greeting me with a smile while brushing her shoulder length hair behind one ear. It was elegantly simple in
execution; a perfect flirtatious and girlish greeting. A wiser man would have seen the hint in this action.
These people were definitely not camping people. The whole time we were there I was thinking “Where’s the
rest of their gear?!” To give you an idea of how bad it was I’ll tell you this: they brought one ice chest with one
twelve pack of soda with them to drink. A week away from civilization and that is all they brought. While loading
the van with their “camping gear”, twice I thought I saw Anna watching me work. Each time however, she
seemed to quickly look away.
We stopped at McDonald’s half way to the lake for dinner. The place was packed. Never in my life before or
since have I seen so many people in a McDonald’s. We all waited through an eternally long line. Anna gets her
food first and disappeared into the crowd. The adults’ got their food next then made their way into the hoard.
My brother’s followed suit shortly after.
“Sorry buddy, we ran out of buns. We’ve got more, but your food’s gonna be a few more minutes.” A man in
the ugly red and yellow hat says to me. I stared blankly then nodded. At least I didn’t have to brave the mob
just yet. My food comes and the manager gives me a free small McFlurry since I had to wait. Grasping my food
close, I step into the press of bodies. I first see my brothers who have managed to seat themselves at a booth
with what appeared to be a pair of collage girls and were quickly making their acquaintance. Near them I
sighted my father, sitting with Mark and Julie, chatting away—probably about some inane work related thing.
I continued searching. There wasn’t an empty table, chair, booth or stool to be seen. I stood, feeling slightly
dejected, my McFlurry dripping melting creamy goodness down my hand. Then I spot Anna, sitting alone at a
small booth in the very corner. Her blonde hair pulled into a high pony tail. Salvation!
I approached the table and sat without speaking. She seemed startled at first, pausing mid-fry as I seated. She
then saw the melting tasty treat I held. “Awe, I should have got one of those!” I looked at the sweet storm of
M&Ms and vanilla ice cream continuing to melt into my hand. I knew it would ruined by the time I finished my
meal. So I offered it to her. “Really?” She seemed to squeal when she spoke.
“Yeah, it was free anyway. You should take it.”
She snatched the cool dessert out of my hand and started to happily consume it, then paused “Wait, we
should share this.”
I shrugged “it’s okay, you have it. Besides we only have one spoon, and I’m not brave enough to fight through
that again.” I gestured to the swarm of people between us and the condiment stand. It seemed a tour bus had
arrived and deposited another few hundred people into the joint.
She giggled a little. “Here,” she licked the spoon she was using clean, “You can use this one.” In my
adolescent hormone stewing mind there was something rather erotic about watching the thirteen year old girl