I don't remember much of the trip. Work hours were long, and it's been so many years now. But I will never forget that lunch they sent along with us for our endless day in remote Belize wilderness. How lush, how humid the air, as we stood by the jeep and ate chicken sandwiches on white bread and drank ice cold Coca-Cola from glass bottles. On any other day it would hardly have made a dent in my memory. Perhaps it was just the hunger, but I have cherished that chicken sandwich ever since.
That was the trip when I learned to adore grapefruits. We packed the equipment on the side of our saddles and rode off, through the forest, up the mountains. It was madness; none of us were skilled enough riders, and still I couldn't get myself to slow the horse down. I felt free. We sat on the hillside, and she brought out those grapefruits, warm and ripe and perfect, and she began to peel them. So many years of seeing sour grapefruits sliced in half, possibly sprinkled with sugar from my great grandfather's tin bowl, and cut with a grapefruit knife. It had never occured to me that you could peel them and eat them like oranges. But we sat there, the green rolling hills of Central America spreading out for limitless miles below us, and I have never eaten a more delicious fruit.
I was 14, and the entire world spread out before me. My entire childhood was spent seeing this world, and I had no idea. I was 14, and all I could think was that I would have rather spent that Christmas holiday with my friends, having sleepovers and watching the 80s movie classics that formed the backbone of their security, so that maybe I could soak up some of their belonging for myself. Such is youth.
But I am not 14 anymore. Perhaps it's time to see the world, again.
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I'll volunteer to go with you. :-)
ReplyDeleteungar är så otacksamma :) såå... vart ska du hän??
ReplyDeletejag minns en annan tid, en annan resa. där jag lärde mig älska reeses peanut butter cups. den resan gav också mersmak. vi var inte otacksamma, vi skattade oss lyckliga, uppkrupna i en ranglig våningssäng långt borta. det var trångt och fuktigt och kallt om vintern. vi hade äventyr av helt andra slag - bussturer och tunnelbanor och farligheter. och tuna melt. och det var mycket mycket kärlek.
Do you know, Liles, I'll volunteer to go with me, too :)
ReplyDeleteoch Lova, så mycket, mycket kärlek. och raindrops keep falling on my head och empire state-utsikter och jag lärde mig aldrig gilla tuna melts. snart sitter vi här igen, du o ja o new york. good times, y'all. good times. fast jag tänker att ett tält utanför cortes skulle också duga. jag är, trots allt, inte den som är den.
You know, I remember that grape fruit too. It is the standard to which I will hold all future grapefruits. They will fail. Miserably.
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