One thing every Landgraab heir could always count on was a very special gift from Grandpa Wolfie on their 16th Birthday. Usually Wolfie would buy the most expensive car he could find as nothing was too good for his family. However for Bae a car was not the best present at all but Wolfie knew exactly what to buy for his great-great grandson. When Bae was a child he wouldn’t play with the electric train sets or remote control cars that everyone bought for him. Instead he would fill up the kitchen sink with water to sail his toy boats or he would fill up the bath tub so he could pretend to go on submarine adventures. If a car was not the toy of choice for Bae as a child it certainly wouldn’t be the toy for him as a teenager so Wolfie bought him a speedboat.
Everyday Bae would take that speedboat out on the ocean and spend hours on it. He felt more alive breathing in the scent of the salt water and feeling the cool breeze of the ocean wind as his boat glided across the ocean. Every time he heard the sound of the waves he knew he was at his true home and he spent as much time out on the ocean as he possibly could.
All of this would be even better if he could share it with his best friend Cassidy. Cassidy and Bae shared a love of the ocean and always did everything together until Cassidy graduated high school. Cassidy was two years older than Bae and was already attending university. They spoke on the phone with each other often and the two had made plans to spend a weekend sailing as soon as Cassidy came home for a holiday break.
One day while Bae was sailing he came across a small island. This island was never on any of his maps and against his better judgment he explored it a bit. The island was beautiful, peaceful and an exotic paradise. He didn’t see any sign of anyone living there so he decided that this would be his place.
Bae set up a tent on the island along with a couple of old lounge chairs that he found in the basement. He loved to relax and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the island. Sometimes he would pack a lunch; bring a radio to make a day of it. He wished Cassidy was here so they could hang out together on the island but he had to wait for his best friend to come home on break for that. Instead he would build a fire and invite his girlfriend to join him. His first love was the sea but he certainly did enjoy the company of a pretty girl. Shanta Fraser was his girlfriend and this island was the perfect romantic setting for some alone time with her.
Bae could have had any girl he wanted at the high school as many of them flirted with him often enough but it was Shanta who caught his eye. She may have not been the most popular girl in school but she wasn’t a clueless poptart like the rest of them. She was smart, pretty and he enjoyed hanging out with her. On their first date he took her to the movies. Normally he would have preferred to see a movie with a whole lot of action but he settled for a romantic comedy for her. Later on he took her out for ice cream and he walked her home. Before he kissed her goodnight he asked if she would like to go to the fall festival with him and she agreed. Soon after that they started dating regularly and Bae asked her to go steady. Bae told her about his career plans and Shanta had plans of her own. She wanted to become a nurse and was attending a university that had a special nursing program. He figured that he would date her now but after high school they would most likely go their separate ways. Both of them had career plans which were very important to them and both of them needed to concentrate on studying. The problem was that she always dropped hints of wanting more from him than he was willing to give.
At home Bae loved both his parents and was very close to them. Well sometimes they were too close as having parents who are teachers meant having them always around. Luckily he was he was an “A” student who was dedicated to his studies and never caused any trouble. He could tell that his mother was already dreading the day when he left for university. Whenever the conversation came up Chrissie put on a brave face but always had a tear in her eye. Bae told her he would come home on breaks but clearly Chrissie was not ready to lose her baby boy. Bae had to admit that he did love the special attention his mother gave to him but sometimes he felt as if she was smothering him. She needed to accept the fact that he was growing up and was ready to live life on his own.
Bae was also very close with his father. When Bae was a child Mickey taught him how to fish and they would often go on fishing weekends together. Eventually they started going on less and less fishing trips as time passed by. Bae wanted and needed to be out on the beach and in the ocean water more and he was able to catch more fish underwater than he could with a fishing pole. Both of his parents were vampires and they weren’t too fond of the sunshine. Sure they had plenty of that special sunscreen that Grandma Holly would send them but they still preferred to stay in the shade and would rarely visit the beach.
Cheech didn’t mind visiting the beach at all and sometimes Bae would take him with him. Cheech was originally his mother’s dog but now he belonged to the whole family. They would play fetch, tug a war or just run around on the beach which both of them loved. He was a good dog who would even join Bae for a morning swim in the backyard pool.
There was one member of the family who understood Bae the most and that was Big Mama. Starr adored her grandson but she did not adore the title of Grandmother so she insisted on being called Big Mama. When Big Mama was his age she wanted to travel the world and take photographs of all the sites she seen. Whenever Bae visited his Grandparents he would always ask her to tell him stories of her travels and he was fascinated by all the photographs in her collection. Starr would listen to Bae’s dreams of sailing and exploring the oceans so she encouraged him to follow his dreams.
Since there was still some time before university Bae spent most of his time deep sea diving. He felt as if he were in another world underneath the water. The more he explored the more wonders he found on the ocean floor. He started collecting all the different types of seashells he could find and he would find bottles with messages in them. One time he even found a bottle that contained what looked like a part of a treasure map in it. He thought it would be awesome if one day he could find the rest of the map but the chances of that ever happening were slim to none. Most likely it wasn’t a real map anyway but for some reason Bae decided to keep it.
Cassidy called to say he would be coming home for a weekend and Bae couldn't wait to be reunited with his best buddy. Cassidy told Bae that he had some very special news that he wanted to share with him and he was looking forward to sailing. Bae was very excited until he remembered he had plans with Shanta. It was her 16th birthday and he had promised to attend her party. The decision was difficult but he decided to tell Shanta that he couldn’t attend and make it up to her somehow. They were going out that very night so he planned to tell her and he hoped that she would understand.
He went to her house to pick her up and she looked beautiful as always. “Hey babe are you ready to go?” Bae asked.
Shanta brushed her hair back and flashed a smile at him, “I sure am. Where are we going tonight?”
“I was thinking we could go to Starbucks and then hang out at the park for a while as we need to talk” Bae answered.
Shanta became a little curious and a bit nervous when she heard that. “What about is anything wrong?”
“No nothing is wrong but it can wait until we get to the park” he said.
“Why don’t you tell me now?” she asked, “If nothing is wrong I don’t see why you should wait.”
Bae knew that she would be disappointed so he might as well break the bad news now and get it over with. “Cassidy called and he will be coming home next weekend. If you remember I made plans with him to go sailing on his next break home.”
“Oh but next weekend is my birthday and why don’t you ask him to come to my party too? The more the merrier” she said.
“No, that is not going to work out as next weekend is only going to be the guys. I’m sorry but I can’t make it to the party but I do promise to make it up to you the weekend after.” Bae saw the look on her face and was surprised to see she was angry instead of disappointed.
“I don’t understand why you still can’t come to the party and spend time with Cassidy also. The party is at night so you won’t be sailing anyway” she snapped back.
“Cassidy and I are going to hang out at night. I haven’t seen him in months so we want to spend that time together” answered Bae.
“I still don’t see why you can’t come to the party with Cassidy. You promised you would be there and it’s only a couple of hours. I do hope that you reconsider and that you will be there. If not I will see you when I’m not with my friends!” Shanta walked back into her house and slammed the door.
Things didn’t go as Bae had hoped. He knew Shanta wouldn’t be happy but he never expected her to be that angry. He still wasn’t going to the party and planned to try and make it up to her. He did make a promise to her but if she was still angry there was not much more that he could do.
The day arrived when Cassidy was coming home and Bae went to the beach that morning where they planned to meet. He was looking forward to spending the weekend catching up on lost time with his best friend. It would be just the two of them hanging out together just like old times. Bae spotted his friend and he ran up to greet him.
“Cas! It’s great to see you man! How are things going at university?” Bae asked.
“It’s great over there man.” Cassidy answered “The studies are intense but they are fascinating. I can’t wait for you to join us.”
“These last two years in high school are going so slow. So are you ready to go sailing?” Bae said.
“I will be in a couple of minutes. I’m just waiting for someone to show up” Cassidy said. “Oh there she is now.”
A lovely young woman walked up to Cassidy and gave him a kiss.
“Bae I would like you to meet my girlfriend Javiera. She is going to be hanging out with us this weekend."
To be continued…..
