In the next morning, I woke up to see the time was almost 8'o clock. In my mind, I was thinking was about taking Bluey and Bingo to school. In a flash, I got dressed and hurry downstairs, to see their family car wasn't there. What it seems was that I slept in and missed my task. A sigh came out from disappointment. My stomach was empty from not eating yesterday. I was hungry.
When I got to the kitchen, I see Uncle Bandit was humming and making sounds, as if he was singing.
"Uncle Bandit?"
He turned and smiled. "Morning, mate!"
"Where's everybody?" I asked.
"Your cousins are at school and Chilli is at work." he answered.
"Oh. I'm sorry I woke up late." I apologized for not waking up on time to take the cousins to school.
"Na, don't worry squirt. Yesterday, was a hard day. However, today will be a good day." I tried to lightly smile for optimism. "How about this, why don't you get ready, and both of us will go out today. How's that sound?"
"Sure, but what about work? I know you're an archeologist." I expressed and yet wonder that if he has work today.
"Nope, it's my off day today. Yesterday, I did went to work, while other times I work at home." he then explained.
"I see... how about I drive? Since Auntie Chilli has the family car for work." I suggested.
"Great idea!" he gave me a thumbs up. "Now, let's try to have some breakfast, you hungry?"
"Yes please, I'm starving." I grabbed the keys from the stand, as he followed from the behind to lock the front door. He was than using his phone for some unknown reason. As he was on the phone, he told me to get myself into the truck and start it up. While I waited... the knob was tuned to different radio stations from the switches I made. At one point, it landed onto a country music station. Lady Antebellum's Ocean song played. It was than I started to fall into a deep sleep, as I waited. It was than, ocean waves started to sound off.
A flashback came, as my parents, my older brother and I were camping at Bodega Bay. I could only see my parents cuddled with each other, as Blake and I watched them. He smirks at them, as the two were happy to be away. By the night came, everyone had s'mores and even told them that I camped out here. They questioned how, as if I escaped from the orphanage. I laughed from it, until I explained that me and my fellow orphans were given a trip that we camped out in the coast once a year. After my story, they told me that they camped out for years, from family get togethers to simple camping trips and day trips. We ended up sleeping tents during our trip. Blake and I shared a tent, while our parents had their own. I was able to listen to the ocean waves and buoy horns from the distance, like lullaby music.
Andy?
I woke up to hear a tap on the driver's side door... it was Uncle Bandit. "Are you alright to drive, mate?" he asked me.
A nod came from me. "Yes... I just fell out for a moment. I'm okay."
"Alright, ready to hit the road?"
After taking a moment to rebound myself into the present, I composed myself back to where I was... "Yes, I'm ready." Just after he buckled his seatbelt, we pulled out of the driveway and I followed the directions that Uncle Bandit set for us. I remained focus driving, while another country song plays on the radio.
"Andy... you seem to be very quiet? Are you sure you're alright, mate?"
I sighed. "Uncle, I just had a flashback a family trip."
"Here?"
I shook my head. "No, actually it's a camping spot that my family takes me annually."
A memory came out of his head. "Oh yeah, your parents told me this, especially you... Bodega Bay?"
"Yes." I exclaimed. "It's basically a 'home away from home' place that I feel at peace."
"It's in California?"
"Yep. Off from Highway 1, just north of San Francisco." As usually, I would always go off that as a favorite place nowadays with family. "... I feel like I could use that dosage."
I wasn't sure how long I was in the drive, as the conversation went. Eventually, I found myself at a caravan park. It appears to be like coastal environment. I even thought it might be those residential trailer parks that I saw back in Sac. I was able to find myself at a visitor lot, that I was directed by Uncle Bandit to park at. After arriving our spot, we exited out of the car, as he got on his phone.
"So... why are you here?" I asked.
"I thought perhaps, you could spend time with your Uncles. Just us guys." he answered. "They should be arriving anytime."
At the distance, I saw a black truck that resembles Uncle Rad's tailgate truck. "Is that him at the distance?" He than looked at the distance to see Uncle Rad swerving.
He shook his head. "Yep. That's him."
With him was Uncle Stripe. They exited out of the truck and greeted us.
"Say, Andy, did you learn how to bike?" Uncle Bandit asked me.
"I did. However, I'm not a skit rider like you nor Uncle Rad. Hopefully, you're not expecting me to do it."
Uncle Rad glanced at him. "I'll make sure you won't be able to get called out of it. He knows what happened before."
"What happened?"
"Uhhh... let's go on the bikes, let's go." Uncle Bandit became nervous, as he begins to unload the bikes.
"Your Uncle Rad, jinks him... he did that, after I bailed." Uncle Stripe answered, leaving his older brother embarrassed, while Uncle Rad smirked.
"I think I might heard a story about that..." a memory started to come back to me.
"Here's your bikes, I'm off!" Uncle Bandit zoomed off on his bike.
"Hey!" Uncle Stripe started to go after him, on his own bike.
"Oi, Andy." Uncle Rad tossed me a helmet for my safety. "Thanks, Uncle. You guys not wearing one?"
He swing his hair. "To mess up my hair?" I gave him a disapproving look. "Oh no, that's because we rode our bikes multiple times, as kids and know how to ride them safely."
I acknowledged, as I put on my helmet. I got on my bike and set the controls on the knobs to know my speed. "Just I'm not use to riding them on dirt."
"Hey, no worries Andy." Uncle Rad hopped on his bike. "Just follow me and take your time on the speed." From there, I was able to follow him and keep up. As we rode, eventually, we were able to catch up with Uncles Bandit and Stripe. They went off about the location we're riding at, was there getaway place when their family went on caravan as kids.
The layout of the place is beautiful, since it's by the coast and there's no big city by it neither. We continued to ride our bikes around the park, until we reached a certain spot that takes them back. Uncles Bandit and Rad skid their bikes to a stop. Uncle Stripe was able to do it slight skid.
"I'm surprise you could skid now." Uncle Bandit teased his brother.
"After getting jinxed, you and Rad had to taught me to do it." Uncle Stripe smirked.
They watched, as I was able to brake my bike and didn't skid. It even shocked Uncle Bandit.
"You can't skid?!"
"I'm not saying 'I can'. I never skid before." I confessed. "Besides, when I rode my bike, it was residential, not coastal nor dirt."
Uncle Rad was about ready, as he gave him the look. It changed his choice of words.
"Well... I'm sure you'll get there." he spoke nervous.
I shrugged with a smile. "I'm not so sure about that. Besides, I'm enjoying on how I'm riding."
From long hours of riding the bikes, we decided to head towards a fish and chips joint. When we got there, the place looked completely different. The layout was the same, however, there was a classic arcade machine they use to play is gone. However, it didn't stop Uncle Stripe. As he inserted a coin to a arcade machine.
"C'mon mate, you'll never beat this game." Uncle Bandit said.
"I'm surprised they still have for years, since it first came out." Uncle Stripe added.
"Yeah, even the local kids still play." the cook spoke, as he was starting to take down our order. "It was released in the 90's I remembered and dozens of kids rushed in here to play."
I looked at the game, it was Mortal Kombat II. One of my favorite games, that I would often play at the arcade. Whenever, I had spare time, I would look up the moves and practice them, whenever I'm at the arcade. As I watched Uncle Stripe played, he was struggling, until facing defeat on the second match. Leaving him a bit a meltdown, that Uncle Rad had to restrain him.
"Classic Stripe." Uncle Bandit shook his head.
"I could do it." I decided to give it a go.
"You?!" Uncle Stripe looked concerned. "It's a challenging game, hardly a few ever got far after the first three or four matches."
"I got further." I reached into my pocket to have some spare change. "Hope you won't mind?"
"Not at all, mate." Uncle Bandit assured me.
As I inserted the credits in, I was able to choose my character at the select screen. "Yeah, I always pick this character at the top left corner and I started losing." Uncle Stripe said.
"Liu Kang? Yeah, he's a childhood favorite character. However, it's important to know the moves too. However, it maybe different, especially at the time it was released." I was than able to choose my character, Baraka.
"Good luck, mate." Uncle Stripe wished me luck.
"I'm sure it won't be long." Uncle Rad informed the cook.
The first round starts, the three Uncles watched me play. I was able to perform my character's special moves and maneuver the computer's attacks.
"The first ones are always easy..." Uncle Stripe stated, until he noticed that I finished the round with a "Flawless Victory". "... how did you-" Before he could go further, the second round began. Even though I started to falter, but I continued to be persistent on my moves. It was than I was able to do a free hit. I was able to finish my opponent with a stage fatality. The computer was uppercut to the acid pool, than a skeleton popped up and floats away.
"Far out, I always seen the computer did it to me." Uncle Bandit stated.
"This one is easy, you just have to hold low punch and kick buttons, than before performing down high punch on your opponent." I said.
"Well, you got a long way to go. Especially, if you could get through three more fights." Uncle Stripe stated.
"Don't worry... I could go beyond that." I was determined, as I advice to the next fighter...
