Getting Stuck in Trinidad

This past summer my family and I went on a vacation to the Caribbean. We were going to pick up my brother, Levi, from his mission. The islands we visited were very fun, they were: Grenada, Trinidad, and Tobago. It was the greatest trip I have ever been on, however, that is not what this story is about. This story is about coming home from our getaway. Have you ever been on a vacation so long you were just ready to come home? Well, let’s just say, I wanted home. We had been going from island to island, uncomfortable bed to more uncomfortable bed with bugs in it. I wanted my house, my bed and I wanted it soon. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the trip. It was a blast, it was just time. You can imagine how excited I was to get board the airplane at eight o’clock the next morning. This is where the story gets fun! My whole family arose at 5:00 and we were ready to go. Our minor dilemma was our car situation. It only had five seats. We had to get eight bags of luggage and six people to the airport. We needed to take a two trips. The first trip consisted of Dad, two of my siblings (Levi and Kayla), and all the luggage. My dad dropped them all off and sent Kayla and Levi to go do all of our paper work. To this point everything went off without a hitch. The second trip was where it all went wrong. Dad came and picked me, Mom, and brother Billy. We were on our way to the airport and home. At 6:30 we remembered that we had to fill the rental car with gas, no big deal right? When we finally found a gas station it was after 7:00. We left the gas station, without getting gas, and hit rush hour traffic. We knew we had to hurry to catch our flight. We booked it as fast as we could into the airport and we were so glad that we made it. Then we came upon Kayla and I instantly knew something was wrong. She informed us that they had closed the check-ins five minutes before we arrived and we had missed our flight. Disappointment overcame me. I had never wanted to swear or throw a tantrum until then. I wanted to march right up to the clerks and demand that they let us on the plane. We said our goodbyes to the Levi and Kayla, who had made the flight, and went to go work out making the next flight home. We waited on the bench in anticipation, while Dad was working things out. He walked over to us slowly with a grim look on his face. He informed us that they only had one flight to the United States every day. He also told us that they were overbooked for the next three days. He had us on standby for every day. This meant that we had to be back at the airport at 5:00 the next morning, and there was no guarantee that we would make the flight, and until then there was nothing we could do. On the way back to where we were staying we stopped and picked up some food. We got to Norma’s Bed & Breakfast and went back to sleep. We all wanted home and we were not sure if we were going to get there. We had no energy to do anything. We stayed inside all that day and we probably looked like we were on our death beds, we were depressed. We woke up early the next day to an extremely hot and humid room. We all wondered why the air conditioning was off when we realized that the power was out. Norma came with a lantern to make sure we were up. I don’t think she wanted us lounging around for another day. We ran around very flustered rushing ourselves to get ready. We all piled into the car and realizing that it was only 4:00, but we didn’t care, we rushed to the airport again for a second try. At the airport we checked in, but we wouldn’t know if we had made the flight util a little after seven. At that time they would see who didn’t pick up their tickets and give them to us if they had them. We killed a couple hours by reading and playing Dad’s Nintendo DS. This became a lifesaver, and consequently my brain age is 28. They called us up to the counter at 7:10 and told us that they had three tickets. We didn’t know what to do because there were four of us. We just sat there, the same thought running through everyone’s head. Should we take them or should we wait till we can all go? The silence was almost deafening and I just wanted someone to break it, someone besides me. Dad was the brave soul who said, “We’ll take them.” He handed each of us the tickets, and said with a hint of pain in his voice, “I’ll just try again tomorrow.” I honestly had never seen Dad look so hurt and disappointed. I didn’t want to leave him. I was confused because I had a feeling we were all going to make the flight. I was almost positive we were, but obviously my feelings were misleading. After we said our goodbyes and both my parents had tears weld up in their eyes. We started to walk away when my dad stopped us and turned to my brother saying, “Billy, You take care of those girls for me, make sure they are safe.” That’s when it hit me the worst; I could feel the tears coming on while we were all running to get to our plane. I didn’t want to go. We boarded the flight and we all took our seats. I was really quiet for the next ten minutes. I was constantly repeating a prayer in my heart. I was just hoping that he would somehow be able to be on the flight. I didn’t want him to be in a country he was unfamiliar with, and not know anyone there. I was praying for a miracle. We were waiting for our flight to take off when I felt the urge to look up. Right then I saw my dad enter the airplane with the biggest grin on his face, I’ve never seen him so happy. We asked him what had happened and all he said was that there was an extra seat. Well of course there was an extra seat, I thought in my head, but I want to know what happened! I knew he would tell me later though so I just sat in my seat and relaxed while listening to my iPod. I quietly said a prayer in gratitude for this miracle. Later he mentioned that the ladies at the check-in saw how it was tearing our family to leave my father. They did everything they could to make sure that he was on the plane. Apparently somebody checked in online and didn’t show. That’s where my father got the seat. The whole plane ride home I was thinking how much my family means to me. I always knew that they were way important and all that lovey-dovey stuff. I never had sacrifice thrown in there though. It showed me that I never want to leave my family and I know they will watch out for me always. Our family is going to be together forever.