Tales from the Vault

Just when you think it can't get worse....

Continuing the adventure of Amber and the Leidas, touring the mainsons, or as I spelled them in this chapter....
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Chapter 2: Car City's Mainsoins
(Just when you think it can't get any worse)

"Welcome aboard!" Bobby said as we stepped into the limo. The show-fur ("show-fur") put our luggage in the giant trunk.

Now brace yourself for how crazy this gets.

Inside the limo was a giant bunkroom, 3 bedrooms, a playroom, a little kitchen, a living room, a driving area, and an area like a normal car, with seats facing each other, and big windows. Bobby offered coffee to my parents, milk for us, and doughnuts for everybody. (My 9 or 10 year old self had no clue how the world worked. This guy is literally the ruler of the world and he has nothing better to do besides pick up this weird pioneer family and serve them donuts.) I was having so much fun eating and talking that I would have missed the entrance of Car City if Johnathen hadn't tapped me. (Jonathan was a regular character and until I got a little older I spelled his name differently every time.) The city was covered in snow. Snowmen were in front of houses. Icicles hung in the trees. (Look at this idyllic picture painted by an author who had seen a faint dusting of snow three times in her life.) It was exactly how I remberd it, only last time we were here, Christmas decorations had been up.

It seemed like every house was bigger than the next. When the limo finally stopped in the cobblestone driveway, I was shocked. Their beautiful land went on and on. Their was a swimming pool, two tennis courts, beautiful gardens, playground sets and a massive white house 15 stories tall!

Bobby rang the doorbell. (Dude, you live here. Also, shouldn't they have at least a little security?) It opened and half a dozen kids ran out. Hope followed, carrying Patti, and walking beside the older kids.

Now we have this painfully dramatic sequence of the two families all catching up at once in an exciting buzz.

"Hello! Hi, Hippity! Oh my gosh, look at your HOUSE!" (That was me) "Cotton is adorable in that dress! Mary, Mary, you've got to see our playhouse room! I can't believe you are here! Look, Mom! Plopper, I brought my blocks! Awesome! Guess what? We had ham for breakfast." (Um...okay.) Do you want to play in the snow? It's snowing! I've never seen snow like this before! Well, Hope, you got snow after all!" Everyone was talking and laughing and saying hello at once. (You don't say?)

By the way, the some of the Leidas have made-up names like Cotton, Plopper, Hippity, etc., because my brother was always very creative when he named his stuffed animals.

Angelina managed to pull me over to a corner. "Guess what?" She cried. "For now one in the summer. We're going to come down and stay here all of August, and be there May—July." The Leidas have a condo which they stayed in all summer. "Now we can play together in the summer too!"

"Awesome!" I cried.

I honestly have no idea what they were talking about here. What was the point?

Dimpells, Hippity, Angelina, Carrie, and Cotten gathered around me, Molly, Lydia, Rosie, Amy, Megan, and Kirsten. "Let's play in the playhouse room!" Cotten shouted. They led us to a long wall outside the grand atrium painted to look like a house. It was burgundy-red with window boxes that had flowers in them. There were lace curtains in the windows. "Da, Da, Da, Da Da Da Da!"(?) Hippity shouted throwing open the door dramatically.