Crunched from the mountain of problems that week, the every day monotonous rain and from too much exercise at the Gym I doubted it was a great idea to take out Jaarly and Remy sailing that afternoon.
I met Jaarly a number of years ago, he is a great friend and brings insides to my life. I enjoy him, he is tall, relaxed and his strong South African accent makes every conversation fun. I like how he say “thea” what means there, is awesome!
The phone rang, it was Jaarly. For a second I thought not to pick up, what can happen? Hide...
“Hi thea Jeremy, were do you want to meet?” he asked taking his time, word by word, oblivious to my disrepair. I hold for a second or two.
“Pick me up at home” I mumbled.
“Fine, see you in a beeat” he said not excited. My theory is that tall guys talk slow, not impressed, they walk with long and paused steps.
I resisted the thought of the work that takes preparing the boat for sailing. I lay in bed and watched some TV distracted. Shortly the phone rang again.
“We are outside.” Said Jaarly unimpressed.
I hopped in his car, I like the smell of a new car.
“What a nice car,” I smiled “Does it goes fast?” I thought it was a good question to tease him to go fast. As soon as we got into the Highway, Jaarly let the Beemer go.
“Nice handling” I said “It’s faster than mine.” The car was gliding in the sun.
I looked at the sky, there was not a cloud, light blue, perfect summer day. I felt the sun over my legs, it brought me memories of times sailing in a hot sunny day. I felt the energy coming back, I smiled. I woke up, excited remembering the shine in the waves in the ocean.
“There is a huge line up to cross the border” Said Joan that was joining us for the afternoon with her kids.
“I’m getting by the park, it seems that the line is not moving.”
It was not a great idea to spend that hot afternoon in line in the car.
“Let’s park the car in the Park and we hop into Juniper’s car.” I said to Jaarly.
“Shua.” He said.
“Do we have a map in the car?” I asked thinking in a way to skip the line up and circle around the park.
“Nope.” Jaarly said.
Plan B... we used my phone’s map to guide Jaarly through South Tsawwassen. After a fun ride we parked few cars away from the intersection that Joan should have been by then. It crossed my mind that we are three and Joan and the kids are three as well and that we were not going to fit all in the car! I looked towards the border, I couldn’t see Joan’s car, so we started walking towards the border. Half the way the car was not there so I called Joan.
“Where are you?” I asked expecting that she would tell me that they were already in the States.
“I’m about to get to the Park.” She barked. Wow, barking is unusual of Joan, although with two kids in the car for more than one hour...
“We’ll walk the border, pick us up in the way.” I said to avoid getting into the wasp nest!
Jaarly and Remy long steps were leaving me behind. At the border we stopped by the Stop sign for pedestrians, we look at each other and stopped. The officer poked his head off the booth and say
“Come on, bring your passports.” We handed the documents and we were told to walk around into the office.
The office was full. I was hot with the walk, I left my jackets and my bags on a bench and waited. A shorter officer took position behind an empty station and ask us
“Where are your passports?”
“At the end of that desk” I pointed with my finger.
The officer opened the passports and started working in the computer.
“What are you coming for?” he asked as if we were guilty of a crime.
“Sailing.” I said emotionless looking at his eyes.
“Sailing?” he repeat
“I have a boat at the marina”
“Why sailing?” he asked again
“It's a nice day”
“Why are you walking?” he asked looking for any sign of hesitation
“There line is too long, we decided to walk this time” I said
“There is no line.” He said finding me wrong.
I could only imagine the faces of Jaarly and Remy had at this point and I prayed that they didn’t say boo.
“The line is long, down the hill” I insisted not too strong.
“I didn’t know.” He said now with a smile, “Yes... I know” and he smiled.
I used to get nervous when I crossed the border, now I don’t. Jaarly and Remy where beside.
“Anything to declare?”
“Just our jackets and lunch” I said distracted.
He looked at the passports one more time and said, “Ernesto?”
I noticed a Spanish accent, I looked at his badge, not a Spanish name.
“Habla español?” I asked
“Si.” He said happy this time. We hit an animated conversation in Spanish that defused the anxiety.
From there on, it was easy.
“Que tengan un buen dia” he said and off we went. We started walking what I thought it was going to be a nice walk downhill. Long legs were making me work hard to keep up with them. In the first intersection where the nice Yellow house I stopped with the pretext of taking a picture for the Blog. Walking fast got me thinking, I have to write about this mini torture, can’t go without recording it.
The sun was awesome. Nice and hot. We chatted for a bit and started back walking. Half the way I needed another break so...
“Let's take some pictures here’” I said
Jaarly and Remy happy for the walk and the nice day didn’t oppose the idea. So we made it in 45 minutes, nothing too small for a walk.
I called Joan, she was still not at the border. Wow, three hours later, that car must me a zoo. What a great day.
