Unhappy Holiday

Unhappy Holiday

     A HoverCar slowed down on the road with a Wooded Area on both sides, and pulled into an empty parking lot. After it descended a few inches to the ground the four side doors disappeared. Six humans exited it: two Old Ones from the front and four Young Ones from the back.

     “How far is this Cabin you rented?” Shawna stared into the Wooded Area in front of her.

     James joined Shawna. “It’s about a mile from here.” First James points in one direction. Then in another one, and finally in a third.

     “Are we going to have to walk all the way up there? We have almost forty relatives coming here in a few days for a five-day weekender holiday celebration. Isn’t there a road leading to that Cabin?” Shawna looked in the direction James pointed.

     “Yes to both questions. I tried to rent out a hotel, or a motel, for the holiday. There wasn’t any. We have a big family. This Cabin was the best I could do on short notice. It’s not supposed to be our year for the holiday celebration. Uncle Ronald was going to hold it, but his health suddenly got worse.” James said all that.

     “How is Uncle Ronald doing? It’s been almost a month since his heart surgery.” Shawna looked at James with a sad look on her face. “This isn’t going to be a happy holiday.”

     “He’s doing pretty good, but I don’t think he’s going to be coming to the family reunion this year.” James didn’t look very happy either.

     “Actually, Uncle Ronald is coming.” Shawna and James head to the back of their HoverCar.

     While Shawna and James talked just outside the Wooded Area the Young Ones got the supplies out of the back of the HoverCar. Small square cubes neatly stacked in the back of it. After being taken out a tiny button on top got pushed that opened it up to reveal what they were. Once checked out for damage during transit another little button returned it to a cube.

     After being checked the returned cube got place to the side of one of them. Once all of them got checked they got attached to the clothing of them. Then they headed into the Wooded Area. Each one had about twenty cubes attached to them. Just before heading up to the Cabin James reduced the HoverCar to a cube too.

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     Shawna suddenly stopped after coming out of the Wooded Area. Her family bumped into her. James barely re-acted to it, but the Young Ones fell backwards. Sixteen-year-old Kevin hit thirteen-year-old Tammy. Tammy in return bumped ten-year-old Vicki, and Vicki knocked eight-year-old Brandon down. All hit the path they followed up hard. Luckily none of them, or their cubes, got hurt.

     “What a mess. Now I know why you wanted us to bring all the cleaning supplies and equipment. There’s no way we are going to get this livable before the holiday.” Shawna couldn’t stop staring at their home for the next week. Once recovered from the sudden stop they couldn’t either.

     “It’s not that bad. It only looks like it’s falling apart on the outside. Between not being the host family until the last second and the rental Credits I got from the rest of our relatives I didn’t have a lot to work with. This was the best I could do with what I had – and what we needed.” James loved to talk like that.

     The Cabin looked more like a Hugh House than a Cabin. It’s a large four floor structure with twelve Sleeping Rooms. A big Food Preparation Room, a gigantic Eating Room, a Family Room and two Personal Rooms occupied on the first floor. The Sleeping Rooms and three more, one per floor, Personal Rooms took up the other floors. It only lacked one thing – an outdoors. There’s not a lot of grounds between the Cabin and the Wooded Area.

     “It’s going to be a tight fit, but getting the whole family in there shouldn’t be a problem.” Shawna said after they looked through the Cabin within. James had been right. The place didn’t look as bad on the inside.

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     It hadn’t been easy, the whole family had to help, but they got the place presentable by the time the rest of the relatives started to arrive. One family at a time walked up there - and they looked as tired and worn out as the Jennison family did when they got there. They all looked like human cubes too. Just not as many of them. The rest of the relative only had a few cubes each, but those cubes appeared to be a little bigger than the ones the Jennison family had on them.

     The five-day relative reunion happened pretty good. Everyone got to catch up on what had been going on with the rest of the families over the past year. They did keep in touch with each other during the year, but it’s always better in person. The Young Ones, about thirty of them there, played most of the time – mostly in the Wooded Area. While the Old Ones talked and watched a lot of entertainment.

     Of course, the biggest event of the get-together happened to be the Holiday Feast. It’s an old day event that involved a lot of food preparation and eating. It also included a lot of watching of entertainment too. The Holiday Feast had been a big success – except for one thing: Uncle Ronald didn’t show up after all.

     They found out why Uncle Ronald never got there. Uncle Ronald’s new heart rejected him. He died on his way to the family reunion. The reason why he didn’t get to the Cabin happened to be because he died on his way there. Uncle Ronald died only about half a mile from that Cabin.

     That’s one holiday that the Jennison’s would never forget – especially James. James killed his Uncle Ronald.