I bent over to pick up my suitcase. I was only assuming that my suitcase was still on the floor where I had put it earlier since I couldn't see my feet or anything around them on the floor. All I could see was my belly. Anyway, I made the mistake of trying to bend over at the waist. Bad idea. I stood straight up, and my hand went to my back. I moaned in agony.
"Hey, honey," I called to James. "If I'm ever 32 weeks pregnant again, remind me not to pack a suitcase on the floor and then try to pick it up."
James stuck his head inside the door. "Oh, yeah. Why didn't you let me do that?"
"Oh, I don't know," I moaned, plopping down on the bed. "Maybe because I'm stubborn."
"You don't have to tell me that," James said cheerfully. He effortlessly lifted my suitcase. I gave in and instructed him to pack a few more things that I had not yet included. He did it all without saying a word. Until he packed my maternity bathing suit. Actually, it belonged to Aunt Peaches. I heard him stifle a laugh, and I sat straight up and glared at him.
"I am perfectly aware of how repulsive it is," I said haughtily. "And I do not need you laughing at me right now. For your information, I am not going to be seen in public wearing that, looking like a beached whale." He howled with laughter at this, unable to control himself. I shot him a look that shut him up fast. "That was not supposed to be comical. I fully intend to wear it underneath one of your old t-shirts. And if you think that there is anything whimsical about me being--"
"I-I," Poor James was at a loss for words. "I'm so sorry. Of course not, sweetheart."
He kissed my cheek and I forgave him. About five minutes later as we were loading up the car, I realized that my brain was now pregnant. Here it was, August 24th - the day before our first anniversary, and I was a basket full of hormones. So I apologized for my behavior, and he forgave me.
I dialed my mom up on her cell phone. She answered right away.
"Hey, Mom," I said. "James and I are ready to leave."
"Great," she replied. "The Yamakawas are here. We're all set to leave Stoneybrook." In the background, I could hear cheering. It sounded like Claudia, Will, and Zach. "Don't forget that we're stopping for ice cream when we get past New York City. Claudia's request. The place is called Howard Johnson's."
"Okay," I agreed. "I might have to call you for directions."
"Fine," Mom said. "Keep your phone on, sweetie. 'Bye."
Duh. "Bye."
Sea City, here we come!
It was a long drive just to get to Howard Johnson's. It was pretty early in the morning, and I just couldn't resist curling up in the back seat for a little nap. I asked James to wake me up when it was my turn to drive. Then once I was as comfortable as I could possibly get with my pillows and blanket, I settled down, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep...
...Our baby girl somehow went to sleep when I did. That nap in the back seat of the car turned out to be so relaxing that I didn't wake up until the baby woke me up with a good, hard kick. Then another. Then another.
I sat up and rubbed my belly, trying to get the baby to settle down. Then I looked out the window and realized we were already most of the way through NYC.
"James," I said sharply. "You should have woken me up to drive an hour ago."
"I couldn't," he smiled. "You were sleeping so peacefully, and I figured a little extra rest would do you some good once we got to Sea City. I don't think you've slept like that in awhile."
"You're right," I agreed. "The baby didn't even wake me up until just now." I stretched and yawned. "Listen, you've got to let me take over after Howard Johnson's."
He agreed. And not long after that, it was time for us to stop. I called Mom and it turned out that they weren't far behind us. We arrived at Howard Johnson's, and five minutes later, the rest of the family showed up in two cars.
They piled out, came inside, and we all ordered treats. Claudia and Zach ordered banana splits, Will got a strawberry sundae, James got a waffle cone with two scoops of Rocky Road, Mr. and Mrs. Yamakawa shared a Cappuchino Chiller, and my parents ordered frozen yogurt with granola sprinkles and fresh fruit. I couldn't resist the craving for chocolate so I ordered just one scoop of triple chocolate. Mom frowned at me, but I didn't care.
"Hey, Janine," Claudia was grinning. "Would you like a pickle to go with that?"
Actually, that sounded delicious. But I wouldn't dare reveal to my family that I had indeed been driven crazy by my pregnancy. Instead, I stuck my tongue out at her and ate my ice cream. But her comment had me secretly longing for a pickle, and my ice cream didn't taste nearly as good without it.
After about fifteen minutes of eating and stretching our legs, we were on the road again. I was behind the wheel, but just barely. I had to move the chair back a good bit, and then it was hard to reach the steering wheel. But I managed somehow, and James didn't dare to say a word. But Claudia laughed at me from the back seat until she finally saw me glaring at her in the rear-view mirror.
We turned on the radio and were generally pretty quiet. Claudia had a Nancy Drew mystery with her in the back seat. Of course, she's read all of her mysteries countless times. Claudia told me about a website she recently found called fanfiction.net. There she had discovered other stories written about the same characters by fans, and according to Mom, reading new stories about her favorite character, Nancy Drew, could entertain Claudia for hours. And Claudia told me that she also found fanfiction about her favorite band, Tin Can Voices, on the site. But why my sister would choose amateur fiction over the real thing, I just couldn't comprehend.
"I have To Kill A Mockingbird in my backpack, Claud," I eventually offered. "Would you like to read that? I think you'd find it very entertaining."
"No, thanks."
"Okay. Suite yourself."
So Claudia went back to reading, I concentrated on driving, and James took a short nap.
"Hey!" Claudia spoke up for the first time about an hour later. "We're almost to the exit!"
I had already seen it: SEA CITY, EXIT 10 MILES. "Yep!"
"Woohoo!" Claudia yelled.
In a few short minutes, we were driving off the exit ramp. I rolled down the windows, and we all caught a whiff of saltwater; the shore could be seen in the distance as we approached Sea City. I turned off the air conditioner because the air was so much cooler with the breezes coming from the ocean and felt awesome coming through the open windows. The exit ramp turned onto a causeway the crossed over the patches of marshy land. Because of the land connecting it to the mainland, Sea City wasn't exactly an island, but it was pretty close.
"The cow sign!" Claudia squealed. We were driving past a billboard with a three- dimensional purple cow. "Crabs for Grabs!" Now she was yelling out the name of a seafood restaurant as we drove past it. James gave me a puzzled look.
"What are you doing, Claud?" I asked.
"These are the Pike family landmarks. They look for them every year," she explained. "There's the last one... Weiner's Weiners!" We were passing by another billboard that featured a picture of a guy in a hotdog suit eating a hotdog. So technically, he was eating himself. The three of us erupted into a fit of giggling.
As we cruised down Sea City's main road, we were surrounded by all of the attractions in the city. Food stands, gift shops, ice cream parlors, restaurants, recreational places like Trampoline Land and miniature golf. Here, tourists took delight in walking from place to place; we saw groups of people touring the town on foot, laughing and talking with shopping bags and fried food in their hands. In the distance, Claudia pointed out the boardwalk where there were carnival games, arcades, and rides to enjoy. And the most impressive, exciting thing of all was the ocean, crashing softly on the horizon.
We followed the other two cars in our party down the "main drag," then onto a narrow, undivided road that led us to our driveway. And the driveway, of course, led to the back of the house. Claudia had described this house to me before, but I didn't pay much attention. Where we stayed did not seem to be of much importance. But now that I was finally seeing this place, I could appreciate why Claudia had persisted in telling me everything about it. It was an old-fashioned, Victorian-style cottage. Three stories high with yellow and white trim - it looked like something out of a picture book or a fairy tale.
"The Pikes rent this house every year," Claudia said. "They rented it when they went this summer in July. Back when they took two mother's helpers each year for the kids, they had a total of twelve people in the house with room to spare."
The Yamakawas would be in the rooms on the second floor. My parents and Claudia took two of the three bedrooms on the first floor. Our family had already decided that James and I would get the third floor to ourselves. There were only a couple of rooms up there. The larger room where we'd be sleeping had a cozy window seat that overlooked the ocean. It was perfectly charming and romantic; I couldn't imagine a better spot to spend my first anniversary.