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Chapter 15- Happy Birthday, Mater!

Lightning's POV

Hey, Cal!

So, today was Mater's birthday. I'd love to spend my birthday in a place like this some time.

I wanted to make the day special for him. Not only because he's my best friend, but because he's been so worried lately. Things didn't go exactly the way I'd planned, but I think he still had fun. I'll tell you more when I see you at the start of the season.

Ka-chow,

Lightning McQueen

"It's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birthday!" were the first words I heard when I woke up that morning.

I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I noticed was the the rain from the day before had completely disappeared. Once again, we had perfect island weather: clear blue skies and bright sun. Excellent, I thought. I had big plans for the rest of our vacation and I was hoping that the weather would cooperate.

That voice kept going.

"It's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birthday!"

It was Mater, my best friend. Sure enough, when I checked the time on my phone (7:21), the date was January twelfth, Mater's birthday.

"Happy birthday, Mater!" I called through the wall.

"Thanks, buddy!" he called back excitedly. "It's my birthday!"

"Sorry, man!" Fillmore's voice came through the wall as well. "He's been like this since five-thirty this morning."

"Well, we're all awake now", Sally spoke up, stirring. "So, what do you say we all grab a birthday breakfast?"


Flo, Ramone and Sarge were all awake too. That wasn't surprising. The latter was always an early riser and the other two were sharing a suite with Mater. Luigi, Guido and Fudge weren't quite awake yet, so they were much slower joining us for breakfast.

As Mater started up on his birthday pancakes, we all sang "Happy Birthday", attracting the attention of everyone else at the buffet, who also sang.

Mater grinned. "Thanks, everybody."

"We don't have that many presents for you, honey", Flo explained apologetically, sending four small packages his way, "because we had to bring them with us on the plane. We hope you like them anyway."

"Dad-gum!" Mater exclaimed excitedly. "You didn't need to get me nothin'! I'm just happy to spend my birthday with my bestest friends in the whole world!" He reached for a present, but Ramone stopped him.

"Wait! Don't open them yet! We're expecting a phone call first."

As if on cue, the second the last syllable left his mouth, his phone started ringing and he was quick to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ramone! Is Mater there?"

"Sure is."

"Howdy, Sheriff!" Mater shouted.

"Lizzie and Red are here too", Sheriff informed him. The three of them sang "Happy Birthday" too. At least I think Red sang. He's always so quiet, so I couldn't really tell. The other two sounded terrible, though. We all had to fight hard not to laugh.

Mater grinned again. "Thank you!"

"Did you get our present?" Red wanted to know.

"I have, but I ain't opened it yet."

So, we let Mater open his presents and he was delighted with all of them.

When they were all opened, I cleared my throat. "So, Mater", I began, "you must've noticed that none of those presents were from me. Well, that's... that's because my present for you is something I couldn't wrap." I paused dramatically. "How would you like to go for a helicopter ride this morning?" I thought he'd love that; normally, he loves going for rides in the Dinoco helicopter.

Of course, his eyes widened in amazement. "Dad-gum! I would love to! You is the best buddy in the whole wide world!"

"Well, we were about to ask if you had any plans for the day", Sheriff chuckled. "I guess that answers that question."

"Anyone else want to come?" I offered.

Most of the others shook their hoods. I think they wanted it to be a best friends' outing.

However, I guess Fudge didn't get that memo. "Do you mind if I come? Last couple of times I've been in a helicopter, they've been medical ones."

"If it's all right with your dads, we'd love for you to come, right, Mater?"

"Yeah! The three of us is gon' have so much fun!"


Our helicopter flight was booked for ten-thirty that morning. So, we couldn't head there straight away. So, we decided to head to the beach with everyone else. I still couldn't get over how amazing it looked. Pale white sand, clear blue waters, lots of bright colours in the coral, the shells and the fish swimming around in the water. It felt like somewhere you'd only see in pictures, not something you'd actually see in real life. It was the real Caribbean.

Mater and I were parked in the sand, making sandcastles. They kept crumbling down with every move we made and they didn't turn out looking so good (shame Ramone didn't help us; they would've been masterpieces), but we had a lot of fun. Flo and Sally were sunbathing. Luigi kept a close and anxious eye on Fudge as she and everyone else tried paddle boarding. Tried being the key word. Not all of them had much success. Fillmore could only go around and around in one big circle. As for Fudge? Well, that kid is completely and hopelessly uncoordinated. She couldn't even stand up on her board without tumbling straight back into the water. We all laughed so hard our tanks hurt. We weren't laughing at her; it was just funny, Besides, she was laughing too, so we didn't feel bad about it.

"You guys wanna try this?" Fillmore offered as he tried and failed to paddle closer towards us.

I shook my hood. "Nah, I'm good. Mater?"

Mater shook his front. "Nah. I don't wanna fall in. Besides, what if there is sharks in the water?" He tipped his bucket full of sand upside-down and lifted it up. Some of the sand crumbled, but most of it stayed in place, so he used his tow hook to draw candles and wrote the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATER! on it. "Look, buddy! It's a birthday cake!"

"Come on! It's fun!" Fudge called, only to fall straight back into the water, much to everyone's amusement.

"I'd love to see you on Total Wipeout, Fudge!" Ramone commented.

"Yeah, I'll bet you would!" Fudge retorted as she tried to climb back up onto her bed. The whole thing flipped over and sent her back into the water, making all of us laugh hysterically.

Mater grinned at me. "This is great birthday entertainment!"

"Sure is, buddy. Maybe we should bring some paddle boards back to Radiator Springs."

Fortunately, Fudge didn't hear me. The other fortunate thing was that she didn't notice when I took out my phone and started filming.

At least, she didn't at first. After falling into the water for about the sixtieth time, she stood up and peeled her sopping wet dark brown hair from her face. When she managed to part all of her hair, the first thing she noticed was me with my phone pointed directly at her. And that I was laughing as I looked at it.

"You're filming me, aren't you?!" she exclaimed.

I was laughing too hard to answer, so I just nodded.

"That's mean!" she cried, but since she was laughing too, I didn't take her seriously.

She came charging out of the water and towards me purposefully. I grabbed her and swung her around, so that she toppled over in the wet sand.

"You better be careful what you do to me now, Fudge", I teased. "Otherwise, this baby's going on FlewTube."

Fudge pretended to be horrified. "You wouldn't dare!"

I wouldn't really do that and we both knew it.

Just at that moment, I heard a SLOSH! Before I had time to question what it was, I was drenched across the roof. I yelped in surprise.

Fudge giggled. "Get 'im, Mater!"

I turned around to find Mater swinging his pail with a big grin on his face. "I just did! Now, I'm gonna git you!"

"You'll have to catch me first!" Fudge taunted, sprinting back into the waves, giggling.

"Fudgie!" Luigi called. "Calm down, please!" However, it was hard to take him seriously either because he was laughing along with everyone else.

I laughed too. Things hadn't always been great on this vacation, but now, we were all here, having fun. This was the way it was supposed to be.


Finally, at about ten-twenty, Mater, Fudge and I were standing in front of a small building, waiting for our helicopter to arrive. It hadn't been easy to get Luigi to leave. He'd been too busy smothering Fudge with sunscreen.

"Do you have your medication?" he quizzed me.

"Yes I do", I assured him. "But she'll probably be with you for lunch, anyway."

"But just in case."

"I know; that's why we brought it with us", Fudge reasoned, trying and half-failing to sound patient.

Luigi looked surprised for a moment before continuing with his panicked reminders. "You remember that I do not have a phone anymore, but don't hesitate to call Babbo if there are any.. any problems."

"Which there won't be", I put in firmly.

"No. I'm sure there won't", Luigi agreed. I don't think he was convinced about that. He just didn't want Fudge to get worried about there being any problems (which she wasn't). "Now, you did remember your-"

"There it is!" Mater shrieked, cutting off whatever it was Luigi was about to say.

Sure enough, a dark blue and white helicopter landed in front of us.

"Hola!" he greeted us with a thick Freewheeler Island accent. "I am Javier and I will be your guide through the sky today. If you will please, follow me."

"Okay. Have fun, angel." Luigi gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You remember where we are meeting for lunch?"

"Yes, Papà", Fudge assured him.

"Okay", he repeated, giving her another kiss. "I will see you later."

"See you, Papà!" She kissed his fender and ran off after Mater and me.

She got inside the helicopter just in time. The second she was settled in her seat, seatbelt buckled and helmet on, Javier took off. We were in the air!


The view from up in the helicopter was incredible. Clear blue water seemed to stretch on forever. Every once in a while, we'd see a tiny island. They looked about the size of the head of a pin from up there, but you could still see a tiny little bit of white sand. We could even see the dark shadows of turtles moving under the water.

"Wow!" Fudge exclaimed, just as impressed as I was. "Awesome!"

Luckily, I'd brought along my camera and was snapping pictures of the view. After about twenty pictures, I realised that Mater was being uncharacteristically quiet. Well, he had been a lot on this vacation because he'd been scared. So, I decided to look over at him to see if he was okay. He was. In fact, he was more than okay. He had a wide grin on his face and equally wide eyes in amazement. I knew everything was going to be all right.


That was how the first ten minutes of our trip panned out. We had the helicopter for an hour and I thought the last fifty minutes would be just as great as the first ten.

I thought wrong.

The trouble started when it started to get a little windy. It was pretty noisy up against the helicopter, but it didn't feel very strong.

Mater became a little nervous. "What's that?"

"It's just the wind, Mater", I tried to calm him down.

"Wind?" he repeated, not calm at all. "Is we gonna have a storm?"

"Not as far as I can tell", Javier jumped into our conversation. "I am confident that we'll have nothing but blue skies all day. Now, if you'll look to your right, you will see Coconut Island, one of the islands' most-"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a larger gust of wind. Mater shrieked. "What if there is gon' be a storm?!" he cried. "What if we done crash and get stranded on an island?! No one would know where to find us! We would be stuck here forever!"

I frowned. I could see that he was worried. "Maybe we should turn around."

"But I don't wanna turn around!" Fudge protested from behind us.

We all ignored her.

Mater sighed with relief. "Yeah, I think we should."

"No!" Fudge cried, but once again, we all ignored her.

"Turn around?" Javier asked. "I can do that."

And he did.


The second we were back on solid ground, Fudge snatched her medication from me, climbed out of the helicopter and threw her arms in the air in frustration. "Unbelievable!" she exclaimed, storming off into the sand dunes.

"Fudge!" I called, chasing after her. "Fudge, wait!"

"No!" she shouted. Her stomping sent the birds flying. Flashes of very bright colours shot upwards. "I've had it!"

"With what?"

"Him!"

"He has a name", I reminded her sharply. Since I've always thought of myself as being kind of like Fudge's big brother, not her father or her uncle, I try not to tell her off or tell her what to do too much. Sometimes, however, she just asks for it. Like right now.

"He's such a baby!" was her response.

"Fudge!" I shouted in disbelief. "Don't you think you're being a little unfair?"

"Isn't he?!" she retorted. "I can't have any fun without him freaking out every little thing! He's ruining everything! I guess Uncle Sarge isn't the only killjoy around here!"

Mater looked hurt.

Fudge turned away, but I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Now, wait a minute, Fudge Rossi-Topolino", I began, stopping myself just in time from saying young lady. That would've been a little too parent-y for me. "What about your fears? I know for a fact that you still freak out if your dads go to the bathroom in the middle of the night 'cause you think they're not coming back. And we can't use candles or stoves around you. Do any of us criticise you for it? No! We don't! He's only worried because he cares!"

"Or he just wants to ruin my fun!" Fudge shot back. "If he wants to be a worrywart and ruin his own vacation, fine! He can do that! Why does he have to ruin it for me too?! He's just a selfish jerk like that! And I don't wanna see or talk to him!"

Mater looked even more hurt.

"Oh, real mature!" I snapped. At that point, I became aware of a flash of yellow disappearing into the tall grass in the dunes, but I didn't see what it was. Probably just another bird. "The only baby around here is you!"

Fudge just glared at me for a moment. "I'm going to the pool!" she announced with a huff, breaking away from my grip. "Happy birthday, Mater!"

"Fine! You wanna be like that?" I called after her. "Go ahead! Leave! We'll have so much more fun without you anyway."

With her major abandonment issues, I figured that would teach a nerve for Fudge and for a second, it did. She turned to stare at me with a hurt look on her face. Then her face hardened as she scoffed. "Yeah, right. Doing what?"

She hurried off.

I turned back to Mater, smiling. "Oh, who needs her?"

He looked at me gratefully. "Thanks, buddy."

"Don't mention it", I told him. "Now, what do you say we go grab a birthday lunch?"

"Kin we go to the Treetop Café?" he requested.

"Sure", I agreed. "Anything for my best friend."

Mater grinned. "Yer best friend. That's me. Let's go then."