Remembering the Russian River by Sophie Fastaia

When we got there, Angie and I got on top of the car and slid up and down the windshield in a fit of giggles. We broke the car’s antennae and you got so upset because now the car rides would be musicless. 

I remember when we got there, the redwoods had grinning, carved faces like old hippie souls. Excited and slightly unsettled, I wondered if the essence of these old hippies was trapped within the bark and if their expressions changed when you weren’t looking (or maybe I was the only one seeing this) 

We walked up the path of velvet soil, speckled with banana slugs who tried to beat the rays of sun that began to recline against the forest floor

I’m sure the banana slugs prayed to god that they could inch into the shade beneath a leaf before the sun shriveled them up.

You took us to the cabin, with an outdoor hot tub that smelled of algae and chlorine. Above the fireplace on the mantel, we found big, fat, dead spiders curled up like a fist and kept them in little Petri dishes as specimens. 

You helped us set up mosquito nets on the porch because we wanted to sleep outside and for dinner, you took us to a place with a live band and you sang “Cruisin’ Together” by Smokey Robinson with me, all dolled up in your floral dress and cardigan 

and the band members handed me and Angie maracas as we jumped around and danced in the glowy light of innocence. I was a tomboy with cargo shorts and converse and I never brushed my hair, nor cared about how crooked my teeth were.   

My favorite part was when you took us down to the river at night, down a little secret path where the bats swarmed the sky for insects and the crawfish waited for me. You would teach me how to tie a piece of chicken to a string and let it hang in the water and you told me to “Point a flashlight at the chicken, do you see it? It's right there” and I'd be like “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh it’s a CRAWFISH” and we would sit in the dark, in our little, secret heaven until the crawdads decided to retreat into their secret, misty riverbed.