Getting Out of the City
Jessie looked around the beach, and took a deep, relaxing breath in. Ever since starting her nanny job in New York, she had longed to get the kids out of the noisy city and somewhere they can relax in peace and quiet.
"JESSIE!" someone yelled, causing Jessie to come out of her relaxing sleep and fall out of the beach chair she was sitting in.
"What is it? Who's hurt?" she asked as she picked herself off the ground. She then saw Zuri staring down at her.
"Why were you on the ground?" she asked, looking puzzled
"Oh, you know, I just LOVE to sleep on the ground" Jessie replied bitterly, hoping the little girl couldn't catch on to sarcasm.
"Well get up, silly! I want to go to the beach! Everyone else is already there!" Zuri said, tugging on Jessie's arm to get her to move.
"Ok, jeez, give me 5 minutes to get ready, alright?"
Five minutes later, Jessie and Zuri left the beach house they were staying at and headed down to the beach. Along the way, Jessie told the young girl all about how she loved the beach and how Zuri would probably love it too. She told Zuri all about the warm sand and the beautiful blue ocean, and how relaxing the whole beach experience is. After she was done, Zuri was practically running ahead of Jessie to get to the peak where they can see the whole beach up and down. Jessie, who was carrying all the toys and chairs and towels, quickly fell behind and had to scream to Zuri to wait up. Another minute of two and the girls were finally looking at the beach. Jessie, who was used to seeing the scene, was smiling ear to ear, but Zuri was ecstatic. She ran down the path and was out of her clothes so fast, Jessie was sure she was a magician.
"Zuri wait! You need sunscreen!" Jessie yelled, but the little girl was already splashing around in the ocean, almost as happy as she was on her birthday—or Christmas.
"Oh, forget it…she's never coming out" Jessie said to herself, setting a beach chair up and plopping down on it. She scanned the beach for the other Ross kids, just to make sure they weren't doing anything dangerous...or illegal. She quickly found Emma, who was flirting with a cute teenage lifeguard about a mile down the beach. "Of course…" Jessie laughed, then looked away from Emma to search for Ravi and Luke. She found them about a quarter mile behind where Emma was, and saw that Ravi was standing over Luke, who was just a head sticking out of the sand. Ravi was burying Luke in the sand, and enjoying every minute of it. The young Indian boy was piling sand on top of his brother, practically leaving Luke helpless and immobile in the sand. Jessie wanted to take a closer look, so she glanced out to where Zuri was to make sure she was ok, and then got up and headed over to where the two boys were playing.
As she walked up, she laughed and said "Looking good down there, Luke." Luke gazed up at her the best he could in his situation, with a scowl on his face
"I was the one who was supposed to bury Ravi. But we played some game and he tricked me and won!" Luke looked embarrassed, but Jessie was laughing
"Is that so..?" she asked, now looking to Ravi, who looked slightly guilty but still smiling
"Oh yes, Jessie, we played an India game called Strock, Shmie, Hagami. Sort of like your American rock, paper, scissors. Except…I made up the rules"
"RAVI!" Jessie said, smacking the boy, but still laughing at the boy's cleverness. "That was not a nice thing to do! But…let's leave Luke here for a while and come get him later"
"What! Jessie, No! please dig me out! I don't want to stay buried!" Luke pleaded and started to cry and pout
"Can you move and get yourself out?" Jessie was going to give in, but then thought back to how Luke was going to do the same thing to Ravi.
"No! I can't move an inch! The sand is really heavy and the whole is about 5 feet deep!" the young boy said, while trying to move around to no avail.
"Well, sorry Luke, this is your punishment for what you were going to do to Ravi. We'll come get you later. Have fun!" Jessie finished, smiling to Ravi and walking away back to where they had set up their stuff.
"Jessie, how long are you going to leave him there?" Ravi asked, sitting on the blanket and looking over to the little blob in the sand that was Luke.
"Well, who knows how long he was going to leave you there. He probably wouldn't even have told me you were over there if I hadn't come with Zuri and you tricked him. So, I think just for a little while, maybe an hour or two."
"What if he has to use the bathroom?"
"Well, that would suck, wouldn't it?" Jessie smiled, and the two sat and laughed for a while until Zuri came out of the water.
"Jessie! Ravi! You HAVE to come into the water! It's so beautiful and warm!" the little one screamed.
So that's what the three of them did. For the next two hours, Jessie, Ravi, and Zuri splashed and played in the ocean. They body surfed waves, they floated around on tubes, and they jumped bigger waves further out in the ocean. After a while, even Emma came out and joined them, and then they played tag with a beach ball they had brought with them. It was a really fun day, and everyone was really tired by the time they got out of the ocean to head home.
"Alright everyone, let's go home and I'll make something for dinner" all the kids looked up, shocked. "I mean, Burtrum will make something for dinner." Jessie finished.
"Jessie, what about Luke? I was watching him while we were in the ocean, and he's been trying to get out of that hole for three hours now. He only got to his shoulders, but can't get his arms out. Can we dig him out now?" Ravi asked with concern in his eyes for his brother.
"yeah, you and Emma go dig him out, and me and Zuri will clean up around here." Jessie said, and the two set off to get Luke out.
Forty-five minutes later, an exhausted Ravi, Emma, and sand covered Luke came back to meet up with Jessie and Ravi. Jessie laughed as she saw that Luke had wet himself in his trunks and that he looked like he could pass out at any second. "I hope you learned your lesson, Luke"
"I…I d-did…" Luke said, yawning loudly and swaying in place.
Laughing, Jessie said, "Alright, let's get him home and cleaned up. He's had enough punishment for one day. But tomorrow…"
Luke's eyes bulged open, and he pleaded with Jessie never to do that to him again. "Please Jessie! I'll never be mean to Ravi again! Just please don't ever do that to me again! I peed my pants, I almost crapped myself, and when I tried to flirt with some hot chicks who were walking passed, they laughed at me and ran away! It was terrible not being able to move, and I had an itch on my nose I couldn't reach! Then, I saw you guys playing in the ocean without me, and I wanted to go in there with you guys! I got sunburned and I have sand in places that guys should NEVER have sand!"
"Calm down, Luke!" Jessie exclaimed, " I was just kidding!"
"Oh, good. Because that was the worst day of my life! I miss the city!"