First week of summer break, and I’ve already ran out of things to do. All of my friends were visiting family or on summer vacation. It felt like there wasn’t another 16 year old boy in the entire state. At this point, I’d settle for anyone who could walk, talk, and play. As I was moping in my room, I heard the familiar tone of my cell phone ringing on the counter. I slowly started at it while still having my head buried in my pillow.

“Hello?” I said, half expecting it to be a telemarketer. I told you, I’d settle for anybody right now.

“Hey sport, so I heard you’re turning 16 in a few weeks?” said a familiar voice. I haven’t talked to my older brother ever since the divorce two years ago.

“Joe, is that you?” I said shockingly.

“Yeah, it’s me. I just got a new car, and I’ve noticed that I haven’t been a good brother lately, and I was wondering if you wanted to go on a road trip with me; just us, two guys having fun across the country. What do ya say?”

“WOW! That sounds great! Let’s do it!” I said with renewed enthusiasm.

“Great, I’ll probably be there tomorrow morning, that’ll give you some time to pack. And kid, I miss you.” I noticed a little sadness in his voice.

After we said our goodbyes, I got quickly to packing. I was too excited to do anything else for that entire day.

My brother lived with my dad in Fredricksburg, about a 4 hour drive from where we lived. I guessed he would be here at 10 AM, considering he probably still wakes up at 6. That gave me enough leeway to wake up at 8, and still be able to eat a good breakfast. That morning seemed like forever, I was done with breakfast at 9, and still had time left over. I paced the living room for what seemed like a lifetime, until I finally heard the sound of a car parking in our driveway.

I ran to the door, completely amazed at what I saw. My brother had grown so much in two years. The divorce took a much of a toll on us as it did our parents. His 18 year-old muscles have been replaced by fully grown pythons. His stubby, short, retarded excuse for hair is replaced with a head of wavy, brown hair. He looks much healthier now.

“Wow, you…changed,” was all I could muster out.

“Mmmm, stop staring and let’s go!” he said playfully.

We drove for much of the day. Our first stop was up north in New York City. The 7 hour drive was pretty silent, with a few conversations here and there. After a few hours, Joe started to show signs of wear.

“Hey Josh, mind if we take a pit stop for the weekend? My friend Mike lives up here, it’ll be fun.” His voice begged me to say yes, and I did.

“Great!” he said with enthusiasm and headed off the freeway.

After 30 minutes of driving, we arrived at a nice neighborhood, and parked at the largest house there. A guy about the age of Joe walked out, grinning ear to ear.

“Hey Joe, nice to see you. And I take it you’re Josh? I’m Mike. Come on in.”

We conversed for a little while. I started to paw around for some food, and Mike noticed.

“Hey, you’re hungry right? Let’s go find my little sister; she was supposed to cook up some lunch. She’s probably by the pool, let’s go.”

Awww man, I thought. Now I have to spend the weekend with some 12 year old, probably. I almost wanted to stay home, but my hunger drove me to find her.