(This is chapter 1 of a story i wrote (some fiction/based on truth) about trip to australia to spend the summer with my aunt and uncle...
I sat in a seat near one of the windows of a Boeing-737 destined for Sydney Australia. I stared out at the scenery that unfolded; a red rolling desert with various trees and bushes scattered about, this was the vast and deserted outback of Australia, where in less than five hours I would be residing for the summer with my aunt Phyllis and uncle Ed; helping them raise horses. They were distant relations of the Kerner family; aunt Phyllis was my mother’s sister. I was to stay for the summer, as sort of a change from my normal life, a vacation my parents had said.
My normal life in the upper side of Manhattan New York consisted of caviar, estates, banquets and champagne, well, apple cider for me. My father, James Garth is both a very successful businessman, investing most of his time in his microchip firm, and the sole heir to a vast oil fortune. My mother, Marie Garth-Steinbrenner, the latter being her maiden name, is a fashion designer, who just recently started a new line, Simple Beauty; she called it, which had grown popular with thirteen to seventeen-year-old girls. Her grandfather was the founder and current owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner, so she too was related to a millionaire, and being the only daughter, according to my grandfather, the sole heir of the organization.
As I continued to stare out of the window, a flight attendant approached my seat, “Would you care for a drink?” she asked, carrying a strong Australian accent. “No thank you.” I said. She smiled, and then left to cater other passengers needs. I sat back in my chair, closing my eyes for a moment. I opened my eyes and then reached down to my small backpack underneath my seat and grabbed my notebook; I started to write, writing being my one true talent and key interest:
June 7th, 2004
Dear Journal: Today I arrive in Australia, then I go on a 2 hour car ride to my aunt and uncle’s ranch, outside of Sydney, where I’m going to live like a horse breeder…sounds a little fun, not much of a person for horses, rode one once, ended up lost, but I found my way home after a few hours, this summer is starting slow, it’s been a week since school got out…--Bryan D.
I finished writing, and slid my mechanical pencil into the pocket of my Wrangler jeans. I then slid my notebook into my backpack and zipped it closed. Just then there was an announcement; we were to be landing in five minutes. Well here I go, I thought, as I buckled my seat belt just before the plane landed. The plane taxied to the terminal and then came to a slow halt. I unbuckled my seat belt. I was feeling a bit nervous, and anxious I grabbed my backpack and headed toward the exit of the plane and into the terminal, waiting to see what this “vacation”, threw me.