Chapter 3-The Bowl

 

 

Mitch’s old blue mustang rolled down the gravel of one of Mason County’s many back roads, heading toward the abandoned building we knew as "The Bowl." It was located in the back of a plot of land owned by Katreena’s grandparents. The Bowl had been the home to an eclectic farmer who sold his land to Kat’s grandfather many years ago. The acreage was located next to the family’s current property, so it was merely made another part of their fields. The couple stayed in their old home and there was no use for the farmer’s, so they let it sit on their land in case it ever came to use. Since Kat’s mother had made her father live near her parents, Kat began using it as a hideout when she was 7-years-old. Later, when the four of us started spending most of our time together in 8th grade, we converted it to a hang out for the whole group.

The poor thing was soon to be abandoned, as we would be leaving for college. We had spent a great deal of time fixing it up. The whole thing was painted bright blue on the outside of its curved wall. That was why we called it The Bowl, the farmer had designed it to look like a large, slightly squashed, cylinder. The inside wall had become the canvas for a giant mural, as the entire bottom was one room, except for a small section closed off for a bathroom. Kat did the majority of the detailed pictures, but the rest of us painted as well. It had actually been altered many times since its original paint, as it changed with our interests and the times. We had decorated it with old furniture from second-hand stores. We picked out the most tasteless, colorful junk we could get our hands on. Fortunately, this not only gave The Bowl its character, but also relieved grateful clerks of many unwanted items at not a very high price.

We left the room with as much space as possible so that it could house our slightly famous parties. We hadn’t spent as much time on the upstairs, but it was bearable. There were some scattered mattresses and blankets, plus a heater for the winter. We kept them there so that any of us would have a place to hideout if we needed it. I think that all of us had used it as a sanctuary one time or the other. We also let visiting friends stay if there wasn’t a better place for them somewhere else. Aside from the furniture, there were a few scattered amenities such as a stereo, TV, and a phone. There was even a mini-refrigerator that Mitch had donated. We never asked why his family had one in the first place. It had been broken into a few times, but the majority of the times we had known the culprits personally and got our stuff back. Once it remained gone and we each scrounged together replacements. Fortunately that one of a kind refrigerator hadn’t seemed worth the effort. We split the costs of The Bowl since we all felt it was a worthy sacrifice. It had been our home away from home.

Now, I walked through the double-doors for what would probably be one of the last times. Kyle and Joseph hadn’t arrived yet but the three of us were distinctively solemn, despite the normal energy of Mitch and Kat. We each took our standard seats in our favorite furniture and awaited the arrival of the other two. We made a few remarks, some of which evolved into mini-conversations but none really picked up. The giant smile that Kyle wore as he breezed through the door made all our moods pick up though.

"Helllooooooo everybody!" he shouted, letting in a rush of summer air as he threw the doors open. Kat had been fixing herself up, muttering over her choice of sleeping wear as clothing, since she heard Kyle’s car approaching. Kat had tried drilling Mitch for information on Joseph but he had merely chuckled at her and gave me a significant look. I didn’t know what he was implying. Could it be that Joseph had mentioned me to the two guys before? Despite my earlier words saying that I wasn’t interested in him, I found that this idea wasn’t totally uncelebrated in the back of my mind. When Kyle came in she quickly shoved her things back into her purse and tossed it over the back of the couch, which I noticed she had selected today instead of her usual maroon armchair. Joseph made a more inconspicuous entrance. In fact, I barely noticed him enter with his quiet demeanor. I did, however, notice the smile he flashed at me with his friendly lips and dark eyes.

"Pajamas girls?" Kyle asked, to which we both grinned. "Is that anyway to present yourself to our guest. I believe you’ve met him before though, haven’t you Mel?"

I shook my head with a smile. "We had English together," I replied. "But we never really had a chance to meet."

Joseph hadn’t spoken yet and his voice was deep and rich when he said, "Well, I’m glad we are now."

Kat had walked up to him in these moments of conversation and smiled flirtatiously. "Hi, I’m Katreena," she said, extending one of her soft hands. They shook hands and I noticed that she held onto his a few moments longer than was customary. "You have a strong grip Joseph."

"You can call me Joe," he directed at her, though his eyes were trailing toward me.

This was lost to Kat though and she beamed. "Well then, you can call me Kat. Won’t you sit?" she asked, directing him to the couch. He hesitated for a moment and sat on the side of the couch that was closest to my own green lazy-boy. Katreena sat down close to him, not bothering to fill the large space on her other side.

"Well then," said Mitch, changing positions from sideways on an easy chair to upside down. "If Kat is done greeting our newcomer, perhaps we can get down to business." Everyone, except Kat, chuckled at that. For her part she shot him a murderous glance and then returned to smiling at Joseph.

"Yes, business," I said, leaning forward a bit, preparing to speak. I had an idea I wanted to share with them but before I could begin everyone else shouted their wants.

"Florida!" said Mitch.

"Mexico!" intoned Kat.

"The Bahamas!" said Kyle.

"Babes!" said Mitch with a grin.

"In Florida?" asked Kyle. "You’re lucky if your babes there were at their prime during the 50’s."

"Where do you want to go Joe?" asked Kat, taking the opportunity to lean toward him.

He seemed to ponder this for a moment. His features poised in a contemplative look. "Well," he began. "It’s really up to you all but I agree with what seems to be the census. Someplace warm." He glanced at me. "Our strawberry friend seems to want to say something and hasn’t yet."

I blushed slightly and glanced at the floor before beginning to explain my idea. Every set of eyes was fixed on me. "Well," I said, starting. "I thought that we would probably want to do something that is as neat and different as possible, but, of course, we’re constrained by a fairly tight budget. So I began to wonder, what would be truly memorable and still not very expensive?" Everyone nodded at that, motioning for me to continue. "Though it would be nice, we don’t need to rent limos and stay in 4 star resorts." This earned a small boo from Mitch but he quickly silenced himself. "So, I did some research and noticed that a lot of people do walking tours of areas. I’m sure you’ve heard of them. People swear-off most standard transportation, unless its necessary, and find that they are able to see more of an area that way. I’m sure we don’t want to go quite as far "all out" as most people do, but it would certainly cut expenses. We could certainly go somewhere that isn’t very far away and live in luxury for awhile. Or, as fits with my preference, we could go somewhere we may never be able to go to again, and stay simply. With our budget, it’s going to have to be one of the two. You already know my preference, what do you guys think we should do?"

Everyone took a moment to think about it. Mitch was the first to respond. "Well," he said. "As long as there are babes, I don’t mind if I give them the number to a resort or a shack. However, I personally have never been out of the country and it’d be cool to say I had. I like Mel’s idea."

"I have to agree with that," said Kyle.

"Me too," said Joseph.

Kat was the last to respond. I could tell she was probably picturing giving a crisp tip to a muscular waiter on the beach of the Meliya Mayan, a resort in Cozumel, Mexico she had talked about before. After a moment she consented, "Sure, why not, but where?"

"I think it would be interesting to travel from island to island. Getting between them would certainly be a challenge. So I was thinking maybe a string of islands in the Caribbean?" I offered, pleading with each of them to agree. Visiting the Caribbean had been a life-long dream for me. They all nodded in ascent but no one said anything. "Are you sure you guys want this? Don’t just nod to make me happy."

"Hey," said Kyle. "I just want to be with you guys, some sun, and have the best time of my life. It really doesn’t matter where." We exchanged a smile.

"I can really put it any better," said Mitch. "Except I’d add one item to the list, but you guys all know what it is."

"Kat?" I asked.

She looked from Joseph’s face to mine and smiled with a nod. "But since you’ve offered every other term, here’s my suggestion," she said. "For the string of islands, why not the Grenadines? I studied them once when I was younger and they would be very interesting to visit."

I smiled with delight. "That’s just where I had been thinking. Did you read my mind again?" I asked.

"We must be on the same wave length today," she replied, grinning. Then she glanced between Joseph and I, and then part of her grin vanished.

"I chose them for slightly more practical reasons. St. Lucia and Grenada are two major islands. Well, major enough to have slightly large airports. Between those two islands are the Grenadines. We could begin in St. Lucia and then travel south until we reach Grenada. The islands have a variety of things to see and range from being very primitive to quite modern, well, they’ll seem modern after the others."

"I see you’ve looked into this," said Joseph approvingly.

I looked at him and our eyes connected for a few moments. I could feel something between us but I could see Kat starting to grow pained next to him, so I tore my eyes away. "Uh, yes," I said. "I’m sure everyone had their own ideas as to what we should do, and I wanted as much to use with my presentation of mine."

I noticed that Mitch nodded and, with a sigh, removed a picture of bikini-clad women in an ad for a resort in Florida from his pocket. He crumpled the ad and tossed it into a near-by wastebasket. "Well oh-so-prepared girl," said Mitch, who had stood for his toss and now walked toward my chair. "Have you taken the liberty of pulling down from plane rates for us too?"

"As a matter of a fact," I said with satisfaction as I pulled some folded papers from a pocket. "I did."