Cass

July 20th, 1984

"Cass?" Eloise asked. She was standing in the doorway, the door slightly ajar. Normally, she wouldn't be allowed inside my room, but today, Aunt Marie and Uncle Bernie were at church, so Eloise and I were alone.

"Yes?" I said. My neck hurt from craning it over papers and papers of math. I was tempted to jump out the window at this point.

"I'm hungry." The door opened wider. "I want a sandwich," she said, rubbing her belly.

I could feel my own stomach growling. I hadn't eaten breakfast that day, so I was more than glad to take a break from all the math.

"I'll make you one," I said. I got out of my chair and went downstairs. I made two vegetable sandwiches with peppers, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and mayonnaise. I cut both in half and handed one plate to Eloise, who took it to the dining table and began wolfing down food. I too, ate like a madman once I sunk my teeth into the sandwich.

"What's it like having stinky breath?" Eloise asked, as soon as we finished our sandwiches and moved onto the drinks.

I almost spat out my food when she asked that. To be fair, she was nine, and nine-year-olds ask the darndest things. I remember once, Eloise asked me what it was like to pee in a urinal. She wouldn't say that now, but she asked me that once.

"I don't have stinky breath," I said.

"Then why do you have yellow teeth?" she asked. "If you have yellow teeth, then that means your breath's stinky and you don't brush your teeth. Why do you not brush your teeth?"

"Where did you learn that from?" I asked.

"My teacher said that."

Time for a change of topic.

"Wanna play I Spy?" I asked.

"Yes!" Eloise shouted. "I wanna go first!"

"Go," I said.

"I Spy with my little eye something that starts with an E."

"Eggs?"

"No."

"Exhaling people?"

"No. The answer is Eloise, silly!"

Clever little kid, she was.

That was one of the few good things that happened that summer.

Aly

I put the stamp on the envelope. There were five letters in the envelope: one for Daria, two for Mom and Dad each from me and Josh. I'd been in BC for about five days, and these were my first letters home. I kind of liked BC, even though it rained so much there. It wasn't the same without Mom, Dad, and Daria, but I had Josh.

"I put the stamp on," I said to Josh, handing him the envelope. He was combing his hair, and his face just smelled like it had been clean shaven, which it was. He hadn't put his shirt on yet, and his acid washed jeans were unbuttoned.

"Great," Josh said. "We'll take the car out and head to the mail, then we'll go on a gondola lift and get ice cream. We have to be back before six, because I've got a blind date at seven."

"A blind date?" I asked. "Does that mean you have a new gal pal who's blind?" I knew what a blind date was. It was just that I was joking.

Josh smiled. "No. I'm very sure you already know what I blind date is."

I smiled back. "Who set you up with her?"

"My friend Joey. She's his cousin. Her name's Ashley."

"Ashley."

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to meeting her. We'll be going to Tim Horton's."

What would Ashley be like? I remembered thinking that as we drove to the gondolas after the mail. I was nervous about going up very high into the mountains, but I was also looking forward to it.

As we sat down in the gondolas, I clutched my chair. What if the gondola broke off the string? What if we died?

I think Josh sensed my nervousness. "Don't worry," he said, taking my hand, "you won't die. You'll love it."

I remember the gondola taking off and us going up into the sky. I'd never been up that high ever since being in an airplane. The view was incredible. You could see the whole city of Vancouver from the window from the gondola.

"It's incredible," I said, looking at all the trees below on the mountains. "And kind of frightening."

"I told you you'd like it," Josh said, grinning.

"Yeah," I said, turning to him. "I do."