we were here

There was this time when my family went on vacation, I must have been seven or eight maybe younger. We had gone to Yosemite and we were driving to Sequoia or we had gone to Sequoia and we were driving to Yosemite. It was me and my sister and my mom and my dad and we stopped off the side of the road and went swimming in a creek. It was a very larger creek coming down of the side of the mountain. It was called 5 mile creek or 3 mile creek or something like that. We hiked up a bit so that we were off the road and it was as if, suddenly we were cut off from civilization completely. For a short moment in time, it was just us.

There was this little waterfall and the water came sliding down the rocks. My dad found this place where he could slide down like a waterslide. We watched him slide down and we were all laughing. Of course, we were all naked, which was pretty normal for us. We were always getting naked, especially my sister and I, in our back yard swimming pool. My parents encouraged us to not be ashamed of being naked. It was a natural thing. As soon as the sun went down, off came our clothes but here we were in broad daylight. It was so exciting and so much fun.

We weren’t able to swim in this creek for long before someone else came along, another family maybe? I don’t remember who they were but I remember getting out of the water and hiding from them and then putting my clothes back on. I remember my dad putting on a towel and talking to them and then we sort of packed up and left. We could have stayed but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun, so we took off, party over.

I remember getting into the car and being so bummed that it got cut short because we were having such a good time. I remember my sister and me asking, “Can we go back there again?” And my parents promising that we would but of course, we never did.

Sometimes I go back there in my mind.
Sometimes I go back there in my dreams.