childhood

As I sit on the bus home from apartment hunting in Brooklyn all day, a particular song came on my iPod that brought back a lovely memory...

It was a beautiful summer day (or was it spring?) Erika and I had been anticipating that moment for a while. [I cannot recall if it was gabrielle or emily who first introduced us to the reason for our excitement] As we walked out of the cool store and the hot California air hit our faces, we could not wait to get back into my mom's white Toyota. [I still remember that car, the way it had acquired the smell of sour milk, throw-up, and crayons throughout our childhood] The heat only strengthened the gag-inducing smell that day, but we did not care. Unwrapping the plastic was inevitably tedious. "Hurry up!" one of us probably yelled at the other. As my mom backed out of her parking spot at Maxwell Village and pressed the tape into the slot, we waited, anxious and excited for what we knew was coming. It didn't begin until we were hanging a left at the light onto Highway 12 [back in the days when the Breakaway Cafe was "Lyons".. remember?]. I can see Erika and myself in the backseat, our wonderful mother driving, most likely rolling her eyes at her giddy 9 year old twin girls, as that infamous laugh came blaring through the speakers. "Wannabe" became our anthem that summer [or spring], and to this day, I cannot hear that song without having the smile of that 9 year old girl, who had just received her first tape, stretch across my face.