Christian

My birthday

I wonder what Ana is going to do to celebrate it.

I wake up on my birthday for the first time in my life excited.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" I look over and see Ana. What time is it?

"What time is it?" was the first words to come out of my mouth

"Three in the morning" she said

"Why am I up this early?" I said sitting up in bed.

"Because my dad is helping with your 18th birthday present and we need to get going now." She pulled the covers from my body and kissed me on the forehead.

"Hurry, get dressed" she said as she left the room

DID SHE JUST BREAK IN AGAIN?

I make my way outside the house and lock up. Waiting is Ray and Ana by the car.

"You ready?" she says. She is practically bouncing with excitement

"For what I don't know." I said with a smile.

We drive for a solid hour before we finally make it to an air strip.

US AIR FORCE was written on the sign outside the gate.

"Am I going to war?" I said with a laugh

"No just wait." She says with a smile.

Ray parks on the strip and goes to talk to some of the guys that were standing there. He turns back and nods.

"Well Christian, you told me you wanted to fly right? Well you can't technically fly but these are friends of my dad and they are going to take me and you up to see the dawn."

I look at her in awe and kiss her.

We walk out of the car and meet the pilots.

I get in one and she goes to another.

Dear God they are fast and high. I can hear Ana's screams of laughter through the intercom. I am laughing too. The two planes level out and I can see Ana in the other plane. She points forward and I see it. The sun pops its head out of the clouds.

"Happy Birthday My Christian." She whispers in the head phones.

I can't help the smile on my face. She did this for me.

We climb out of the planes and hug. I swear I am becoming soft because I have tears in my eyes. "Thank you so much Ana. I thank God every day that you are here with me. Everything has lead me to you."

We break apart and I kiss her before her dad comes running to meet us.

"Happy birthday son." Ray pats me on my back and we are lead back to the car.

Ray takes us to breakfast and he gives a gift. It's a hammer set for work. "Everyone needs their own tools"

Later on that day Ana cooks me a special dinner of Mac and cheese and she gives a little something something after the meal on our drive back to my house.

This has got to be the best day of my life.

….

Summer

Summer is going by in a blur. Images of Ana and me at the beach, at the drive in and at the park run through my mind. She has gotten into taking pictures whenever we go out, saying and I quote "You need to smile more. All the pictures your parents have around the house show you with a grimace." I cannot help but agree with her about that one because before I never was happy.

I am sitting on my couch in the living room discussing what we want to do the coming week.

"I will not be here for the next week. I put in vacation time at work for a trip with my dad." She explains

What?

"What do you mean vacation time? Where are you going?" I did not like Ana not being here with me.

"Our annual camping trip is this coming week. Ray and I go every year to the woods in Montesano where he has a cabin. Him and his service buddies have a time share there. Ray and I rough it for a week and it is really fun."

"Oh that is nice. Is it always just the two of you?" I never heard of a family outing with just two people… then again she only has Ray in her life.

"Yeah but we really do not use the cabin. It is actually the woods we use when we go there." She said with a smile.

"Oh I wish my family did that." I have never gone camping

"Do what?" My mom walks into the living room and sits across from us.

"I was just telling Christian about the yearly camping trip me and Ray take. You don't camp much?" she asked my mother.

"Ha no not really my dear, we go on vacations to the beach and overseas but I never really thought about the camping experience. We should try that though." My mother muses.

"It really is fun. I recommend it. I developed a lot of skills doing this every year and should a zombie apocalypse hit I believe I will be the next Daryl Dixon." Ana says with a smile.

"Wish we could join." My mother smiles and calls my father to share our conversation with him

I hold Ana to me and lean my head on hers.

"I do not like it when you are away from me. I can only just stand the hours of work… but a whole week is a lot." I don't know if I can survive without her.

"Well maybe you can ask him to join?" Ana offers

"Really do you think Ray would mind?" My mom just catches Ana's part of our conversation.

Ana when put on the spot just says "No I don't think he would"

"Yay a joint family camping trip!" My mother jumps up to call Ray

"What just happened?" Ana says

"Looks like we are going on a camping trip together." I say with a smirk.

….

My father, mother, Mia and I took hours getting to Montesano. Mia took the longest to get ready… meaning we are three hours late getting here because of her. We finally approach the cabin in the middle of nowhere and see no one.

My mother walks to the front door to knock and no one answers.

"Do you think they made it?" My father wonders

Panic is instant in my brain. What if something happened? Did they get into a car accident? Did she get eaten by a bear?!

"Their car is in the garage" Mia says while jumping to look in the window.

"HEY!" Ana's voice yells.

I look towards the sound and see nothing. Suddenly she falls from the trees onto her feet. She is spider woman.

"What was that?" I ask as I hug her.

"I was spotting for the hunt later." She says

"What hunt?" I ask. This does not sound good.

"For dinner silly Christian." She smiles and greets my parents.

"Come I will show you were she will be camping." We get our bags and coolers and follow.

"Wow you guys brought a lot of stuff." She says with a laugh

"Well I needed my options." Mia says with a laugh.

"Oh Mia I can just see this working horribly for you." My father teases.

When we get to the site all I see is two tents and a fire pit nothing else. No chairs or coolers or shoes or ANYTHING.

"Where is your stuff?" I ask

"Well my clothes and sleeping bag is in my tent. And the metal rods for cooking are in my father's tent. My gun and knives are also in my tent." She waves her hand

"GUNS?" My entire family repeats. My Ana does not do guns

"Yes how do you think we eat out here?" she says with a confused expression.

"You actually shoot animals out here and eat them?" My mother asks with a curious expression.

"Well…yeah. The pond to the north we saw has some good fish and while in the trees I saw some dear nearby. We don't bring food up here because it is about survival here. We use the bare minimum." She explains

"You shoot?" I ask

"Yes I have my bolt action rifle which is made just for hunting animals and my knives are for carving the carcass and skinning." She says

My girl is Anne Oakley.

"This is going to be a fun week." I say

…..

Three days later

I have come to terms with the fact that I am going to die in the event of power no longer existing. Me and my family have witnessed Ana and Ray shoot, cook and skin everything they have eaten with no qualms.

My family has decided to leave early. We cannot survive but we did get some great pictures of Ana and Ray decked out in their camouflage and them shooting and cooking deer. Ana got a picture of Mia crying over the dear saying "Bambi's mom!"

…

People wanted a look inside the summer and the birthday scenes.

Tell me what you think

Review please

Next stop…Ana's b-day. So what should he get her?

All typos are mine. I am writing this between finals- I graduate on Sunday! Wooooooo

Getting my Bachelors -Oh Yeah buddy!