It was Sunday afternoon, dad had to leave in the morning back to Alabama. He decided on a whim that it might be fun to take the boat down to the river for late afternoon/evening swimming, snacks, and relaxation. So we scrambled to pull things together, put BYD in the backseat, hooked up the boat, and took off downtown. We decided, for no apparent reason, to use a launch we'd rarely used before. As we pulled in I noticed a group of people swimming, jumping off the dock, and laying on the launch ramp with their feet half-submerged. They moved out of the way as my dad began to back the boat into the water. As we went through the aggravating process, they stood and watched in the heat. I could see some of them smiling at our obvious difficulty. When the boat was in the water, they hesitantly went back to playing on the ramp, still watching us through sideways eyes. But of course, the boat wouldn't start. I won't go into the boring details.
I watched the people, who were really just one big family, with some sense of awe and curiosity. They did likewise to us. The little girl, Daisy, was about Erin's age. She clumsily walked over to where I was holding a rambunctious BYD. Her mother followed along , and tried to bring the girl back. Daisy reached her hand out, she wanted to pet the dog. Her mother rambled off to me something in Spanish and I got the gist that it was something about permission to pet the dog. So I explained "Well, she.." and went on for a couple sentences only to realize that it was all gibberish to her ears. She half nodded her head, grabbed Daisy's hand and walked back to the water. I felt a little bad. Meanwhile, the boat still wasn't starting. Dad tried to ask them if they had a jumper cable. At first they said no, but one of the men seemed like he figured out what my dad was asking for and then ran to get it out of his truck. If you ask me, they were obviously not from around here.(aka-newer residents of the US. I'll not call to doubt their legal status. :P)
So dad tried the jumper cable. We just kept standing around. Looking and watching. Two different families, from two different cultures, speaking two different languages. The two little boys, probably four or five, were apprehensive about us being near them. Or me, in particular. I was standing close to their cooler, and every few minutes the boy in the blue shirt came up to get a soda out of their cooler. He'd stare at me intensely as he creeped towards me and the cooler, then run back when he had picked out a drink. The next time he came I said "hi!" and smiled. He ignored me and reached down to open the cooler. Then I kinda said to myself "duh, coulda had a V8". When he looked up again, soda in hand, I said "hola." He looked at me curiously and nodded his head, then ran off. The boy was adorable..in a serious way. Later on another man of the family came up to the cooler and pulled out two sodas, offering one to me.
"somethinginspanishblahblahblah....coke?"
"Oh, no, thank you! We have drinks in our cooler. Thank you, though, thank you!"
^ It was just a soda. But something about that interaction......did something to me.
The oldest brother (I'm assuming that was his status) captivated me the most. I could tell he was really interested in our family. I'd find him staring at me, or Erin, or any one of us and when he'd catch my eye he'd look away. He was a handsome young man, somewhere between 15 and 17. It was hard to tell. He seemed older, but still had some boyish nature about him.
I managed to take a couple discreet pictures. I didn't want to seem like a creeper. Even though. um. I was. :P
Pointblank: these people, this family, made a difference to me.
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