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I was over at Isa’s house, and it was the middle of June. Summer was arriving to the village, as was obvious by the heightened temperatures and the ice cream truck being back in business. That truck has been around for longer than I can remember. I was amazed to hear that it’s still in service, as I thought everyone just got ice cream from the store now. After all, all the ice cream bars and such you can find in the truck, you can also find in the local grocery store and ice cream shops. It didn’t just appeal to the kids, either – adults got stuff from the ice cream truck, too. It was really raving in business.
“Can you believe it’s already the end of the school year?” Isa asked. “Feels like just yesterday when I walked into Winter Lakes High for the first time.”
“Time comes and goes,” I said. “If you ask me, it’s felt like forever since I first entered that school. I thought it’d never end!”
“I guess it’s all up to perspective, really.”
I looked out the window to see the sun beating down on the trees just outside of Isa’s house. It wasn’t a hot day, not at all, but the sun was still shining directly on everything without a cloud in sight. It was something we sort of relished in – after all, rainstorms were quite common in summer for our village, as well as the city.
Isa decided to invite me over that day – it was the last day off before we’d graduate high school. We both already had our cap and gowns ordered and ready, and I already ordered a yearbook for myself. I, admittedly, wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing myself in the book, however; I was a complete mess the day we were taking pictures and I was so not ready for them. But I wanted something to make the memory live on. Even though most of high school was just a long drag for me, I still had memories of it that I knew I’d treasure forever.
Isa had me over to discuss what we’d do after school. She always talked about how she wanted to go to a college, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after school. On one hand, it would be nice to further my education, but on the other hand, if highschool was so stressful for me, then could you imagine what college would be like? I wasn’t sure if I could handle that.
Isa told me she was gonna go to college anyway, but probably to the community one in the city. That was the only one that was even remotely close, anyway. Our village used to have a college, but it ended up costing too much to maintain, and most people went to the college in the city anyway. Now it’s a bunch of different stores that consistently change each year. Although, some bigger stores have been moving into the village, so there might not be that much change anymore, what with there being less family run shops.
“It’s not like I’m gonna be able to go until the spring semester, anyway,” Isa said. “I’ve already missed the deadline for fall classes – I wasn’t aware you had to sign up for them so early!”
“Another reason for me not to go to college,” I said, sighing. “they don’t exactly make things easy; everything’s vague with the college people.”
“You’re not good with vague stuff?”
I shook my head. “Never have been. Just how I am, I guess.”
I kept staring out the window. The wind chimes were right outside of the window and were singing softly. There was a light breeze outside, so you could barely see the chimes move. You could still tell that they were moving, however, as their song filled the silence between the sentences of Isa and I, along with the ticking of the clock just in the other room.
“You really like staring out that window, huh?” Isa asked.
“Huh-?” I said. “Oh... yeah! Sorry, I just zone out sometimes and end up getting really focused on something. Tunnel vision, I think is the word. My tunnel vision is a bit more... extreme, I guess? It’s not just my vision that puts all its focus on the object, let’s put it at that.”
“Oh, yeah, I get like that sometimes. Not often, but... you know.”
I nodded my head. There were some things about myself that I wasn’t sure of. There were just parts of me that felt... different. I never knew why. I never knew why I was so different. I mean, as far as I knew, I was the same as almost everyone else in the village, just a bit more scared of everything.
“Oh, by the way,” Isa spoke up. “A friend of mine invited me to their camp up in the mountains for this August. They said I could bring a friend, so I was thinking about taking you. Would you want to go?”
“The mountains?” I asked.
“Yeah, the mountains, you know! They’re just past the city. Ah, I guess you can’t exactly see them from here. And I’m sure you’ve never been past the city.”
I shook my head again. “Never have been.” Me and my family didn’t move around much. When we did go on vacation, we’d usually take the train to the airport and then go from there. I never recalled seeing mountains, but then again, I never looked out the window of the plane. That fear of flying was still something I had to get over, though I didn’t see myself getting over it anytime soon. “How far away are the mountains?”
“A couple hours from here.” Isa said. “Yeah, they’re pretty far, but you gotta see the view up there! It’s like absolutely nothing else, I promise you!”
“Well, I don’t think I’m doing anything this August... sure, why not? We could definitely go up the mountains if you wanted.”
“Perfect! I can’t wait for you to see the view up there. Especially at night, when all the lights of the city are on. It’s absolutely beautiful.” She seemed excited.
Truth be told, I wasn’t so sure about going up into the mountains myself. I wasn’t exactly afraid of heights, but I also didn’t like being up in high heights, either. I shrugged it off, figuring that I probably wouldn’t even notice that I was super high up, I could probably ignore it safely.
I looked at Isa, who was now staring out of the window herself. Her parents didn’t want us sitting on the couch with each other for whatever reason, so instead, we were sitting across from each other at the little table that was right next to her window. The wind outside was picking up and it had started to remind me of the wind outside in the storm that we met in. Even though the wind was getting louder and louder, only a slight breeze escaped into the house. And that breeze reminded me of the night when Isa had confessed her feelings to me. That’s when I realized something.
“Hey,” I started. “August is gonna be our six-month anniversary, right?”
“Oh my god,” Isa said. “I didn’t realize it was that soon! Feels like I confessed my feelings to you just last week, haha.”
“It’s crazy. Nearly half a year. Hasn’t been very eventful, I guess. But I’m still excited to see what happens in the next half. Where you and I will be at the end of that half. It’s a mystery, isn’t it?”
“Anything could happen.”
She was right, anything could happen. I knew that whatever happened, though, her and I would make it through. No matter what. However, when next month came, I ended up realizing something that would change my life forever, something that I could have never been prepared for.