The Quintessential Ashley Michele: A Tale of Two Cities: Misadventures in San Antonio

A Tale of Two Cities: Misadventures in San Antonio

---chapter two---

Leaving a little Wendy's restaurant in Round Rock, the Campbells piled back into Nana's car and resumed their trip.

"Aw man! Look at this! Who gave Woofers people food?!?" Jason held up Emily's half-eaten box of french fries. The other passengers laughed. Emily rolled her eyes.

"Woofers jokes" were getting very popular as the miles wore on. In order to properly appreciate Woofers jokes, we need to revisit a day a little earlier in the month, when Emily accidentally spilled her drink on Jason's shirt. "Look at what you did!" he cried, "Look at that! Bad girl! Look at what you did! Bad dog!" In a most absurd fashion, Jason took Emily's face and pretended to rub it in "her mess" as though he were chastising a dog that messed on the carpet.

Emily was rather taken aback, as you might imagine. She tried to say something. Jason thumped her on the nose and ordered, "Quiet!" She began to protest. *thump!* "I said quiet," Jason iterated, "now quiet." Emily tried this twice more, only to be met with more thumps on the nose. Emily closed her mouth in frustration. "Good girl."

Over the next couple of weeks, the "Emily is Jason's pet dog" jokes grew more frequent and more popular. Somewhere along the line, Aaron thought of naming "the dog" Woofers. This, he reasoned, would not only help distinguish "person Emily" from "dog Emily", but would also be really funny.

Woofers was not amused.

I suppose she eventually became resistant to--and even vaguely amused by--the Woofers jokes, because the wisecrack about her fries produced a wry grin instead of the indignant frown it might have seen shortly after Woofers' invention.

Now, as they drove toward Peach Tree Valley Drive--a reminiscent detour through the neighborhood where the Campbells lived back when the two eldest were five and six--Emily tried in vain for a good few minutes to get Jason to return her french fries.
Presently, they pulled onto Peach Tree Valley and began the search for their old house. As they drove, they were surprised by the memories that were triggered by other things in the neighborhood....."Oh look, isn't that where Daniel and Jamie Dooby lived?"
"Yeah, I think it is! I used to think Daniel was soooo cute...I think I was six. He was seven. I decided he was too old for me."
"Ohh, look, that was where we were standing when we hailed down the ice cream truck and tried to pay the lady with pennies from our change jar. Haha...she gave us coin rolls instead..."
"Oh my gosh, this is where I was picking dandelions when that kid Ben came up and kissed me on both my cheeks! I think Mom had a fit."
"Look there! That was where Denver and Hannah used to collect mud for mudpies." "Yeah...Hannah was your giiiirlfriiiieeend..."
"Shut up."

And then they saw it.
They hardly recognized it...but there it was: 385 Peach Tree Valley Drive...that little, sentimental, too-tight home that held such fond memories for all of them.
It was quite different now. The little tree under which they spent the summer digging a hole "to China or Schlitterbahn, whichever comes first" had grown into something comparatively enormous. Of course, the hole had long since been filled in. They wondered if Michael the Goldfish was still buried in the backyard, where he was laid to rest 13 years ago.
The house had been painted a different color. There was a gate out front now, and a white picket fence. And there was a pretty little box garden and covered patio in place of the concrete stoop they remembered.

They stood in front of the old house and marveled and reminisced for a minute.

Aaron asked, "Hey, Nana, could we see if the playground is still here?" Aaron and Emily shared very happy memories of a little playground that stood about a block from the house. Mr. Campbell used to take them on walks to the playground, where they would play on the swings till it was nearly dark outside, imagining that they were superheroes, and that they could fly.

They drove around the block, not sure if they would even remember the way, until Aaron saw a familiar row of transformers in an alleyway, and from there, running primarily on intuition and secondarily on childhood memory, he was able to direct the rest of them to the park. They followed a little path through the alley. Emily was too excited. The fact that she was wearing flip-flops was of little importance. She ceased her easy stride and broke into a run. Jane hurried to keep up with her. Aaron and Jason followed lackadaisically behind. Nana pulled out her camera and adjusted the settings for outdoor light. Emily continued running, rounding a corner...and then, as if jumping out from behind the neighbor's fence, there it was: Somerset Park...exactly as she remembered it. All the original playground equipment was still there. She looked, and saw the very same swing set, and jungle gym, and merry-go-round that she played on with the other kids in the neighborhood when she was six. Shoot...that stuff was built to last! She heard Aaron and Jason coming up behind her. "Whoa," Aaron awed, "It's the same."

The four lost no time. Each scrambled to the most enticing elements of the playground...the seesaw, the merry-go-round, the four-way wobbly thing...and, of course, Nana took pictures.

Emily and Jason were startled when they heard Jane yelling.
"Whoaaaa! StoooOOOP!! The metal's too hot, I can't hang on! Please, SLOW DOWN!!"
They turned to see Aaron, having way too much fun running in circles, tormenting poor Jane on the merry-go-round. To be honest, it looked wickedly fun. Jason and Emily left their places at the four-way wobbly thing and ran to try some noisier fun. Jason took hold of the other side of the merry-go-round to help add some speed, and Emily jumped on the platform to join the screaming one.

Nana took pictures.

"Hey guys, jump on, and let's all take a picture here together!"
The guys jumped on and they all struck various poses. The result could be described as "cute."

Presently, they decided it was time to get back on the road.