Sonali+Patel

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A dream come true

I quickly tore through the woods. Trees and leaves flashed in and out of my view. I was tired and out of breath. I slumped against anoak tree and called out “Percy! Where are you? Where did you go?!” A few tears trickled down my cheek. A tear splashed on to my orange tee-shirt. My blond hair… wait blond hair? I had black hair!

Suddenly, I felt a jolt and I hit my head on something. I woke up with a start and found myself in my family’s grey, 2001 Honda Oddesy. My father was in the driver’s seat and my brother was in the back seat, watching a movie.

My family, minus my mom, who had decided to stay home, was heading towards Tennessee for a family reunion. That meant that I would meet my cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles and a bunch of other people who would pinch my cheeks and make a scene about how much I have grown .I groaned just thinking about how much my cheeks would hurt after 25 people pinched them.

However, that dream had just freaked me out! Percy was a character from my favorite book series, “__Percy Jackson and the Olympians__” and that blond haired person I had turned into was Annabeth, another character from the series. But still, something was not right…… Did that mean i would get lost soon?

I shook that thought out of my head and sat up straight. I looked at my reflection in the car window and sighed. My dark, brown hair looked like it had just been a nest for a very friendly hamster. My blue shirt was slightly wrinkled and my black sweatpants were covered in breadcrumbs from the sub I had eaten earlier. I sat up and straightened my shirt and wiped off the crumbs. As I began to undo my braid, I heard my brother say, “Well, the zombie lives!”

I rolled my mocha, brown eyes in disgust. Vishal, my brother, could get really annoying sometimes. Though we were similar in many ways, we were quite different in others.

We were both short in stature, had the same color eyes, same curly hair and skin color. We were both pretty smart and loved the same shows. But he was much more funny, and at times, cruel. I on the other hand ,am terrible at making jokes and (I hope) am really nice.

“Hey dad, when will we get there? “ I asked. We had been the car for at least 10 hours now and the seats were not getting any more comfortable…..

“We’ll be there in two hours, “He answered with a sigh. He ran his hand through his black hair with grey streaks and continued, “Get some sleep. Were not gonna get there any time soon.”

I bit my lip and continued to do my hair. After ten minutes of unsuccessfully trying to comb out the knots in my hair, I just redid my braid. My mom was going to have a lot of fun getting them out when I returned. I could just imagine her screaming, “What on earth did you do to your hair!”

Suddenly I heard a women scream. I jumped and looked for the source of the noise. I heard muffled laughter and I turned around to face my brother. He had this goofy grin of his face that told me that he had caused that noise.

“Did you really have to turn up the volume of your stupid movie so much! “ I shouted and threw my comb at him.

He skillfully dodged the comb and answered with his goofy grin, “Oh … I’m sorry. Did that scare you?” I rolled my eyes and shot him a scowl as he smiled triumphantly. Ugggh …. My brother really got annoying sometimes!

“Ok, Vishal. Come on. This trip is going to be long enough without you two arguing!” my dad said. At this I turned and stuck my tongue out at Vishal. Then I turned around and laid down on the grey, fuzzy seats. The coffee platform was overcrowded with papers, cell phones, and other assorted items. The two seats in the middle row had been pushed together to form one, long seat for me. Staring up at the grey ceiling, stained thanks to Vishal, I began to nod off. Soon enough I was fast asleep.

This time, I slept beautifully. No freaky dreams where someone was lost or I was blond haired. But of course, as was with everything, it didn’t last

I woke up to the sound of my dad shouting, “Come on! Wake up! We’re here! Get up! Groggily, and not to mention quite reluctantly, I got up.

“Gods! You really need to find a new way to wake me up! And where are we? “I grumbled. My hair was back to looking like a rats nest and to top it off with a bright, red, cherry, my brother had stuck a note to my shirt that read, “Don’t eat me! I’m a little wimp!”

I grumbled and stepped out of the van. Bad move. My legs ,numb from all that sitting, had gotten weak and tired. I felt myself beginning to collapse and I quickly grabbed onto the grey, van door.

“Be careful, young one. You don’t want to hurt yourself now, do you? ” I heard Vishal say from the other side of the van. I gritted my teeth and bit back a retort. If there was one thing I had learned from living with Vishal, it was that he would always win in an argument.

For the first time, I looked around. As far as I could tell in the deathly dark night, we were on top of a mountain. The air seemed to be thinner, and I had learned that that was a trademark of mountains and high places. We were in front of a row of wooden cabins. The largest one said ‘Dreaming Night” Uphill, there were more cabins. Lining the path was hundreds and hundreds of trees. They were tall and majestic and it seemed as if they had been there since the start of time.

Suddenly I saw my uncle walk out of the largest cabin. He was tall as ever and is hair had gotten greyer. As he walked, the smile on his face seemed to grow bigger by the moment. His name was Hemant. He was my dad’s older brother. He had two kids, Herin and Hetul and his wife’s name was Hemi. “Hey guys! You need help with that luggage? “He asked.

“Yeah,” My dad said. “, that would be great. “ My uncle came over and opened our trunk. Inside was an assortment of bags and suitcases. Mine was sky blue and was crammed with my clothes and toiletries. Slowly and carefully, I lifted the bag and placed it on the road because, if that thing dropped, it would hurt. I had experience jumping around on one foot, cursing in pain, because I let my grip go loose. I climbed inside of the van and grabbed my grape purple book bag ,which had my books, notebooks and DS in it. That’s how it worked. Each of us had on suitcase filled with clothes and toiletries and a book bag with entertainment equipment. Vishal had brought his laptop, I touch, cell phone, and books. My dad had a bunch of magazines that I had never bothered looking at. My uncle helped us carry in our suitcases and, as we walked toward the big cabin in the middle, “Dreaming Night” my mind drifted off and I began to think about my family.

This family reunion was for my dad’s side of family. I was the youngest member of my immediate group of cousins. The closest immediate cousin, age wise, I had was my brother, who was 17. I was also the only girl in that group. Those two facts always made me feel distant from my cousins. However, being the only girl in a family of boys made me tough, but that was pretty much the only pro. In my group of second cousins, Roshini was a girl who was my age, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

You see, I had only seen hercouple of times in my life. She lives in Ohio, so it’s hard to keep in touch. The first time I met her was at my family’s 2005 reunion in North Carolina and at that time we were both seven years old. We would always hang out with each other. We did everything together. Never would I forget to save a seat next to me during meals for her. Never did she ever not sit with me. Whenever we where together, we would tell amusing anecdotes and jokes so funny that we would laugh so hard that our ribs hurt! We were together so often that some people would think we were sisters! I remember thinking that it was so weird that anyone could mistake us for sisters. We looked quite different from each other. Her eyes were dark brown unlike my light, mocha brown eyes. She had thin, fine, jet black hair but I had dark brown, thick and rough hair. Her features were more angular. Roshini had a long and thin face, a contrast to my round face. However, we were both short in stature and had the same skin tone. The other thing I remembered from 2005 was that she would never leave me behind, she would always wait for me.

But that was five years ago and a lot of things can happen in five years. My last encounter with Roshini seemed to prove that. The last time I had seen her was at her sisters Chandni’s sweet sixteen. She didn’t really talk with me; instead she went to talk with her other cousins. I remember feeling upset that she had just cold shouldered me like that. I was worried that she would do that again at this reunion. She was my roommate and I didn’t want to spend the reunion with someone who wouldn’t even talk with me. How embarrassing would that be?

“Hi Roshini!”

“Oh ….. Um...Hey. I have to go talk with err…. Chandini! Yea, I have to talk with Chandini, so I’ll talk to you later!”

Oh man, that would be bad. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I began to walk towards the big cabin. But before I could even take a step, my uncle stopped me.

” Oh, Sonali. The girls are sleeping in the cabin to the left .Vishal; the boys are sleeping in the cabin to the right. The parents are sleeping in the big one in the middle.” He told us. I mentally cheered. No parents?!?!?!? That was awesome! I nodded and walked towards the cabin on the left which wassimilarto the big one, but smaller. It was wooden and a porch lead up to the door which had anelectronic code lock on it. The one the right, the boys cabin, was exactly the same.

“You and Roshini are sleeping in the loft. And the password is 50946.” Dad said. Oh joy. In the LOFT? Great, we’d be sweating like crazy! Sleeping in the loft would be like sleeping in the attic. I rolled my eyes and lugged my luggage to the cabin. As I approached it ,I noticed it was named “Above the Stars”. There seemed to be three levels. I looked up at the top of the cabin and noticed a small circular window. I didn’t know whether it was my imagination, but I saw a face looking out of it. I shook my head and walked up the porch.

The door was large and had a window with the blinds pulled down. I typed in the code and I heard a click. Pulling open the door, I walked in.

I found myself face to face with a white refrigerator. Next to the fridge was a counter with a sink. The sink had absolutely no dishes in it, but I shuddered to think about how the boys sink looked like. In the corner was a pile of shoes, so,I took off my white sneakers and added them to the pile. Then, I walked from the kitchen to the living room. As far as I could tell, the whole cabin was carpeted.

In the (carpeted)living room there was a huge, big screen TV. There was a sofa bed that had been pulled out and I saw my cousin, Sweetu laying on it. (Don’t ask how we’re related. Even I don’t know. ) She turned and smiled.

“Hey Sonali. Gopi and Montu are sleeping in that room.” She pointed across the bed towards a door that was shut and I could hear music blaring, very loudly,from within. Sweetu kept talking in her soft voice. “, Chandini is sleeping upstairs and Roshini is waiting for you in the loft. Oh, and Neal and Nina are sleeping downstairs.” I nodded and began to run up the stairs that lead to the third floor, and that intertwined with stairs that lead down.

Racing up the stairs, a thousand thoughts pounded through my head. Did Roshini hate me? Would she talk with me? Why would she wait for me? Abruptly, I reached the third floor landing. There was one huge bed and a wooden ladder in the corner lead up the loft. The loft looked like a small storage area that was hanging from the ceiling.A glass door that led out to a balcony ran across the whole bedroom and a beige carpet covered the room. I looked at the clock in the corner and gasped. It was one o’clock in the MORNING!

“Hey! You made it! Get your PJs and get up here! “Someone said. I looked up and saw Roshini peering over the loft ladder, laughing. I smiled and told her I’d be right back.

I went back down and got my suit case, and after a good amount of cursing, got it up the stairs. This time Chandini was out of the bathroom. Her hair was curled and she was wearing blue pajamas. She smiled and said hey. I winked and got into the bathroomto change.

The bathroom was huge! The walls were painted blue and there were two tubs. One Jacuzzi and one standing shower. Towels and swimsuits hung over the Jacuzzi. The sink was pure white and a hair dryer stood in the corner. The mirror was gigantic, so I could see my messy hair, dirty clothes and tired expression up close and personal. I quickly changed into my purple nightdress and got out. I threw my old clothes in my laundry bag and climbed the ladder to the loft.

As I had predicted, the loft was small. Strangely it, unlike the rest of the room, had a wood floor. There was only enough room for twored futon mattresses and Roshini was lying on the one farthest away from the ladder. I took the other one and flopped down. After a day of traveling, I was ready to drop. Roshini turned over to face me and said, “Gods. I’m so tired! I was in the stupid van for like ten hours! Why did the reunion have to be in Tennessee?”

I laughed and said, “I have no idea why they had it here. I’m like ready to drop right now!” Roshini smiled and stretched her arms and I could tell she was tired

“Let’s get some sleep,” Isuggested.“,We can talk tomorrow. We have to go on that hike, so we’ll have plenty of time to talk.” She nodded, smoothened out her pink, flannel pajamas and closed her eyes. Within seconds, she was asleep. I stifled a giggle and followed her lead. We were going to have to wake up early tomorrow for the hike, so I had to get as much sleep as possible.

After what seemed like too short of a while, I woke up to the light blaring in through the circular window. I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Suddenly I heard Chandini, who was sleeping in the king sized bed, shout.” Roshini! Get up! We have to leave for the hike and I don’t want you to make us late.”

I turned to the mattress on my left and saw Roshini. She was lying on her “bed” but her eyes were opened. When she saw me, she gave me a wink and motioned for me to be quiet. I smiled, stood up and said’ “I’m awake Chandini. You want to take a shower first, or should I? “Oh no, It’s ok. You can take a shower first.” She replied with a smile. I climbed down and opened up my blue suit case. I wanted to wear something comfortable for the hike. When I had packed, I packed in pairs of clothes that had a shirt, matching pants and undergarments. That saved me a lot of time and hassle during all of my trips. I searched through my clothes for a pair that had shorts and found one with lime green short and a light green shirt. Quickly, I grabbed my towel and vanity bag and got into the bathroom.

Hopping into the standing shower, I savored the fact that I was the first one to take a shower. That meant that I had plenty of hot, steaming water to indulge in! I cranked up the heat and stood their savoring the heat. Then I remembered that other people needed to take a shower, so I grabbed my soap and quickly washed up. In a couple of minutes I walked out and told Chandini that it was all hers.

As Chandini took a shower, I combed my hair, or at least tried to. By the time I combed out the knots, my head was acing. I never understood why hair got so knotted!

Within 15 minutes, everyone in the girl’s cabin had taken a shower, including Neal, Nina, Sweetu, Montu and Gopi, who had taken a shower in the other two bathrooms in the cabin. Neal and Nina, who were the cabin leaders, left for the parents cabin, so we all followed suit.

The parent’s cabin, “Dreaming night”, was colossal! It was at least twice the size of ours. It had a full kitchen, a dining room, four floors, and at least 15 bedrooms! A bunch of my aunts were hustling and bustling around in the kitchen making toast,bagels, omelets and a bunch of Indian breakfast items. Sitting at the tables, my uncles were eating and arguing about politics and finance. The dialogue went something like this…. Uncle 1: “Obama’s a good president!”

Uncle 2: “No he’s not!”

Uncle 3: “Ummmm…. I a republican.”

All together now: “WHAT! You’re a REBULICAN!”

Suddenly, Roshini tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Yea, can we sit away from them? I don’t feel like listening to them argue about democrats and republicans.

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s sit there.”I said. I was pointing to a wooden bench outside on the balcony. Roshini nodded and began to walk there with her bowl of cereal and cup of milk. I ran back into the kitchen to grab some food, but before I could leave with my lucky charms, my aunt grabbed my cheeks and said, “Oh my god! Sonali, you’ve grown so much! Soon enough you’ll be as tall as Herin Bhai!” I groaned. It had started. I was now going to be bombarded for the next 10 minutes with cheek pinching aunts who would talk about nothing except for my growth. How did Roshini do it? How did she escape from the swarm of aunts? Luckily, the aunts lost interest in me quickly.

I quickly grabbed my bowl of cereal and my cup of milk and bolted for the balcony. I had to be careful with my milk though becausethe aunts had overfilled it since, “you (I) need a lot calcium to grow properly and have strong bones! Drink some milk!” As I sat down next to Roshini, she laughed.

” I see you got attacked by the rabid aunts, huh?” she giggled pointing to my red cheeks. To my great surprise, and annoyance, her cheeks were perfectly fine. Once again I wondered how she escaped! I rolled my eyes and began eating. “Yea, I did. Come on let’s eat. The uncles are coming out and we have to leave soon. “ Roshini sighed, “Do you have to sound like a mother all the time?” then added with a wink, “just kidding. Now let’s eat! I’m starving!” We inhaled our breakfast and bolted out the door. By this time it was nine o clock and we had to get moving if we didn’t want to be late to the range. An aunt shouted, “Nine o clock! Get moving! “And everybody raced out the door. A heard of 50 Indians came charging out of the cabin, and Roshini and I almost didn’t survive. We had to fight for a car and get in fast before they were all taken.

We hopped into her dads van, a white Acura, and told her dad to step on it. But of course, little Nitya, Roshini’s little sister, had to come with us ,so he had to take another five minutes to strap her into her car seat. Then, Bobby Uncle got in the driver’s seat and stepped on it.

Maybe we shouldn’t have told him that. He was driving like a maniac! He was going 70 miles per hours on a 50 mile per hour speed limit! I hung on for dear life as he took a sharp turn. How did Roshini make it to 12 years? I’m sure he got in to car accidents often. Within 15 minutes, we reached the range. Nobody else was there, so we mulled around, waiting for the other family members.

“Hey Roshini. Did you bring a water bottle?” I asked. It was a five mile hike, so we were going to need it. I had brought one water bottle, but, I barely got thirsty, so I thought I should be fine.

“Oh no! That’s what I forgot! My water bottle! Shoot! “She exclaimed. As soon as she said that, I knew we were going to have trouble. How would the both of us survive on just one water bottle?!

“Ok, well, maybe we could go with Chandini and Montu. They should have plenty of water, right?”I asked. Roshini nodded, but she still looked upset.

In about 10 minutes, the rest of the family arrived. Hemant uncle gathered us all at the beginning at the hike.” Be careful! The log bridges are not exactly sturdy, so take caution. Also, for the younger kids, don’t go swimming! I don’t care if you know how to swim, just don’t go in the water hole! Got that? Ok, now you guys can go, but come back here.” He told us.

As he talked, I noticed Nina Akka spraying on some bug spray. She then pocketed her mini OFF spray bottle and I smirked. It was common knowledge that Nina Akka hated bugs and if she so much as saw one, she would scream and jump about 50 feet. Trust me; I had seen it happen before.

Grabbing my hand, Roshini dragged me over to where Chandini and Montu were standing. Apparently they were waiting for us because when they saw us they just simply told us to follow them. Then we left for the exhausting five mile hike. Actually, it was really a 10 mile hike. Five going, five coming. At first we were fine. We talked about a lot of random things. Roshini like Greek Mythology too, so we talked about the Greek gods and Greek myths. The scenery was beautiful. I could hear the birds chirping above us and the happy gurgling of the streams beneath us. The leaves were at their finest, providing us with a cool shade. But after the second logbridge, things started o go wrong. I fell and cut my knee. Roshini got scratched by a branch. Chandini and Sweetu both tripped over tree roots. And then, we ran out of water.

“Oh man! We still have 2/3 of the hike to finish and we’re out of water! Great. Just what we needed.” Sweetu cried. I couldn’t agree more. Now the streams seemed to be taunting us, calling out, “Here’s some water! Opps, you can drink stream water. Ha-ha.” The birds seemed to be teasing, “Look at us! We can fly! Don’t you wish you could? “Wearily, we trudged on.

We got thirstier and hungrier. Sweetu got cranky and Chandini got moody. But we kept moving. All we could think about was our air conditioned cabins back at the mountains. Then things got even worse. Roshini and I left Sweetu and Chandini.

“Come on. I’m sick of them. We just have to follow the path. We can go on our own.” Roshini told me. In my frazzled state, I agreed. Thing did better for the first five minutes; nobody was grumbling at us or throwing us dirty looks. It felt good, and though we could do this. But then we came to the dreaded fork where one path lead us to the right and the other lead us to the left. To us it looked like an angry cobra, ready to strike if we made the wrong move.I caught my breath and my heart skipped a beat. Which way should we go? I f we went the wrong way, we would get lost. We stood there for a while contemplating the problem.

“I say we take the left one. It looks more traveled on.” Roshini decided. I had no better idea, so we went left. Bad idea. Within minutes we were hopelessly lost.

“Didn’t we pass this tree before?”

“No, we didn’t! Now come on.”

“Roshini, we did! That means we’re lost! Admit it!”

“No ! We’re not lost! Come on!”

Great. Roshini wasn’t gonna admit we were lost. That meant I had to get us out of here! The sun was beginning to dip down and as far as I could tell, it was 12:00 in the afternoon. My stomach grumbled. I felt hollow and my throat was dry, but I forced myself to ignore it for now. I had more important problems to focus on. I was lost. But, I had no other choice but to follow Roshini, so I did. However, I knew that she was just going to get us even more lost. How was I gonna get us out of this mess? I thought about back tracking, but I didn’t even know where to back track to. I knew that our family wasn’t gonna leave without us, but still. We were lost and that thought was a scary one. I decided that the least I could do was not get us any more lost. I stopped walkng and as I expected, Roshini stopped walking also.

Roshini turned around and her face startled me. She had been crying. Her eyes were blood shot and puffy. Tears had created zigzag lines across her face, wiping of the dist that had gotten on her face. She sat down on a big stone bolder so I moved and sat down next to her.

As I sat down, I suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu. I didn’t know why that would happen, because well, I was pretty sure I had never gotten lost in the woods before.But still, I felt as if I had gone through a similar situation like this before.

“Where are we? How do we get back? I ….I’m sorry. If it wasn’t for my stupid idea, we wouldn’t have been lost.”Roshini sobbed. I felt so bad for her. She must be scared as anything! Then, as if we needed more scary things happening to us, I heard an owl hoot eerily nearby. An owl? At 1:00 in the afternoon? It sent a shiver down my spine, but I shook it off and tried to comfort Roshini.

“Hey, Hey there. Calm down. We’ll get out of this. They’re not gonna leave without us so don’t worry. We’ll find some way out, and it’s not your fault we’re lost. We’re in this together.” I said. All that did was make her cry harder. A tear trickled down her cheek and splashed onto her orange tee shirt.

Suddenly it hit me. My dream! A person was lost and a girl was searching for him! Maybe where the girl was is where Sweetu and Chandini are! I tried to remember that dream. Annabeth had leaned against an oak tree… I had seen a tree like that before! It was where the fork began! We had to go back! “Roshini! I know where to go. Follow me! Come on! “Ishouted. Then, I took off. Suddenly, I knew exactly how to get back, I remembered each and every exact turn that we took. It was as if someone had given me a sudden play back of what had happened. I was also running faster than I had ever ran before and I felt like I was high off of sugar. I tore through the woods. I was getting more tired by the second, but I couldn’t stop. Trees and leaves flashed in and out of my view. Finally, I reached the fork and, as I had expected, Chandini and Sweetu were right there! They had worried expressions on their faces. Sweetu was slumped against a tree! Just like Annabeth in the dream! That was creepy. However, they hadn’t seen us yet. “Roshini! Sonali! Where on earth are you? Where did you go!” she cried. Chandini was right behind her and she buried her face in her hands.

Then Sweetu caught sight of us. She covered her mouth and came running over to us. “Oh my Gods! How did you find your way back? We’ve been searching for you guys for 10 minutes!” She asked.

Roshini, who was right behind me, gasped and said, “How did... How did you….How did you know!? “She asked in a startled tone.

“I just had a feeling; now let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough adventure for one day.” I said as nonchalant as I could be. However, I was lying. I had had enough adventure for the rest of the reunion!

Now, when I think back on that day, I realize that it really brought Roshini and me together. We had been through a lot, but now we had been through a scary situation together. That kind of thing can create a bond that is never broken. And to this day, Roshini and I keep in touch. I made a close friendship that day without even realizing it.