Adventure

33 Write about a happy day from your childhood. Where are you? With whom? What’s going on? What made this day so memorable?

OPTIONAL: Work on your own fiction, without the connection to the topic. Share what you are working on. I'm taking Natalia's suggestion and linking this to my first short story I wrote s part of Write and Link.Katie is the daughter of the protagonist from Laugh Until We Cry.

Katie knew the move to Florida was not just for mom's new job.  She new mom was trying to get away, far away, from her dad.  Adults try to keep things from their kids all the time, thinking they are protecting them.  Really all the hushed conversations, the hanging up the phone when a child come into the room, the  watery eyes and excuses to leave the room, these all just make kids feel more anxious.  Kids perceive when something is wrong. 

Katie's dad would get very angry for no apparent reason. Just a while back, the family was enjoying a wonderful day at the beach.  Katie had seen a friend from school and as happily splashing around in the water, when she heard arguing from where her om and dad were with the cooler and beach towels. Dad left with a man. Katie later overhearing dad had spent the night in jail, and that man was a police officer. Katie knew they were moving to Florida to be away form dad.  Mom said it would be a bright new life.  Katie was only twelve, but she knew leaving her friends and family, and even her dad, was hard for her mom. She put on a sunny face for her mom, playing along with the big adventure talk. . 

The day after they arrived, mom had planned a trip to a theme park. Katie only knew about  Disney World, so when they walked through the gate at Universal Studios, a whole different set of amusement parks, she started to really think Florida was going to be like this everywhere, one big adventure. She and her mom rode on everything they could, but by far the best was going on the river ride for Jurassic Park.  Mom had read her many dinosaur books as she grew up and she knew the names to all the common and many of the not so common species.She grew up watching the Jurassic Park movies.  Katie saw how happy the ride made her mom.  She held her moms hand as they climbed up the steep incline, past  the raptors, and squeezed tighter as they dropped through the Tyrannosaurus mouth. 

After they had splashed on the bottom, and made their arrival back at the loading area, Katie looked up at her mom. She hadn't seen her mom this happy in a long time. They rode it again and again. Seeing her mom genuinely happy made Katie believe things were going to be  good.  She would have a life of adventure with her mom. It was the happiest day of her life.