American Vacanza

i'm not boiling in the hot tub • madison

As we pulled into a Sleep Inn in the middle of Ohio, I started to really regret my earlier decision to stop at all the tourist traps. I thought that stopping at the WOOM (pronouncing each letter individually, as the word "womb" had never failed before to make me uncomfortable) was pointless, and Siena ended up kind of creeped out, anyway; I'd be lying to say that I wasn't a little stirred, too.

And stopping at one of those every hundred miles or so? Thanks, Satan, but no thanks. I didn't want to stop at the Baby Bottle Factory or the second place in the world to produce metal screws or the world's largest wine bottle, which I only suspected could be populated with minivan-driving moms looking for something "wild ;)" to post on Facebook.

I booked a room at the inn with the overly smiley woman at the front desk and hauled our bags to room 123. The consecutive numbers made me feel happy. It didn't take a lot to amuse me these days; when you were stuck driving on a highway for fourteen hours a day, you had to take any entertainment you could get.

"You know," I told Siena, "this hotel has laundry. We should probably do some, right?"

I knew she didn't seem interested, but it would be weird to turn down clean clothes, so she said, "I guess. Are you gonna do it, or...?"

"What am I, your slave?" I opened up my duffel and threw a pair of her tights, which hadn't fit into her suitcase when we last stopped, at her. "You're coming with me."

"Now?" She looked at me, cocking her brow as she flopped down on the worn-out couch.

"Well, it's not like we're going to do anything else, right?"

Her eyes were the color and size — blue and huge — that made persuasion come naturally to her. "B-but... I couldn't help but notice that this hotel also has a pool..."

I pondered that fact for a moment, realizing how much I wanted to just dip my toes in a pool, even if it was a tiny, indoor, under-maintained hotel pool. It'd felt like an eternity since I'd used the in-ground pool at our house, even though it'd been less than a week. "Well, I guess we can do laundry anytime, right?"

Siena grinned ear-to-ear, ruffling through her suitcase for her swimsuit. I did the same, entering the bathroom in my hoodie and jeans and emerging in... jeans and a hoodie, but with my trendy one-piece on underneath.

When we got to the humid, tiled room which housed the pool, I stretched myself out on a chaise while my stepsister hopped straight into the water. "Aren't you going to wait a little bit?" I inquired.

"Uh, no. We're inside. What're you gonna do, tan?" she pointed out. Her blonde hair hung in chlorine-dried strings. "Get in, idiot."

"You have a point, I guess. Just give me a minute." I got myself up and slowly made my way to the tiny hot tub which sat directly beside the pool. I wasn't as daring as Siena was when it came to the water, instead opting instead to test it one foot in at a time, at the speed of a drunk turtle.

"Oh, come on." Siena seemed to shrink a few inches.

"What?" I shrugged a bit, splashing an iota of hot water over myself. "Ow!"

"You're always, you know, all YOLO and stuff, like with your hair and all. I thought you'd cannonball into the water or something." She put her hands on her hips.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you," I said, stretching my sore shoulders as I felt the warm water flow around me. "It's been a long week. You're saying a girl can't relax?"

"Just think about it. You keep talking about cliff diving in Italy... what kind of girl that jumps off cliffs into the Mediterranean won't jump two inches into a four foot deep pool?"

"They need to kick your ass off the debate team. You're too goo-"

"Don't you try and flatter me. You're not getting out of this one," she said, crossing her arms over her navy bikini top and making her signature brat face, the face I had despised for so long but now just thought of as nonthreatening and cute.

"You know what?" I pulled my legs out of the hot tub, a feat that required superhuman strength, as does leaving any semi-relaxing state.

Before my mind had even become aware of what my body was doing, my legs had catapulted me over the water's edge, and I found myself shutting my eyes while I quickly formed a quasi-cannonball.

As I resurfaced and looked at all the waves I'd made, I saw Siena's priceless face. "I knew you wouldn't back down from a challenge."

"What else is new?" I pulled myself out of the water, squeezed the chemical-feeling water out of my dry pink hair, and sat down on the edge of the pool with legs dangling into the water.

Siena sat on the next side of the pool "No. I was just thinking last night. Like, everyone has something that persuades them. Some people need to be guilted. The smart ones'll take bribes. You're the type that likes to prove someone wrong."

Out of curiosity, I kicked my feet in the pool, then asked, "What type are you?"

She sat down next to me. "I honestly don't know. I like to think that I'm nice, that I'll do anything for anyone if they just ask. But that's not really true. I'm a real bitch sometimes."

The only other kids at the pool, who couldn't have been older than eleven, stared in horror like Siena had just killed someone in cold blood and they were the only witnesses.

"I can vouch for that," I chuckled, kicking water towards Siena, who was making her way towards the towels.

"That's the most Madison thing you've ever done, I think. Tell me I'm the bitch, then throw nasty pool water at me."

I let out a soft chuckle and asked her to throw me a towel; the hotel towels were tiny, and scratchy, and nothing like the ones we had at home, or in Italy, for that matter. Maybe this trip was supposed to teach us how the other half lives. Or, me, at least; Siena had been the other half for the first fourteen years of her life.

"I'm freezing," I decided. I started to make my way to the hot tub, teetering precariously on the side of the pool's deep end, as Siena checked her phone on the side of the pool. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I watched in slow motion as she dropped it, then bolted towards me, pushing me and my scratchy towel right back into the tiny pool.

"Oh, you-" I said with an angry grin, ready to hop out of the pool and get her back.

"You can't touch me," she singsonged, jumping back into the pool. "Can't push me if I'm already in the pool."

I gave in with a laugh as I again resumed my position on the edge of the pool. "Okay, okay. You win this round of 'who's the most spontaneous crazy free spirit,' but keep in mind that I am the reigning champ and I will be back for my title tomorrow."

"Well, the difference is that the hot tub is for chickens, and the pool is for people like me, who can handle a little spice in their life."

I narrowed my eyes. "You're not gonna get me with that one again."

She put her hands up in surrender. "Well, excuse me for trying to keep you from boiling in that water that's dangerously close to 212 degrees."

"It's not... is it?" Was it wrong that I didn't know the temperature that a hot tub should be? Had I merely skated through life, brushing closer to death than I'd ever realized, because I'd been frequenting dangerously hot hot tubs?

"No! I was joki-- I mean, yes. That's why you should never go in a hot tub, ever. Especially when your sister is bored to tears in the pool."

I laughed. She laughed. The other kids in the pool laughed, but probably not for the same reason we were laughing. We laughed together.

Laughing together. What a wild concept. It was nice.