Dear Austin...

The minute lunch was over, we were heading off to the park. My mom gladly lent the keys to Austin for him to drive her big silver Durango after she threatened a punishment worse than death. Austin walked out of her room looking paler than a ghost in a blizzard.

Austin hopped in the front, I called shot gun, and LP sat with Alan in the back. The ginger wasn’t to mad that he didn’t get front seat. I reclined in the seat to a more comfortable position. Somehow, Austin managed to back out of the garage without getting a scratch on my mom’s car. I let out a sigh of relief.

“See, I can drive!” He exclaimed. I pointed out directions to the park we were going to play in. Austin leaned over and turned the radio down. There were a few cars on the road, but not too many. I had a feeling what we were going to do. Alan and LP looked up from their game of poke each other in the ribs.

“PEELA TOE POE CO CO CANNA SAY THAT TOE T TOE VOL CA NANA GIRDLE CHE MO SO NOT THAT LOW CAL TABLE!” He started blasting as we rolled down all windows. I recognized this from the video where he was singing at a traffic light with his dog. Alan joined in with Lily-Pearl watching him as if he was an alien. As soon as I stopped laughing, I joined in with him, yelling at some runners passing by. Lily-Pearl started yelling, something that I even had to pause with amazement.

Even at the most joyful, loudest activities, LP wasn’t very loud. She has never once raised her voice, at least, not any time that I’ve heard of. I think even Alan was a little impressed. When I glanced into the review mirror, I saw him beaming down at LP. She was laughing to death in the background. Austin kept on singing the entire time until we reached the park. When we parked, the four of us tumbled out, gasping for breath.

I squinted against the glare of the sun. The park had a large soccer field backing up the parking lot. The actually park sets were large. It had four different slides, three sets of swings, four sculpted plastic rocks to sit on, and multiple unique things to play on. We parked the car and Austin threw the keys in his pocket. No one else was at the park at this time, which was unusual for a beautiful, warm Friday.

“Come on!” Alan scooped up Lily-Pearl and put her on his shoulder. He was acting instinctively like the big brother again and I smiled. Who wouldn’t want the ginger princess as a brother?

Austin took my hand and pulled me along after his guitarist and my sister. I sprinted to try to keep up with his long legs. When we finally reached the spot, we found LP sitting in the grass by herself. She was covering her eyes and my heart skipped a beat.

“Where’s Alan?” I asked her. Worry filled me like the clouds on a rainy day. She didn’t open her eyes but addressed our general direction. Austin stooped down to her level, his face filled with concern and question.

“Shhhh…I’m counting to fifty! Sixteen...Seventeen…Eighteen…” LP resumed counting. It was her favorite game.

“I’m hiding!” I called to her as I booked it down the hill. Austin scrambled up. I quickly found my hiding spot behind a shrouding cluster of bushes. I watched silently as Austin flailed his arms for a hiding spot. It looked as if he found a good one, but someone kicked him out. I saw him scramble for a spot behind a tree.

“FIFTY!” LP called out. She was slowly finding her voice through their visit. I swear, my radiant happiness was probably giving away my only hiding spot. I watched my younger sister get up. With no surprise, Austin was the first one found. She took the corner of his shirt and led him around like a puppy on a leash. He eventually detached her strong grip and took his hand in hers.

“Found you!” She called as soon as she found her ginger princess. Alan stood up and ruffled her hair. Ten minutes later, I was finally found. They finally checked the far corner of the top hill where I was sitting. To be honest, the warm rays of light were making me fall asleep. The combined warmth of the day and the partial shade of the bush made me want a nap.

“I’ll count this time.” I told them. This round went a little longer. Alan and LP had hidden at the very far end of the park, while Austin was hiding behind the car. I gave him props because it wasn’t somewhere I had thought of. I managed to spot Alan and LP first, and found Austin last.

This may just be a ‘child’s game’ to some, but when you play four rounds with Austin and Alan, it tends to be a serious matter.

By the sixth round, I found Alan perched in a tree like a cat, and Austin hanging like a spider under the play set. Once again, I had to give it to him. He hung upside down for thirty minutes. LP helped me look for Alan after I found her perched by a plastic rock.

By the time the sun was beginning to poke behind some clouds, we all sat panting in the shade. LP regained her energy first and dragged Alan to push her on the swings. I watched them play on the swing set for the longest time before I lay down in the shade again.

“I’m touching the sky!” My sister screamed in pure, childish delight as Alan launched her. The swing turned into a rocket, and I was convinced she’d touch the sun.

I took out my phone to check the time. Two and a half hours had gone by fast. I turned on the camera by accident.

“Picture time!” I joked. We took ten photos. From the first serious photo to the tenth, ridiculous pic, we laughed. Eventually even Austin took out his phone to capture the moment after found a lady bug. It flew on my nose and he took a quick picture of it. I continued to tease around and by time Alan and LP returned to go home, we lost track of the amount of pictures.

“Let’s go home.” Alan called. Austin and I got up. Together, we raced Alan and LP to the car. Who knew a park held so much adventure?

Notes

That chapter was tons of fun to write. The hardest part was finding the 'lyrics' to Austin's video of him singing in the car. Apparently someone had actually written them out, so those are some of the actual words he was singing (Screaming?) :)

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