The final morning of our vacation I know we were all laying there awake before Mickey called us.
There was another round of African barking spider attacks from Em’s side of the room.
Em’s a bit gassy early in the morning, which caused Commando Nikki to start stifling a giggle that was shaking their bed. The more she shook the bed, the more that Beatlebum would say ‘shhhhh’.
I heard Commando Nikki whisper to Beatlebum, “The second wave has been launched Captain.”
The phone rang and nobody would move to answer it. It was kind of sad to hear it ring for the last time and I think that Commando Nikki wanted to believe if we didn’t answer it we wouldn’t have to leave.
Commando Nikki was also irritated that we were leaving earlier than we ever had. Normally we stay at least 10 days in Disney and 2 days in Universal.
I made the plans around what Brother and his wife could do, which was nine days in October instead of twelve days in December that I had originally planned. Scuba Steve was really upset about it, my mistake, it will never happen again. He was even more upset when he figured out it was only Friday and we were leaving while we still had two days still off from work.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
The girls were getting ready and finishing their packing while Scuba Steve and I went outside to visit Brother.
Brother, Waldo and Scruffy were loading the rented van. Scruffy had bought 4 tires from the Richard Petty Driving Experience while Brother and Waldo had taken out not six, not seven, BUT EIGHT double wide wheelchair-bag filled loads of stuff to re-sell back home to the van plus luggage for four people.
Well, if I had seen how much stuff his wife was buying I could have told them that Disney is happy to mail stuff to your home for you. Brother told me that they were all going to have to ride home with a ton off stuff piled in their laps. Well, everyone except Brother who would be going the driving.
That could make for an uncomfortable ride. Guess they should have spent less time shopping.
Brother and I had a good giggle over that one.
They were still trying to figure out a way to get everything in the van, saying it was too bad they couldn’t tie things to the roof. I volunteered the bungee cords from my truck and started to walk off.
Brother asked me how I got my truck on the plane.
I stopped dead in my tracks and thought, "Oh, yeah. I forgot the State of New Hampshire owned my truck now because I sure couldn’t remember where I parked it."
Gee, I wonder how far I would have walked before I remember that.
Ah, where was I going?
Scuba Steve & I went back to our room to finish our moving out. While we were packing and
celebrating the suitcase with the suitcase in it we could hear the muffled argument next door.
I turned up the TV that was playing the Disney channel to drown it out because it started to get real loud.
Scuba Steve was rearranging things into different suitcases and pulled out a brand new 4 pack of ladies panties that I had bought the morning of our trip.
Now I had to explain to my darling husband why I had been wearing his ‘panties’ when I had my own. The problem was that I couldn’t explain it. I had no idea why HE could find them but I couldn’t.
That had NEVER happened before. When he found them he said they weren’t in the underwear compartment of the suitcase so I told him he better check and see if the cordless phone from the house was in there.
You can never tell.
The muffled argument was back in full swing next door while we were finishing up. I heard the door slam and what ever the problem was then was at least over.
The girls decided it was safe to take their luggage outside the door and wait. I could hear Commando Nikki outside mad over something, but figured I’d deal with that as soon as I was done. Scuba Steve gathered up the rest of the luggage and took it outside while I checked the room to see if anything got let behind. I checked everything in the room, between the sheets, inside the pillowcases, in all the drawers, EVERYTHING several times. I was on my third round of ‘under the beds check’ when Brother came in the room.
I could tell by the look on his face there was a BIG problem. I asked him if they were about ready to go to MK. We had to go say our good-bye to Disney, ride IASW and have our picture taken in the Liberty Square shackles. I have one from when we were kids and I needed this one as adults to go with it.
Brother wouldn’t be going to MK. Seems his confused wife had other plans. Brothers’ wife wanted to spend one precious day with Waldo and Scruffy and go to the marketplace to pick up a few things she overlooked. She had also decided they would be spending the weekend in Florida after all.
THAT’S what Commando Nikki was outside yelling about, that we arranged our vacation to accommodate them and now they were talking about staying. I figured she was just out there having a sister problem.
That could’ve gotten very ugly.
Brother said that HE decided that they would be spending some quality time with Waldo and Scruffy, you bet. In a van headed for Tennessee. He knew with the way she was behaving she would ruin our last day for everyone. He didn’t want to do that to the kids. I didn’t want that either and I knew how mad Brother was that he had to go. There was no way he was spending another minute with her in Florida and was at the point that he wouldn’t even plan to go to the grocery store with her back home, never mind the Marketplace.
I was heartbroken, I wasn’t supposed to be saying good-bye to him for several hours, and we had things to do. I thought they all lived in the same state, why couldn’t they get together and spend time when they got back home?
That was what had made Brother so mad, they not only lived in the same state, they lived
in the same house.
OH!
Yeah, GOOD PLAN put your confused wife in the van; pile a bunch of really heavy stuff nice and high on her, and go back home NOW. I couldn’t deal with it anymore, wouldn’t deal with it anymore and I wasn’t putting my family though that on their last day.
I didn’t want their final memory of Disney World to be their mother being thrown out of MK because she finally snapped and beat the selfish out of someone sitting in a wheelchair.
Brother and I were sitting on the bed when we heard his wife calling for him. My stomach hurt from holding in tears because I really didn’t want to make it harder for Brother than it already was. We talked about coming back to Disney next year, minus the wife, if the wife was even around then which was unlikely. My instructions were to call the day before we left Maine, Brother and Waldo would step ‘three people to the left’ and meet us here.
Brother and I went out to where everyone else was; the girls were hugging Waldo and saying their good-byes while Brothers’ wife stood there with her arms crossed. Brother shook Scuba Steve’s hand and turned to hug me.
We hugged and cried, but we had a plan and this wouldn’t be our last trip to Disney. This was our test run. Everything was going to be okay, but I still hurt for Brother.
Brother just glared at his wife who walked over to me and said “I bought you something.” and put a pin in my hand.
Scuba Steve, Brother and I almost died from shock. It was a ‘best friends’ pin. I didn’t know what to say without being hateful, so I kept my mouth shut. Brother helped me out and said “Hey, now YOU have a pin to trade.” She handed a second pin to Scuba Steve; it was a V pin, for the first initial of his first name.
Ah, that’s Del, not Vel. Nice to meet you.
So, what do you say to that, ‘Oh, thanks that makes up for everything?’
Scuba Steve and I were afraid of causing a scene right there in front of the girls if we tried to hand them back to her, I think it was because we are little unsure of her instability so we just smiled and said ‘Ah, Thanks?’ and left it at that.
Brother’s wife marched off to the van, I think because she was upset we didn’t give her something. Who knows or cares? Bye-bye for her.
Pack her in the van good and tight with the five figures worth of stuff she just had to buy.
Scruffy came over to shake our hands, said something that we were afraid to respond to, but still did our squinty-eyed, mouth opened, head tilting, translation faces. Scruffy smiled and went in the opposite direction of the van.
I still have no idea what became of Scruffy, never saw him again.
Waldo was doing the ‘I don’t know which direction I need to go in’ dance stepping back and forth between Scuba Steve and I and the direction of the van where his mother went stomping off to.
Waldo wanted to stay with us and we wanted him to stay, but that couldn’t happen. I felt so bad for Waldo. He ran to me, hugged me very hard saying “Thank you, thank you”, turned around and disappeared around the corner to the van.
Don’t worry Waldo, ‘Three people to the left’ in one year. Bye sweetie.
Brother hugged me again and we said our good-byes. The girls had tears running down their faces because they didn’t want him to leave. He hugged them and told them he loved them.
He stood up and said to me ‘Love ya, mean it’ and walked off around the corner whistling the song ‘It’s a small world’, from dads’ favorite ride in Disney.
Bye Brother, Love ya, mean it, ‘Three people to the left’ in one year.