Explore: to go to a place that one knows nothings about
"Rise and shine!" Aunt Abby's voice filled the guest room that I was currently staying in. I groaned and rolled over, blinking at the clock.
"Aunt Abby! Do you realize that it's only 6:00am?" I mumble, covering my face with the sheets.
Suddenly my bed set are thrown off of me and a cool breeze chills me. Goosebumps. I shiver. Then Abby's face hovers over mine frighteningly close as she whispers,
"Boo!"
I was taken by surprise so much that I jumped about one foot in the air and fell off the bed, landing on my butt.
For the second time in two days, Abby burst out laughing at me. This time it was my facial expression. Eyes wide, mouth hanging open in dismay, and I'm on the floor in a heap. Oh and my hair? It's a rat's nest.
Recovering from my most recent shock, I grumble and get up. Abby is still trying to contain her laughter. So, while ignoring her, I make my bed, and fluff my pillows. After I finish I turn to her.
"Aunt Abby, could you please tell me why you had to wake me up like that? Like seriously? Was it really necessary?" I said, as calm as I could.
"Well," she starts slowly, "For one, it was pretty funny. I mean c'mon you should have seen your face." I shot her a dirty look. "And two I'm showing you New York today!" she exclaims excitedly.
"At 6:00am?" I ask incredulously, and then continue with sarcasm. "Yes of course, because every business will be booming at 6:00am! WOO HOO!"
Abby sighs. "Actually squirt, we have chores to do first."
I did a double take. "Wait what?"
So here I am, in knee high boots mucking stalls for horses. And boy, let me tell you do they STINK! I'm shoveling and raking and getting my boots stuck, all the while trying to find a way to plug my nose. I didn't even know that Aunt Abby had horses! So, since she's in the next stall over, doing the exact same thing as me, I decide to ask her.
"Hey Aunt Abby, when did you get horses?"
I hear the raking in the next stall stop as she answers.
"Well, when you're grandfather passed away a couple years ago, your grandma couldn't handle taking care of all of them by herself. She asked me if I would take a few off of her hands, so here we are."
"Oh ok." I answer, and then think of another question for Abby.
"Hey Abby?"
"Yeah?" She shouts back. She's now at the other end of the barn. I don't understand how she gets each stall done so quickly.
"How can you stand the stink?" I ask, wrinkling my nose in disgust. I can hear her laughing.
"You get used to after a while squirt." Abby's standing in front of me now, barely a speck of mud or horse crap on her, while I'm covered in it.
"Let's go get you cleaned up. We can rise the horses later. We are going to discover New York City baby!" she exclaims. It's nice to see her so care free.
After getting myself a shower and all that Abby and I sped off to the big city. I was actually really excited. I had never really been to a city as big as this before. So I'm sitting here listening to Abby as she's pointing out the historical pieces and going on and on about them and it's really interesting. Abby and I decide to grab some lunch so she asks me where I want to go.
"Abby, I've been here for not even two days. I don't know what restaurants they've got around here." I say, smiling at her.
"Oh right, well there's the Fire Bird. It's a Russian restaurant. Umm, oh! Let's go to the Hard Rock Café!" she says, grinning widely.
"Ok. Sounds good."
We walked down the side of the street until we got to the Hard Rock Café. It looked really awesome. As we entered, pieces from The Beatles, Elvis, Nirvana, and Led Zeppelin hung from the walls. It was really great. I grinned at Aunt Abby.
When we got seated and ordered our food, I ordered the classic macaroni and cheese and Abby ordered some chicken and basil something. It was fantastic.
After eating I told Abby that I wanted to go to this old music store that was right down the block, to look at some records and CDs. She said it was fine, that she would just be at the coffee shop a few stores down, using the Wi-Fi on her phone.
At the music store I found the CDs that I was looking for and paid for them, trying not to make Abby wait. I walked back down the block keeping my head high, trying to look confident, but truth was, I wasn't. There was so much traffic around me. I know I was safe. I was on the sidewalk. But for the first time in a few days, the flashback of the headline came back again, making tears threaten to spill.
Trying to clear my blurry eyes, I put my head back up and ran straight into something. Or should I say someone. Knocking us both to the ground.
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