Once upon a time, it was a nice sunny day. The flowers were blooming, the water was pristine and...
I just wanted to start my story out like that, but following that stream gets difficult since my life isn't a fairy tale, so I decided to take my usual, realistic approach.
It was fairly hot and I was lost and late. Not a good combination. Besides that, no one had phone reception since they were all on the boat tubing and I couldn't find the public access dock. It was killing me. If there's anything I like it's water. If there's anything I don't like it is being unable to get to the water where all my friends are enjoying themselves.
Finally, I saw the public access dock across the lake (without the help of my stupid GPS, I might add), made my way there, and parked. I walked out on the dock and after awhile, I spotted my friends and tried the waving-from-the-dock approach but it didn't work. They were too concentrated on drowning the tubers behind the boat. So I sat down and waited.
There was an unassuming man, probably in his fifties, fishing off the bank to my right.
"Catch anything?" I asked. Might as well make conversation with a stranger rather than feel sorry for myself because I wasn't tubing.
"Nope. Never been here before. Do you know if you're allowed to drink on this lake?"
"No, I don't know," I replied. "I don't drink."
"Are you still in school or what do you do?" he asked.
"Well, I graduated from beauty school in October."
"You look like you graduated from beauty school. I graduated from ugly school."
I could have asked him what year he graduated, but I wisely refrained.
"God doesn't make anybody ugly," I replied, but I guess I'm wrong because, well, I won't finish that thought.
"I'm Grover, by the way," the man said.
A little while later, Grover's two brothers sailed in on jet skis. One had a lady friend with him. They beached their jet skis and then got ready to fish with Grover.
"Hey, if you guys go out again, flag down her friends for her," Grover said in a passing comment.
The brothers didn't say much so I let my hope die for a little while.
"Yea," I said a few minutes later, "If you do go out again, could you just let them know I'm here."
"Well, you can take it out," brother number one said.
"Grover, go with her and bring back the jet ski," brother number two added on.
Although Grover and I had just started a rather awkward acquaintanceship, I was more than willing to do what it took to get out on the water and finally get to go tubing. I also wasn't entirely against the fact that I would get to ride a jet ski.
I thought Grover was going to drive, but brother number one indicated that I could. "You ever driven one of these before?" he asked.
"Um, well, I think a friend let me drive one once," I said sounding very convincing.
"You can do it," he said and gave me a quick 2 second tutorial.
Grover jumped on and we were off. I love the wind and water and speed, but I didn't gun it like I wanted to because I didn't want to wreck a stranger's jet ski and I really wanted to tube. There were some big waves and those were fun. I really want a jet ski now. Ahem, moving on...
So Grover and I jet skiid around the lake and couldn't find my friends. It was almost as if they disappeared. Grover did say my hair smelled nice, which was really weird, but I just told him it better smell nice because I put enough product in it.
We finally found a channel to go through and it opened up into a whole new part of the lake. I found my friends and followed them, and although they waved back, they didn't know it was me. Finally, some tubers fell off, and without running them over (a fact of which I am very proud), I came along side the boat.
"Vange?!" Phil, my brother, asked incredulously. "What are you doing?"
"You guys didn't see me on the dock so I came to you," I replied. I have to say that I was pretty proud of driving a jet ski and finding a way out to the boat. I'm dedicated to tubing. I think I made that very clear that day.
Phil, and Dave, the driver and owner of the boat, helped me in. I thanked Grover and waved goodbye.
"Who was THAT?!" Phil asked.
"I think his name was Grover."
"You don't even know his name?!"
So began all the jokes and crap everyone gave me for riding a random stranger's jet ski. Hey, I'm willing to sacrifice for my dreams, even if it means driving a jet ski.
Oh, and the tubing was totally worth it...whiplash and all.
