Emmanuel's Visit Day 3: Summer

Today I woke up at 4:15am.  I went into Emmanuel's room and gently rocked him, he woke up startled, I said, "its time to wake up."  He sleepily got up and stretched,  we went out into the living room quietly, because naturally my parents were still sleeping.  Emmanuel sat down at the dining room table and I went into the kitchen to make toast and avocado.  When the toast was done I put avocado on it and put the pieces on two plates.  We ate it then I told Emmanuel to put on some clothes that were comfortable for hiking in.  We both got dressed then I took the bikes out of the garage again.  I made sure both of the bikes had flashlights on them, because it was still dark, and it wouldn't be safe without them on the dangerous ride up to the Rattlesnake trailhead.  We set off, after about an hour of riding we reached our destination.  We hid our bikes in a bush made sure that no one could see them, then we set off up the trail.  We walked in silence, there was no sound other than our heavy breathing and muffled footsteps.  After about a half hour of hiking we stopped to take a break.  We drank some of the water we had brought, I said, "we should be there soon, because we have crossed the river four times and it should be a total of six.  I'm guessing we will get there in about 20-30 minutes."  We finished resting and kept walking up the trail.  We crossed the river two more times and 15 minutes after crossing the last river we reached the top.  We sat there and stared down at the darkness that was Santa Barbara.  Five minutes later a bright orange sliver of light appeared right over the ocean.  As we watched it, it got bigger, and bigger and then it formed into a complete circle.  It was beautiful.  "I have done this many times", I said.  "And this is one of the best suns that I've seen."  We watched the sun for a few more minutes then I took out some of the peaches and apples that I had brought.  We sat there eating until it was completely light out.  I checked my watch, it was already 9:00am!  We got up and started to hike down the trail.  When we were about half way down we were both sweating profusely.  I told Emmanuel that we were almost to a place where we could go down to the river to cool off.  He nodded appreciatively.  We walked on for 20 more minutes before I recognized the place where you could go down to the creek.  I showed it to Emmanuel and we walked down the steep decline until we reached a huge pool.  I said, "I used to come here every weekend and play in this pool, I would jump off that rock into the water."  We decided to swim in the pool, because we were both so hot.  We swam, jumped off the the rock, had a splash war, then we walked up the creek a little.  We discovered another awesome pool and swam in that one for a little bit.  After we were all splashed out we chose to rock hop down the creek, because it would be much cooler than the hot trail.  When we got to the trailhead again we were almost all the way dried off. We got our bikes from the bush, thankfully no one had taken them, and started riding down hill toward the ocean and my house.  When we got to my house we showered and then went out to get blenders.  Emmanuel loved them.  After we were finished we walked back to my house, and I thought him how to play the card game kings corners.  He wasn't very good at it I don't think he really understood why one would waste their time playing such a pointless game, but he pretended to have fun anyway.  I decided not to make him play another round.  I told him that I wanted to show him pictures of my grandpa, because he died when I was about eight, but when I was alive he was one of the funniest, most loving people I knew.  I got out my photo album and found the few pictures I had of him.  I showed them to Emmanuel he seemed to know how felt, I could tell he had experienced loss before.  I also got out my parents wedding video, because there was a clip of him laughing and making jokes on it.  "He lived near Mount Shasta, and Shasta Lake, so I didn't get to see him very much.  The only times I remember seeing him were once at his house when I was about three and once when we went to Disney Land or something when I was about six," I said. "the worst part is, I remember right before he died I asked him over the phone when he was going to visit us in California, and he said he really missed me and my family and that he was going to try to come within the next three months.  About two months after that he died."  Emmanuel grabbed my hand and said, "I am so sorry." I knew he meant it.  We sat there for a while then I put my memories of my grandpa away and we went outside to watch the hummingbirds at the humming bird feeder.  My parents got home and we ordered pizza, and Emmanuel and I made salad.  Emmanuel was strange, because he loved cheese and almost no one in his culture used it to cook.  We ate then watched his movie, "Emmanuel's Gift", because my parents hadn't seen it yet.  Emmanuel didn't show in any way that it was him on the screen.  He didn't act as though he was a hero, he was very modest.  When we finished his movie we went to bed.

                                My Grandpa and I