Memory of Montana

(Written in the style of how I remember it, when we traveled to Helena and I was 8.)

The roads are so long.

My brother and I tired of playing the ABC game with signs and playing Cows and Cemeteries. Especially when I was winning and then I hit a big national cemetery on my side of the car and all my cows died.

Everything is flat and plain then we hit the mountains. I could see what looked like smoke in the mountains. My step dad Behshid told me they were clouds. The clouds touched the Earth, must be close to heaven, I thought. We stopped at a little town in the mountains and ate at a diner. The girl working there was maybe 15 and chewing minty gum. she got our order, snapping her gum. While I was eating my hamburger I watched her wipe crumbs and salt off the formica tabletops. I want to grow up to be a waitress, I thought. I was amazed as she refilled the salt shakers. What a cool job. As an adult now I realize her feet were probably sore and she might be working to help her mom out.

We left the town and traveled further into the mountains, I slightly remember looking down into the valleys and over all the mountains. God had to make this, I thought.

How could a state so ugly on one side save all it's pretty for the other side?

We arrived at Helena at sunset. Everything was golden and pretty. We wanted to eat before we checked into our room. My mom wanted to sleep but she was outvoted 3 to 1. We found a little cafe in the middle of town. The streets were brick and I loved walking on them. The cafe was playing jazz music and I ate lemon pepper chicken. I was sick of hamburgers and fries.

We stayed in a hotel with an outdoor pool. I went down the slide with my step dad and swallowed water. I was choking and being a drama queen when I came out of the water and my bikini bottom fell off. I cried even harder when my mom laughed at me.

When we left Helena and traveled all those beautiful mountains back, we stopped in at Crow Agency for their pow wow. My mom said we couldn't walk around because Crows were our enemies and they might scalp us. They hated Sioux. My brother begged to walk around just once. He was hungry for an Indian Taco. My mom finally let him after he promised he knew where in the circle we were sitting. I refused to go with him, I liked my hair.

After 20 minutes and my mom starting to panic the MC of the pow-wow announced that there was a lost little boy. "Not only is he lost, he's brave. He just told me that's he's lost and he's Sioux from Pine Ridge, South Dakota."

The crowd laughed and my mom had to go into enemy territory to get my brother.

I knew he was nuts.

Someday I hope to go back.

*You have just visited to a memory I don't want to forget.