Chapter 01: The Journey is The Reward
My name is Tom. This summer my Mom (41) and Dad (46) took me to a trip to Europe for my 18th birthday. I wanted to visit Europe for a long time, so my parents knew how much it meant to me. Although I wasn't thrilled that they bought three tickets. I wanted to go alone. Spending the summer with my parents didn't sound all that exciting. But they bought the tickets... and it was still a trip to Europe, so I couldn't say no to that.
Although, the timing of the trip could have been better, because about five weeks before the trip started, I had a minor knee surgery. I twisted and hurt my knee playing basketball. But the surgery went well, my knee was already feeling a lot better. I didn't need my crutches anymore, but I still brought my knee immobilizer, just as a precaution.
We planned on spending a month in Europe, go to different countries and places, do some sightseeing, but we started off with an ordinary summer vacation. Which meant that we spent the first five days in a hotel at the beach.
We didn't really sleep in the main building though. The hotel also had ten small huts. They were made entirely out of wood and were surrounded by trees and palms so that each hut had it's private area. These huts were also located far away from were all the other guests spent their time.
My parent's bed was located right in the living room, but I had my own little room. There was a bathroom in there, so we had anything we needed.
Of course, the beach was overcrowded with people, so we spent the entire first day at the pool. In the evening we walked into town, looked at the stores went to have dinner... we did pretty much the same thing all the other tourists did.
When we were walking back to the hotel, a guy on the street handed me a flyer. There were a lot of these guys trying to promote all kinds of things. But this one guy, told me about a trip to a private beach, which, apparently was the most beautiful beach in the area. He told me, that they would get you there by boat and that you could spend the entire day there on the beach and they would bring you back in the evening. He also told me that they were the only ones who were allowed to get people there, so it's never too crowded there. He handed me the flyer, which had a view of the beach on it. It looked amazing. I had to go there.
So, when we got back to our hut, I told my parents that I wanted to go there the next day.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? Going on a boat..."
"Your Mom is right, I don't think your knee would enjoy that all that much."
I held up my knee immobilizer.
"That's why I brought this thing. Come on. I have to go there."
After discussing the pros and cons for another ten minutes, I persuaded my parents. But of course, they planned on going with me. They didn't want me to go to a secluded island, on a boat, with my slowly recovering knee, all by myself. So I did what I had to do: I accepted the fact that they would come along, as long as I could spend the day at the beautiful beach.
So the next morning, I was wearing my swimming trunks, carrying my knee immobilizer and was ready to go. But when I came into the living room, I found out that my Dad didn't feel so good. He had a really bad stomach ache, apparently from something he ate the night before.
So I thought: "That's my chance!"
"Look, if Dad isn't feeling so good, I'm going alone."
"What? No way, Mister. We can go tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that."
"Look, Mom, we are only here four more days. What if Dad's sick for more than one day, and we can't go at all. I really wanna go today. Nothing is going to happen. I can go by myself."
It didn't look like Mom was about to agree.
"I'm sorry Tom, but I don't want you to go on that boat alone."
Mom had always been overly protective.
But then all of a sudden, Dad got in on the conversation.
"Look, honey, why don't you go with him. He obviously doesn't take no for an answer. Plus, it's HIS birthday trip. We said we wanted to give him a trip to remember..."
"But..."
"I'm fine. I'm just sick. Maybe I need to puke, or go to the bathroom, but other than that, I'm fine. I've got food and water. And I've got my meds. I'll be alright."
"I don't know honey..."
"Don't argue with me, Babe... I want you two to go. Have a great time, okay!?"
Wow. Okay. Now, even I felt bad. Leaving my sick father all by himself to go to the most beautiful beach ever... But Mom just said:
"Okay, honey."
So she got a big beach bag and threw in some clothes, sun cream, a few books and stuff like that. The she took two huge beach towels and put them on top of everything. And then she changed into her bathing suit while I waited in front of the hut. I was putting on my knee immobilizer when Mom came out. She was wearing her dark purple bathing suite and had a pink silky cloth tied around her waist.
"Come on, Mister. This has to be one hell of a beach. This day has to be amazing. After all, we are leaving your sick father behind."
I felt a little bad, but I wanted it that way. I wanted to go there.
So, after a ten minute walk, we got to the dock where the boat was set to take off. And as soon as I saw the boat, I was a bit confused. There were no seats.
We were a little early, so I walked up to the guy who was apparently responsible for the trip.
"Hello. I'm Tom. I'll take two tickets."
"Okay. No problem."
"But... is this the boat we're using?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Okay. Look, I kind of expected the boat to have seats."
I nodded down to my knee and the knee immobilizer.
"So apparently everybody's standing the entire ride... but as you can see... I might have a slight problem with that. Does that mean I can't go?"
"Oh yeah. I saw. What happened?"
"I was playing basketball. Long story."
"Look... it's no problem. We do have two seats in the back. In each corner of the boat. You need to unlock it and take it down. Just choose one."
"Oh that's great. Thank's a lot, man."
"No problem."
He handed me the tickets and I waved Mom over.
"Oh, but make sure you'll be the first one back at the boat this evening."
"Yeah. I will. Thanks."
So when Mom came over, we were the first one's to get on the boat. To get on the boat, from the dock, was the hardest part. But I managed to pull it off.
"There is a seat in the back."
So, Mom and I walked to the back of the boat. Of course the boat rocked back and forth, so Mom took my hand and tried to support me as best as she could.
When we got to the back, I put down the seat and sat down. Mom put the beach bag down next to me. She stood in front of me and grabbed one of the handles which were mounted on the sunshine roof. And then we had to wait...
As time passed, more and more people entered the boat. A large, over-weight guy took the second seat, in the other corner of the boat. Twenty minutes later, fifty or sixty people were already on the boat. It got more and more crowded. So I took my knee immobilizer off. I realized that there would be no room for me to have my legs stretched out.
There were another fifteen or so people on the dock. Mom came closer and closer. She had to. There was no room on the boat anymore. And then finally, the engine started and the last guys got on the boat. Mom was so close to me, that her feet were actually between mine. She was wearing her big sun hat and she was already looking pissed off.
And then the boat started to move and everything got even more tense. I saw that a large, unattractive man with a beer belly hit Mom in the back with his elbow a number of times. Mom bent forward and over me as best as she could, but it was clearly very uncomfortable for her.
"Mom!"
She didn't hear me. The engine was pretty loud. Plus, there was the noise the motor boat made when it hit the waves and there was the sound of the wind. So I tipped her on the outside of her thigh.
Mom looked down on me.
"Sit down. It's too crowded in here."
But she just shook her head. But about five minutes later the unappealing beer drinker had hit her in the side three more times, so I tipped her on her thigh again.
It was my fault she was on this boat. We left Dad at the hotel. And now Mom was clearly pissed off.