The Long Ride

The start to a family vacation.

            Maddie’s hands shook with excitement and her eyes jumped from person to person in the airport.  People rushed by them with bags just like hers with wheels; their bags click-clacked against the floor when the wheels rolled over a break in the cement.  Some of the people were dressed up like they were going to work and the others looked just like Maddie did.  They were dressed in the clothes that they would wear to school.  The building was crowded for it being late in the afternoon and it smelled like cleaning products.  Maddie, Christina, and Maddie’s parents, Lexie and Tyler, walked over to a TSA agent at their gate so they could get their boarding passes checked and enter security.

            Maddie took off her blue tennis shoes and turned to face Christina who was taking her tennis shoes and bracelet off and throwing them into the gray bin with Maddie’s carryon luggage.

            “Christina, what do you think those big gray things are?  And why are there people standing outside of them?  Do we get our stuff back?”  Maddie was confused and didn’t want to leave her stuff with strangers; she didn’t know what they were going to do with her belongings.  She didn’t want them to hurt her stuff.

            “I don’t know.  Maybe they’re looking into our souls or our brains.  They kinda look like doctors.  I don’t know if we get our stuff back, Maddie.  Stop asking stupid questions.”  Christina sounded annoyed, but Maddie didn’t care; she just wanted answers.

            After going through security, Maddie saw Christina putting her shoes and bracelet back on and decided to do the same.  She was anxious to get on the plane.  Her parents had told her she’d been on one before, but couldn’t remember it.  Maddie loved watching planes when she played outside.  She liked hearing the noises they made as they flew over her house.  Maddie searched for their blinking lights at night; it was like a game for her to tell the difference between the lights from planes and the lights from stars.

            She couldn’t wait to get to California.  Missouri was boring and Maddie was sure that when they went to California her parents would be happier.  She had heard about the ocean and couldn’t wait to put her toes in the cool, blue water.  California has sand, not like the “sand” and dirt that they have at the lakes in Missouri.  It’s supposed to be real sand, like the ones in the movies.  Maddie wanted to make sandcastles and make a sand-angel.  She was going to have them bury her in the sand and see if she could escape.  She wanted to find shells and make a necklace and maybe see a shark.

            This was the first vacation they’d all taken in years and Maddie couldn’t wait.  She was sure her parents would never fight again after this trip.  Maddie couldn’t handle them fighting anymore.  That’s all they ever did.  She could hear them arguing in the kitchen when she was in her room, but they never really screamed at each other.  Their voices would rise, but it was in a hushed whisper and she couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other.  Their arguing had stopped a little in the last few weeks, but Maddie wanted it to go away forever.  They were going to have so much fun in California.  Her mom and dad had been extra nice to her the past few days.  They even let Christina, Maddie’s friend, come along with them.

            “What are we gonna do when we land?  Are we gonna go to Adventure World?”  Christina asked.

            “I don’t know.  They didn’t tell me.  I wanna go to Adventure World!  We could go on the rocket-ship ride with the guy from that space movie,” Maddie said as she jumped up and down, almost knocking some lady over.

            “No, that’s boring.  We could go exploring around the hotel.  We could jump on all of the beds.  Oh, I know, we can go looking for ghosts.”

            “We’ll get in trouble, Christina.  You always wanna look for ghosts; I don’t want to.  They’re scary,” she said as she held back tears.

            “Stop being such a baby, Maddie.  They won’t get you in trouble if I’m there.  They’re being really nice you.  They don’t care what you do right now,” Christina rolled her eyes.

            “That’s true.  They’re coming.  Shush.”

            “Don’t tell me to ‘shush.’”  Christina’s attitude became even more evident to Maddie and they walked over to where the big, soft chairs were.

            Tyler and Lexie Strong looked at their beautiful daughter.  She was carefree and happy all of the time.  Her curly, strawberry blonde hair reminded Lexie of the pictures she had of herself when she had been Maddie’s age.  They were dreading this vacation more than anything, but Maddie was still smiling, as happy as ever, and completely unaware.

            Lexie and Tyler hated Christina.  She had been in their lives for six years and they didn’t see any chance of her abandoning their daughter any time soon.  Both of them remembered the exact day that Christina appeared.  Maddie wasn’t the same after she and Christina started hanging out with each other.  She made their little girl timid.  When she was younger and Lexie would take her to the park, Maddie would run as fast as her stubby legs could carry her to the slide.  She would interact with every kid who was playing there, but Christina changed that.  The only people she would talk to besides Christina was them.  Most days it was a task to get her to talk to them.  She had trouble making friends outside of her friendship with Christina.  They were inseparable.  Christina was bossy and persistent when it came to Maddie.  Despite all of their praying, she would not leave Maddie, or them, alone.

            “Come on honey.  It’s time to board,” Tyler’s voice was quiet as he got up out of the comfortable airport terminal chair.

            “It’s time now?  How long does it take, Daddy?”  Maddie’s voice shrieked with excitement.

            “How long does what take?” he was tired and they weren’t even on the plane yet.

            “To get to California, dad!”  her excitement was getting the better of her and she started to talk in her high-pitched voice.

            “Not too long.  We’ll probably be in the air for two to two and a half hours.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, really.  Now, come on.”  Tyler grabbed his small suitcase and Lexie’s hand as they made their way to the growing line.

            “That’s so cool.”  Maddie whispered more to herself than to her father as she took hold of the black handle of her suitcase and followed her parents to the line of people waiting to board.

            “Wait for me.  Don’t leave,” Christina screamed.

            Maddie stopped and stood completely still while Christina took her time catching up.  She was taking forever to get to the line, but Maddie was trying to be patient.

            “Come on already, Christina.  They’re gonna leave us here.  I wanna go on the plane,” she whined.

            “Don’t be dumb; they won’t leave us.  This vacation is for you, remember?”

            With that, Tyler ran out of line and snatched Maddie and Christina up in his arms.  Maddie felt him hug her tight as he shuffled them back to the line where her mom was waiting with the bags and boarding passes.

            The line to get on was getting shorter and shorter.  Maddie heard a beeping noise and looked around to find it.  She found the source of the noise and watched in amazement as boarding passes were scanned.  I’m gonna do my own up there, she thought.

            The lady dressed in a black skirt with a black vest and white undershirt asked for their boarding passes and Maddie jumped at the chance to use the machine.  She ran over to the lady and tried to scan her pass, but the lady interrupted her.  The lady said she wasn’t allowed to scan it because it wasn’t her job.  Maddie fought back tears; her face turned bright pink and burned with embarrassment.  She walked back over to her mother.

            “What do you mean?  C’mon, she just wants to scan her own; that’s it,” yelled Christina.  She flailed her arms in the lady’s face like a giant inflatable air-dancer outside of a car dealership.

            Tyler and Lexie hurried into the tunnel and followed everyone else in line.  The tunnel was noisy from all of the planes on the runway.

            Minutes later, they had everything settled and they took their seats.  Maddie took her teal and bright pink backpack off and set it under the seat in front of her, put her seatbelt on, and played with the buttons above her head.  She pushed the button with the light on it until she thought she was going to burn the bulb out.  She pushed the button one last time and turned to the window on her left.  Maddie pulled the shade up on her window, and to her surprise, the wing was next to her. 

            Maddie turned around to face her mother who was sitting directly behind her.  “Mom, the wing is big.  There are two of them, right?  How heavy is the plane?”

            “I’m not sure, honey.  Why?”

            “What if there’s a lot of wind and the wing can’t handle it?  What happens if we hit a bird?  Mom, what if Santa is riding out here for a test ride and Dasher or Vixen or Rudolph hits the wing?  Will it fall off?  Will we crash?  Will Santa be okay?  Can he heal himself?  Does he do that kind of magic?” she was starting to panic.

            Christina’s ears perked up with this conversation and she decided to play a trick on Maddie.

            “Ya know, if there are too many people on the plane, we will crash.” Her sly smile stretched all the way across her face and it started to make Maddie nervous.

            “We will?  How many people are on now?  Can we make some of them get off?  Let’s get on the next plane to California.” She spoke hurriedly and took her eyes off of her friend.

            “I don’t know.  Maybe we’ll be okay,” Christina laughed.

            Maddie got up and turned around to face Lexie again.  “Mom, Christina said we’ll die if there are a lot of people.”

            “Maddie, you can’t listen to everything she says.  Santa shouldn’t be out right now, so don’t worry about that.  Planes are meant to carry lots of people all at once; we’ll be fine, honey.”

            “But Mom-”

            “Maddie, trust me, we’ll be okay.  She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

            With that, Maddie turned toward Christina and stuck her tongue out.

            “Hey! That’s not nice.  I’m telling your mom,” Christina said.

            “But you started it.  You deserved it.”

            “No, I didn’t.”

            “I’m gonna get in trouble if you tell her.”

            “Well, apologize then.”

            “I’m sorry.” Maddie tugged on her shirt and stared at her blue shoes as she apologized to Christina.

            “That’s much better.  What are we gonna do now?”

            “I was gonna play a game on Mom’s phone,” she said while taking her mom’s old phone out of her pocket.

            “Why?  You should play with me.  You invited me to go with you to California.”

            “I know, but I just wanna play with it for a little while.”

            The plane backed out of the terminal and started to find its way down the runway.  One of the flight attendants started walking down the aisle holding part of a seatbelt and something that looked like a mask.  She pointed to the wings of the plane and a voice started talking about using their seats if the plane crashed into water.  The plane went very slowly, but Maddie was mesmerized.  She stared at the wing to see what it would do, and if it would break with the pressure of all of the weight it was carrying.  The plane lifted off of the ground and Maddie stuck her face into the window.  She looked as other planes landed and some others took off just seconds after them.  Most of them went into different directions.  She watched everything get smaller and the clouds get closer to her.  She felt like she could reach out and take one of the cotton candy clouds in her hands.  She wondered where the stars were hiding during the day.

            “What are you staring at?” Christina’s voice came in through all of the clouds.

            “The clouds.  It’s so pretty up here.” Her voice sounded like she was coming out of anesthesia.

            “Yeah.  So, what are we gonna do?  I want something to do.  It’s boring on the plane.”

            “Can I just sit here for a little?  I haven’t been in an airplane before.  I wanna watch everything.”

            “Your mom and dad said you were in one when you were little.  What are you gonna watch?  You watch TV, you don’t watch anything in an airplane.  You’ll see all this stuff again.  You see it every day when you’re outside.  Come on, play with me.  I’m the guest and you have to keep me entertained and do what I say.”

            Maddie reluctantly turned away from the window and held her thumb up to Christina.  They played Thumb War until a flight attendant, dressed crisply in a black skirt and top, walked by them with a silver cart that rolled in the small aisle.  It had everything anyone could ever want on it.  There were so many different kinds of pop, and a few different snacks for them to choose from.  Christina and Maddie ordered apple juice from her and snacked on some peanuts and pretzels.  The sharply dressed attendant walked one row back to Lexie and Tyler.  Maddie heard her mom order a rum and cola and her dad got a beer. 

            “Mom, wanna have some juice?”  She turned around to face her mother.

            “No, thank you, honey.  Can you please turn back around?  You need to face forward while we’re in the air.”

            “But I was just askin-” Tyler cut her off.

“Maddie, please listen to your mother.”  Tyler’s voice grew from a whisper to his normal speaking voice.  He tried to look as stern as he could, but couldn’t manage it for very long and was thankful when Maddie didn’t fight him.

“Okay.”  Maddie said and she turned back around to face the back of the seat in front of her.

            Christina laughed and turned to face Maddie.  “They don’t want your juice.  Shut up and lemme have the cell phone.  I want to play a game.”

            “I still don’t know about this, Ty,” Lexie whispered.

            “Get something else, then,” he laughed.

            “Stop it; you know that’s not what I’m talking about.  I don’t think that’s funny.  This is a serious thing.  She’s only twelve.  We can’t put her through this.”  Lexie’s voice sounded sad.

            “Lex, we’ve done all we can do.  We’ve tried working through it, but there’s nothing else.  There are no other options available to us.”

            “There has to be something we haven’t tried.”

            “You know we’re out of options,” he was short with her.

            “I just wish we could keep fighting.”

            “I know you do and I do too, but there’s nothing left.”

            Lexie peered through the armrest in front of her to see Maddie staring at her feet.  She watched as Maddie turned her head to the left to look out of the window at the clouds they were flying through.  She was still blissfully unaware of everything happening around her.

            Christina poked and prodded at Maddie’s arm.  “You’re still not paying attention to me.  C’mon, I’m your friend.  We’re supposed to play,” Christina said.

            “I’m busy,” and she shooed Christina’s hand away.

            “I already told you that they’re just clouds.  You’ll see more when we get off the plane.  Let’s go find something to do.”

            “We’re on a plane, there’s nothing to do.  We have to stay sitting, Christina.  You could sleep.  I’ll play with you when you wake up.”

            “No, we’re playing now,” Christina grabbed Maddie’s face and turned it toward her.

            “Hey, don’t touch me.  That’s not fair.”

            “You shoulda looked at me.  I shouldn’t have to tell you to look at me when I’m talking.”

            “But I didn’t want to.”  Tears began to fill in the lids of Maddie’s eyes.

            “Don’t be such a crybaby.  You can look later.”

            “Okay, I guess you’re right.  What are we gonna do?”

            Lexie overheard her daughter raise her voice and poked her head between the armrests.

            “Please don’t yell.  You’re in an enclosed space with a lot of people who don’t want to hear your conversation.  I know you know how to use your inside voice, so please don’t lose your manners just because you’re excited that you’re in an airplane.”  She shook her head at her daughter.

            “Sorry Mommy.  Are we going to Adventure World when we land?”

            Lexie’s face softened and tears flooded her tired eyes.  She couldn’t bring herself to tell her daughter that they weren’t going to Adventure World.  She couldn’t crush her hopes of seeing all of her favorite television characters and riding the rocket-ship ride for the first time.  She couldn’t let her down by telling her that they weren’t staying long and wouldn’t be riding any rides.  More importantly, Lexie couldn’t face the real reason they were visiting California.  She could hardly acknowledge it herself.  She kept the tears from escaping and told Maddie one of the most standard, cliché parent-to-child answers she could think of.

            “We’ll see, honey.  First we have to go to the hotel and get settled.”

            Tyler looked at his wife and could see her pain.  The sadness and anger she had expressed the last few years seemed to finally reveal themselves.  Her eyes looked tired and small and red.  The stress of everything looked like it had made an impact, but it was just then that he finally saw.  The look of helplessness in her eyes made the airplane feel even smaller, and suddenly, he was claustrophobic.  The urge to reevaluate the options that they had gone over a few weeks ago came back, but it was too late to do anything about that now.  What’s done is done. 

            A voice came over the intercom to inform the passengers of their arrival at the International Airport of Los Angeles.  The flight attendant started talking about other cities, connecting flights, and thanked everyone for choosing to ride with them.  According to the voice, they were landing at noon exactly, and it was going to be a dry, sunny day.  Everything was going just as planned for other families.  His family hadn’t had a sunny day in years.  Of course, Maddie didn’t know that.  To her, things were normal and always had been normal.

            “Dad, the weather’s gonna be good enough to go to Adventure World,” Maddie sang.

            “I heard, but I don’t think we’re going there today, honey,” Tyler said.

            “Maddie, I told you Adventure World is dumb.  We’d be bored there.  Why do you want to go so bad?”  Christina’s voice sounded angry again.

            “There are rides and games and lots of different foods we can eat.  Why do you think it’s boring?”

            “Because we just got off a plane.  Why would I want to go on another ride?  We had peanuts and pretzels and don’t need to eat.  You need to think of something fun for us to do.”  She scolded Maddie.

            As the plane made its way to the terminal, the sound of phones filled the plane.  They were ringing and vibrating, showing that people were dearly missed while on their long flight.  Tyler pulled out his phone and check to be sure that the arrangements he had made with the car company were still correct.  He said he still didn’t care what kind of car they got because they would only need the rental for a few days.

            “Dad, two days isn’t enough time for Adventure World,” Maddie exclaimed.

            “Who cares?  Adventure World is stupid.  Your mom and dad know that.  Why don’t you get it?  We’re gonna find something to do at the hotel.  We can find ice machines, go swimming, and we can ditch your parents.”

            “Why would we ditch my parents?  We could get lost, or in trouble.  I don’t want to get in trouble.  You always do this.  You always-”

            “I always what?  You don’t like doing anything I wanna do.  You won’t do anything I wanna do.  We never do anything fun.  All we do is talk about how you don’t want to get in trouble.  It’s my turn to choose what we do.”

            “We do what you want all the time, and we always get yelled at.  I hate getting yelled at.”  Maddie looked out of the plane window one more time before her parents ushered her into the line that would lead them out of the plane.

            “Come on, hurry up.  Honey, you have to walk faster,” Lexie said.  “Get your suitcase from Dad.  Maddie, you need to walk a little faster.  There are people with places they need to go.”

            They exited the plane and immediately felt the warm California air in the tunnel.  It wasn’t humid like the air in Missouri; it was a nice kind of air.  The walk to their baggage claim for their bigger suitcases seemed to drag on, and the wait for the last of their bags felt like an eternity.  They fought the masses to get the bags, and pulled a lot of other bags off of the belt until they saw two sparkling pink suitcases with black handles.  After their bags were properly examined, they took them away from baggage claim and went to retrieve their rental car.

            The car was blue, tiny, and smelled like new.  It had five seats that were kind of stiff.  It was leather on the inside, and had buttons to control the temperature.  Even though it was tiny, it was just big enough for a quick ride through a small part of California.

            They threw all of their bags into the trunk of the little blue car and began their drive.  Tyler pulled the car up to a big green building, parked, and went inside.  He emerged a few minutes later with two room keys, a “Do Not Disturb” sign to hang on the door handle, and three bottles of water.  He passed a bottle into Lexie’s shaking hands and Maddie and got back into the driver’s seat.  Lexie sat in her seat and didn’t move.  She left the full bottle sitting in the cup holder and she watched the water slide slowly down and into the holder.

            “What’s wrong with your mom?” asked Christina with an annoyed sigh.

            “I don’t know.  I think she’s still afraid.”

            “Of what?”

            “The plane.  She kept saying she was scared last night and didn’t wanna go.  I think she’s afraid of flying.”  Maddie’s voice was quiet.

            “But we’re on the ground.”

            “I know.  I don’t know what’s wrong, I was just guessing.  Maybe she’s glad we made it here safe.”

            They left the hotel parking lot and got back on the road.  Maddie watched the yellow lines on the road turn to gravel.  She listened to the familiar crunching sound that the gravel made, but then it changed to dirt.  Maddie watched as the dirt trailed behind their car and stuck to the back windshield.  By this point, the buildings started getting few and far between until Christina and Maddie saw trees they had never seen before.  They were some of the most interesting, and tall, trees they had ever seen.

            “Whoa, those are so tall, Christina.  They’re weird.  They look spiky.”

            “I know; they’re humongous.  They’re not spiky; it’s Hollywood magic, stupid.”

            “But we’re not in Hollyw-”

            Lexie broke into the conversation.  “Honey, do you think it’s pretty here?”

            “Yes.  Why Mommy?”

            “Do you know Daddy and I love you very much?”
            “Yes.  Why?  Are we moving here?  Can Christina move with us?”

            They passed a sign that read Sunny View Hospital with an arrow pointing toward the right.  Then their little blue rental car pulled up to the front of a bright yellow building.  The revolving door gave small glimpses of a big, dark brown desk with a very small lady sitting behind it.  The wall behind her was light purple decorated with a lot of pictures that could have been from a coloring book.  Maddie could see the word ‘Sun’ behind the lady’s head.  The building had a lot of windows and was three stories high.  She wasn’t sure why they came to this place instead of staying at the hotel or going to Adventure World; it didn’t look like a place to eat and she didn’t think they were moving into that house.  It had people in it already and they couldn’t just take their house from them.

            “Mommy, what are we doing?”  Maddie asked.  She noticed her mom was crying in the passenger seat.  When she didn’t acknowledge her, Maddie repeated herself.  Lexie could only manage a whimper when she looked back at her daughter.  She started to cry again.

            A woman with glasses who was wearing a black skirt with a purple shirt that matched the wall behind the desk stood on the sidewalk next to the car.  She tried to introduce herself to Lexie and Tyler, but neither of them paid her any attention.  She tapped on the glass and asked for Maddie to get out of the car.  Tyler stepped out of the driver’s seat and walked to Maddie’s side of the car.  He tapped on the glass with his pointer finger, but Maddie didn’t acknowledge him.  She was too busy talking to Christina.

            “Why was my mom crying?”  Maddie asked.

            “I don’t know.  Maybe she’s scared or maybe she wants to go back to the hotel.  I know I do.”

            “Why would she be scared still?  We’re off the plane.  If we’re moving here, she should be happy, not sad.  Do you think she’s mad?”
            “No.  Maybe she has something in her eye.  Maddie, it doesn’t matter, we have to find something to do.  I’m getting bored again.  Let’s get out and play Hide-and-Seek.  You have to come find me.”  She smirked at Maddie.

            Tyler didn’t know what to do or say to get her attention.  He couldn’t pull her out of the car and away from Christina, but there weren’t any other options.  She just wouldn’t look up at him.  Finally, he gave one last attempt to get her to look at him.

            “Sweetheart, can you get out of the car?”  He asked loudly through the glass while waving his arms wildly.

            Her head whipped around to his direction; she looked very serious, but she didn’t look directly at him.  Her eyes stayed focused on the yellow building behind him.  Suddenly she began pointing to the seat next to her.

            “Can Christina go with me, Daddy?”

            “Yes, honey, Christina can go with you.”

            After hearing that Christina was allowed to tag along, Maddie’s familiar lazy smile came back to her sweet, chubby face.  Tyler took Maddie’s things out of the trunk and opened her car door.  It took her a few seconds, but Lexie composed herself and also stepped out of the car.  Once Maddie was outside of the car, she gave her a big squeeze.  She sniffled as she spoke to her.  She wiped her nose on her hand.

            “Honey, I love you so much.  I’ll be back to see you soon.”

            “I love you, too, Mommy,” Maddie said with a small smile.

            Tyler kissed his daughter on her forehead, told her he loved her, and said he’d be back to visit her very soon.  Tyler fought back tears and took his wife in his arms.  He wouldn’t ask her to stay any longer.  She was losing her composure by the second and was about to break.  Lexie’s breath came in sharp gasps and her knees buckled beneath her.

            “I’ll miss you, Maddie,” Tyler’s eyes were suddenly overcome with tears as he tried to get his daughter’s attention.

            “I’ll miss you, too,” Maddie’s voice was flat and her eyes kept their focus on the building.

            Tyler helped Lexie get back into the car and got back in himself.  They started to slowly drive away.  Lexie waved goodbye to Maddie, blew kisses out of the open window, and Tyler honked the horn.  Lexie yelled her love for Maddie one more time before the car disappeared.  Maddie walked with the lady with the glasses and purple shirt, and Christina, into the building.

            “Christina, what are we doing here?  Who’s this lady?”

            “I don’t know, Maddie, but it looks like we’ll have a lot of fun,” Christina laughed.

            “I don’t want to get into trouble.”  Maddie clenched her fists and threw her hands into the air.

            “Maddie,” the lady said, while she walked with them, “Who are you talking to?”

            “To Christina.  She’s right here. Don’t you see her?”

Author's Note

What do you think of the ending?