The sun baked the back of his neck through the window. He shifted in his seat slightly.
"Turn up the AC, man", he yelled to Jarred.
"It's up as high as it goes, Ted. Besides, we're almost there", he replied.
As he said this, as if on cue, the ocean met the horizon. Miles and miles of blue expanse hung barely in view above the road.
The music blasting from the back speakers changed yet again. This time to a Beach Boy's song.
"Stop changing the fucking songs, Jake".
"Shut the fuck up"
Jarred sighed and said towards the backseat, "this is what we get for bringing a DJ with us".
Ted sat and enjoyed the oohs and ahhs assaulting his ears at an obscene volume.
He opened a box of donuts and shook it around a little bit. The gnawed remains of an apple fritter danced on the cardboard and he debated eating it or not.
"Hey, is there any truth to that whole don't eat less than an hour before swimming thing?"
"What?"
"IS THERE ANY TRUTH TO THAT WHOLE NOT EATING AN HOUR BEFORE YOU GO SWIMMING THING?!", he said louder, to be heard over Brian Wilson.
"No, dude. That's just an old wise tale"
Ted and Jake laughed in unison.
"What?"
"It's old wive's tale. Not old wise tale, man"
Jarred looked flustered.
"Well, whatever it fuck it is...that's what it is"
Sensing his frustration, Ted just dropped the subject before devouring the battered carcass of the last donut. As he swallowed the last bit he began to mentally count the days until they went back home in his head. It still seemed too soon. He could live out here, he thought. He could live perpetually minutes away from the ocean, with the sun on his neck.
When the car came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot Ted didn't even wait for the others. He simply started running to the water like a child might. Jarred laughed at him, quickly grabbed his towel and shorts from the trunk and chased after him.
"Last one in is a rotten piece of shit!", he yelled as he passed Ted.
They both smiled as Ted broke out into a sprint. They both paused at the edge of the beach and threw off their clothes. Ted simply went in wearing his boxers and Jarred put on his swim trunks not so discreetly. Jake came barreling over the hill a few seconds later.
Ted ran in first and dove under the surface of the sea. The first wave hit and turned him all around. He opened his eyes as he found his footing and stood up, much closer to shore than he remembered being. He let out a huge yell and pounded his chest like an ape.
"Nice work, Tarzan", Jake said from the shore.
The sun pounded down on the men as they all eventually found their way into the water. For a split second Ted thought that if this was what the afterlife was, feeling the waters crash into you for all eternity, he could be ok with dying.
He noticed a girl in a black bikini on the shore. He smiled at her before taking a deep breath and diving under before the next big wave hit.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Where
Randy closed his eyes for just a second and she was gone.
That's how it felt anyway.
When he thought about her now he thought about her as an abstraction. A big mess of hair on top of a pale, round face. He thought about her lips on his.
He rode his bike around the outskirts of their shared small town to forget about her but it wasn't enough distance from her memory.
Then one night he found it. He thought he would never even think about it again much less find it. But there it was, staring back at him from the bottom of a tattered box in his garage. It was a video tape. It was simply labeled with a red x but he knew what it really held.
It was a tape of him and her together. They must have only been 18 or 19 in it. He was a virile strapping young man in those days, not the bloated sack he had become. He watched the tape in his living room on mute. He needed to adjust to the nostalgia slowly. He watched the shaky, grainy footage of her dancing on top of a copper colored boulder. She wore an over-sized sweatshirt with the California raisins on it. Her hair was in a ponytail. She looked right into the camera, right at Randy and said something that seemed like "I love you". Randy shut off the tape and made yet another dinner for himself. He broke a heel of bread in half and buttered it before he caught himself thinking about the past again. He thought about Thailand or Vietnam in the Summer and if it would be far enough away to feel like himself again if he went there. He remembered that she always loved Thai food and decided on Russia maybe. Russia seemed like a place he could get lost in.
That night as he tried to sleep and dream of Russia he remembered that on that videotape was a part where they made love and debated if he wanted to watch it or not. He looked over at his alarm clock. 4 AM. He wondered what time it was in Russia and sighed.
That's how it felt anyway.
When he thought about her now he thought about her as an abstraction. A big mess of hair on top of a pale, round face. He thought about her lips on his.
He rode his bike around the outskirts of their shared small town to forget about her but it wasn't enough distance from her memory.
Then one night he found it. He thought he would never even think about it again much less find it. But there it was, staring back at him from the bottom of a tattered box in his garage. It was a video tape. It was simply labeled with a red x but he knew what it really held.
It was a tape of him and her together. They must have only been 18 or 19 in it. He was a virile strapping young man in those days, not the bloated sack he had become. He watched the tape in his living room on mute. He needed to adjust to the nostalgia slowly. He watched the shaky, grainy footage of her dancing on top of a copper colored boulder. She wore an over-sized sweatshirt with the California raisins on it. Her hair was in a ponytail. She looked right into the camera, right at Randy and said something that seemed like "I love you". Randy shut off the tape and made yet another dinner for himself. He broke a heel of bread in half and buttered it before he caught himself thinking about the past again. He thought about Thailand or Vietnam in the Summer and if it would be far enough away to feel like himself again if he went there. He remembered that she always loved Thai food and decided on Russia maybe. Russia seemed like a place he could get lost in.
That night as he tried to sleep and dream of Russia he remembered that on that videotape was a part where they made love and debated if he wanted to watch it or not. He looked over at his alarm clock. 4 AM. He wondered what time it was in Russia and sighed.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Return of 52 Stories...
I will be updating the 52 Stories blog beginning next week for another year full of new stories, glorified poems, etc. Stay tuned for the first of another batch of 52 stories beginning on Tuesday, September 23rd.
Thanks,
Jason
Thanks,
Jason
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