the sleep of reason

my daddy asked me if i wanted to go to florida to visit my big sister who i thought was the coolest person in the world. she was beautiful and funny and loved me so much. she always told me i was beautiful and when i grew up, i wanted to be just like her.

she lived at her college and my daddy told me we were going to fly in a plane. my first time (that i remembered) and we were going to stay in a hotel with waterfalls and a parrot in the lobby that talked to you. we flew on the twa airline that doesn't exist anymore and there was another little girl near us. she was going to disneyworld. my sister had told me on the phone that we were going to disneyworld too, so we talked about that. the stewardess got us cookies and apple juice and we chit chatted and colored pictures from the book i brought. i never saw her again, but we held hands when our ears popped during the landing.

my daddy and i went to the pool when we got to the hotel and i swam all afternoon and went down the slide and watched older kids playing and swam under the waterfalls. my daddy lay in a chair and drank some drinks and kept an eye on me, but he knew i was a really good swimmer. my daddy liked to call me his brown bunny when i was little because i got so dark in the summer. my mom called me talulah. my daddy also told me that i might as well be a fish because i loved the water so much.

we went to meet my sister and her mom and stepdad and her other grandparents. i wore a dress which itched, and she introduced me to all her friends who were not as pretty as her. i drank shirley temples. she drank white wine. she was tan because she got to lay in the sun even though it was february. the next day she showed me around her campus and i told her about our hotel and the parrot and the waterfalls and the snow leapord stuffed animal daddy bought me in the gift shop. i named him luca.

i remember that weekend so well because of all these things and because it was the first trip my daddy ever took me on just me and him. he always tells people i'm the best traveler. its true. i am a good traveler. nothing wrong with that.