I was eight years old. That summer, my father and I visited his college friend. We took a bullet train, a local train, and then finally a bus to reach his house.
I was excited because this friend had four children around my age. I had met one of the girls a few years earlier when she and her father visited my house, and that time she had told me many things about her siblings. I was looking forward to seeing her again and meeting the others that I had heard so much about.
One of the girls, who was of the same age as me, came to meet us at the bus stop. I still remember, there was some miscommunication, and she was waiting for us in a wrong spot. When my father called his friend because we could not find her, he came to find us, and on the way back, we all found the girl pushing her bicycle half crying.
As we arrived at their house, the youngest girl and the mother welcomed us. The two elder siblings were not at home attending an afterschool program. The youngest girl was three years younger than me and had just recovered from mumps.
She showed me her and her sisters’ room where I was also going to stay for the night. There I saw a bunk bed for the first time in my life. Her bed was at the top. Excited, I asked her if I could climb the bed. She said of course, and I became a guest to her cozy bed near the ceiling.
She showed me her belongings and we enjoyed the scenery from the top. Then, I climbed down the bed. Once I was on the floor, I realized that there were actually two ladders attached to both ends of the bed. Without much thought, I climbed up the other ladder.
The youngest girl followed me. And soon, we were chasing each other climbing up and down the bunk bed. We were laughing and nothing else in the world mattered in that moment. We continued our mad exercise until finally somebody called us for tea and snacks.
I had a fantastic three nights stay at their house doing many fun activities with the three girls and joining the family’s daily routines. But that moment of madness at the bunk bed with the little girl stayed with me with a special touch of intimacy.