I was thinking today, writing children's lit might be fun, but then I realized stories about brothers and sisters who turn into polar bears and eat each other might give little kids nightmares. Instead I wrote a story about Edinburgh. It's sort of a memoir-y-ish thing, with some fictional elements. Actually, I don't even believe in memoirs. Everything is fiction. I'll post the completed version soon but for now here is a teaser: This was before Hunter and I shared a room, two mattresses spread across a threadbare blue carpet; before we spent our Saturdays watching Bergman films until the world didn’t have any color left, followed by watery soup at the “Restaurant and Café” on the very last corner of Lothian road just before it became Home street. This was when we bought a two-man pup tent and convinced Kat it would be easy to rent a car, it would be easy to remember to drive on the other side of the road.
Every Edinburgh Saturday pretended to threaten a monsoon or hurricane with clouds gathering in sky piles at speeds that could make you dizzy if you stared up, but just before the sun went down the cloud quilt would decide that the joke was over and disappear suddenly, leaving behind a sunset of fluorescent yellow, a million smashed lightbulbs across the skyline.
A curved gravel bay off the edge of the pavement came up at the pristine second and with just enough time Hunter swerved the wheel hard, smashing the brake pedal until the engine relented and shivered to still and silent.
To the left of our car was dense brush, overgrown and condensed until it appeared as a solid shade of muted green, but up to our right, that was why we had pulled over: a climbable-sized hill, mint green and lavender quaking against a heavy growling sky.
“Go! Go!” I wanted out, now, out of the car, out and up, and if the window would have opened far enough I would have squeezed my body through that way, but instead I tied my muscles down to wait until Kat had gotten out of her passenger seat and flipped the backrest forward.
“I’m climbing it, are you coming…” Everything excited in my head and my bones wouldn’t wait any longer and I don’t remember looking down the highway for traffic before flying across and then farther, over the boulders lining the road.
Without waiting for anyone else, I scampered up a little ways, but once I had made it over those boulders and into what had been a carpet of skin-soft vibrant purple and pine-tree greens I was soaked in seconds, wet all the way to my waist and pieces of the Scottish Highlands clung to my jeans as I pushed through thick grasses as close together and finely wired as the fur on a golden retriever.
list! list!
-5 weeks until school is over
-4 days until the weekend
-3 little pigs
-2 bands to interview for wednesday
-1 day without a cellular telephone
random stuff for Monday:
-I've officially worn through my favorite pair of boots and they no longer keep my feet dry in the rain which is a bummer. I'm thinking I probably just won't go outside when it rains now.
-Phil Collins.
-a playground where I pretended to be an astronaut and how amazing tennis is when you play it at midnight in July.
