The Adventures of Elaine - The Vacation

The Search

Dad looked over the crowd. 'I don't see them.'

Elaine looked around. She wasn't too scared yet, but she was slightly confused; after all, how many doors were there to exit from?

'Worst case, we'll meet them at the gate,' said Stacy.

'We don't know which gate it is though, do we?' Dad reminded. 'Mum has the boarding passes'.

Stacy looked at the board on the wall.  All but one of the planes were going to the same place and leaving at the same time.

'Well what are the chances of that?' she muttered and turned to follow Elaine who'd been distracted by some jewelry.

Half an hour passed with no sign of mum and the twins. Elaine was starting to get worried. Stacy was bored. Dad was seething.

'She just couldn't tell us where she was going before disappearing somewhere?' dad ranted.

But ranting wouldn't get them anywhere.

'I'm hungry' Elaine complained.

Stacy sighed. Little siblings were just so needy. But since they had nothing better to do, dad, Stacy and Elaine sat down at a restaurant and ordered some muffins.

'I supposed we could just turn up at some gate and see if we can find them,' dad mused.

-

Mum sighed and sat down. Searching the crowds and corridors for her missing husband and two daughters had been fruitless. Tim and Ted were tired and sad. They just wanted to get out of the area, which had recently been cleaned and smelled like cleaning products.

Mum was mildly annoyed. She wished the boys hadn't run off at the security check after gathering their bags. Tim had merely tapped Ted on the shoulder who had tapped him back and the situation just escalated from there into a full blown game of tag. They had then found themselves in fenced off area and, after receiving a telling-off from a member of staff and straight afterwards mum, joined the queue which took them what seemed like forever to get through the busy passport control.

Now they were sitting on a bench, holding six boarding passes but missing half of the crew.

They would have stayed there for much longer too, had it not been for Ted, who looked up at just the right moment to see Elaine get up from a chair in a restaurant and follow dad and Stacy back into the corridor. Everyone was hugely relieved to be reunited, and they quickly made for their gate. Fortunately, they were on time for the flight. Unfortunately, they had missed the announcement about the change of their gate.