An unforgettable journey

Alexandra Emerson

English 1A

Kristina Rogers

 Narrative

“An unforgettable journey” 

 “BOOM” I clutch my side as searing pain rips through my rib cage. My best friend Candice stares at me in horror. I know that my idea of sneaking out hadn’t been her favorite proposal of mine, and seeing me fall out of my window and land on the air conditioning vent definitely wasn’t helping her already doubtful perspective.  Frantically I glance back at my house, waiting for any sign of movement or a flicker of a light, but the only sound comes from my brothers TV down the hall and the howl of the winter wind. I gasp in relief and left the anxiety flow out of my mind. Suddenly I feel a sudden sting in my right side and lift the hem of my shirt to see a skinny, bruised cut looking as red and angry as my mother’s face if she knew what I was doing at this exact moment. I touch the swollen cut lightly and intake a sharp breath from the pain. I tug my shirt back into place before Candice can see the damage that the air conditioning vent has inflicted on me. I don’t want anything to change her mind if we have come this far.

“Do you think anyone heard that?” I whisper and wince at the recollection of the fall. “I think they heard that in freaking china” she whispers not attempting to hide the irritation in her voice. I know she doesn’t understand why we are sneaking out. A part of me doesn’t understand it either. I just know that I have never done a rebellious and exciting thing in my life. I feel that there is nothing wrong with a little adventure once in your life. I turn towards my drive way, which slants downward since my house is based on top of a hill. “Are you ready?” I ask Candice, my excitement audible. “As I’ll ever be” she shrugs. We turn and make our descend down my driveway. As we walk down my street I am careful to inhale the night air and fill my nose with the scents of pine and sap. I smile to myself convinced this is the most exciting experience of my 14 year old life.  I am finally doing something forbidden and it is exhilarating. Yet at the same time it is slightly terrifying.  So what if I have fallen out the window and landed on the air conditioning vent. We are only going to walk down to the 7-11 to get a drink, what is the worst thing that can happen?

The winter night wind chills us as we keep our steady pace. I hug my arms closer to my body as the shivers ripple through me. I am already regretting not wearing another jacket, but it is my fault for underestimating Oregon’s weather in January. Luckily I am wearing my favorite thick snow socks and my white wool slippers.  The night is silent with the exception of the occasional whistle of the wind around us. To my surprise the silence isn’t frightening, it is mostly calming. By the frown on Candice’s face I can tell that she is just about as thrilled with the weather as I am. Nevertheless she keeps on walking loyally by my side. As we turn down another street, we hear a shuffling noise in the darkness ahead. I shine one of the flashlights I brought along into the woods around us and see nothing among the trees and bushes. Fear starts to prick the hairs on the back of my neck up as we keep moving. The shuffling becomes louder and louder as we walk down the street.  We are walking past a neighbor’s house when we hear what sounds like a low hiss and a growl. “BAM!” Candice and I both scream and freeze in our tracks.

  A trash can smacks the ground a few feet in front of us. We stare wide eyed at the can, just waiting for some monster to arise and attack us. Yet nothing happens. After what seems like an eternity, I turn and face my petrified friend. “I think it was the wind” I assure her. She looks back at me unconvinced and terrified. “Come on, we are almost there” I urge her. Candice looks straight ahead and grabs my hand as we continue on our way. We approach the fallen trash can and see nothing unusual, until we round the open side of the trash can. To our horror, we are face to face with the culprit responsible for the noise we had heard up the street.  It is now wrestling with the garbage sprawled around the can. It is a huge raccoon. Candice looks at the raccoon for what seems like only a fraction of a second before she yanks my hand and jolts into a sprint down the road. “Is it following us?” She screams as we run. “I don’t know, just keep going” I pant, wanting to get as far away as possible before we stop. Finally we get to the end of the street and stop our sprint. We struggle to inhale enough oxygen to relax. Candice just looks and me and mouths “I hate you” and rolls her eyes.

Eventually as we start our journey towards the main road to 7-11, Candice lightens up and is able to laugh about our near death experience with the raccoon.  She is probably just more relieved that we are almost at 7-11. We continue the duration of the walk in silence, mainly just catching our breath. A car of what appeared to be high school students drives by and yells words at us that we can’t make out. Yet I know that I don’t need to hear them to know that it wasn’t compliments they were shouting. We put our heads down to avoid any further confrontation with any other people out tonight. Finally we reach the 7-11, yank the door open and are greeted by a surge of heat. It stings my freezing cheeks but feels remarkable at the same time. We walk into the store and immediately look at each other when we realize that Death Metal was blasting through the speakers. I look at my phone and see that it is barely 11pm. The cashier didn’t seem to notice when we walked in because he continued to dance around the register and scream the metal at the top of his lungs.

“This is what they do at night?” Candice giggles as we make our way back to the selection of drinks in back wall of refrigerators.  I select a grape Gatorade, while Candice opts for a red one. We make our way through the aisles of snacks and candy. We both select a Snickers and decide that the Death Metal has finally become too much.  We set our drinks on the counter while the pierced and tattooed associate ring up our purchases. He smells strongly of cigarettes and so much cologne it makes my stomach turn. He proceeds to bag our items and recite our totals.  To our amazement the cashier doesn’t even ask if we are “a bit young” to be out this late. The truth is he probably could have cared less and we are just two little girls keeping him from dancing to his metal songs. Handing him over our crumpled up ones from our jean pockets, we turn towards the door to brace ourselves for the winter wind. I pray the walk home will be quick and uneventful, since honestly this endeavor wasn’t the amazing rebellious, exciting adventure I have thought it was going to be. With one last moment in the heat, I inhale a deep breath and pull the door open and step out towards the direction home.

Candice and I open our candy bars first and nibble at the delicious chocolate and caramel heaven until we are too cold to eat. I am just opening the top to my purple Gatorade when I hear the familiar sound of voices. Before I can react something hard slaps my back jolting me and my open Gatorade forward. To my dismay, I drop my drink mid stumble and watch it drop to the cement. Candice stands beside me with her jaw dropped in anger. Anger should have probably been my first emotion as well, if shock had not beat it to the punch .I glance down at the water balloon wrapper lying on the ground and hear the sound of a speeding car and high school students  laughing like hyenas.  Purple Gatorade starts to slowly soak into my favorite white slippers.

“Are you okay?” Candice cautiously asks. I realize the bile present in my throat and struggle to clear it to respond to her. “Just wonderful” I hiss through gritted teeth. I can’t believe I am soaking wet in 40 degree weather. If this is what a clear indication of the kind of experiences you endure in high school, you better believe that I am not going. “Let’s just get home” I sigh and start to shuffle my slippers along as the liquid continues to soak deeply into my socks. I look back to see Candice trying to stifle a laugh and for some reason I let a smile slip. “I hate you” I giggle as I repeat her earlier words. She then takes my side as we start our way back up the street. We laugh every time we looked down at my new Purple slippers, now caked with dirt from the sticky new liquid present. I then start to reflect on the events of the night and cannot even believe that they actually happened. I assume that most of that stuff only happens in the movies, but here I am walking with a bruised and bloody cut from my AC vent and walking in Gatorade soaked slippers which had not too long ago carried me away from a raccoon.

 My slippers start to decrease my body temperature faster as time starts to pass on our walk.  I am suddenly aware that Candice is holding my arm and walking right next to me. She must have seen me chattering my teeth, or even more embarrassing she might have heard my teeth chattering. After what seems like an eternity we turn on the last street leading up to mine. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be” Candice suddenly breaks our silence. “Really?” I manage to say through violent shivers. “Yeah, I mean some weird stuff happened, but it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. I am glad we did something exciting.” She sounds surprised by her own words. I start to respond, but the convulsion of my shivers distracts me. We continue a brisk pace and turn down my street. I have never been more excited to see my house in my entire life. I suddenly realize that I would never take it for granted again. All I want to do at this time was kick off these freezing slippers and crawl into a warm bed. However, I cannot deny I am happy that I have gone on this adventure. My whole life I have done everything I was told. A year ago I would have never dreamed of doing what I have done tonight. It occurs to me that this isn’t the most outrageous rebellion ever committed by an adolescent, but it doesn’t matter to me. I am proud of myself for doing something that in my book could be considered risky for my well-being if my parents ever found out.  I even decide that though the events of an “exciting” night have not turned out quite the way I had expected, I wouldn’t have changed my mind about doing this. A warm feeling of accomplishment and happiness flows through me as I round the corner to my drive way. Candice and I share a smile of relief as we start up the driveway, but the smile soon falls as we glance over to my parent’s window and see a light flick on.