All Vacations Must End
Singing whilst whistling summoned brightest thoughts from the lady on her last day of summer vacation. She would remember the day as it was, as it should be, rather than whine that it must end. Undo appropriation of gloomy thoughts would ruin the day, be it rainy or not, she thought wisely. We shan’t do that. No no. We shan’t do that.
2 Responses to “All Vacations Must End”
-
Mama Dalton
It was to be their ‘Bed and Breakfast Weekend’ they thought. Well earned, and long awaited. They wanted it to be perfect, but such things seldom reach the level desired. It certainly did not begin in that manner.
The van, rented in case of an off chance piece of ‘Look! It would just fit!’ furniture had to be switched out…twice. They found out in picking up the van late the afternoon prior to departure, that in driving it later that evening…after the office had closed…in the dark…the dash lights did not work.
After delaying their start by two hours to check out van one, and switching out the next morning, and later receiving an embarrassed call from the rental office, and waiting an hour down the road at the first stop, for the owner to bring a new tag because the one on the van had expired, they later found…in the dark…that the interior lights on the second van did not function.
But once at the Inn, the room seemed quite lovely…at first. It was listed as the “American Holly,” the largest of fourteen such rooms named after various flowers. They expected deep reds and warm hunter greens, and, quite frankly…holly. There were two post card sized pictures of cardinals on holly branches (one in the bathroom), and a small basket of plastic holly was discovered behind the open bathroom door once it was closed.
Evenings found them in comfortable rockers on a wide Victorian porch listening to tree frogs, watching and waiting for the inevitable rain to come in over the oldest mountains in the United States…and battling the most persistent mosquitos in recent memory…to no avail.
And wonderfully, they discovered themselves in relaxed, God-matched delightful conversation with two wildly different couples: two young attorneys: one whose practice centers on patents, and his young female companion who works as a State Child Advocacy Public Defender with mentally and educationally disadvantaged children and adolescents, and juvenile offenders.
And the other: an older couple from Tennessee, both having lived in the same town all their life, except for a very brief sojourn in Washington, DC. They were High School sweethearts…but went to ‘rival schools!’ He retired after many years as a local businessman, now active still with the local Kiwanis Club, and still proudly wears his pin on his starched shirt each day; and she, loving flowers, and still gardening as she can.
And the ‘Bed and Breakfast Weekenders?’ They seemed to be the ones intent on bringing the two couples together…finding common ground…and they did, according to the substitute Inn keepers. Conversation flowed. Everyone listened and laughed…talked about favorite flowers, and children, and service organizations, and discovered that the young man had a birthday…and the older couple had an anniversary…on the same day. And on the last Sunday of everyone’s stay, no less…so…
It did not matter that the vans did not measure up, nor the holly was not as desired perhaps, nor that it rained a bit, nor that the mosquitos could carry passengers. At breakfast, the ‘Bed and Breakfast Weekenders’ sang a loving Happy 62nd Anniversary duet and Happy 30th Birthday to their newly acquired Inn mates, enjoyed porch sitting at its very, very best, and felt blessed to have been in the company of those very, very special moments in time.
All vacations are what we allow them to be. As to yours, dear Mandy, well spoken.
-
Mandy
Did this actually happen to you? If so, serendipity. If not, well written. I appreciate a story in answer to my poem. It’s like creative writing class.