The Sun Can Hurt You
It was pre-corona times. I think it was the summer of 2019. When I write like this now, I realize how much time has passed....
Five friends, including me, got in a car and went on vacation to the south, thats the story. But it was a great holiday for ''some'' of us.
We were going to enjoy the beautiful beaches and blue seas. It was a camping adventure. We had so much stuff in the back of the car that we had a hard time closing it, but somehow the five guys got together and decided to take our tents, table, camping gear, sea swimming shorts and everything and go on a week-long vacation.
When we got there, we didn't see a very beautiful view because we arrived at the campsite in the middle of the night. We could hear the sound of the sea and we knew that the campsite was on a hill on the edge of a cliff. But it was dark so we couldn't see anything.
We arrived so late that even the camp owner was asleep. So we pitched the tent on one side and waited until morning. When I say until morning, the sun came up about 3 hours later.
When we woke up for breakfast, realizing that no one was bothering us made us feel that we were in a very nice campsite. The surroundings were very beautiful. We were in a beautiful place on the edge of a rise, with a staircase down to the beach below. But the sun was too much and we were in the middle of summer.
The sounds of the forest were coming from behind us and the sounds of the sea were coming from in front of us. The bay was so beautiful that the greenery on our left and right surrounded us like our own secret paradise.
Then we met the owner and we paid. He didn't even charge us for the first night! Everything was great!
We decided to go down to the beach and swim in the sea. All day long we had fun in the sea, which had been missed for a long time. I remember how I felt at the time, like we were children. The interesting thing was that because it was a bit hidden, people would set up their umbrellas on the far side of the beach after-noon.
So there was no one near us.
So we turned on the music and chatted and played volleyball all day. We stayed under the sun... all day...
But we didn't know that the worst thing would happen the next day. In the evening we had a nice dinner, chatted and went to bed. When I got there, I realized that my body was sunburned and I looked for a cream. But I couldn't find any sunscreen or relief cream, so I asked my friend.
He got up from the bed, went to the car, got the cream and came back. His name is ''Cem'' but for those of you who read English I will call him ''John''. It will be more comfortable that way because they are very similar names.
Anyway, it's morning now.
I was feeling incredibly bad.
I was sick because I had been in the sun too much. I had pain, incredible headache, my skin was red... I was thinking I should go to the hospital.
None of my friends dared to use the car to take me to the hospital. Because it was a non-trusted, old car and my friends didn't have much driving experience at that time. They hadn't driven a car for years, even though they had a driver's license.
But John himself suddenly disappeared. He said he would arrange something and left. I thought he would come back with some drinks, some snacks and a cold ice cream from a nearby camp market, but that didn't happen.
When he came back from the pharmacy, I want you to remember that this is a campsite very far from the city, he had a lot of medicine.
Powdered medicine for salt loss, medicine for headache... He had even bought a new and better sunscreen.
When we asked him where did you go and how did you get there, he said he hitchhiked to a passing car, for more than one hour!
That's how he got to the city. Then he went shopping. He hitchhiked back again!
A few hours after he gave me the medicines, especially the desalinizing powder, I started to feel better.
Even though my stomach was a bit upset, the other medicines the woman at the pharmacy gave him, helped me to feel better the next day.
I owe it to this friend of mine that I spent the next 5 vacation days well.
He went all that way alone just for me and came back with medicine from the pharmacy.
I know this story is a bit shorter than the others, but I hope you enjoyed it.
This story was inspired by and written for The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #16: Friendship