Saturday, December 26, 2009

La Primera Parte

It was my favorite holiday of the year, the fourth of july, 2007. It was family tradition to light off fireworks in a drastic measure in our front yard with half the neighborhood block, and with half the neighborhood block chipping in for fireworks, it was quite the show, and I'd grown to love it. And as I got older, it became more fun with my growing participation. But the last year had been a flop, and I feared the same for this year. All the neighborhood's children had grown old and moved out except for myself and two or three others, and most of them went off and did their own firework fun somewhere else, and with the parents growing older, they had lost the fun in it or went off to join their children elsewhere. So my parents and I along with my older sister and her husband had taken to watching different firework displays, and we found the good ones. Our favorite to this day is the July 3rd Emerald Downs fireworks, the show lasts twenty minutes, and the grand finale a good five of that with non stop explosions. We even found the perfect place to view the show for free, and there is quite a crowd there now every year after our spreading the word about the Auburn Airfield. I never thought it would be better. One of my friend's families, the Kieswether's told me I should come with them inside the little stadium, but that meant paying and I needed to spend sometime with my family since the plan was to spend most of the day at their house the next day on the actual fourth. Besides, it didn't get much better than where I was with who I was with. Little did I know the company they had with them, or maybe I would've joined without a second thought....





The next day was all the normal, my sister and her husband came over early to play games and relax with us since they only lived fifteen minutes away. After spending most of the morning with them I received a phone call from my best friend Alisa Kieswether telling me I could come over now. She also told me that Grace's(her older brother Matthew's girlfriend) sister Emily was there and that she was excited to introduce us. So I said goodbye to the family and the brother-in-law harassed me as usual and I jumped into my father's old Nissan and stole off to the Kieswether's. I got there in the late morning early afternoon and was surprised to see everyone so active on account of the family, especially Alisa and Breanna(Alisa's younger sister), being night people and in no way morning people. But I came in and was surprised to see Breanna acting weird, and I assumed it was because of Grace's sister, who I instantly knew she was thinking of trying to get me involved with, which I didn't appreciate, but it made me nervous meeting her because maybe there would be something there. After turning into the kitchen Grace, Matthew, and Emily came climbing in through the sliding glass door into the kitchen all smiling. I caught Matthew's eye and we hugged, as well as with Grace, and then Alisa introduced me to Emily. I was thrilled, my first thought was that she looked very pretty and mature, and Christian, and like I should have no serious relationship with her outside of friendship, because she looked quite a few years older than me, and I reminded myself that I wasn't looking either, not that she'd look four or five years down in age anyway. The Lord was preparing me for the service and I was sure He wasn't going to throw such a giant wrench into my plans as a future wife so early. So we shook hands and everyone started talking and playing as usual. I finally caught up to Ben, Alisa's boyfriend, and we started playing with the two younger Kieswether boys as usual. We were playing a board game on the floor when Matthew came in with Grace, along with Emily and the other two girls Alisa and Breanna, and our game went to shambles. Eventually somehow between Ben and the help of the two boys I ended up getting completely tied up in the strings from a yard toy, and what always follows me being tied up or immobilized somehow was some far too intense tickling. I'm regrettably very prone to it, and extremely weak in the area and it is often utilized to my frustration. I can perfectly recall getting a glimpse of Emily's face and seeing complete distress on her face, and I soon heard her saying for the boys to stop on account of my lack of breathing, but that hope of escape was quickly shut out by Alisa who said, "oh don't worry, this happens all the time, he's fine." But I was glad to be a part of Emily's attention, I was starting to like her against my earlier thoughts. Throughout the rest of the day we played capture the flag with squirt guns, I was happy to be on the same team as Emily and often found myself shooting her instead of the other team. It was then that I started getting glances from Breanna, and I could tell what she was thinking, and I realized that I was definitely flirting, maybe not to the average eye, but the two Kieswether girls knew me better than anyone else, and if they were catching it, Emily might too, so I told myself to calm down...





After cooling down and changing clothes from getting soaked we were doing miniscule things that I can't remember, but eventually came to watching some type of videos on the computer on the internet, and I knew where to get some even better and kicked Breanna out of the chair and sat down, eventually everyone was gathered watching and instructing me what to watch next and Emily sat down on the arm of the computer chair, and after a little while was leaning up against me. And I was rather enjoying it, any thoughts I'd had even minutes before of not flirting or getting closer to her lept from my mind. Soon after we decided to watch a movie, and one I was excited to see again, the Prestige. All the seats were taken (as usual), and I was excited to sprawl on the floor (as usual) when I saw that Emily was on the floor also. I might have taken advantage of it. Needless to say she eventually ended up sitting elsewhere, and I was sad, thinking that perhaps I was wrong to think she liked me also. After the movie everyone went off to bed, and I was lucky enough to catch a hug from Emily before I left, and it was a very good one, she hugged me around the neck, and no one I know does that, and I loved it. After I left on my way home I remember thinking of how to slyly see her the next day, before she left without Alisa and Breanna thinking too much of it. But I decided I needed to let her go, I needed to focus on other things....





A few days later Alisa and myself were running a few errands at Fred Meyer for her family, and while we were pulling in she got that sly aspect of her voice in tune and I could tell Emily was about to somehow enter the conversation. I tried my best to convey no interest, but she saw right through it, and I couldn't help but smile, and admit, maybe I did like her, but it didn't matter, I would not see her again for a long time and we would both be changed by then, not to mention that she wouldn't take interest in me anyhow, she was what 23? And I 18.... And then she laughed, so hard, and disclosed to me that Emily was in fact three years younger than I, not even 16! I was shocked, maybe there could be a future there....