Brien Shores
Excerpt from Chapter 2: Sailing
Day 16 of Book Stealing:
So I’m going to skip ahead some. It’s been a week since my last sailing trip and I just want to talk about something fun which seems appropriate for how many days I’ve had your book. For my sixteenth birthday Grandma and Gramps drove us up to Anaheim for a day at Disneyland! So you may have noticed my mention of a Mickey Mouse shirt. Truthfully I have a love for all things Disney. Accept that about me. It’s just pure happy fun. Sure by looking at me I’m this dark punked out barista coffee giver outer who listens to Converge way too loud but if you speak ill of the mouse I will fucking cut you! Do we have an understanding Bookman? Good! We got to the park just as it had opened that morning. My grandparents told me that the day was mine so I lead the way. We hit all my favorites, Space Mountain, the Finding Nemo Submarine, STAR TOURS, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, THE JUNGLE CRUISE!! Gramps loves the Mark Twain Riverboat. Grandma loved whatever was sitting down and not moving but went with me wherever I wanted to go. As always when the day was winding down we would eat at The Golden Horseshoe but that wasn’t until later. My grandma still talks about that day as one of her happiest. I was always so quiet and reserved, she saw me as sad in my teens, but that day she said she saw me come alive and stopped worrying. Disneyland was a special place for her too. She likes to tell the story of how gramps took her there on one of their first dates soon after the park had opened. She loved to recount the day and how everything was so different. Gramps liked listening to her tell the story. She’d get teary eyed when she’d talk about how he was a gentleman but looked so mischievous in his coon skin cap he got in Frontierland and lost that same day. We had been zigzagging around the park for a few hours when I gave in and we all sat down. I was able to sit still for only a few minutes when gramps told me I was practically buzzing and gave me money to go buy us all something fried. I got up and started a quick jog toward clogged arteries when I stopped and looked back at them. They seemed so happy through their exhaustion. As my grandma waved I made a split second decision to try to freeze this moment in time for as long as I could keep it. At this point I had already set my sails a few times. In your terms: pushed myself through all of time and space. I relaxed myself and found the calm that froze the world. I resisted the black out as long as I could what was usually was a fleeting moment was a blissful eternity as I just stared back at my grandparents. I kept that until it was an image I’d never forget letting the world blink out. I was still at Disneyland standing in the same spot I was only it was different. It was less crowded, less built up and everyone’s shirt was tucked in. Sailing at Disneyland should be a ride there but for now it was just for me. Ok so this next part you probably aren’t going to believe but I swear it’s true. So they had these kids running around Main Street dressed like newsy kids selling guide books. They had bags with the maps, and wore visors and for some reason had those weird elastic arm band things. One of the kids came up to me and offered me a map. Well what he said was “Do you work here too? Why are you dressed so weird?” I had on jeans and my favorite goofy shirt; I realized just how much I stood out in a crowd. I told him I didn’t I just loved the place so much and confused him when I said that I’d been coming there since I was little. He didn’t believe me since it had only been open for a year. I was in 1956! That’s not the part that you’re not going to believe. So I gave the kid a nickel for a map and thanked him. He said that it was nice to have met me and introduced himself as Steve! OK DO YOU GET THAT?! DID YOU READ BORN STANDING UP?!?! THAT WAS LITTLE KID STEVE MARTIN!!! I TOTALLY MET LITTLE KID STEVE MARTIN IN 1956 IN DISNEYLAND!!! Now before you tell me I’m wrong and that Steve is a popular name and it really could have been anyone I want you to remember that it was my sixteenth birthday and that means that I get to decide what is true for that day. So again if I didn’t make myself clear: I FUCKING MET LITTLE KID STEVE MARTIN!!!!!!! So to be honest I wasn’t crazy about being in the park without grandma and gramps it was a day for us to be a family. Really though I couldn’t pass up the chance to wander the park. I went to Spacestation X-1 in Tomorrow land and got to look down at the earth from space. I’m pretty sure it looked like the U.S. of A. was a bit larger than it was supposed to be. I guess it was somehow keeping those reds down. I walked up and down Main Street peeking in all the shops. I waved to my friend Steve again. I eventually found myself in Frontierland; I wanted to see a landmark of my grandparent’s early love. I was outside one of the shops when I heard the female half of a couple say “Jack, did you just steal that?” in a loud whisper. It was the same “Jack” tone that I’ve heard grandma scold gramps with so many times. “Relax, Mary.” Was all I needed to hear in response to know it was them. I don’t believe in coincidences. I don’t know how I ended up there at that exact time and I don’t care. I got to see the two people who raised me as they were only a few years older than I was. I followed them as best I could, staying out of their line of sight knowing that I’d stand out. It was so great to see them being dumb kids in love, teasing each other, holding hands, stealing a quick kiss when “nobody” was looking. I followed them onto gramps favorite the Mark Twain River Boat. I don’t remember much of the ride I just remember sitting and watching. Grandma playfully scolded gramps for not taking off his silly hat as she pulled it from his head and put it down next to her. They finished the ride and got up to leave. I made sure I was the last off so that I wouldn’t be noticed by them. I got up to leave and almost missed the coon skin cap that grandma removed from gramps head. I grabbed it thinking of running after them but the world slowed down again. I was back in 2008 standing on the river boat just as it was about to end its trip. I laughed to myself and pulled the hat down over my head. Getting off the ride I ran back to where I had left my family stopping to get so great heart stopping fried food as requested and enthusiastically sliding onto the bench next to gramps. Half way through him jokingly ask what took so long I took the hat from my head, put it on his, kissed his cheek and said I think you lost something. Gramps took it off for a second to look at the cap then put it back on and quickly turned and sat up straight hitting me in the face with the tail. Grandma smiled and blushed commenting on how it looked just like the hat he lost so many years ago. Grandma told the story again while we ate fried cheese. Gramps found every opportunity to turn his head smacking me with the tail making grandma and me laugh harder each time. We didn’t race around the rest of the day like we started just walked until we were tired then sat or watched a show or rode the monorail. I went on a few more rides but they just watched and waited. I slept the whole drive home. When we got home grandma surprised us with late night cupcakes. I ate too many. I hugged both my grandparents good night and told them that I’d never be able to explain how much I loved that day. It’s a pretty amazing gift we have Mr. Bookman.
Day 27:
Some fucking gift we have. What is the fucking point of all this bullshit if I can’t even stop someone from I didn’t have a good day today Mr. Bookman. I’ve never hated the farm before but I do right now. My fist is still bleeding. I guess that’s my fault. Why do I I just want to be left alone. Lock myself away from this piece of shit world. That’s probably the only way to keep all this from happening.