The Adventures of Elaine - The Vacation

The Departure

'Bags?'

'Check.'

'GPS?'

'Check.'

'Passports?'

'Nope.'

Mum sighed. Of course they had forgotten the passports. Luckily they had noticed while they were still at home; not many airports let you travel without a passport.

The kids sat snugly in the car while mum and dad went through the checklist for the millionth time. Everyone was very excited to go on holiday; they had spent weeks planning, packing and buying lots of useless items they would never need.

Tim and Ted, the 12 year old twins, were busy fighting over who would get to sit by the window in the plane. Their sister Stacy, who was 14, had calmed them down for a few minutes by saying there were no windows in the plane. This had then sparked another argument, because Ted was sure there were windows. They turned to their nine year old sister to ask for her opinion.

'I want no part in this discussion,' said Elaine, not even bothering to look up from her book. She was in a bad mood because mum had made her leave some books at home, complaining they were too heavy to carry.

Stacy had retreated to fixing her mascara. Stacy's makeup bag weighed more than Elaine's suitcase, just in case she needed any at the beach. Mum hadn't even tried to get her to leave some at home; the morning had been filled with enough squabbles already.

'Have we got everything now?' asked mum, slightly annoyed after having to go back in and lock up the house again.

'I think so,' dad answered, reading through the checklist.

'Great,' exclaimed mum before jumping into the car and starting back up the road. In five minutes the car had been turned around and parked by their door because Tim had forgotten his headphones. Mum reversed back off the driveway and drove for another five minutes before parking back by their house; Stacy had left her phone charger.

'This is the last time I'm turning around, so if you need anything, go get it now,' mum snapped, after having to turn back for the third time to get Elaine's jacket.

Nobody moved.

Mum reversed back onto the road and sped off towards the motorway. They were running late because of the time spent double-checking the list and turning around to get things. And judging by the traffic, so had a lot of other people.