2007-12-01 19:35:46 UTC
A short story.
I was on vacation, in America, Florida and not a care in the world or thats what it should have been but with my crazy family that just isn't a possible reality. It was a big family trip with me, my sister Elaine,her boyfriend Matt, My sister Yvonne, her finance Steven, my nephew Leo, their son and my other two nephews Scott and cooper who live with me, my mum,dad, my big brother Alan and my little sister Rachel who of course where all on the holiday as well. Yeah that was a lot of us, and for there not to be one fight would be absurd but I never expected such a big strop and in the funny way it would come about. There was a lot of tension before we had even went on vacation, so yeah we were off to a flying start.
It was the 22 of September, 2007, Saturday. The 6th day into the holiday. The day started out normal. We hanged around the villa for a while, waiting on Matt and my dad to come back from their daily golf morning that, they went on everyday because it was so cheap. About 70 dollars for 12 holes(35 pound). After they had came home, we had a discussion about what we would be doing for the day. We had already planed that we would be going to Old Town Kissimmee at night time(I know the names a cracker) and the plan was that me and Rachel would be going to laser quest(An arcade except bigger, better and owned by Disney) but me being stingsie with my money wasn't sure if I wanted to spend a heap load on an arcade. Right so we made plans that the rest of the family would be going shopping whilst we(me and Rachel) would be going to laser quest, that was if it suited my budget. The family got into the van and we drove to downtown Disney, where laser quest was located. We went to the ticket office to check out the prices. The tickets were $70, roughly 35 pounds. I thought to myself would I pay that much if I was at home and then I thought of course I wouldn't, but hey, this was my vacation and I needed to spend my money somehow. We made a plan that we would meet up at nine pm or that if we didn't want to go to old town Kissimmee we could phone them to pick us up later at closing time which was 12 pm
Me and my sister spent nine blissful hours eating,gaming and getting refills of a large cup for a dollar (talk about the land of the free). The nine hours seemed more like nine minutes. Me and Rachel could of easily spent an other three hours there but we opted against calling my folks to say we wanted to stay longer, thank god we did because if we never we would be waiting till 3am. Anyway when we came out it was strangely dark. We met my folks and went back to the van where the rest of the gang was. I could tell that it had been raining from the ground but nether the less it was still warm. As me and Rachel got into the van we received warm welcome of screaming to hurry up. I remember Yvonne was the monist, grumpiest out of them all and I thought to myself how nice of you to ask if we had a good time.
Anyway the mood lightened up when we got to old town Kissimmee. When we got there we looked at the sky coaster and joked about Matt and Elaine going on it. Matt was all up for it, but my sister Elaine wasn't having any of it. I was feeling really good and happy to be in the middle of all the banter
The atmosphere was pretty exciting, old town was bustling with people and excitement having an good time, including us. The music was blasted enough to hear all the way down the street. We wondered around the shops that old town offered. I've got to say old town has to be one of the most unique places I had ever had the honor of visiting. Everyone has a good time, kids, teens, adults, old people, everyone or so thats what it seemed. We walked to a couple of shops, as I walked past the shops it was hard not to notice that they were different from any of the other shops I had ever been to, not only the fact that they were opened so late but also the fact that every shop had a theme to it.
There were sweet shops,sixties shops, Betty Boob shops, pet shops and tons more crazy themed shops.
The pet shop was the craziest and funniest out of them all. They had clothes for your pets! Me and Rachel laughed about getting our pets some clothes as a Christmas present. We decided against this act of cruelty . We spent two hours in old town wondering about the shops, having a good time until we went back to the car. My dad had somehow manged to lock the key in the car due to central locking
To make matters worst my dad had started the car up. He had seen that my mum needed help with the buggy and therefor jumped out the car and as he did he heard a click as he shut the door.
I felt like laughing in disbelief, that this could happen to us. Yvonne was moaning a great deal but then again she had a baby. I in my typical lazy fashion tried to block out my surroundings and turned on my Nintendo DS on. Whilst I played Harry Potter I couldn't avoid the fact that we wee stranded in a different country. I wasn't really focused on the game and was thinking and laughing to myself. I thought , only this, only this could happen to us. Steven and Matt went to the police station to see if they had a locksmith or anything that could break into the van. Whilst they were away my nephew Scott started to misbehave, only adding irritation to an already bad situation. When Steven
and Matt came back, it was northing but bad news. The police could do northing to help us. The police had told Matt and Steven they couldn't break into the car because they would, then be braking the law by breaking into the car. My dad came up with the cootest ideas . He asked if anyone had anything straight like a ruler so that he could disconnect the lock. I thought, why would any of us be carrying a ruler?
As the night grew on I began to wonder away with my sister to places that were still open. Going back to Elaine, Yvonne, and my mum who were all sitting with the kids, to cheek up on the latest news. I so far had heard that someone who had saw we needed help, had a brother who was a locksmith and had went to get him. That was hope but Steven started to grow paranoid and pointed out how a guy in his car had been sitting there for ages, we thought that he was waiting on us to get a taxi home, so that he could steal the car. Our paranoia and tiredness was growing by the second. I felt okay though and thought best to make something good out of a bad situation by buying myself and Ice cream cone.
An hour had passed and we were still stranded, everything was beginning to close. We were all becoming ratty and argumentative with each other. The other thing was that the person who said that her brother was a locksmith had failed to return and that added to us that someone wanted to steal the van. The place that was once buzzing with excitement and laughter was now a ghost town full of paranoia and strain. There was a lot of tension between us and we were growing tired of the whole situation. The guys were probably the most fed up, and were moaning at us to get a taxi home with the children because the place was getting very quiet and the guy who Steven had pointed out earlier who had been in his car for ages was still in his car. We were scared that this guy was going to mug us. I was just beginning to fed up with the whole situation .
Steven started to argue with my mother about Leo being in his bed because he would get moody. To me Leo looked happy, if not the happiest out of us all. Steven had told my mother that if he freaking wanted his son home he wanted his son home, after she had politely told him, that she thought Leo looked okay to her. I was really bugged off by Steven because I thought why should we go home when he won't? I mean Leo is his son. I thought if Steven wants Leo in his bed. Why doesn't he just get a taxi home with Yvonne and leave us alone. However in an attempt to avoid further confrontation and being bugged by the taxi services, who had been asking if we wanted a taxi home all night, we decided to get a taxi home. But with my family things just don't go that plain and simple. When we had all settled in the taxi my dad had came rushing up to the taxi saying you can take him freaking home because I'm leaving him. I remember Steven coming up to the taxi door. I remember my mum telling him to get in the taxi. Steven didn't reply to this to kindly and shouted in a frustrated manner I'm not freaking coming in, to add effect he slammed the door and marched off. I began to feel a mix of fear for Leo and embarrassment that the taxi driver was seeing us all in such a bad light. My sister Yvonne was hysterical by this time and was screaming to get out whist my mum was shouting go, Yvonne shouting back to the taxi driver don't you dare. I felt sorry for the taxi driver at the time being in such a situation. My mum angry with rage and tears told Yvonne that Steven had been northing but rude to her all night. You wonder why my sister replied with the same emotion as my mum. The taxi driver told Yvonne that Steven had to watch his temper or he would be in jail, Yvonne with tears rolling down her eyes replied I know that, but just let me out. Taking Leo with her she got out the taxi to go and find Steven. I remember feeling scared for leo and Yvonne. My instincts were screaming to chase after her. I confronted my thoughts with my sister, Rachel about not being in the mood to go home, she agreed with me but said that there was northing we could do about it or for that matter the situation. I nodded in agreement and acknowledged the fact that she was right in what she had said .
As we were in the middle of the taxi journey, my dad phoned to say that they had finally got the car open and that they where on there way home and that Steven had calmed down and would be coming home too.
The taxi had got lost on the way home, I was to stressed to care. When we finally got home we had arrived at the same time as the rest of the family had. Everything seemed to be back to normal. That was good, we could just sit down, calm down, go to bed and laugh about the whole thing tomorrow but unfortunately Steven being a drama king stormed off out of the villa. We decided it would be best to let him just go and calm down.
We talked about all the fights we had ever been in and how some of them can just occur out of northing. We discussed how we would all laugh about this in the future, saying that someone would bring it up by saying , so does anyone remember the night dad locked the car. By the time we had stopped the discussion it was 4am. I went to bed feeling annoyed at dad and Steven,because such a good day had been spotlit by one persons actions, thats all it takes, one action, one person to wreck what would of probably been the best day of the vacation.
The morning after I remember thinking “did I just dream it all?”
I sat down and the story became more clearer as we discussed it. Steven had actually told my dad to F off and then challenged him to a fight and my dad was like come on then. This meaning Steven had became intimidated and never expected dad to say yes so he ran off in a huff asking Matt to come with him but Matt refused.
As the day went on I decided the best thing to do would be to ignore all of the fuss and get on with my vacation like normal. After all why should I let one person ruin my day? I mean it was good enough that he had spotlit a perfectly good day already. So I just decided that a cool off in the pool would be the best Idea and would cool my nervous a little
When I came out the pool and went back into the villa I was surprised to see that Steven was sitting on the couch. He said hi to me and I awkwardly said hi back. I wondered over to the kitchen where Elaine was standing and asked her when Steven came back. She told me that it didn't really concern me and told me that we should just get on with it.
So thats how the conflict was sorted and to say that we are the best of friends now would be wrong. The thing you'd got to learn about life is that we are not always going to get along with one and other but we have to at least try and be civil about it. It would be very laughable to say that we are going to get along with everyone. Life is life and the best thing to do is just forget about it and not bear grudges over things because that way you can just get on with your life