Put your phone down!

In honor of my good friend, who is a high school teacher, I'm going to use a line from her life for our prompt this week.

Prompt:  "Put your phone down and look at the sky!  It's a beautiful day!"

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My response:

I didn't have to look up from my phone to slide open the door of the mini van.  It was the same one we'd had since I was four, and I was a better driver than Mom anyway.  She only made me sit in the back because I ticked her off this morning when I said I didn't want to go to a stupid family reunion.  Then she threatened to take my phone away.

Oh well.  At least if I wasn't driving, I could Snapchat all the way there ... when I wasn't picking up toys off the floor and handing them back to Bryce, my four year old step brother and total pain in the rear. 

After two hours, my legs were cramped.  I closed my eyes for a minute as I stepped out of the van.  The soft, stinging relief of moisture coated my eyes, and I paused.  Mom said it was because I stared at my screen too long without blinking.  I'm pretty sure it's from sitting in a cramped space with Doug's stinky, old-man cologne for too long.  That stuff is rancid.  I don't know why anyone would choose to smell like that.

"What a beautiful day!" Mom said, shutting the door behind her.  "Smell that country air!"

I breathed in, then choked.  "Ew!  Mom!  Cow Manure!!!"

I lifted my phone and snapped a picture of the cows standing in their own excrement on the other side of the road.  Instagram.  "My own, personal hell.  Pray for me."

"Put your phone down and look at the sky!  It's a beautiful day!"

I sighed.  Looked up.  On our side of the road, past the parking lot, was a wide, sparkling lake.  I lifted my phone and snapped another picture.