We drove and drove. Finally we stopped at a restaurant. It was called Memories of Japan. Soda must've remembered my favorite food was sushi. We went in and sat at a booth. The place was wonderful. The lights were dimmed, they had lanterns hanging up. The place is relaxing. Me and Soda were laughing uncontrollably.
"Rose, rose I got a good joke. Wanna hear it?" Soda ask.
"Give me your best shot." I said smiling.
"Ok. Here it is. An engineer crosses a road when a frog calls out to him, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bends over, picks up the frog and puts it in his pocket. The frog speaks up again and says, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The engineer takes the frog out of his pocket, smiles at it and returns it to the pocket. The frog then cries out, "If you kiss me and turn me back, I'll do whatever you say!" Again the engineer takes the frog out, smiles at it and puts it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asks, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, I'll stay with you for a month and do whatever you say. What more do you want? "The engineer says, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool!" " Soda said laughing so hard. Just his face makes me laugh so hard. We were practically in tears by this point. Dinner finally came and we had a good time. I haven't felt happy in a long time. Once me and Soda finished eating, we got back in the car and drove again. Surprisingly the sun hasn't set yet. I leaned my head against the window and just stared as the buildings, cars and trees pass by. I'm guessing Soda looked over because he put his hand on my leg and asked if I was okay.
"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired." I lied thru my teeth.
"No you're not. I know you forever. What's wrong?" He asked one more time but this time the car came to the stop. He turned to face me. I couldn't lie to Soda. He's that type of guy who will be there for me.
"I miss Dal. Just about everywhere I go, it reminds me of him. Some days I just wanna hide under a rock, or at least from the world"
"I know it's hard but you can do it. I know you can. Come on, follow me" he said as he got out of the car. I did what he said. We went into a park that had a lake with it. We went down the hill and walked on the brick sidewalk. When we got by the water, we sat down and just looked.
"My parents use to me and my brothers here. Once a month, maybe twice if we were lucky." He started to say as staying focus on the water, "Me and Darry would be tossing a football with dad while mom and Pony were reading stuff. We would leave around 3:30, 4:00 and get here around a hour later. We would have a picnic. Then once the sun is ready to set, we would go right here and watch it." I looked over to Soda to see if he was okay. He had a smirk on his face. That smirk became a smile. I was puzzled till he pointed at a brick that had carvings in it. It said "The Curtis Family." "My dad carved it-look Rose!" Soda said pointing to the sunset. The sun painted the sky with wonderful colors such as purple, orange and gold. The sight was amazing. "Have you and Dally ever watched a sunset together?" When Soda asked me that, I took a moment to think about it. Did I ever watch a sunset with him? Or a sunrise?
"No. He hated the sunset and the sunrise thing."
"Why?"
"I think the sunrise reminded him of who he was before he became a rebel. Always bright and all that. And the sunset reminded him because things go to dark and turn to cold. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do. Come one, we got one more place to go." Soda got up and helped me up. We headed to the car. We got into the car drove off once again. The sun was set and streetlights were on. We stopped for ice cream then started to head back to the house.