06.Jul.2010 Sunburnt: “Pesty Party”
Just a few more levels and I’d be done with my five levels a day for this RPG; no homework to glare at me, no school to wake up to in the morning, nothing.
Just the long days of heat in the summer, and my lovely cool basement, calling me over like a cheap fat man to coupon for an all-you-can-eat in a China Buffet.
It was all swell, until I went upstairs to eat lunch.
“We’re going to Indiana,” my dad said bluntly.
“WHAT. THE. HELL,” my mind growled.
He picked up his plate and put it in the sink, cleared his throat and walked over to the living room where he sat and watched female tennis.
“Indiana?” I turned to my brother.
“Yeah. Apparently we’re going now.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. Better start packing.”
Oh no.
Oh no-no-no-no-no.
NOT INDIANA.
Florida maybe, but NOT INDIANA.
Past occurrences of going to Indiana in the past years flashed before my eyes.
“We haven’t gone to Indiana for two years, so you shouldn’t complain, Auds,” my mom responded.
TWO YEARS.
In those two years, I imagined the trailer overrun by tarantulas and large ant hills coming off from the sides, cockroaches the size of a baby sitting inside, waiting for me.
I shook off the thought.
“It can’t be THAT bad, it can’t. It’s just TWO years. And we’re probably are just going to go there to fix something for 30 minutes and come back. Right?”
This thought pleased me. It wouldn’t be so horrible. I was able to sleep in a room with ants climbing up and down a wall nearby when I was 7. I was able to conquer using the bathroom without thinking the jumping spider in the left corner would tackle my face and inject its spider babies in my brain when I was 9, I was able to sleep on a couch with an enlarged looking wasp bouncing around the ceiling, looking for the way out when I was 12.
So I can concur those creepy crawlies at 16. I believe in myself!
So, I gave my good-byes on Facebook, then looked at what to wear. My brother went in my room to check up on me, bringing an overfilled satchel bag, his ALICE gear, and his 3-day assult pack– or another backpack. He wore a brown hoodie, his usual forest green t-shirt with camo pants along with his prized overused green hat.
He looked like a retarded tree.
“Why are you wearing so much?”
“I don’t want to be bit by mosquitoes if I wear shorts or t-shirts. See, this is smart.”
“That’s what you always wear. God, you make me feel like I’m sweating chunks with all that crap you’re wearing.”
“So are you going to pack?”
“Why pack? We’re not staying for long.”
“We’re staying there for 3-4 days.”
3-4 Days.
3-4 DAYS.
3-4 DAYS.
“What?”
“Woah-woah-woah, don’t take your anger out on me, this is Dad’s idea.”
He fled the room, using his brother instinct to sense that I was going to explode.
I calmed myself down.
3-4 days, that’s not bad. It’s not like it’s a business week, or an actual seven day week.
It won’t be too bad.
I fed myself words to encourage myself into thinking I can fight back for the whole drive to Indiana, and ended up falling asleep.
We picked up my visiting Auntie Dayen from Blue Island and we arrived.
As I slowly opened my eyes through the dark van and closed windows, I saw the front of the trailer.
“And we’re here,” my brother said quietly.
The scent of burnt leaves and fire, warm crisp air that smelled like a large piece of tree trunk, the sight of a moth stuck in the van.
Indiana. I was here. The camping site.
My parents, aunt and sibling hopped off the van and started putting their things in the trailer without fear.
I pretended to sleep for a few minutes to think of a battle plan to evade the bugs.
But in two years, their bases definitely changed. It’s not like they’d infest one corner for all their lives. For two years of human absence, it’s bound to have more places where they flourish.
Random scenes in the trailer exploded in my mind with a random enlarged bug smack in the middle.
I shuddered.
“Are you up? Get inside, Dad’s going to lock the van,” my brother said.
I helped him bring up the TV and brought back my stuff as well. We had to pretty much empty the whole trailer of our stuff since last time we left some of our valuables, they got stolen.
I sat down on the couch.
So far, so good. Nothing’s scary right now. Yeah, this is swell. I’m a master. I’m the best. Yeah. I’M A BEAST.
My brother sat down on the ground fixing the cables and wires so we could watch Doctor Who on BBC.
Everything was fine and dandy until I spotted something on my brother’s foot as he was talking to me while fiddling with the TV wire.
Was it a hairball?
Nah, it was too dark.
Maybe it’s a dust bunny.
Oh, but it has little strands of something coming out of it.
Hm? It seemed to have moved…
Oh, I’m just going to take a closer inspection by squinting a little:
Black Widow.
OH SHAZBOT.
My chest tightened. My eyes widened.
“GGGEYYAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”
I jumped off the couch and sprinted to the bathroom as fast as I can, then swiftly came back half the distance, peeking my head through a door in the hall.
“Audrey, what is WRONG with you?” My mom lectured.
“Geez, you scared me, Auds,” my brother said, still holding the DVR.
“Your foot! The sock!”
“Huh? My foot? There’s nothing there.”
“Spider! YOUR FOOT! YOUR PANTS! NOW!”
“Huh?!”
My brother flailed his right leg and something flew out.
“Woah, that’s a black widow.”
“Ah, spider this, spider that…” My aunt walked in front of the spider and stepped on it.
“There, now it’s dead. So don’t be scared, okay?”
I paused.
“… Killing a spider is equal to breaking a mirror in terms of bad luck…”
“Oh, that’s boolsheet,” everyone with a filipino accent said in unison.
“Bad luck is BS Auds,” My brother responded, still fiddling with the DVR.
“I still believe in bad luck…” I mumbled.
“We’re going to eat soon, go wash up Auds,” my mom said.
“Yeah, okay.”
I took a second to pick myself up and turned. As I slowly walked to the bathroom, I began to think happy thoughts of sitting at home playing on the computer.
I sighed.
Oh, that’s pure bliss right there.
I opened the bathroom and turned on the lights.
My eyes immediately bolted around the whole room, scanning for anything that may be considered a bug.
There were black spots on the wall of the bathtub.
Those have always been there, they’re just dust marks. Or something.
I knew they weren’t bugs since my other Uncle, Michael, lied and told me they were spider babies.
Yeah, spider babies come in egg sacs, so I knew that’s not an arachnid.
Oh?
My eyes sharply focused on something under the toilet.
Is that? …A brown speckle?
Oh, that’s probably hair.
… Hair in mid-air?
No, it’s hair on a web.
Web?
Why would hair be on a web?
That’s stupid, it looks more like those common “Johnny Long Legs” spiders I find at home sometimes.
….
“GGGEYYAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” I screamed again.
My mom rushed to the door.
“What?!”
“Th-Th-The-There’s a spider–”
“Where?”
“T-T-T-Toilet–”
“Don’t be stupid, that’s a scratch on the toilet seat.” She turned to walk away.
“N-No! Not that! Under it! Under the bowl!!”
It was like a scene of a lone ranger walking away towards the sunset, as the family he saved looks off into the distance and sees his casted shadow, thinking of the remarkable deed he did saving them as a tear runs down their cheek, as the happiness of being faced with a second chance to live.
“Where’s the spider, Auds?” My brother asked as he came by.
“Toilet bowl.”
“Where?”
“Under it, see?”
He squatted and saw the spider.
“Oh, I see. It’s probably dead.”
“Dead? I don’t think so. Poke it.”
“Yeah, okay.”
My brother walked in the bathroom and tore a piece of toilet paper from the roll.
He poked the spider and it reacted to his TP jab.
“Woah, it’s alive!”
“Gahh, take it offfff,” I whined as I squeezed my eyes shut and smashed my palms on my ear lobes.
“Hey, if I get bit and I die, it’s going to be your fault. Then you can’t beat up my body because I died early.”
“Whatever, just get it off.”
My brother briskly swiped the spider out and smashed it on the floor.
“Sorry, little guy.”
After scanning the bathroom once again, I swiftly changed into my pajamas and washed my hands.
Dinner.
I like food, so this should cheer me up.
As I ate, my brother talks to me about playing poker when I finish, My aunt and my mom converse in bisaya, and my dad falls asleep on the couch.
Once I finish, my brother and I play Texas Hold ‘em while getting lectured that gambling is wrong.
Laughs and smiles spewed around the table as we cheat our hands. Until…
“Oh, a cockroach,” My aunt pointed out.
A skinny thing, it was just walking across the table.
“GGGEYYAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”
I bolted to the left then scanned my surroundings. The cockroach walked towards me without any hesitation. I scream again, jumping over furniture to reach the end of the living room.
My aunt squashes the cockroach.
“AUDREY…..!” My dad grumbled.
It was like he was Goku in Dragon Ball Z.
“YOU are already FIFTEEN–”
“I’m sixteen.”
“She’s sixteen.”
“SIXTEEN, and you are afraid of these little things?!”
My face fell from the cowardice and broke into the usual face of a glare.
“Well, sleep on your own bed.”
“Huh?”
It was like he decided to have a random second of anger after a nap.
“Oh right, I’ll go off to my bed now~”
Awkwardness.
“Let’s go to sleep already, it’s late.”
We took out the bed in the couch and I roomed it with my Aunt. My brother took the bunk beds we used to share when we were little and my parents took their room.
My mom left the light on in the kitchen so I can sleep, but my aunt kept squirming. I think it was bothering her, so I shut it off.
The darkness.
I hate sleeping in the dark.
It’s dark and scary and pitch black.
In this surrounding, bugs can assassinate while I sleep.
The only sound I heard was the sound of crickets outside and rowdy teenagers “Whoo-ing” from the usual weekend party down the street.
I turned on my ipod in my covers to act as my light and squeezed my Pooh bear tight.
I seriously need to grow up.
I looked at my bears in my arms, the mickey mouse blanket and my pokemon shirt.
…. Just not right now.
The next morning I woke up thinking I was in my room, only to have my spirits fallen as I saw my surroundings.
I can’t hate this place since it’s fun… sometimes…”
I got my bum out of my bed and I pushed the bed back in the couch and folded sheets.
After eating some quick breakfast, I sat on the couch.
“It’s such a beautiful day!”
My mom pushed aside the pink curtains.
I looked at the trees and the nice sunlight peering through the window. There were a couple of kids running down the rocky road to the pool, some kids biking and laughing. The garbageman picking up the garbage.
It was a nice sight.
Until my sharp gaze looked at what seemed to have taken place next to the fake flower pot in the middle of the window.
It zoomed.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer.
What’s that?
A hairball?
No, it’s floating.
Floating? Hairball? Floating hairball?
I secretly cried to myself.
The distance was 2 feet.
Two feet away from the bed.
Two feet from hopping on the bed and ripping away my flesh with its secret saber-tooth-tiger gnashers.
My mom saw my gaze to the spider and turned to me.
“It’s. Dead.” There was a sudden angry glint in her eye.
“That’s what you said about the spider by the bathroom,” I mumbled.
As the day went on, I tried to distract myself by playing Pokemon.
That worked for about a few hours.
Because of my constant focus on the game screens, I flinched, slapped and shook off all sudden feels of a breeze or something touching me.
We had some visitors over, friends of the family/distant cousins and his friend.
As they all converse and talk about their whatevers, I busied myself on the couch playing SoulSilver, attempting to evolve my drug infused Chingling but to no avail.
I felt a wee tickle on my upper arm.
I let it go since the last few slaps weren’t anything.
So I decided to check it later, after I finish my rematch with Sabrina.
After I beat her, I turned to my left to see a small…
Teeny…
Itty…
Bitty…
Pocket-sized…
Spider.
“GYORIAAHH!!!!!!!”
My voice, starting out as some sumo wrestler, squeaked into a shrill as I slapped the smack out of my arm, smacking my whole body as if I was doing a masochist version of the Macarena.
Luckily, my Dad was entertaining them about a story about before he met my Mom and had a Polish girlfriend, and a roar of laughter emitted from them at the same time I screamed.
My mom stopped me halfway through my dance and said to me with gritted teeth, “We have visitors over.”
I did one scan of my well-being, and saw nothing more than a quantity of pink hand marks across my legs and arms, and felt heat on my face.
Pokemon. S’Just me and pokemon, I thought to myself.
After our guests left, my brother informed me of our leaving the next day.
“We’re going to leave tomorrow morning or so, so we’re going to have to pack.”
After packing some of my things, brushing and going to bed, I closed my eyes; clutching my ipod, squeezing my bears, and hiding under my Mickey Mouse blanket.
Tomorrow.
After packing things onto the van in the afternoon, my parents got extremely touchy since the heat started to pick up.
I swiftly grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots for this FS Blog, ignoring the blabber coming from my parents saying that I’m “using up too much memory taking several pictures of the same thing over and over”.
When we got home, I ran to the piano first, surprisingly, and played a few songs to welcome myself back.
Then I bounced over to the basement: my lovely cave.
My cave so crisp and cool in the summertime,
Jammed with three computers,
Everything decorated with papers and full of absolutely usless-useful things.
I’M HOME!
I turned to the ground to throw my slippers to the side to start skipping about my basement, to find something on the corner…
A hairball?
Oh, it’s too little.
It’s brown hair?
Floating?
Floating brown hair?
Oh, it’s just Johnny Long Legs.
….
“GYAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH—!”