Chapter 7

There was a lot of shade on the path through the trees, but it was no where near complete. Sunlight streamed through holes in the canopy and dappled everything with light. There was an almost magical quality to it and I found myself skipping lightly along the well-worn path. I was, I realized, in an incredibly good mood.

And there was no reason I shouldn’t be! I was on vacation, I was more relaxed than I had been in a very long time, and I had had a great time with Sabrina. Our conversation had somehow trailed off into our favorite childhood movies and Sabrina had told me there was a stash of children’s movies DVDs in the entertainment center at the rental home that I could not wait to raid when I got home. I had every reason to be in a great mood. If I had started wetting the bed again, what did it matter? I had dealt with bedwetting most of my life, I could do it again. And if I was having a few daytime accidents? Well, I could deal with that too.

Despite the shade, I was still quite thirsty from the heat and the walk when I arrived back at the house and I went straight to the fridge to get a glass of tea, only to find the pitcher empty. Once again, I went through the process of making a pitcher of cold brew and boiling water for a pitcher I could drink immediately. I thought about using the tin of tea leaves I already had opened, but the tea Sabrina had served me tasted so much better, probably, I assumed, because it was fresher. So, I skipped that and the new batches with the tea leaves she had sent me home with. When it was ready, I poured some tea in my sippy cup and headed into the living.

Wait. I stopped in the doorway to the living room, looking at the sippy cup in my hand. It was pink plastic and had cartoon characters on it. Something seemed out of place, but I couldn’t figure it out. I was definitely missing something though. I went back to the kitchen to see if I could figure it out. As I walked in, my eyes fell on the clock above the stove and it hit me: it was getting rather late and I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast!

I started the oven, pulled out a bag of frozen chicken nuggets I had bought the other day, and popped then in the oven on a baking sheet before setting a timer and wandering back to the living room to pick a movie.

I spent the rest of the evening spread out on the living room couch watching movies with a sippy cup full of iced tea and a plate of chicken nuggets. This is exactly what a vacation should be, I thought to myself contentedly.

At some point, I must have drifted off, because I suddenly realized the DVD had returned to the menu and I couldn’t remember seeing the ending. I glanced at the clock on the DVD player to see it flashing 12:37AM. I had definitely drifted off.

I sat up, yawning and rubbing my eyes, my soggy pull-up squishing underneath of me as I did.

Wait, pull-up? When had I put that on? I couldn’t remember for the life of me, but I must have wandered upstairs at some point knowing I was getting tired and might fall asleep on the couch. However it had happened, I was glad it had; I would not have been happy to spend the night scrubbing the couch.