THE WIND THROUGH MY HAIR, THROUGH MY BONES

It was a day that would end in a long wait in the Emergency Room for Ken because he got hit with the worst of a case of food poisoning, followed by what felt like the longest and darkest drive back home to Richmond ever, but in the wee hours of the morning, I was oblivious to all that. Front and center in my mind was the goal of getting myself to the beach again. Ken stayed back, partly due to exhaustion, partly due to wanting to sleep in, and partly due perhaps to the beginnings of the queasiness. Sloane stayed back, mostly due to a dry and hacky cough that had kept her waking up several times the night before.  I was probably just as tired as the rest of them, but the ocean was calling.  And driving down to Sandbridge, where my parents were staying, meant that I could get some extra time with them. I charged on, and ended up having the most glorious drive, the kind where your body is flush with possibilities and freedom.  It was already 90 degrees by 9 o’clock in the morning and it was humid as a pocket, but I rolled down all the windows and turned up the best radio station I could find.  The hot wind hugged every inch of my skin and the warmth sank down to my bones, which then radiated inward to the deep and scrunched up parts of my muscles, relaxing them and then traveling outward to combust in spurts of joy evidenced by my hair wildly waving back and forth. It felt like I could drive forever.  I hadn’t felt like that in so long. 

Thanks to 96.1FM,  songs like ‘My Body’ by Young the Giant, and ‘Royals’ by Lorde have found their way to my mixtape for The Best Roadtrip Ever, if I ever get around to making it.  

Close to the beach, I stopped by a little corner market in order to see what kind of breakfast I could scrounge up and walked out with strawberry and blueberry greek yogurt and garden vegetable flavored pita chips.  I was officially a vacationer.

When I got to the place where my parents were staying, my dad handed me a giant mug of coffee, like he always does, and we went out to the back porch to set up our fare. We sat there talking for a good hour or two about every which way and thing, the way that we used to but hadn’t in so long. We eventually trekked out to the beach again where we went back and forth between laying in the sand and taking dips in the water until it was time to go. I am grateful for this sliver of stillness, comfort and warmth, rest and peace.