Atlantic City

My parents received some free tickets to a resort in Atlantic City for Thanksgiving break.  It was supposed to be the off season, but there are always people at resorts no matter when you go.  The resort was on the beach front and would have been crawling with tourists in mid July.  Now there was nothing but the long, weathered boards that made up the boardwalk, and the empty ocean rolling in.  You were supposed to be eighteen or older to stay in the resort, but since we got the tickets from family friends we embodied their family and left our identities back home.  My parents snuck my thirteen year old sister and I in every day without managing to get caught.  The resort was spectacular.  The outside looked weathered from the salt water but the inside was a blur of different neon colored lights with gold hardware everywhere.  The hallways had floor-to-ceiling mirrors that sparkled in the warm light, inviting you deeper into the resort.  There was a beautiful restaurant that overlooked the beachfront, but since we were staying hidden my parents ordered us room service.  Our breakfast would come in silver platters and our orange juice in champaign glasses.  When we would leave the den of our king sized suite, we would stand up really tall and my mom would put her red lipstick on us.  We walked around the casinos like we were already eighteen, and when we saw security guards coming my dad would always push us towards the stairs.  The casino machines glittered and their names popped in all different color schemes.  Each machine had a different theme.  Some were beach themed with women in tiny bikinis on the screens, and others were car themed with different expensive race cars swooshing by.

We lived like different people for four days, pretending to be our perfect selves with no worries.  When tuesday came and we were back in Hanover, I could sense everyones sparkle had once again left.