Before leaving, I remember coloring farm animals. They were on an erasable coloring mat, so that I could color it however I wanted, and then start over again at any time.
I finished coloring the pig, but the farmer was only half colored. I hadn't even gotten to the cow or the landscape yet. Actually, the farming scene was only a fraction of the entire mat: there were several other blank scenes.
My dad called me outside: we were off to Kentucky.
I remember riding with my grandpa down the interstate, following my dad's red pickup truck. The truck with four bullet hole stickers on the side... I always thought they were daisies. I kept telling my grandpa to drive closer and closer... "No more, we'll wreck," he told me. I remember stopping at a gas station; I got a strawberry Twizzler. It was the first time I had had a Twizzler in a long time... I didn't like them anymore. They no longer peeled like they used to, and tasted too artificial. I haven't had one since. I remember becoming friends with the hotel receptionist, a nice lady. She unlocked the pool for us to go swimming. I remember not having a swimsuit. My grandma gave me my brother's Madagascar shorts (or were they boxers?), those would do. I remember peeing in them... it was a warm pool. Sorry Miles.
I remember returning to the hotel on a warm, sunny day. The walls were tan and rough, like sandpaper. I was skipping ahead, full of happiness.
I remember the excitement of going across the hallway all by myself to my grandparents' room. No adults! Then Miles and I would go back and forth, running across the dull brown carpet, knocking on the dark wooden doors.
I remember going to the Kentucky Zoo to see kangaroos. I remember penguins, and people everywhere! I remember seeing the sign pointing left towards the kangaroos. I remember leaving, seeing every animal except for the kangaroos. We couldn't find them.
I remember getting home and seeing my half colored farm animals, unchanged, sitting at my art desk. Just as I had left them. They wouldn't erase anymore: the colors had soaked in. And my markers were dried out. I could always get new markers and draw over what was permanently there... but the trip soaked the colors in, and they would always remain.
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