bottom of land in between two hills. Dad got off his board and touched down on the sand bar. The water only reached around his stomach. Oddly, it was very calm and relaxing. I had missed coming to the beach to surf, swim, or even eat ice cream at the local parlor. Even though we come often, whenever I head home it's like something is missing. Being landlocked sucks.

I sat up on my surf board, slightly pointing it up. Dad kept diving underwater, getting hand fulls of sand to see if their were any seashells that were still in tact. "Hey dad," I said as he surfaced for air. He placed the globs of sand on his board and started looking through it. "How'd you meet mom?"

He smiled and took his goggles off, placing them on his head. I rocked against the small waves of the ocean as he stared off towards shore with a small smile. "Now I doubt you want to hear that story." He grinned. 

I nodded, "I want to know."

He chuckled, "Remember Auntie Sam?" I nodded again. Aunt Sam is dad's twin sister, dad was born first though and always takes it to his advantage that he's almost three minutes older. "Well Aunt Sam invited me to this dance at her college, she had this huge crush on my roommate and was hoping to double date."

I laughed, "Double dating sounds awful. Because one couple is always going to be more active then the other."

"Exactly!" Dad laughed, "I was set up for this blind date. Well...turns out it became a triple date. Aunt Sam with my roommate, me with this girl, and the guy with your mom."

"So mom wasn't your blind date?"

"Nope." Dad grinned, "What happened was, when I saw your mother I noticed how beautiful she was. She wasn't trying to be pretty or-how do I put this in your kid slang," Dad gave a half laugh before snapping his fingers like he got it, "Hot. She wasn't trying to be pretty or hot, she was...elegant."

I smiled and waited for him to continue the story. "What happened next?"

"Well...I didn't like the guy she went on a date with. He just seemed like jerk, you know? So in the middle of the slow dance I just finally had it with his overall face and barged in."

I laughed, "His face?"

"Yes his face!" Dad argued fiercely. "He looked like a constipated toad!"

I almost fell off my board I was laughing so much. "Was he a good guy or no?"

Dad shook his head, "Not even close. He was trying to score big time which is what made me mad." He pushed some water off the surf board to get the sand grains off. "Anyways, I went in and said something on the lines of, 'Excuse me miss, I can't help but wonder why you're dancing with this man when you could be dancing with me instead. I mean I don't know how to chimichanga or anything but I can at least stop stepping on your toes.'"

I smiled, "Did she dance with you?"

Dad looked down at his board with a smile. "Yeah...she did."

"Then you dated, got married, and had the best son in the world." I puffed my chest out. "Me."

Dad laughed and hoisted himself on his board. "I had the three best sons in the world. After all, I expected more than one because of the Parris Curse."