Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 30
Roseanne informed Mr Orville about what she had discovered. The teacher listened with understanding. He shared with her a suspicion that maybe the backpack was from a hostel, but it was better to leave it at the lost-and-found office rather than come back to that dreadful place.
They did exactly that. Thankfully, the office was located at the main railway station, next to a bus stop where Mr Orville intended to take the group.
The inside of the office looked as if it were frozen in the 1990s. There wasn’t any security camera on the ceiling, the walls were screaming with dark shades of grey, and behind the counter, they could spot half-a-century-old landline phones.
“What?” a freckled female clerk barked irritably while eating a bagel. Its crumbs were falling like heavy snow.
“We found this,” Roseanne placed the backpack on the counter.
“It’s not a bomb, is it? What’s inside?”
“Some electronic junk.”
More crumbs dropped from the female clerk’s mouth. She wrote something down in a notepad and took the backpack.
“That’s it? Do we need to sign any form?” Mr Orville asked.
The clerk barked again, “You don’t need any form! You’re not the owner, right?”
***
As they were walking to rejoin the others at the bus stop, Roseanne turned to Mr Orville. “Thanks for walking me there,” she said.
“Don’t mention it, Roseanne. It’s not like you stole the bloody thing. You just found it.”
“By the way, I know it’s silly to mention it now, but do you remember when I lent you my book two nights ago?”
“Oh, yes.” Mr Orville smiled. “I hope to finish it tomorrow.”
Roseanne’s guts cramped within. He was reading it!
“Wait, is there a problem?” The teacher looked at the girl who made a sad face.
“That competition which I mentioned. The application deadline is tomorrow…”
“Ah…” He nodded. “So you want to send it.”
“I don’t know yet!” the girl screamed in embarrassment. “I just wanted to let you know.”
“In that case, I will give it back to you sooner. I promise.”
Roseanne looked inquisitively at her teacher. Part of her was curious if he’d share some comment on her writing now, but Mr Orville remained silent.
***
They all boarded a bus to Rewa. It is a town located approximately forty minutes away from Gdynia, and its main attraction is the beach with a view of the Bay of Gdańsk. Compared to Babie Doły, Rewa had sunbathers and swimmers scattered along the beachside, of course, but the shore felt more spacious. You could actually sit by the dunes and enjoy the sounds of waves as they came in measured but rhythmical quantities.
There was even a pedestrian track made of rubber pads which led you straight to the water. Consequently, nobody had to take your shoes off. The students looked around the sandy coast.
“So we came for another session of admiring the sea?” Thally asked.
“Nope. It would be boring to do the same thing twice,” Mr Orville extended his hand, which pointed the students in the direction of a jet ski rental store.
“Sweet Jesus and Holy Mary save us,” Milena whimpered.
“Okay, here’s the number one rule I follow in my life: Thally doesn’t swim.” Her hands formed a cross sign. “I’m gonna drown for sure, sir.”
“You’re not going to drown, because it’s not about swimming. Just drive the scooter.”
Thally gulped. “But the rocking of the water…”
“Out of my way.” Natasha jumped in front of the crowd and rushed to the store. She got so fired up, she couldn’t wait to plough through the bay.
Roseanne remained silent, but she too looked forward to this new, unknown activity she had never tried before. In fact, she had never been on the sea. Back in her childhood days, she used to swim with her family in lakes near Biskupin.
Mr Orville came up to the rental store guy, who also happened to be an instructor, and—with resignation—paid him with money from the envelope. After this final deduction, there were still at least 700 Po credits left. The teacher will have to divide the leftover sum accordingly and distribute it among the students when they get back home.
The girls were instructed to change into wetsuits. Nika immediately complained about the rubbery material that was way too tight around her tummy. Natasha felt compassionate, and she complained to Nika that the purpose of the wetsuits was to keep them warm and make it easier to stay afloat.
“Yeah, but it’s really, really tight and there isn’t any pocket for smokes,” Nika commented.
Out in the water, the jet skis were already prepared. The instructor climbed up a ramp and lowered them on PWC lifts. Mr Orville was standing in the water up to his shorts, observing as the students hesitantly mounted the unfamiliar machines.
The instructor whistled to get their attention. He started describing that they should turn the ignition key that is attached to their wrists via a lanyard. The next step was to slowly push the throttle and cruise up to ten kilometres per hour away from the shoreline. Then they could increase the speed gradually according to their liking. He warned, however, that they should watch out for other boats.
Having laid out the instructions, the man switched on a boombox and withdrew back into the shade of his store. The girls were left to themselves. They all looked at each other with a mixture of helplessness and unease. It was nice sitting on the watercrafts and all with the sea water splashing around, but they had to move. Nobody wanted to look like a chicken. The song by Jack Mack and The Heart Attack played on some retro 80s radio station reached their ears:
I was ready, I was willing
But I never ever got the chance
Wasn’t moving, only losing
And the time was slippin’ through my hands
I took one step up, put my foot on the gas
got me out of nowhere fast
I’m Gonna be Somebody
I’m gonna make my stand
I’m gonna be Somebody
I really think I can
For the first time from the inside to the outside
Something feels right
If I can’t be anybody but me I might as well be somebody
Natasha dared to try first, and Roseanne mimicked her movements. Their jet skis roared upon launching. They intended to push the throttle really gently, but as luck would have it, their machines flew straight ahead like arrows.
“Whoa! I will race you to Sweden!” Roseanne shouted through the engine noise.
“Let’s make Denmark the finish line,” Natasha suggested.
Thally flinched when her scooter began zigzagging toward Nika, who was standing still. “Somebody throw me a lifebuoy! This is out of control.” Thally panicked.
Seeing the approaching doom, Nika calmly jumped into the water and swam away, avoiding the crash in the style of bumper cars. Mr Orville fished her out.
“I’m okay! I’m okay!” Thally waved all around, surprised she didn’t fall, but her joy didn’t last long. Her jet ski tripped Milena’s watercraft, which was going quite slowly. Thally got jettisoned in the air and landed among customers at a nearby hot-dog stand. “Order me one, will you?” she said, grabbing a random woman by the ankle. Seconds later, she passed out.
Milena cried as she lost orientation. She wasn’t steering any longer. The poor girl closed her eyes when her jet ski wandered about. Eventually, it hit a ramp that led her ashore. The machine came to a halt when it slammed into a portable toilet. An old guy sitting on the loo and doing his business was exposed to the public eye.
“It’s World War Three!” Gramps screamed, running away with the toilet paper rolling around his feet.
“Shitballs…” Milena cursed as she lay in the sand.
It turned out Roseanne and Natasha were the only ones who responsibly drove their jet skis. They circled around the bay for two hours until their paid session was over. Roseanne loved the rush of wind each time she was able to increase the speed. She wished this sensation could last forever, but it was impossible. As soon as they reached the rubber pads, she threw herself on them and drank a bottle of water. Her throat was dry after the long ride.
“Hey, check this out,” Natasha said and pulled the corner of the wetsuit near her calf. Water poured out of it like from a drainage pipe.
“I thought it was supposed to protect us from water,” Roseanne remarked, but then she noticed the inside of her suit was wet all over, too. They will definitely need a lot of towels to wipe themselves dry.
***
When they were done and changed back into regular clothes, the two joined the rest in a restaurant. Mr Orville already ordered lunch, but Thally was chugging down one hot dog after another.
Milena kept clenching and relaxing her fists. She turned to her teacher and said, “It’s very nice out there, and it’s even nicer when I’m not in the water.”
“Saumph hyere, babee,” Thally babbled through a full mouth.
Nika lit a new cigarette. “It was good to try.”
“Well, I thought it was amazing,” Roseanne expressed her honest opinion.
Mr Orville listened and then said, “I wanted you to experience something different. Maybe it wasn’t a thing for some of you, but at least you have a new memory burned into your minds.”
“The whole trip has burned itself in my mind!” Natasha exclaimed.
The restaurant service brought six full plates of pork chop and mashed potatoes with gravy. You couldn’t ask for the most typical lunch in the Land of Po, but at least the price was reasonable. Mr Orville still had 650 Po credits left.
Roseanne admired the sunny seaside while eating. The thought from before had resurfaced in the back of her head. Again, she wished someone could press the pause button and freeze the passage of time. She wanted to be on the jet ski forever. She wanted the beauty in front of her to last forever. Was she asking for too much? She didn’t like the prospect of the days fleeting like grains of sand in an hourglass, counting down her return to school, to study, and waste time on stressing over her future. Was she asking for too much?
Apparently so, because no matter how hard she wished, the time wouldn’t stop.
It flew mercilessly to a catastrophe, but Roseanne didn’t know about that yet.
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