The Perfect Day

            by Emily Gee

 

We had the whole day free.  The whole day ahead of us to do whatever we wanted.    This was a rare occasion for my sister Robyn and I, even in the summer.  She regularly had ballet rehearsals, or work, and I was normally occupied with cello lessons, and soccer practice.  However, today was going to be our day together.  We only had one place we needed to be, at 3:30 I had an orthodontist appointment.  But that wouldn’t be a problem; we had all day. 

To start off our day of fun my sister and I decided to take a nice hike in Tilden Park.  It was going to be a gorgeous summer day up in the hills so by 10:30 we were up and out of the house, equipped with sun screen, water, books, sandwiches, and of course my sister’s I-pod to provide us with some good trail music.  I wouldn’t consider my sister and I the most trail savvy people living in the hills.  I’d taken a few runs along different trails in the park, but we really had no distinct idea of what trail to take or where we’d end up.  It was going to be “an adventure” according to my sister.  “Well, it doesn’t really matter where we go” I said,  “just as long as we’re back home by around 1:00 in time to catch the bus downtown.”  And without further waiting we chose a path and ventured in to the shadowy wilderness.  It was truly a bonding time for the two of us.

Somehow, at around 11:30 we arrived at a grassy meadow, the ideal spot for lunch.  After the sandwiches were gone we laid back and opened our books.  My sister the English major reading her favorite book of all times, Ender’s Game, and me with some book I had to read in preparation for AP English.  Well, with the sun shining high and a book that I did not want to read I fell straight asleep with my head on my sister’s lap.  She on the other hand got lost and trapped in the world of space combat and alien wars.  Needless to say neither of us were watching the time and before we knew it, it was 12:30.  Jumping up we stuffed our books and water bottles in our bags and hurried back to the path.  Or at least what we thought was the path we’d taken.  

                        “Robyn”, I said,  “this doesn’t look too familiar, do you think we’re going the right way?” 

                        “Hm … honestly Em I have no idea, but we better hurry and figure it out ‘cause it’s almost 1:00.”  So, we continued with the intention of finding a map or a person to ask. 

                        “Hey Rob” I said quietly, “people up ahead!”  As they came around the curve my sister stopped them and asked if they could point us in the direction of the Merry Go Round. 

                        “Merry Go Round?” they said, a little surprised.  “You girls got the wrong path, this path will take you to inspiration point, about a mile up that way.  Let’s see, you probably want to walk up that path over there” she pointed a little ways back   “that should get you back along the right track.” 

                        “Thank you” My sister and I said staring at each other in disbelief.  “Rob” I said, “How the hell, did we manage to get on a trail headed to inspiration point?!  Seriously, how did we do that?  It’s in completely the wrong direction.”  The second we made eye contact, we burst into laughter at our stupidity. 

                        “I have no idea…and now we gotta hurry Em, it’s 1:10.”  We took off in the direction the woman had indicated.   In about 15 minutes we found ourselves face to face with a road.  Every so often a car or two went by pretty quickly but there was enough space for the two of us to keep walking along.  We weren’t completely sure of where we were, but we agreed that as long as we were going up, we’d eventually wind our way back home.  As we came around a curve we found ourselves near Lake Anza.  This was reassuring, and we continued along that road single file me in front of my sister.

Suddenly my sister screamed “Ouch!  Em wait!”  I turned around and hurried back to her she was clutching the bottom of her shirt up from her pants.  “I just got stung by a bee or something.  Shit!  I think it’s in like the fold of my pants or somethin’.  What do I do?!”  I could tell she was in a lot of pain, and I wanted to do something, but I had no idea what that something was.   I now noticed that with her other hand she was clenching the top of her pants (near the belt loop).  It was quite an odd position to be in.

“Uh…try not to move.” I said putting my backpack down. 

                        “Em it hurts so bad…it’s like puffing…what if it stings me again?” 

                        “Where’s the bee?” I asked her feeling like a parent with a little kid, except that the little kid was my nineteen-year old sister.

                        “I think it’s right here in my fist folded in my jeans.”  She looked at me red in the face, and slightly teary eyed.  Then a small smile crept across her face.   “Em, you have to unzip my jeans and help me let the bee out” she was half laughing half crying by now, “otherwise it’ll just sting me again!”  Now I was giggling too. 

                        “Are you serious?” I looked at her smiling; I was willing to do it I just wanted to know how exactly we were going to work this out.  “So, what should I do?”

                        “Unzip my jeans a little…Stop laughing Em! This isn’t funny…and then I have to unfold my hand and you gotta help me get it out.”  I couldn’t help myself the whole thing was completely ridiculous.  But, I took a deep breath to stop laughing and then bent down next to my sister in the middle of the road.  I unzipped her jeans a little and then positioned myself to somehow help as best I could to remove the bee after my sister released her hand.  She slowly moved her hand and I saw it.  I dove in, and somehow with both of us screaming I got the guts to flick it out with a finger.  We turned to move out of the middle of the road and suddenly I noticed something. 

                        “You’ve gotta be kidding me…” I said in disbelief.  “Rob, you might want to zip up your pants.”  She turned and stared at the tour bus sitting on the corner pointed in our direction.  It continued toward us and the driver poked his head out the window smirking.

                        “Everything alright girls?” I could see people on the bus looking out the window at us, a few giggling. 

                        “Yup,” I smiled, trying to hold in laughter, “We’re fine thanks, just a little trouble with a yellow jacket.” 

                        After retrieving some much needed ice from the merry-go-round vender, we arrived, tired, sweaty, and in Robyn’s case, in pain.  Unfortunately it was now 1:45, my sister now had a large red, stinging, itching, gradually swelling splotch on her hip.  And, we had now missed the 1:33 bus, and would have to wait at least 20 minutes for the next one.  However, this allowed us a few moments to regroup at home before heading out once more.  At around 1:45, we positioned ourselves on Grizzly Peak to wait for the VERY reliable 65 Bus.

20 minutes passed

                        “I think I’m getting sun burned Robyn…I feel burned…”

20 more minutes passed

                        “I’m gonna sit down…my legs hurt…”

5 more minutes…

                        “Rob?  What time is—“

                        “GOOD GRAVY!  Em give me your phone!”  Robyn got up from the curb and walked to the other side of the 65 sign.  She was looking up at it. 

                        “What are you—“

                        “SHH…Hello?  Hi, I’m waiting at the 65 bus stop on Grizzly Peak and Latham and I’ve been waiting for roughly 45 minutes and have NOT seen a bus go either way…I was wondering if you could tell me when to expect one?”

                        “Or if we shouldn’t be expecting one” I muttered quietly.  I knew not to joke with my sister when she took that tone of voice. 

                        “Really?” Robyn looked at me and rolled her eyes.  “Well okay, I hope you’re right.  Thank you.” She handed me back the phone.  “The AC Transit people said it should be no more than ten minutes ‘til a bus comes.”  Out of instinct, we both took a step off the curb and peered around the corner, looking, scanning as far as our eyes would go.  Unfortunately we weren’t equipped with eyes like the elves from the Lord of The Rings, and concluded that no bus would ever be coming.  Therefore, we decided to start walking down.  We would walk quickly down Marin to Euclid and hope to meet a bus there.  It couldn’t do any harm after all, we hadn’t seen a bus go either way for an hour.

                        Walking down a hill as steep as Marin is really an art.  It requires bended knees, balance, watching your step, and above all mental toughness.  After the third hill down, my knees were achy and my muscles felt shaky.  Every once in a while Robyn would yell out warnings for me.  “Steps!” “Puddle!” “Hole!” Unfortunately, we just didn’t see those dried leaves coming.  Last requirement for a safe walk down Marin: don’t rush over piles of dried leaves.  Brushing ourselves off, we realized we were at Euclid.  Not just that though, we realized there was a bus!  Like a mouse that’d seen cheese I took off after the bus, my sister close behind. 

                        “Go Em! There is no way we’re missing that bus!” I saw it was pulling over at the next stop a block away, and I sprinted to catch it.

                        “Wait!”  I gasped as I reached the open doors.  “My sister’s coming. Hold on one sec please!”  I got in, standing in the doorway until Robyn got there.  We moved our way to two seats in the middle of the bus and gratefully sat down against the cool plastic chairs.  Finally we’d done something right.  I looked at my phone, it was 3:20, we wouldn’t be THAT late to my orthodontist appointment.  I gazed out the window, finally being able to enjoy the nice weather, as the bus continued up. 

                         “UP?!” Suddenly it dawned on us. 

                        “Em, it’s going up?  Are you joking me?!”  My sister stared in astonishment once again at our stupidity.  I reached up and pulled the cord.  Watching that bus drive away was one of the most aggravating experiences of my life.  “How did we do that?”  My sister said, still with a look of disbelief. 

                        “We should have checked for poison”, I said. 

                        “What?”

                        “Ugh, never mind.  Should we just keep walking or what?  This is so ridiculous.” We continued our pilgrimage on foot still trying to get to the orthodontist.  We moped along going back down the way we’d come until we reached the next  bus stop.  “We’re sitting here until a bus comes!  I don’t care how long it takes anymore”, and right as I said that a bus came around the bend, the sun shining behind it like an angel.  Sparkling, new, and with a large sign on the side that clearly said The Orthodontist Express… okay so not really.  However, the bus did come after not too long a wait and we joined all the other folks heading out of the hills and DOWN to civilization.  

                        It was now 4:00.  I hated walking into the orthodontist even if I was just 10 minutes late.   They always made me feel so horrible.  “You know,” the secretary once said to me, “we can’t just sit around waiting for you to show up.  We can’t completely change our schedule to fit you in.” Needless to say, walking into that office a half hour late I prepared for the worst.  I prepared for them to ask me why I was late…I figured they wouldn’t want to listen to the whole story of why I was late, and so I’d summed up the day in my head.  “I’m so sorry, but I don’t have a brain.”  I thought it covered it pretty well.  I walked through the door of the office and up to the front desk.  “Hi, uh…I’m really late for an appointment.  It was at 3:30.  I’m so sorry, but I—“

                        “Wow, 3:30?  Okay, name?”

                        “Emily Gee”

                        “G…” the woman looked at me confused. 

                        “That’s it.”

“G?”

“Emily Gee…like G-e-e.”

“Hmmm” She stared at the computer screen.  “I don’t have you down until next Tuesday at 3:30pm Emily.” I had nothing to say.  It was the perfect end to the perfect day.