San Diego, California

Gallardo Lucerne Guidry

Gallardo’s alarm clock went at the same time that it had for about 14 years now. It had been going off for as long as his mom had been away on “business” trips, away from her family. In fact, his father was in Germany right now visiting Gallardo’s mother. He hardly thought about it anymore. Surely his sisters wouldn’t mention it. He rolled to the edge of his bed and sat up, scratching his head before he slipped on blue short, a gray Nike shirt and black, blue and gray Nike running shoes. He took a deep breath and lowered his head. Something just felt….wrong. His room was dark; the blinds drawn tight, sodium vapor-like light snuck into the room through the very small slits and seemed to explode onto the floor in one, neatly louvered row, stretching all of the way to his door. Small dust particles made a slow, lazy spinning dance in the light. It was a boring morning.
Gallardo up and went to the double doors and opened them, light exploding into the room. He narrowed his eyes to squint away from the sun and once they’d adjusted, the simply ran out onto the balcony, leapt over the railing and hit the sand below in a crouch. The surf was almost as loud as the gulls that day. It was a beautiful morning; boring but beautiful. He took off down the beach.

When Gallardo got home, Rebecca, his adoptive sister, was sitting on the main deck outside of the kitchen double doors. She was wearing nothing but a bikini, reading a book, a glass of tea in her right hand. It had gotten hot and Rebecca was cooling her neck with the glass. Ice and a mixture of tea and water had collected in an ugly brown at the bottom of the glass. She’d done more cooling than drinking it seemed. Gallardo couldn’t help but watch a trail of condensation rolling down her neck to her chest and down her cleavage. Rebecca looked up and he diverted his attention as she said, “What do you want, you little shit…?”
“Shut up, Becca. I can’t go a day without you giving me problems…?”
“What are sisters for?”
“Being bitches…” Gallardo said as he walked past Becca and walked into the house through the open sliding door. He quickly pulled it closed as the glass of tea came at him and hit the door. His other sister was sitting at the breakfast nook and as Gallardo laughed and went for a bagel, Mary said, “Are you and Becca at it again…?”
‘She threw tea at me, Leann, and I didn’t do anything…”
“I refuse to believe you didn’t…”
“I ain’t do shit…” Gallardo said and shoved his head and arm into the refrigerator.
Mary laughed and asked, “Gallardo, you ‘ain’t do shit’?”
“No, Mary, I didn’t. And if you need it cleared up; I didn’t do anything…”
“That’s better. You should stop watching VH1 if you’re going to start talking like that…”
There were no bagels.
Mary asked, “What would mom and dad say…?”
Gallardo smirked and said, “Dad would laugh at how ignorant that sounded and then toss a newspaper at me. Mom could give a shit less. She never did before, right.”
“Gallardo…” was all that Mary said before Gallardo walked out of the kitchen. “I’ve gotta get bagels,” he said, “I’m going to Clemson’s…”

Gallardo was jogging down the street when Rebecca and Mary pulled up beside him and matched his pace in a BMW 325i. Mary leaned over the side of the door and said, “Get in…we’ll take you to get bagels…”
“I’d rather be alone…”
“You shouldn’t,” Rebecca said, “you promised that you would go to Balboa Park with us…”
Gallardo, reluctantly, stopped running. He placed his hands on his hips and with an exasperated face, looked toward the clouds with a sigh and said, “Take me to the house so I can shower…”

*Continuing in Balboa Park

Breath in…breath out…here goes nothing

Palming the floor from his forward fold Alexis sprung his feet behind him, dropping slowly onto his forearms into a dolphin. Holding the pose for a few more moments Alexis kicked his right leg up, followed by his left, balancing on his forearms with his head tucked beneath his body he carefully brought his legs directly above his body.

He felt so light, so free, so calm. It had been months since he’d gotten around to doing any yoga, and here he was on his first day almost at the scorpion. He hadn’t remembered it being this easy. Maybe he wasn’t in as bad of shape as he’d thought? He felt as if he could hold himself up like this all day.

Bending his legs at the knees Alexis shifted his balance to descend fully into the scorpion, only to catch his breath as his balance wavered. Like a crushing wave his full weight suddenly returned, straining at his back, and he tumbled to the floor with an exasperated chuckle. Ok, so he was as rusty as he’d thought. Shaking his mass of bed head Alexis leapt to his feet and threw open the blinds to his small condo. Good morning California.

Grinning a rare, foolish grin, Alexis almost sprung into the shower as he slipped into his morning routine. It hadn’t even been three days in San Diego, and he already felt so alive, so energized. Never one for late nights, his rigid sleep routine always kept him running on a solid nine to ten hours of sleep, but this was different. He didn’t just have energy, it was as if it was exploding out of him.

Slipping on a pair of boxers and grabbing his toothbrush Alexis surveyed the city through the open window before him. He could spend the rest of his life in a place like this. Too bad he still had two years of graduate school ahead of him. Illinois didn’t exactly have the warm beaches and glowing sun of California. But heck, for now, this was his break, and he’d enjoy it while it lasted. Gargling some mouthwash Alexis’ eyes fell upon the pair of running shoes shoved away in the corner of his room. Now that was an idea.

With an odd spring in his step and feeling light as a feather Alexis was soon jogging past businessmen and bicycles on the busy sidewalks of San Diego. Stopping at a corner for a red light Alexis viewed the bustling mass of people around him. He needed to go somewhere calmer, quieter; somewhere with less people. Balboa Park, here I come.