Star Riders For Life.

My grandpa used to tell a story about people who didn't care about anything. They just lived and lived. At times they wondered the meaning of their living but it never made them care about anything. When I say care I don’t mean respect, because these people kept their bodies and belongings pristine. When I say care I mean offense.

When I think about the world I live in, everyone is so emotional about things that we can fix. Fixable things that can make our world better. It’s ironic when the very thing you can be a hero becomes your villain, for years.

When I was young, grandpa was everything to me. He made the most sense out of everyone. I think he used to be with those people who didn’t care about anything but having family creates a different type of responsibility and reckoning.

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Grandpa: See life is like riding the waves. You got go as the flow, flows. You got to be willing to know when the wave is too big for you. Sometimes those little waves look big but once the ship gets over it, you kind of chuckle. Life is funny that way. Always take care of your ship, ALWAYS! No crew member is bigger than the ocean. And above all of these things, never, ever, ever, think a storm can’t come out of nowhere.

Me: I got it.

Grandpa: You sure?

Me: I’m sure!

Grandpa: Alright, that my baby. Now let’s get some?

Me: Ice cream!

Grandpa: Oh girl, it’s noon. Ice cream later. Right now grandpa got to have something to keep his mind clear, bones strong, and heart moving.

Me: How about some snap peas, brown rice, chicken, and sorrel?

Grandpa: Now you’re speaking Grandpas language babygirl.

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Grandpa could eat for an old guy. I say it like he was 90 or something. When you’re just getting into the world and everything feels big, old people seem really old.

Grandpa was 71. Now that I'm older, I look at that as highschool age in elder years.

All day we were enjoying eachothers company. Me, grandpa, nana (she hates being called grandma), comfry (nana’s dog), nubia (my pet bird) , and momma. My dad is in the military, everyday as a family we pray that he will be home soon. Momma always tells nana she misses him so much and she hopes he isn’t missing any limbs or sanity. Grandpa would always yell at them, he strongly disliked when they would think negatively.

When my 14th birthday came, grandpa took me to this old ship. It was like nothing he’d ever shown me and much bigger than his boat. He told me about he and Nana's traveling times. He told me why he picked his crew and what leadership is really about and why people respect good people. Grandpa wiped a tear from his eye and put my hand on the ship. I really wish I knew what he was feeling. When we walked back to the house, an old mustang came drifting by. Grandpa pulled me back and gave that car the finger. I mimicked him. He laughed, nodded his head, and side hugged me tight.

That mustang carried my dad here. And because he was gone for so long, grandpa had become my father. My dad walked up bearing a gift. I just walked away.

Two days later, while driving his boat alone, Grandpa died. Now that I'm older, I'm glad he was in the water. But when I was a kid, it was everyone's fault that he was gone. It was hard to enjoy anything and I worried about everything. I only talked to nana but I still gave a resentful attitude. There were times I didn’t want to exist.

4 months after his passing I had a dream. Grandpa’s face was talking to me through the side of that ship he showed me. The whole dream was animated like a disney movie. When I woke up I couldn’t remember a thing. This was also the first day of school. I walked dazed and puzzled all day. Until last period.

Perfectly enough, the teacher told me at a table with two guys and a girl. In introducing ourselves we learned, we had all been affected by the military, enjoyed neapolitan ice cream, and didn't like horror. I told them about my dream, I don’t know why.

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Pepper: I think your grandpa’s great.

Bear: I think, your grandpa wants you to ride the water.

Color: I think you should find your way, your own way.

Me: I’d prefer to just have my grandpa back, ya know?

Color: My aunt told me when people who you were close with pass, they stay in between worlds to watch over you. Unless they get bored or have something important to do.

Bear: Clearly, this guy is into all that magic stuff. I don’t believe in any of it. This is real life. We have to take lumps and loving in the same fashion. With our heads high and our intentions pure.

Pepper: Magic is real and so is life. You know, we should all go see the ship sometime.

Color: I’d love to see it.

Me: Yeah! Here’s my number. Everyone text me when you can.

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Me, pepper, color, and bear hung out everyday after that until summer. We never went to see the ship or even brought it up. I still wasn’t speaking to my family much but they noticed something different in me. Everytime I’d leave the house they’d tilt their head and watch me walk off.

One day I came home and my dad was in my room going through my things. My initial emotion was lash out but grandpa would have been disappointed. I asked him what he was doing. He thought I had a journal and he wanted to get to know me more. As if he couldn't have just talked to me. I told him he should of been a man and asked. Or he could of wrote me a note. He stared like he couldn’t believe I said that then walked out.

I grabbed my phone and told everyone to meet up.

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Bear: I usually only come out for food, sun, food …… food

Pepper: We get it! We can get food after.

Bear: How can you creatively think on an empty stomach.

Color: Intestinal fortitude, dig deep dude.

Me: I just want to go through the ship. Maybe my grandpa left something. My family acts like they can’t be adults without him here. And If I can’t have grandpa then I’m not giving up my kidship.

Pepper: I heard that!

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We all got inside the ship. It was old, dirty, the expected. Treasure looked like trash and vise versa. Bear kept saying how much things were worth. Then I realized, this was my crew, and I was the leader. So I turned around and said, this is my crew and I’m the leader. They all laughed at first but then we all felt like it was the truth. I walked up to the ship's wheel. I grabbed it tightly and I begged to be able to remember what grandpa said in my dream.

Right when I thought I was catching recall, Color grabbed my shoulder. He said we should all pitch in and fix it up so graduation night we could ride it and get drunk. I liked the idea minus getting drunk because once grandpa let me taste beer, I strongly disliked it. Then when I thought he was drinking beer, to be sure if I didn’t really like it, I sipped cognac. So I’m surely good on the drunk portion. But my heart smiled about fixing the ship.

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Bear: Well at least you know you’ve got some valuables and a private place to go.

Color: We could go even further.

We all stared intently.

Pepper: If you elaborate we could possibly go.

Color: Okay gather in ladies. Bear you stay back because this includes magic.

Bear: I knew it! Eventually, I knew, he would come with some magic potion or spell and have us all in some mediumistic trance telling all of our deepest secrets. I’m not afraid of caterpillars or chocolate cake.

We all grimaced and chuckled in unison.

Bear: That Matilda movie did a number on me. Whatever you’re doing, I’m in. To prove i’m not scared of magic either.

Pepper: Oh of course bear.

Color: Okay. These ancients talked about levitation during meditation.

Bear: Oh mediation isn’t magic, continue.

Color: This guy.... So if they could eradicate all thoughts and focus their mind on their genetic make-up they could levite an inch to 2 ft off the ground. Well once they had an animal fall from the sky and they wanted to send it back up. And it wasn’t a bird, bear. These people tried a number of things before finally using desperation, fear, wonder, and credence to levitate this animal past the stars. Once they couldn’t see the animal's body, they stopped meditating. And the animal didn’t come back down. Ever. Except it was 200 of them.

Pepper: Hm, well I think I speak for Bears stomach and my creativity when I say, food.

Everyone starts moving out the ship.

Me: If I’m the leader and I say we try, then where are you going?

Color: I just wanted to tell a story.

Me: We’re doing it. How? What do we do?

Color: It’s actually simple. We figure out what we want to levitate, say a prayer that divinity protects us, tie a rope around each of our wastes, and follow the 4 things the ancients used.

Pepper: So we could float away?

Color: It’s possible?

Pepper: I don’t wonder that much, Lyric.

Me: Bear, are you in?

Pepper: Bear?

Bear: I just

Me: I’ll do it myself.

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Color followed me outside the ship. I don’t know how but that ship had usable pike sticks and rope. I beat one in the ground with my foot. Everyone watched, then snatched the other pike sticks and we formed a circle. We tried for 10 minutes. Another 10 minutes and eventually I got hungry. My hunger turned into anger but I was still desperate. Finally! We didn’t lift that ship but I recalled what Grandpa said in my dream. In the end he made me vow to never say what he said. After I recalled I told everyone we could leave. Bear was a little pissed we couldn’t get that ship in the air. We all wanted to try again.

As we removed the pikes the sky cracked open. We all huddled together. Bear yelled at Color for making meditation into magic. The sky began to peel back like a sheet of paper crumbling. The whole sky became cartoon like. We stared in amazement. Bear kept trying to get his phone out but he just kept fumbling it. Pepper snapped a photo with ease. Bear begged her to send it to him. Then, a ship just like grandpas came flowing, with the flow. On the horizon of a night cloud we all watched an animated ship sail the stars. I can’t really describe that experience, it just made me better.

Then we all swore to not bring this up in front of adults because we know they’ll think we’re poor teens trying to find our way, possibly using drugs to do so and have the capacity to ruin our lives forever. Oh and who knows nothing about life.

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Right now I’m sipping wine out of a bottle, staring at the picture Pepper took that night while Bear is being the lively soul he is, and sitting at the wheel of Star Rider.

Bear: Still can’t believe we fixed this ship.

Pepper: I can’t believe you called Nautical Control, water cops.

Bear: That was mere entertainment pepper. Enjoy

Color: Good one!

I'm 26, carefree, and saying thank you to my crew. Love you all!