A Summer Trip

“James, Anthony, are you guys ready to go? I told you to be ready 20 minutes ago!” Jennie yells up the stairs at her two boys, who, by looking at the clock that now says 12:25 pm, are actually 20 minutes late to what should have been the best trip of the summer. 

Two weeks ago, Jennie decided everyone deserved a trip, as the school year just ended, and a quarter just came to a close at her law office, so she booked three tickets, a round trip, and one week in a hotel, for the best place she could think of, Hawaii. The trip she has been planning endlessly after work, during her breaks, and the packing for her and the boys, it was finally here, and although they were 20 minutes late, they were finally getting into the car, and heading to the airport. 

“Mom, I forgot my headphones at home. Can we turn around?” Anthony asks suddenly after messing with the radio in the car. 

“Sorry, we can’t, you guys already made us 20 minutes late, and we still have to park and pay, get through airport security and onto the plane before the gates close. If we have time, we can grab an extra set before getting on the plane, or you can use mine.” Jennie was already worried about so many other things, as this was the first time she had traveled with just the boys since their father passed away six years ago. 

Anthony was the older of the two boys, and at sixteen years old, all he wanted to do was spend the summer playing on his computer, and football with his friends, not some dumb trip that his mommy is making him go on. James, only being ten, loves to be wherever mom goes, almost literally, he would go to work with her instead of school, if she would let him. 

“Mommy it looks like it’s going to rain,” chimes in James from the backseat. “Can it rain in the summer?”

“Oh yeah it can rain in the summer, but the weather guy on the TV told us that we were going to have a sunny week, remember?” Jennie’s voice almost cracks as she peers her eyes to the mildly grey sky above her head, hoping that if it did rain, it wouldn’t stop them from going on their trip. 

After parking the car, and unloading all of the bags, she handed the boys their own, and told them they had to roll it to the gates themselves. She locks her car, and safely tucks her keys into her purse. They had to park in long-term parking of course, as they won’t be back to their car for a week, so the walk to the airport was a little further. Jennie looked up again, the sky still at a mild grey, her worries began to pass, as she prepared herself mentally for traveling with the boys. 

“Did you feel that?!” James questions his mom with excitement. “I think it was a raindrop, and it hit me right on the head.”

Jennie shakes her head, “I didn’t feel anything, maybe it’s just your imagination buddy. Come on, we gotta get going a little faster, we don’t want to miss our flight and get stuck here.”

Holding onto their luggage the boys stay close to their mom, with the fear of getting lost in the airport, making their way through crowd after crowd, and line after line, they made it all the way to the security checkpoint, their last stop before finally getting to board the plane and head off. All three of them take their shoes off and put them into bins, go through the electronic scanner, and make their way through, except for James. In his pocket James had candy that he wanted to take on the plane with him, and so they had to stop, and throw away the candy, and of course Jennie just like all moms, knew what was next, and so for ten minutes, Anthony and Jennie pleaded with James to stop crying, finally winning him over, by promising him ice cream once they got to the next airport. 

After what felt like an hour, Jennie and her boys were finally headed back through the airport to their gate, they could see it right there in front of them, they had finally made it to their gate, with only one small bump in the road, except why was there no one in the boarding area for their flight? 

Jennie begins to panic, reading their tickets to make sure she got the right dates, times, and gates, and here she was standing in pure confusion, knowing she was exactly where she was supposed to be. Looking around her, she suddenly moves towards the desk with the woman sitting behind the computer. “Hi, can you tell me why there is no one in line to board my flight? We checked in last night, and got stopped at security, but we thought we were still on time to get on to the flight.”

Just as the woman begins to answer, Jennie hears Anthony yell for her. “Mom! You have to come see this!”

All in one swift motion, she had swept up all the things she had set onto the counter to talk to this woman, turned, and was already in motion to the boys, and then she looked at the giant glass windows and was stopped dead in her tracks. She pinches herself to make sure this is real.

“Is that-” 

“SNOW!” James yells in excitement. 

None of this made sense to Jennie, she had just seen on the TV this morning that there were clear skies for the next ten days at least. There was not a single cloud in the sky this morning, only grey ones on the way here, how could this be happening?

Just at that moment they call for boarding for Jennie’s flight. “Okay boys, well hopefully this snow won’t stop us, let’s get somewhere warm. Come on.” The tunnel leading to the plane seemed extra long, as there was no one else in it now. Being the first ones on the plane, they got to choose where they sat, choosing right up front near the pilot, for James. 

“Mom we never got my headphones,” Anthony reminds her. 

“Oh, shoot, we got distracted by everything else going on. Can you use mine and we can get you another pair when we get there?”

“Fine, where are yours?”

“In my bag in that one up there,” she points to the overhead cabinet above her. 

While Anthony is looking for the headphones, he sees the flight attendants gathered in the front, welcoming the few others who are finally getting onto the flight. The flight attendants helped the others get settled into the plane, and gathered at the front again as he sat into his seat, this time to consult one another. After about ten minutes, one of them steps in to talk to the pilot, and when she returns, she nods, and the other reaches for the intercom system:

“Hello guests, we would just like to inform you that at this time, this flight will be staying grounded. Due to unforeseen weather, the runway has now collected snow, and since it is June, we do not have snow removal equipment available for departing flights. We will have you remain in the plane until our runway is cleared for take off, we appreciate your patience as they clear the runways for landing planes first. Please at this time feel free to use your devices…” she trailed on as Jennie sunk into her own world.

  This isn’t happening right now. This CAN’T be happening right now. She now jumps into mom mode, reassuring the boys that everything would be okay, and they would be leaving soon. With a long flight ahead of them, they all just wanted to get it started. Anthony peers out the window he is seated by, only to what he had only seen in movies, a beautiful layer of white, fluffy snow. 

“Mom, look,” Anthony moves out of his mom’s way as she goes to look out the window. “Are you sure we’re going to be able to go still?”

“I hope so.”

At the front, all the flight attendants are gathered, talking to the pilot, who has not stepped out of the pit. After a few more minutes of discussion, the flight attendant reaches for the microphone again:

“Hello again guests, at this time, the pilot and the air traffic control have determined that his flight is cancelled. You may gather your belongings and exit the plane, where you may go to guest services to get a refund or reschedule for another flight, but due to what now seem to be whiteout conditions, we will no longer be sending flights out for the rest of the day. Thank you for your patience, we will now be opening the door. Please come to the front and exit the plane.”

In the short forty-five minutes, the world around them had turned completely white, in June. Walking from the plane, back inside the airport, there was an ultimate feeling of defeat as everyone had been looking forward to this trip. The giant glass windows they had looked through before, were now covered in a light frost around the edges, as if the temperature outside had dropped while they were inside too.

“He- I mean we looked at the weather this morning, what’s happening?” Jennie shook her head in total disbelief, until Anthony grabbed her hand, and then she remembered to breathe, as if she had been holding her breath since she left the plane. 

So, they began to walk, all three of them, down the escalators, back past security, to the front desks, where ultimately they didn’t offer her a refund or to book a later flight, that their flight would be rescheduled when they could leave, and the roads to the airport were being closed off. “With the weather changing so quickly, we have asked that all of the guests in the airport remain at the airport, for your safety, and, as I said before, your flight will be taking off as soon as it can. Thank you, next guest please!” the short lady with curly blonde hair who was sitting behind the counter, didn’t even seem to care about Jennie’s flight, just about getting to the next guest in line. 

As she swivels around to walk towards the boys, she notices that they’re not right where she left them. Panic sets in, she couldn’t believe this was happening. 

BUZZZ, BUZZZ

Startled by the text message appearing on her phone in her hand, she sees it’s from anthony. The message read something all too familiar: “Mom, you have to come see this,” followed by a picture of James throwing snow above his head, and then it hit her, she had never taken her boys to the snow before, that was something their dad had always wanted to do, but they never got to, and so she begins to make her way to the doors closest to her, stepping out into the cold.

Blinded by the whtie cloud that covered the ground, she began to get hit with something. What is going on, I can’t see. What is hitting me?!

“STOP!” Jennie yells, only to hear giggling, followed by more hits. 

“SNOWBALL FIGHT!” Anthony yells to James. “ Lets get mom!”

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Jennie begins to scoop up what seemed to be the perfect sized snowball but can’t get one before the boys hit her with another. 

The snowball fight was only the beginning. Jennie sat outside with her two boys almost the entire day, making snowmen, using summer clothes to decorate it, one wearing Jennie’s swimsuit top. Snow angels and another snowball fight followed the snowmen, of course. The happy family finally decides to head in, as they can’t feel their fingers anymore, and just in time too. The snow stops. The cloud seems a little brighter now. It’s time: “Dear guests, if you are on Flight 182 to Hawaii, please head to the gate for boarding.” It felt like a miracle to hear this.

Grabbing all of their things, except the snowman’s swimsuit top, they head for the gates, to what ends up being a trip filled with joy and happiness, but nowhere near as much as Jennnie was filled with, watching her boys make the worst of the situation.