The Sense of Family

Andrew Fok

Mr. Rice

English 101 CC3

7/15/15

The Sense of Family

The day where Americans excessively bleed red, white, and blue, waving our proud American Flags made in USA: The Fourth Of July. Celebrating the freedom of our country. On the Fourth of July of 2011, my whole family elected to celebrate America’s birthday in my Uncle’s enormous house in the middles of nowhere New Jersey. An enormous dead house surrounded by nothing but vast fields of grass and corn fields. When I arrived and saw the dead house with a lonely pool in the back and a sorry brick fire pit in the corner, I quickly regretted not accepting my friends’ requests to celebrate the Fourth at their place. But slowly as the rest of my family members showed up, (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) some I haven’t seen in centuries, life began to pump into the dead house like a blood transfusion. Soon the brick fire pit was no longer sorry, the pool wished it was lonely again, and the house resurrected from its cold slumbers. The ecstasy on that Fourth of July of 2011 emerged as the perfect day of my life.

Having skipped breakfast starvation squeezed my stomach empty, and only a nice July Fourth barbecue could cure my hunger. I craved a juicy steak. So my cousins and I went over to the sorry fire pit, and stared hopelessly at what was once a fire pit now a colony for insects with patches of moss thriving on the bricks and woods. But we mustered up our inner Bear Grylls, and on that day Jesus answered our prayers and the fire pit came back to life. The woods now cracking and popping, and screaming as the insects inside boil under the intense flames. I whipped out the sliced ribeye steak I seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, chives, honey, and light curry powder now sealed into the steak. My hungry cousins and my starving stomach eagerly waited in line as I gently stabbed the slice of fresh flesh red ribeye meat into their skewers one by one. As we hover the steak above the fire pit letting the flames lick the steak, I could see the fat marble in the steak melt infusing its savory into the meat making my stomach rumble like the Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremony drums. The steak was unreal. The juicy meat packed with flavors partied in my mouth with a hint of smoky apply wood aftertaste. Desert was a dream, warm golden marshmallow and hot melted chocolate sandwiched together by two sweet butter crackers. With just a bite causes the marshmallow and chocolate mix to ooze out, dripping. That perfect meal created a perfect day for me, making that July Fourth a little more special.

After the great meal, the heat of the fire pit teaming up with the hot summer day soon cloaked me with four layer of sticky sweat. So I decided to slip into the lonely pool. Submerging myself into the cool crystal water gave me a little taste of heaven. Soon a chain reaction started, as I attracted everyone to the pool like moths to bright lights. The tired sun began to doze off with its heavy eyelid drooping lower and lower. The clear blue sky now splashed with orange. I transferred over to the pool’s Siamese twin, the hot tub. Now with my body loosened in the hot water I lifted my head up towards the orange sky with faint strokes of fluffy white clouds, and closed my eyes. I felt a soft wind blow in my ears and the sound of my loud family became background noises. My body dissolved into the hot water and my mind drifted up to become part of the painting in the sky, leaving all my fourteen years of stress behind. The level of relaxation that day was unparalleled by any other perfect days.