Sunkiss

I come from a bilingual family; both my adoptive parents spoke English as well as French and both were proud French-Canadians from the province of Quebec. So I learned to speak those two languages fluently from the beginning and I’ve always been grateful for that since I loved to read the classics as a child and most were only available in English although I also loved to read French books like Tin Tin  and later on the sci-fi of Jules Verne  and Bob Moranes paperback novellas.

I’m telling you this so that you understand why my French father --whose name I share since I’m a junior—nicknamed me Sunkiss like the oranges.

I was kid a lot at school because of my name so I learned early in life not to care about such a trivial thing as an unusual or a funny name and I also learned to defend myself as well as protect those around me, who were weaker or more susceptible than me, against bullies who didn’t seem to know when enough was enough, when to call it quits.

Now before I get too carried away let me get to reason for writing about “Sunkiss”.

When I was about seven or eight years old my parents had sent me to a summer camp for a couple of weeks, it was about 150 miles away from where I lived and actually across the border in the state of New York. I really didn’t enjoy being there since I was already a very private kid so I didn’t like to be surrounded by all these strangers twenty four hours a day, I missed my room, my books, my privacy, my freedom too much and I just couldn’t wait to come back to the things I enjoyed.

I didn’t like the routines of up at six, prayer and shower, breakfast at eight, swimming at ten and__ I think you get the picture. So every day was hell to me, I did what they wanted me to but I hated every minute of it. You’d guess I was a spoiled kid but not really! I started working at eight as a news paper boy and that was easy but the following year had me working with the seniors; I was a painter for a contractor my dad knew. Because I was pretty strong for my age the next I was an apprentice plumber so I don’t think I was ever a spoiled brat, I just had my ways.

Getting back to the story, one morning as I was swimming in the big lake with about twenty other kids who, like me, didn’t need to take swimming lessons; I had already earned my red cross life saver certificate. I knew how to swim quite well but unlike the other kids there I just didn’t enjoy going in the water to swim around like a fish in a bowl so I was rather bored and just stood there waiting for the whistle blow to be allowed to come out of the water.

That’s when I heard the familiar voice calling “Sunkiss, Sunkiss!” I knew it was my dad, I recognized the voice and he was the only one to ever call me that. My heart started pumping and my breath was cut short, I don’t think I’d ever been so excited before in my short life. He’d come to save me!

It had to be my dad, I recognized the tone of voice, nobody else knew about that name so I rushed out of the lake, I didn’t care about the rule that said I had to wait for the whistle. My father was here to answer my prayer, I was going home, it was wonderful.

When I got to the beach I looked all over for my dad, I knew he was playing a trick on me but I’d find him, he couldn’t hide from me. The camp guard whistled and yelled at me to come to him but I didn’t care, I was going home with my dad. I never knew how much I loved my old man before. Marcel, Marcel, come back here right now! The monitor yelled at the top of his lungs but I didn’t pay him any attention. Now I was too out of breath to yell’ Dad!

And three monitors were chasing after me and finally caught me. I remember feeling as if I was an escaped prisoner being caught by bounty hunters or vicious guards. They really didn’t seem to mind what I was saying. My dad’s here, he’s come to take me home, my dad is here! They just carried me to the prison camp, a little place where they kept the bad kids who did abide by the camp rules. They would keep you locked up for about an hour usually and that’s what they did with me. It gave me time to realize my dad was not going to save me. What had they done to him?  Could they be so mean to have killed my father now? I didn’t like them but that was meaner that I thought they could be.

When they came to pull me out of the cell, I refused to go unless they called my home so they left me there and another hour later they came with the nurse, and two other guys who claimed to be in charge of the camp. I wouldn’t budge until the promised to allow me to talk to my parents. They agreed and I went to the office and called home but there was no answer. They saw how shook up I was and I told them my story, I told them what I’d heard then I did something I had never done in public before. I cried! They promised to try to reach my folks in the evening and I stayed in the office, even refusing to go out for supper. They eventually reached my mother and I got to talk to her.

I told her about what I’d heard and described the whole scene to her. She started crying and said my dad had phoned her in shock earlier. He had told my mother that around break time which was at about twenty minutes past ten—exactly when I’d heard him yell my nickname—he had seen me walking with a stranger and had yelled Sunkiss at the top of his lungs twice and seeing that I didn’t seem to hear his call but kept on walking away and turned right at the street corner thus disappearing behind the building. He ran as fast as he could to save me from what he thought was my kidnapper and when he got to the corner and turned around it. Nobody was there. The building was a brewery with no doors or window for at least a couple of hundred feet so it was like my abductor and I had suddenly disappeared.

My mother told me later that my father was in shock that day because not only did the little boy he'd seen look exactly like me but he had the same voice since that had been what had attracted my dad’s attention and made him rush out of the building --where he worked --to see me or some little boy that looked exactly like me.

 

That was a great story. It gave me goosebumps! Hope you're having a good week!

Dear Tonia, thank you for the comment my friend and yes I am having a great week I hope the same onto you and let me wish you Magic and Light for Easter Weekend !

What an amazing tail. I too was chased down at summer camp like a rabid dog in the street; I must have been around seven or eight as well.
And now for a little lesson, if you wish to post a pic with you comment, you need first upload the pick into your web space, or to make it easier let’s just use a pic you already have uploaded. Mummy+Dearest. To make it appear you need to use a bit of code. The code for an image is: img src= you must also type the full url of the image which is
http://marcellorange.bravehost.com/myPictures/Mummy+Dearest.jpg
not forgetting the “”at the beginning and end of the url and a < and > to start and end the code. I would type out the whole code but then it wouldn’t show up as text but rather the pic itself.
So start the code to start with a
<
then type
img src="http:// http://marcellorange.bravehost.com/myPictures/Mummy+Dearest.jpg"
and a
>
to close it. If all goes well it will show up as a pic

Here’s a tip, try to work out the bugs in your own journals comments page, that way you can errors you errors and people will be none the wiser

the lasts part should read "Erase your errors"

Oh for crying out laud, the text should read img src="http://marcellorange.bravehost.com/myPictures/Mummy+Dearest.jpg "
Arrrg, I have an extra http:// what was I thinking, I am not all together with it today
Don’t forget the < and the >

Here goes Behertz, if thos works you're a gifted magician

works well, you got in my friend.

Thanks to you Beherzt, you are incredible.
I'm so glad to have you as a friend here.

That was a really nice story. I could picture it well. I am sorry you had to go to camp like that. I went to a summer camp with my step sister and it was a sports camp so it was like a PE class all day long. Made my stomach sick to think about going. I feel your pain....Good job with the code! it worked.

--Amanda

Hey Amanda , hope you had a good trip my friend and thanks for the understanding comment, I appreciate it.
Welcome back! I'll see you soon.:)

Just out for a lil walk I am so I thought it nice to say hallo

I wish I could have been here to answer your hello my seet friend. You always make me smile you know. Be good to yourself, precious lady!

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