Cousins
As we drove to the airport to pick up my cousin Julia I listed all of
the nicknames for her my family had come up with. There was ?devil?s spawn?,
?anti Christ?, ?Ms. No-Manners?, ?hell child?, and many others. As I thought
back to occasions that had inspired these nicknames, I hoped to God that she had
changed since her last visit four years ago. I shivered with disgust as I
remember the time she had eaten a chilidog and ended up with half of the chili
all over her face and lap. There was also the time when she was playing with
Charlotte and styled her hair with juice from a juice box and spit. While I
would excuse a toddler for committing said crimes, I could not forgive Julia
because at the time she had been eight years old. However as we parked and got
ready to go meet her at the baggage claim, I decided to put it all behind and me
and let her start her stay with a clean slate.
Driving back from the airport, we asked her how her flight had been
and if she was hungry. As we talked my mom brought up various food ideas and at
some point she brought up Mexican. Julia said that she loved Mexican food so we
decided to go to Rubio?s. After mentioning that she loved Mexican food she
stated some other things she liked about Mexicans, like their funny voices and
how most of them can?t speak English and are illegal immigrants. I looked back
at my 13-year-old cousin from Virginia as she laughed and spoke in a fake
Hispanic accent. My mom and I looked at each other, shocked at what we had just
heard. My mom lightly told her off and we moved on to a less awkward subject.
Over the course of the next few days, I realized that she hadn?t become a more
civilized person, she had become more socially inept and obnoxious that before.
She talked loudly during movies and would argue about anything. She was rude,
messy, and racist.
Her mother who was NOT Burmese had ?taught? her how to eat ?Burmese style.?
While we Burmese do eat with our hands, we only do so with certain foods. Also
we do it neatly using only the tips of our fingers and a lot of napkins. We
quickly discovered that Julia?s mother had not told her when or how to eat
Burmese style. Nearly every time I ate with her I cringed with disgust as she
scooped up handfuls of food and dropped it into her mouth and onto her shirt. My
mom tried to be nice and educate her on when to use it and when to not. Of
course Julia didn?t listen and so we endured many embarrassing meals out. The
most memorable was when we went to have lunch in the city with some of my mom?s
family at our favorite restaurant, Burma Superstar. As she attempted to eat
curry with her hands, she dropped some on the front of her shirt and my cousin
Gary stared at her in disgust. He said, ?Damn, Julia, you eat like a fucking
hobo?. We all laughed awkwardly but she hadn?t heard him. While she kept eating
and dropping stuff on herself, my dad noticed that she was wiping her hands on
the tablecloth. He freaked out and shoved a bunch of napkins her way and told
her off for being rude and dirty. Later that day he told me we weren?t taking
her out of the house to eat again.
Her whole trip ended with disaster on the day we were going to take her back to
the airport. She had been with us for ten days and my dad was counting down the
hours until she left. For our last meal we went out to eat dinner at Pasta
Pomodoro. She ordered spaghetti and meatballs. I had some pasta with chucks of
chicken in it and watched in horror as she picked up strands of spaghetti and
dropped them into her mouth. We all quickly told her to use her fork and she
complied. However, she apparently didn?t even know how to use her fork. As she
tried to scoop up noodles she dropped them onto her lap and the table. I stared
at my dad who mimed stabbing himself to death with his fork. As we were
finishing she eyed my chicken and I asked if she wanted some. Instead of
answering she reached across the table and violently stabbed a piece with her
fork. She saw the look in my face and launched into a rant about how Italians
are all about family and sharing. I shook my head and checked my watch. It was
almost time for her to leave.
When we got home my mom went to watch TV in her room. Charlotte and Julia joined
her to watch a TV show on VH1 with some host that happened to be black talking
about web videos. Throughout the show Julia yelled at the host ?shut up you?re
not funny, you?re fat and stupid? and other such things. Then the host said
something about a video with a bunch of ?stupid white kids.? Julia immediately
began saying that he was racist and that he hated white people. My mom said that
he was not being racist; he was talking about the video and making a joke. What
followed was a very loud and long argument about racism.
My mom pointed out Julia?s comments about Mexicans and she defended herself by
saying that it was all right to insult someone?s culture and not their race. We
were all left speechless. She said that wars were always about race and not
culture, so I asked her what she thought civil wars were about and she began to
talk loudly over me about how we did know what we were talking about. The whole
time my dad had been loading her bags into the car, and we set off for the
airport with my mom and Julia shouting over each other.
My mom finally struck a cord when she asked why Julia thought it was okay to
insult Mexicans but not white people. Julia fell silent as my mom reminded her
that she wasn?t white and that she was defending people that didn?t need to be
defended. I sat in the back seat twiddling my thumbs awkwardly as my mom talked
about how my cousin couldn?t allow herself to become an ignorant person and
waste all that potential that my mom knew she had. I stared out the window as
she changed the subject and Julia cried quietly. I thought that maybe if I died
it would be less awkward. I wondered if she would go home and tell her parents
that she hated her stupid liberal aunt, uncle, and cousins out in California.
When we dropped her off at the airport we all said goodbye and that she was
still welcome to come back. My mom walked her to her gate and my dad started to
sing, ?Ding dong the witch is dead?. I told him to wait till we had left the
airport in case her flight had been cancelled and she had to spend the rest of
the summer with us. He stopped singing and pretended to pray. My mom came back
from the gate and we drove away celebrating.
Now I could have a real summer and did so by sleeping in and hanging out with my
friends. I told them all about Julia and how glad I was to have my summer back.
I realized that my summer hadn?t really started until she had left. I had come
home from my last final only to drive to the airport to pick her up. So I hung
out around the house enjoying my freedom and watching the world cup religiously.
I went out to San Francisco with my friends and watched movies late into the
night; thing I had done with Julia that we had actually enjoyed doing together.
As I thought about the times when just the two of us had hung out, I regretted
that fact that she had to leave the way she did. She went home unhappy and we
had cheered. I almost felt bad but hoped that she had at least learned some
manners and social skills.
However, I did not have much time to dwell on these thoughts. A little while
after Julia had left, my mom came into my room, ?Maggie?s coming to stay with us
in July.? ?Maggie who?? I responded. ?Uh? Julia?s sister?your cousin.? I stared
at her dumbly. ?Didn?t Julia tell her about how horrible of a time she had out
here?? My mom shrugged, ?Apparently not?? she walked away and I thought about
the situation. Maggie was about a year older than me, so we would be closer in
age than Julia and I. But I?d had limited contact with Maggie over the years.
The only time I had really hung out with her had been earlier in the year at my
grandma?s memorial when we had cruised downtown Monterey and realized that
everything closed at eight o?clock and that Monterey was incredibly lame and
full of old people that go to bed at six.
It took us a while to figure things out because she was coming at a
bit of an awkward time. Every year we would go to a hot spring resort in Nevada
and her dad had scheduled her to come and stay with us that whole week. So we
tried to work out all the kinks and hoped it would all work out. My parents told
Charlotte and I the plan. ?Okay?Charlotte is going up to soccer camp that
Sunday, then Maggie is flying in that Thursday. We?ll pick her up; Jessie,
you?ll entertain her for a couple of days?Then we?ll drive back up to pick up
Charlotte and drive over to the resort.?
As we drove up to my sister?s soccer camp, I drifted in and out of consciousness
while my parents pointed out things on the side of the road. We were driving
through Nevada so there wasn?t really much to see. When we arrived I was in a
dismal mood. That day my team had lost the World Cup and I had a headache. We
got out of the car, dragged my sister?s bags up to the camp and met one of the
counselors. My mood changed immediately; he had an amazing English accent and
was so fit. My sister then informed me that nearly all of the counselors and
coaches were brought over from Europe and were either professional or college
soccer players. I spent the rest of the time wandering around and taking in the
camp. Yes, it was full of beautiful foreigners but also it was an amazing
location. There was a little river running down at the front of the camp and
everywhere you looked there were huge trees and grass. It was beautiful.
We drove back home and I spent the rest of the week awaiting Maggie?s arrival.
After our experience with Julia, I wasn?t sure what to expect. As I wandered
into the baggage claim to meet her, I braced myself. I spotted her wandering in
from the gates and waved her over. Immediately I felt differently than when I
had met Julia. We hugged and walked back to the car chatting about her flight.
During the drive back to the house she was nice, cheerful, polite, and she
didn?t mention Mexicans. I was glad that she wasn?t a jerk and that our vacation
might end up being enjoyable.
At first things were a little awkward. We walked around Solano, which
was not very exciting, and talked a bit but spent most of the time at the house.
At some point I mentioned that hot soccer guys at my sister?s camp and it became
the main topic of discussion. Actually we talked about guys pretty much all of
the time. Because Maggie was about to go away to college after the summer, we
had to plan for what she was going to do once she moved out. She had just
graduated from an all girl catholic high school, so college was going to be a
big change for her.
As we drove up to pick up Charlotte, we talked the whole way about
various different things. She talked about her brother Alex, who is 21 and in
the military training to be a doctor. She talked about going to school on an
ROTC scholarship and her plans to become a spy. We spent the night in a hotel
and stayed up late watching ?Made? and ?Next.? The next day we drove to the camp
to watch Charlotte play a game then watch the closing ceremonies. After a little
while we got bored of staring at the soccer men, so we wandered off to see what
else was going on. We stumble across the rec room and decided to play pool.
Little did we know that this would become a common occurrence once we went got
to Nevada.
After the ceremonies, we left giggling about the coaches and
Charlotte?s farmer tan. She told us about camp and all her crazy adventures. At
one point my parents stopped off to get some water at a grocery store. Maggie
and I were wandering around when she called me over, her voice full of
excitement, ?Jessie, look! They have pizza lunchables!? I stared at her, then at
the package in her hands. I hadn?t had a lunchable since elementary school. From
what I remembered they were good enough but I hadn?t had one recently. We
reminisced about the old days of weird packaged lunches and in our nostalgia
asked my parents to buy us some. My dad said, ?Hell No! Those things are so
gross.? We left the store empty handed and talked about them the rest of the
way.
Finally we arrived at our destination, David Walley?s Hot Spring Resort in the
town of Genoa, the oldest establishment in Nevada. We read the sign as we drove
in and I smiled. I loved coming here. We would spend a week lounging around the
pool and hot tubs, playing Frisbee out on the grass, sitting on the balcony and
watching the cows graze across the river, and driving out to Reno and Virginia
City. However, this trip, Maggie and I would not be staying the whole time. We
were going to go back to Berkeley before my parents so I could show her around
the Bay Area. So with limited time, we quickly unpacked and headed to the pools.
There had never been anyone my age at the resort during our stays, so
I figured it would be the same story this time. As Maggie and I spread out our
towels and walked over to the pool, we glanced around. Unfortunately there were
only hairy, saggy, old men and women lounging around on beach chairs. We stepped
into the pool and sighed. As we floated around the pool, we decided that it was
a good thing that there was no one our age there. This way we wouldn?t have to
worry about how we looked or anything. The moment these thoughts formed in our
minds, two guys walked past the pool. They were wearing shirts that said ?David
Walley?s? and were taking the temperatures of the hot tubs. They were ?pool
boys.? Maggie and I grinned, deciding that maybe this was a good thing, as one
walked by and flashed us a smile.
However, our attempts to seem cute and aloof were ruined by my dad who jumped
into the pool right next to us. He grinned stupidly, ?Got ya!? He was met with
silent stares, so he tried to lighten us up. ?So, Maggie, how do you like it?
Pools are pretty great, huh?? He grinned and winked while shaking his head
towards one of the pool boys. Maggie and I laughed, then shooed him away. After
a while we decided to go test out one of the hot tubs. We sat around simmering
in the boiling water, laughing and chatting about our plans for the rest of the
week. After a few minutes we figured we should go back to the room before we
were cooked alive on our first day at the pool.
We waved goodbye to the pool boys then walked back to our room
admiring the scenery. The resort sat at the base of a mountain range that
surrounded a valley. On a clear day, which was pretty much everyday, you could
see the mountains on the other side of the valley and all the cars driving along
on the highway up to Carson City. We walked past the play structure down to a
little creek running behind one of the buildings and saw a man fishing with his
son. They had a stick with string tied to it and the boy was enthusiastically
casting off like a fly fisher.
My mom got back to the room at the same time we did with the
groceries. She unloaded a few bags then announced to Maggie and I that she had
gotten us a treat. She handed us the bag and we laughed when we realized that
she had bought us pizza and nacho lunchables! She had also gotten pudding to
appease my dad and sister. Then my mom and sister left for the pool as my dad
plopped down on the couch to do some work. I sat down at the counter and read
through the activities available; there was badminton, ping-pong, tennis, and
pool.
Maggie and I went out to the front desk to get the cue sticks and balls, then
headed up to the rec room. While we were playing, we quickly remembered how bad
we were at pool and decided to create our own modified versions. We played
without the cue ball, which proved to be fun. Then we played without cue sticks,
which was like bowling, only somehow we kept knocking the balls off the table.
Then we tried to hold the stick behind our backs and looped through our arms;
that proved harder than actual pool, so we quickly abandoned that technique.
Playing without a cue ball proved to be our favorite so we decided to make pool
a daily activity.
The next day we went out to the pool and the pool boys immediately started to
flirt with us again. We met one named Luke through an old guy from Minden. He
had been in the hot tub chatting with us when he randomly asked if we thought
Luke was hot. Before we could answer he said, ?I know him! I could hook you guys
up! I?ll talk to him for you!? We tried to laugh it off, then got up and ran
back to the pool. We watched, mortified, as he called Luke over and talked to
him, openly pointing at us. Then he ran over to the pool and gave us the low
down. We laughed, embarrassed, as Luke came up to our hot tub later to chat
about that crazy old guy from Minden.
That same day the other pool boy, Alex, started talking to us. We smiled and
laughed with them, figuring nothing would come of it. Then as we were getting
ready to leave Alex approached us. ?Hey guys?I?m about the leave but uh?I gave
Luke my, uh?myphonenumbertogivetoyouify
Our third day at the resort, we met Justen, a college student from Chicago on
vacation with his parents and brothers. We sat around in the hot tubs chatting
about college and his family. After some extensive flirting, while being eaten
alive by mosquitoes, Maggie and I wandered back to our rooms for the night,
stunned by the amount of hot guys at the resort. Justen, Luke, Alex?it was
amazing.
When we returned to the pool Luke told us that he and Alex wanted to hang out
that night and that they would call us later. We went out to dinner with my
parents, who then ditched Maggie and I back at the resort so they could go
gamble in some little nearby town. Maggie and I sat around bored and annoyed.
The stupid guys hadn?t called us, so we decided to go play pool. When we arrived
at the rec room, we were met with the welcome sight of Justen and his brother
Joshua, who we had met earlier that day and who was equally attractive, playing
ping-pong. They joined us in pool, then came back to our room to watch Dude,
Where?s My Car, which I realized is the worst movie ever for watching with two
hot guys from Chicago. Still we had a good time and they went back to their room
later, leaving Maggie and I beaming.
We returned to the pool on our last day there and immediately Luke and Alex
tried to offer us explanations for the night before. They were lame explanations
so Maggie and I looked at each other then gave them tight-lipped smiles. After
sunbathing and floating around in the pool we decided to return to our rooms and
play some pool. We watched TV, sat out on the balcony, read magazines, then had
lunch. Our last day appeared to be lasting forever.
We ended up spending the rest of the day hanging around the pool and the room.
My parents made dinner and my dad made us kahlua and cr�mes so we could be
?sophisticated?. We sat out side and watched the sun set over the mountains. It
cast shadows and light across the valley and the cows grazing on the other side
of the creek. I sipped my drink and smiled at my cousin. Tomorrow we would be
going back to Berkeley; we would go to San Francisco and maybe Walnut Creek. I
was glad that we were leaving early. While it was fun to laze about, there were
lots of fun and exciting things we could be doing in the Bay Area.
We caught a plane back to Berkeley and met up with my other cousin Jenny at the
airport. She took us back to my house and left Maggie and I alone for the night.
We caught a bus up to Shattuck and I gave her a mini tour of downtown Berkeley.
We got back late that night and stayed up till three in the morning watching
Next.
The next day we caught BART out to Walnut Creek and thought we were going to die
from the heat. We ate lunch outside, a huge mistake, and watched the ice in our
waters melt as soon as the waitress set them down on the table. After lunch we
rushed over to Pottery Barn and lied to the sales people so they wouldn?t kick
us out. We weren?t good liars, but apparently they didn?t care so we wandered
around the air-conditioned store for a while. We went back to Berkeley and
caught a bus back to my house. Jenny picked us up and we went to dinner at the
Emeryville Public Market. Then we went to Target and bought the unrated versions
of 40 year Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, and Deuce Bigalo Male Gigolo. With our
fabulous assortment of incredibly tasteful films we headed home and watched
movies till the crack of dawn. The next day we went to San Francisco with Jenny
to Burma Superstar. We drove back on the Golden Gate and Maggie and I decided to
return.
On her last day we went back to San Francisco and had lunch at the Cheesecake
Factory. We wandered around Union Square wearing cowboy hats we had gotten in
Nevada, pretending to be tourists. We were going to pretend we had English
accents and ask people to take our picture, but somehow the people we did ask
turned out to be English. So we skipped the accent and had our picture taken a
few times, laughing.
The night we took her back to the airport and I hugged her goodbye. I promised
to call her when she got back and she said the same. I watched her walk away to
her gate and was struck by how different I felt now as compared to when Julia
had been leaving. It was so hard to believe that they actually came from the
same family. As we drove I felt sad, knowing that this person that I had bonded
with was leaving and that I wouldn?t see her again for a very long time.