Road Trip

Summertime and dad finally has some days off, so we're going to visit my cousins.  The house is full of action this Saturday morning as Dad gets the car ready, Mom gets the food and little ones ready, and they both direct all the rest of us kids to get ready. I am so excited, I already have my bag packed with my bathing suit, pj's, toothbrush, and a change of clothes.  I swing it around over my head as I run through the house, excited to be on the move, and accidentally smack Paul with it.

"Hey, smarten up!" he says, irritated, and tries to grab my bag out of my hands.

"Stop it!  Leave my bag alone!"

Taller and faster than me, he grabs the bag out of my hands and swings it around, holding it just out of reach over my waving arms.

"Give it back!  Mom, Paul's got my bag!" I cry, clearly the injured party now.

"Go outside and run around, both of you!  Right NOW!"

Mom has stopped what she's doing to glare at us both.  She is clearly exasperated with us; we don't have to be told twice.  Paul tosses my bag back over, actually past me, muttering something under his breath, and I pick it up from the floor and check that things are okay.  Hmmph, everything's all scrunched up now. Brothers can  be such a pain.

I head outside to where Dad is busy loading up the station wagon.  I love this car because it has a third row seat that looks out the back window.  I don't usually get to sit back there though, unless not everyone is going - my older brothers take that seat.  Just like the school bus, the big kids get to sit in the back - it's an unwritten rule.  I give Dad my bag and he puts it on the pile with the rest of the stuff we are bringing.  It looks like we're not ready to go quite yet.

Its still early on Saturday morning, the sky is blue and it's a wonderful day with a road trip to look forward to.  The drive to our cousins in Minaki is a few hours along a windy road, and there's lots to look at out the window, if you get a window seat.  If you're the one in the middle then you'd better have a good book.  I look for something to do while I'm waiting, and see Phillip and Paul over on the swing set doing chin ups.  That looks like fun!  I run over to join them, and stand there watching.

"Can I have a turn?" I ask, as Phillip drops to the ground.

"No, Paul was here first," he says, as Paul reaches up and Phillip hoists him up to the bar.

Paul's arms are stretched all the way out as he makes a big face and grunts his way up to the bar, feet dangling below.

"One...twwwoo...thrrreee..ugh..ffffour...argh..fiiiiive..." Paul counts out as his skinny arms manage to hoist his body up and down and up again and again.  He's so skinny, I can't imagine it could be THAT hard.

"Can I try, can I go next?" I ask again, now that it looks like Paul's fading.  I move closer and start reaching up to the bar, jumping to see if my hands even get close to it, but Paul's not ready to stop yet.

"Get out of the way!  You're bothering my chin-ups! Stop bugging me and wait your turn!"

Paul is frustrated with me and he lets me know it, trying to scissor kick over to me and I back away, just out of reach.  He drops to the ground as his hands give out from all that extra movement, and as he gets up from the ground, I can tell I'm in trouble.  I head off running over to the car, screeching all the way as he gains on me.  I make it once around the car with Paul roaring after.  Just as he's closing in on me, Dad straightens up.  Somehow we both missed seeing him there amid all the stuff.  He's got a look on his face that says he means business.  I screech to a stop, ready to defend my position if I need to.

"Paul!  Leave your sister alone!"

"But she was bugging me on the swings!  I didn't do anything!"

"That's enough now! Go into the house and into your room; we'll come and get you when it's time to go!"

Paul shoots me an angry look, and I'm relieved he's going into the house.  I know I'm going to be in trouble for that later though.

I go back over to the swings, but there's no-one else there now and I can't reach all the way up to the bar on my own.  I settle for sitting on the swing, and it feels like someone's just let the air out of a tire; things are a little bit flat.  It's not as much fun by yourself.

Soon the car is packed and ready.  I find a spot in the middle seat beside Thomas, and mom calls back over to us to make sure we've all remembered to pack toothbrushes.  Then, out the driveway and we're on the road!  Thomas has let me sit beside the door this time, so the window is down and I'm resting on my elbow, watching my town go by, looking for my friends houses.  Soon we're through town, through the train underpass and driving along Lake of the Woods.  There are lots of boats out on the water already.

Every once and a while I can sneak a look at Tom's book and read over his shoulder, but he turns the pages too quickly for me.  It's hard to read Tintin from too far away because the speech bubbles are so small, and some of the words are so big, but it's fun to look at the pictures.  I like his Asterix comics the best, although those are hard to read, too.  We're on the Minaki highway now, away from the big lake and winding through many smaller ones.  We go past fields of horses and cows, past lakes and through forests.  It's a great day for a car ride.  I can really smell the pine trees as the air heats them up.  The wind is warm and I close my eyes.

Mom and Dad are chatting in the front seat and I hear Mom say with a laugh, "It's awfully quiet in here, are we missing someone?"

Just like a deer in the headlights, my eyes pop open and my head swings around, taking in everyone in the car in one movement.  I know right away what's wrong.

"Paul!  It's Paul!  We forgot him at home!"

In all the hullabaloo of packing up and getting ready and, finally, leaving, we had forgotten to go and get Paul when we left.  I can hardly believe it.  What will we do now? Will we turn around and go home?  This is worse than the time when no-one came to pick me up after Brownies in the church basement and I had to wait outside in the dark for hours until they missed me at dinner and Dad had to drive all the way back into town to get me.

"We're almost there," Dad calms Mom, "We can phone from Con and Marg's place and make sure he's okay.  Claudette can watch him until tomorrow when we're home."

Poor Paul.  I feel so bad that I got him into trouble, and now he's stuck at home all by himself.  I can't think of anything worse than that.  Still, I can't help but feel a little happy that he won't be around to get me back for getting him in trouble.  And, I'm sure he'll be able to find something to do... !