Memories of Emily: Rise of the Anarchist Part 3

Beneath & Eighth Grade

Beneath 

My parents demanded my presence on a trip at the end of summer, which surprised me since they left me home alone for business trips and other outings for some time. They said nothing, but at the beginning of summer, I suspected their distrust in their demand that no one visit the house while they worked and their sudden attention to weapons and gear. On several occasions, out-of-place belongings confirmed they searched my room. My despise of the Man unnerved them, which made me laugh since my leaving would soon end their control, and they could do nothing. 

They invested in a beach property in Florida, and the last two weeks of 1984’s summer, I lived on Sanibel Island. Sanibel’s white-sand beaches coiled the island in a quiet solitude evoking a desire to stay forever. Left alone most of the day to swim or sit on the beach made the island a true paradise, especially as the evenings passed relaxing in bed watching Invasion of The Body Snatchers or The Thing on television. Life was good. 

One day, I found a long inflatable raft in the shed by the house and paddled a little offshore, where I rolled into the ocean and surfaced, turning and pulling myself on the raft. Soft clouds rolled past as thoughts wandered. Riceberg and Fradkin felt far away, but life’s new clarity of the Man inspired a paranoid worry and frustrating fantasy. The dark storm of Fradkin Senior approached with bullying and fighting but clouded in hope that somehow high school would be different. I hated myself for allowing this thought.