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Hey just a quick note on this one: The sand dollar thing actually happened with my family, but in Puerto Rico, and the maid threw them away when we left the hotel room. OMG I was sooo upset. We tried to get more, but we didnt reach barley the amount we h

Nope. It was 10 am, and I was rudely awakened by an, “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” And a slam of a door. I tried to nod back off to sleep. I was dreaming earlier that I had been floating on by back, in the middle of a lake. It was so peaceful. Now this. I was drowning. But not even going back to sleep was an option as Gabby ran into my room and plopped onto my bed.

        “They’re scaring me…” She whispered. They were loud, and Gabby didn’t need to hear all of this. I didn’t want to hear all of this.

 

       “I know. Get dressed. We’re going on a walk.”

 

We snuck out through the back door while the fighting took place in the living room. Dad and Mitch seemed to be doing most of the fighting, and I could imagine mom sitting on the chair rubbing her forehead. I made sure Gabby had her light weight jacket, and got a surge of motherly feeling go through me. Mom should be the mother, but she was too busy trying to stay out of it. We walked passed Deb’s house, which looked inactive, as a lot of houses were at 10:20 in the morning. The early morning joggers were just finishing off, pacing back into their driveways and resting their hands on their knees taking their huffs and puffs after their run. Bike riders still occasionally zipped pass, without even glancing back at Gabby and I to make sure they didn't run over us or something.

 

       “Where are we going, Liz?”

        “I don’t know. Maybe breakfast?”

 

There were a bunch of places we knew around here that were local, just down the street. I brought a wad of cash that I had gotten off of mom’s burrow in my back pocket. I didn't like to take without asking, but she probably wouldn't have advised me to take Gabby out by ourselves.

 

        “Liz!” She wined. “The Radley’s aren’t there!”

 

I looked over to the large house on our right, which was empty and had a FOR SALE sign in the front yard, but a big red SOLD sign plastered over it. I led her along. The Radleys were two over-tired parents, with four kids to take care of. They were all around Gabby’s age, two of them twins, and the other two a year or so older, and had become as close as Deb and I. Though, five year olds don’t have much trouble making friends with one another. Whoever was buying this house should be prepared for colored and sticky walls, and the accidental hole that they had tried to hide with a chest of drawers. I had to admit, that was pretty funny, since they never even noticed it there.

We stopped by this bakery not far down the street, clustered by other brick built stores and shops. We bought two doughnuts, which Gabby was happy for, because our family was on an all-new health diet starting today. My mother decided this at dinner the night before, as she watched my father wolf down his pizza like the cookie monster. We weren’t heavy, in fact, as a family, we were quite skinny. My dad just had earned a potbelly over the past month or so.

        I soon regretted giving Gabby the chocolate frosting doughnut, as it all resulted on her face, and very sticky fingers which I had to hold onto while walking down the sidewalk. Yuck. I still had $20 left over, and asked her if she wanted anything else. I still had the feeling they were continuing to fight at home. They were probably at this point in low, fast, murmering voices, squelching the words out of one another. She squirmed as I sat her down on the bench, and she pointed behind me at the bookstore next to the bakery.

        “The bookstore?” I said, looking at the shop.

 

 

There was a sign outside that read LIGHTHOUSE BOOKSHOPPE. She nodded excitedly, and we entered the store. A bell twinkled as we arrived, announcing our arrival. There was a few people there, browsing through the isles, or sitting and reading. Gabby cut over to the kids’ section, and I stood where I could see her. The place was small and cozy, somewhere I would like to hang out. A heavy curly haired woman stood behind the counter to pay, eyeing Gabby. I pulled Gabby closer to me. Now she was looking at me, motioning me to come towards her, and I did, making sure that Gabby was in full site. She was flipping through a tall, pink book. I reached the counter, wondering why this lady, who didn’t even know me, wanted me to come near her.

 

        “I hope she’s not yours.” She scoffed, and looked over at Gabby.

 

 

        “Sorry?”

    

    “You heard me. I hope she’s not your child.”

 

Like it was really any of her business! And even if Gabby was my kid, she had rudely insulted me. How dare she.

 

        “No, of course not.” I managed to say, but really I wanted to give her a good smack in the face.

        “Good. Teenage pregnancy has certainly become the ‘rage’. Just irresponsible, that’s what it is.”

I didn’t say anything, but she really knew how to make a great first impression.

 

        “Don’t listen to her,” A voice said behind me. I turned around to see a younger girl, carrying a stack of books in her hand. She had shiny ginger hair pulled back into a tight pony, and rapid green eyes. Her skin was pale, like mine, and her fingers bony beneath the heap of books she was bearing in her arms.

 

 

        “She’s just a bit grouchy sometimes. I’m Lia, by the way.”

 

 

She reached out a hand beneath the books. Finally, a friendly face. “I’m Liz.” I felt a tug on my elbow to see that Gabby had picked her book, the one I saw her reading a few moments ago.

 

 

        “Well it was nice meeting you, Lia. This is a great place”

 

 

It really was. There was a fireplace in the corner, perfect for the wintertime, and right next to a bakery. Working at a bookstore must be quiet, and peaceful, like floating on a lake.

 

 

        “Well,” Lia said “We could use some volunteers around here. Not like a job or anything, just a helping hand.” Good. I get to get out of the house for a bit.

 

 

        “Yeah. That actually sounds great.” Gabriella gave another good tug.

 

        “Just drop by whenever Liz, and Carol and I will give you something to do!” Lia finished, and disappeared behind the science fiction section. I walked up to pay, where the woman named Carol was still scowling in her long floral dress that unquestionably did not flatter her.

 

 

       “Will this be all?” She asked me, and rang up the 101 Greatest Tales.

    

    “Yes.” I said, looking down at Gabriella. I paid and walked out of the store, Gabby by my side.

 

 

We got home after our walk, when Gabby fiddled around with her book, dropping it numerous times on the ground, already making it crinkled and messy after 5 minutes of purchasing it. It seemed as though things were settled down again.

 

 

        “Where were you?” My mother demanded as we stepped into the kitchen. “I walk up to your room to call you down for breakfast, to find that you and Gabby weren’t in your beds. What were you thinking?”

 

       “I was thinking,” I answered, “ That Gabby didn’t need to hear her parents and older brother fight it out! So we went to a bakery and got some doughnuts. No big deal.” There was a pause. Mom looked at Gabby, then at the book in her hands.

  

      “Then where did you get that?” She said, as if we were lying to her.

  

      “There was a bookstore right near.”

 

My mom seemed to be accepting this, maybe because the fight did get nasty, and somewhat glad that Gabby didn’t witness it.

 

        “Cindy! Did you find them?” My dad came into the room, saw us, and looked at my mother.

 

        “They’re okay.” She said, and walked out. My dad stood for a moment, and looked at the two of us. He breathed in to say something, but closed his mouth and walked out shaking his head.

I wondered where Mitch was.

  

      “Gabby, go read your book upstairs.” I said and watched her happily trot up the stairs. Mitch’s room was on the ground floor, with a GET LOST sign on the outside. Wherever we travel to, the sign will always remain on his door. I guess he never wanted it to be mistaken, no matter where we go in the world, that he didn't want to be bothered.I knocked twice, and I heard him grumble, “Read the door!”

 

 

        “It’s Liz.” I hoped he would talk.

 

        “Come in.” He said. His room was a mess. We have been there for not even two days and there was a pile of clothes on the floor, and candy wrappers everywhere that he had been snaking on the day earlier, to avoid going into the kitchen.

 

        “Sorry for the mess.” He said, and pushed some clothes away. “I’ve made myself at home.”

 

We talked a bit. Not about the school issue, which has become somewhat taboo around the family, but just normal Liz Mitch talk. It dragged on for a while, but ultimatley came down to a weird silence, which, almost never happens. He looked at me, stood up, and said, “ You know Liz. Life can be funny sometimes…”

  

      “Oh, great…” I laughed.

        “No, no. Just listen!” He paused again, making sure I was listening, and continued.

 

        “If something great comes your way, take it. Enjoy it. Don’t question it. It’s the questioning and second-guessing that can get you in trouble with yourself, and eventually others. In fact, consider anything worth while in your life a gift, and make the best of it, and take advantage.” He ruffled his messy hair. “ I had gotten a scholarship to an art school in Philadelphia. The weekend mom and dad thought I was touring Yale, was when I was actually in Philli. I wanted to go. I guess I was too much of a wuss to tell mom and dad about it. I wanted to please them, but now… Look what this all created.”

 

        “First of all, thanks for the talk, dad, and second of all, just tell them now. Transfer.” I didn’t get why he would want to prolong this any longer.

  

      “I was thinking about it. Maybe tonmorrow. Incase the volcano erupts, can you take Gabby out gain tomorrow around noon?”

        “Sure. I was thinking of volunteering at the bookstore anyway, and Gabby seems to like it there. Enough to keep her amused for a while.” Mitch smiled.

 

“Thanks.”

 

I said it was really no problem, and left the room.

 

        “And remember what I said!” He yelled through the door.

 

I walked back upstairs, seeing both my mother and father having coffee by the island. It was still early yet, around 12, but I decided I’d wait a day until I go back to the bookstore. Going back less than two hours later seemed way lame. I mean, a actually do have a life. I kind of regretted agreeing to take Gabby away tomorrow, because of Carol and her ability to pry into someone else’s’ life without even trying. But then again, Lia would always be there. She seemed really nice.  

 

       “What are you thinking of doing today?” My mom asked me as I walked up the stairs.

 

It sounded dorky, but later on we all went to the beach for some relaxing. Dad brought Gabby out into the water on his shoulders, mom caught up with her reading, Mitch was sketching in his notebook, and I was working on my tan. I remembered the old days, where all of us used to be out there in the water. Gabriella wasn’t born yet, it was just Mitch and I. We’ all be swimming in the ocean, splashing each other playfully. My dad and Mitch would actually swim around, underwater, as mom and I would stay in the shallower parts, complaining how cold we were. We’d meet each other somewhere near the middle, and fish for sand dollars. We’d search for them with our feet on the ocean floor, for something round, and pick them up with our toes. There were so many of them that summer, that it became a collection. A lot of them were different, different marks and discolorations. Some of them were pissed that we took them from their homes, and but our hands. Sand dollars have mouths? After we had collected about ten, we’d take turns going back and forth up to our towel to put them in our bucket. We’d gotten over a hundred or so the firs time, planning to clean and bleach them, and keep them somewhere special, or use them for decoration. We ended up loosing the hundred or so sand dollars on that vacation (Who the hell knows how), and me especially, turned out to be very disappointed. Mitch managed to salvage one, however, which was discolored, and looked like a deflated volleyball.

Now some seven years later, the last sand dollar went missing, and each time we go to the beach nobody cares anymore. Gabby, of course, never got over the fact that she didn’t go ‘Sand dollar fishing’, as she calls it, and is too short to stand in the deep end and try. I now looked over at Dad and Gabby out in the ocean. He was pointing up on a seagull flying overhead, Gabby following his finger. I then noticed everyone else on the beach. The people on the sand were mostly lying on their stomachs in their bathing suits, like me, sitting in their lawn chairs, or eyeing their children playing out in the water. The beach was mostly a very lazy place, as ‘beach’ was considered the land, and the ocean, was the ocean, by itself. Others in the ocean were boogie boarding, splashing around, and trying to swim all the way out to the booey and back.

 

        “Liz, honey. Pass me the sun block,” Mom interrupted my thoughts. I tried to peer over at Mitch’s notebook, to see what he was sketching. It took me a while to understand, and then I saw that it was the beach from a higher aerial view. I could see that Mitch placed himself in the middle for some perspective, who was sketching the same drawing. He even added me next to him, and mom below. He added every last detail, including the group of people a few towels away with a large stripped umbrella, and the obscenely fat women showing off the bod some ways down.

        

“Mitch, that’s amazing.” I say, glancing over at mom.   

      

“Oh… It’s nothing.”

 

  He stashed his notebook away, laid down and closed his eyes. Mom didn’t seem to be interested. I suddenly missed seven years ago. Not that I didn’t want Gabby around, but I missed the family togetherness. So Danny Tanner, right? Our family was held together by one string, one lone deflated and discolored sand dollar, that somehow got lost in a mess that nobody can really communicate of understand.