314. Travelling with kids (2)

Here I was. In the airport with a squad of kids and no husband on hand. I got some comfort in seeing a mother just like me except her kids were quite the sleepy type,  all sitting in a row waiting patiently. Mine were all over the place, poking everything and bickering and climbing on the cases ... I did my usual - pretended they were not mine. Anyway I was so obsessed with the size of the rental that I could not focus on my kids. My turn came just as Baby was climbing on the big case and shouting at her brother to push the trolley. I stepped forward and smile nervously at the girl in the ugly yellow uniform.

'Thank you.' I say taking the keys from her. 'I hope this vehicle is as roomy as we did specify when we made the reservation.' 

I felt using roomy and the pronoun we made me sound queenly and sophisticated.

'This is the biggest car we have.' She told me in a silly sing-song voice.

That sounded not good at all. I piled as many kids as I could on top the luggage on top of the trolley, told them to hold on tight and pushed on towards the biggest car ever.

We stopped and stared. 

'That is a small car mummy not a big one. The lady said it's their biggest! Don't they have big cars here mummy?'

'It's to do with parking.' I said. 'I'm sure it si big enough, we just have to squeeze in. Nit long to go.'

I could not leave them on the parking lot and go shout at the lady back in there although that would have been so satisfying. I opened all the doors, luckily it was not raining and discovered one pop-out seat at the back. 

'NO FIGHTING about who seats where. Ok? Now go and see if you can do this.'

They all nodded and started fighting about how to fit all the stuff in the boot.

'The big case needs to go first sideways. Daddy always does it this way. And then daddy says put the ...'

'Look, daddy's not here so mummy decides. OK? Big case flat. Like so.'

Of course it did not work and we had to take everything back out and try it again daddy's way. Eventually after much packing and unpacking, after some pushing and some shoving, after a lot of squashing and squeezing all the kids and all the bags and the violin and the light sabre and the giant soft elephant and Nono the sheep were all onboard. I sat behind the wheel and as I pushed the seat back a bit a small rucksack fell on top of a child.

A quick glance at the back, I could distinguish four little faces amongst the coats and bags and toys. Seatbelts were on so that was the minting. Off we went. each round about had an other bag or coat tumble over them and they would shove the item under their feet, kicking vigorously until we reached the motorway and they all fell asleep.

Peace at last. I turn the real radio on and drove along the roads enjoying the views of green fields and trees.