Suicide and Keg Stands - Chapter 13

It was eleven at night or so on our third day. We had pulled off the highway and were slowly driving up the coast, through a cute town looking for somewhere to stay. The road ran along the beach and to our left we could see the white caps on the waves in the moonlight. We came around a bend in the road and Sarah slammed on the breaks, pulling onto the shoulder.

"What?" I asked looking around wildly.

"It's perfect. Look at it."

"What?"

"That place there."

"The Seaside?" I read off their sign.

"Uh huh."

In front of us sat a four-story house painted a faded red color. It was grand, towering over us and it looked stately, old. The road curved away behind it, so rather than being set back from the beach, it overlooked it. It was hard to see how big it was in the dark but it gave the impression of size and permanence. Like it had been there forever. She slowly pulled the car up the gravel driveway that led us to the back of the house and we parked. The walkway was white crushed stone and was lined with flowers. Behind the flowers was a row of trees.

"I'm not sure I can afford this." I said, nervous.

"Don't worry about it." She said.

"I just feel bad. You pay for almost everything we do and this isn't a hostel, this place is nice."

"It's mop's money. You worry too much."

When we got inside a sleepy woman in pajamas was sitting at the desk reading.

"Hi." She said as we looked around. Oil paintings hung on dark wood walls.

"Hey." Sarah said.

"You two are lucky. I was just thinking about closing up for the night and going to bed." She said as she put the book down, looking at us over her reading glasses. In some of the nicer places we'd stayed the desk person wouldn't want to let two kids check in, even after they'd run Sarah's credit card to make sure it was going to clear. But Jean didn't care. She introduced herself and gave us our keys. One was for our room and one was for the front door and "if you're going in and out, keep it quiet, people are sleeping. Breakfast is from six til nine most mornings. It's pretty late tonight though so if you two come down after nine just find me and I'll whip something up for you." Then she leaned forward and said "and don't miss the sea cliffs. There's a campground up the road that overlooks the beach, you'll find it. You have to go through the campground to get to the trail but it's not hard to find. Most people don't take the time to hike it up there. They want to roll around on the beach or surf. But standing on top of those cliffs with the world opened up underneath you, that's the only reason to come here. Go early because we get fog later in the afternoons. It's bad in the summer months, but we still sometimes get it in winter too. Sleep tight."

We came down the next morning a little before ten. We didn't want to ask Jean about breakfast, figuring we'd find somewhere in town but when she saw us she made a fuss about it.

"There you two are, give me a sec and I'll whip you up some eggs."

"That's alright. We can find somewhere in town to eat."

"Don't be ridiculous, it's no problem and my eggs are better than anything you'll find in town. We've got good lunch places, but I'm the expert on breakfast." Jean said. Sarah and I looked at each other and sort of shrugged in a nervous way.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Sarah asked.

"Sure, I can find you something to do," she said to Sarah and then she looked at me. "I was going to run to the store later, but I supposed I can trust you with the shopping." She handed me a list from under the front desk and money out of her pocketbook.

"Uhh, okay." I said.

"He's not too good with words, is he?" Jean asked Sarah and they both laughed.

By the time I got back breakfast was ready and Jean was right, it was delicious. They had packed a lunch and that afternoon Sarah and I hiked to the tops of the sea cliffs.

The view was gorgeous. There wasn't a hint of fog and the sky was a deep blue with wispy clouds drifting over us. The ocean lay below us and we watched sea birds hunting for fish. One minute high in the air, the next falling like stone and crashing into the water to emerge a moment later shaking themselves free of the water. Off in the distance we could see what was a cargo ship or maybe a big fishing boat out on the horizon. Closer in two sailboats were flying across the ocean. They were far enough away that all we could really see was their white sails standing proudly out of the water.

"They're really pretty. The white sails against the water." She said as we found some flat rocks to sit on. "Just think, we could sail to Hawaii from here."

"We could sail around the world." I said.

"That's what we're going to do one day." She said with a finality that I couldn't argue with. "We're going to sail around the world. We're going to see everything there is to see."

We spent what was left of the week at the Seaside. For the rest of the week Sarah got up early and helped Jean with breakfast. They had taken to each other quickly and by the second day you'd have been hard pressed to say that they weren't old friends. After breakfast Sarah and I would walk the beach or walk through town. Sarah always packed a lunch for us and we'd pick it up before we'd head to the tops of the cliffs in the afternoon to eat. Sarah could sit there for the whole afternoon, long after the fog came in and we sat huddled close together for warmth. Jean had been right, that week we never saw another person up there.

The last day we were there, Jean packed us a lunch for the drive. Normally Sarah wanted to stay wherever we were, she never wanted to go back to school. But that afternoon after we'd hiked to the cliffs so Sarah could take pictures on the disposable camera she'd bought, she turned to me and asked if I was ready to go.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Cause you never want to leave."

"It's okay, we're coming back next weekend. Jean said she'd save us a room." I couldn't do anything but laugh.

"Okay, then I guess we're coming back next weekend."

We went to the Seaside almost every weekend of winter quarter. There was one weekend around the time of midterms that I spent in the library with Ryan trying to finish a paper that I'd put off. When I told Sarah that I couldn't go, she took off a few days early, skipping her classes.

We got into a routine that quarter. My classes worked out that I only had a discussion section on Fridays that I could miss and so Thursday we'd pack up the car and drive all afternoon to get there. Jean let Sarah keep a set of keys so if we got there after had locked up, we could let ourselves in.

Jean and Sarah spent a lot of time together. Sarah was like a daughter to her and would wake up early to help out with breakfast, letting me sleep in. After breakfast they plant flowers or trim the trees along the path. Jean always threatened to put me to work painting, which she hated, but she never did. I spent the mornings reading for class or working on papers. I'd taken a loan from school and bought a laptop so I could do homework from the Seaside.

The afternoons Sarah and I would spend together, either walking along the beach or hiking to the top of the cliffs. We found a great place for late lunches called the Solar Café.