Disaster

The Calm

We boarded the cruise ship, taking in the beautiful scenery around us. Palm trees bordered the railings in ceramic flower pots with the most intricate designs of island flowers I'd ever seen. The water glided smoothly across the shore and pushed sand further onto the beach goer's feet. Thousands of people gathered in small groups of maybe four or five with an occasional animal in the middle of the tourists. The air was fragrant with the aroma of cherry blossom. My children crowded me, staring in awe at the amazing line of concession and food stands standing obviously in the middle of the main deck. Jonathan grasped my arm and exclaimed what a vacation we were going to be having these two weeks. As my husband, and a mature adult, he sure was acting excited right now. "Isn't it great?" I asked him, hoping for a super enthusiastic response. "Oh definitely. The kids are going to love our rooms if they're this shocked just to see one of the decks," he told me. "Allison, this is going to be one heck of a cruise if the kids forgot their wallets." I forced a laugh remembering how forgetful some of my children were. The thought of having to give up my spending money was a little disturbing. I pushed the thought away and took hold of my youngest son's hand. My little 5 year old Matthew was a little pale from looking and staring for so long. "Okay guys. We need to get to our rooms. We got three rooms, don't worry, they're all connected. One for Tessa and Tiffany, another for Matthew and Jackson, and one for dad and me. Alright?" I pointed in the direction our rooms were in. A few muffled okays and got it's were whispered and we headed off.

Matthew wouldn't stop holding my hand from his shocked faze. I had to pry it off to get him to start setting up his little suit case full of his trinkets and toys. Once I had finished helping him place his dinosaurs and dragons on the nightstand, I moved over to where my eldest son Jackson was drawing away in his sketch pad. I glanced at one of the drawings and he quickly shut the book. "So, are you all unpacked?" I asked him. "Yeah. I got all of my stuff ready for whatever we're going to do." he said and went back to drawing. I sort of expected it, he's been acting more shy than usual ever since he turned 14. I gave Matthew a hug and moved onto the girl's room.

Tessa and Tiffany were talking as I entered. As soon as I came in, they asked me whether they should swim with the dolphins or go down to the deck and tan. I suggested the tan which probably meant they were going to swim with dolphins. Tessa and Tiffany never did anything without each other. My twins were always off doing something which was never my business they would tell me. As 12 year olds, they didn't really care any more what they did or didn't tell me. They could be pretty stubborn. "Alright, we'll have you finished unpacking all your stuff yet?" I asked them. "Yes, we got it covered mom," they said and left the room. All that was left was to see what Jonathan was up to.

I entered our room, curious to see what Jonathan had already done. He was complicated yet sweet, which is one of the many reasons I'd married him. I basked in our skylights which had the summer sun shining through them. "Jonathan?" I called. He came out of the bathroom with a new Hawaiian flower shirt on and a cheesy pretzel stuffed in his mouth. "Jonathan!" I exclaimed dumb founded by what stood in front of me. "I thought we were going to do something together before going off to do individual things!" "I'm sorry! The pretzel was just so tempting and you have to admit my shirt looks great on me." he said tugging at his new blue polo. It did look good I have to admit, but I wasn't going to let him know that. "That's it. We're going to gather all our children and do something as a family." I grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door, getting cheesy pretzel on me in the process.

After rounding up Matthew, Tessa, and Tiffany, Jonathan and I were in for a wild goose chase trying to find Jackson. He was always off trying something new like swimming with sharks or eating chocolate covered beetles despite his shyness. And every time we'd spot him he'd move onto something else. He sure was social. Maybe he was just shy around family. Which makes absolutely no sense at all. "Where do you think he could've gone? There are like, a million attractions on this cruise!" I exclaimed. "How about with the brunette sitting by the big surf board?" Jonathan asked me. "What makes you think he'd be doing that?" I questioned him. "Because he's with the brunette by the big surf board." I looked at the 15 foot surf board. Sure enough there was a brunette sitting with Jackson right next to it. They were laughing about something. I marched over to them. "Hi Jackson. Having fun?" I said with a tone of sarcasm in my voice.

"Mom? What're you doing here?"

"Oh, just waiting to do something as a family. You know, the usual."

"Ok," he gestured to the brunette. "Well, this is Marissa. She's from Australia, visiting Florida with her family."

I didn't talk to Jackson a lot, but when I did, we had the weirdest conversations.

"Okay, hi Marissa, Jackson needs to go but we'll talk to you later. Alright? Alright. Bye!" I dragged Jackson out from their talk and made him meet up with the rest of the family. He muffled a hi, and looked down at his phone. I tried to ignore it, but just couldn't. I snatched it away and asked the family why they'd want to do together. Tessa and Tiffany wanted to go swim. Matthew wanted to go look at the fish on the little Bay Area they had downstairs. Jackson made a comment about wanting to go back to his hotel room which I ignored. Jonathan thought we should go to the restaurant they had on the main deck. I agreed that that would be a good idea. I told the girls we could go swimming at night when the neon lights go on and it's very pretty. Matthew's idea went for after we ate at the restaurant since it was pretty close to the diner anyways. Jackson would obviously have plenty of time to chill in his hotel room tonight so that was an obvious answer to his idea that I didn't need to say. So, we headed of to dinner.