My Summer Vacation

353 Words

Summer vacation has always been a drag for me.  I try to have some fun and make the most of it but it always comes back to this one thing.  I am bored. 

I suppose we should go back to the last day of school.  All of us in the “group” were talking about the great places they were going to go on vacation.  Sharon was going to Maui with her parents and Billie was going to Australia.  Ken was going to Thailand and I was going to stay home. 

My parents could not afford a vacation this year, dad was laid off at work, the plant had lost some government contract and was in danger of closing.  Anyway, there was no way we were leaving this dismal, dreary little town in Northern Arizona to go anywhere. 

I had given up all hope.  My friends were either gone or going.  I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. 

That’s when I made a discovery.  My father, handed me a copy of Tom Sawyer and suggested I read it.  He said that he knew it would not make up for not having a vacation, but at least maybe the story would take me away.  And how it took me away! 

At first I began to read it only to be nice to my Dad.  But as I read the very first page I was drawn into this amazing story!  I quickly read through the adventures of Tom, Huck and Aunt Polly.  I found myself hungry for this story.  I quickly finished it and went to the library to get Huckleberry Finn and I practically read that in one sitting. 

Well, August arrived and it was time to return to school.  The group met at the usual bench in the lunch area.  Sharon and Billie were quite tan and Ken was considering becoming a Buddhist monk.  The conversation, of course eventually came around to me.  “
So Dave, where did you go this summer?” Ken asked.

“Oh, not too far, just a visit to southern Missouri and a rafting trip down the Mississippi!”