Road Trip
Life is an interesting story…
People are the actors and story is what holds them together.
The funny thing is, story is completely irrelevant!
It's an excuse for bringing those we love and hate together so they can surround us with their personalities.
It's their likes and dislikes, that are forcing us to interact, and it is through these trials within the environment we are placed in, that we learn about life.
That can make people wonder, " Is life…just a set of rules? What are we supposed to get out of it?"
It's questions like these that can torture the soul.
What if you never had the chance to interact with others to decide weather you liked or hated them? What if from the very day you were born, you were given a number instead of a name?
The first thing that you held in you hand was not a baby rattler, but a dummy grenade.
Then it may be concluded that darkness is, and will be the only thing that you will ever see.
Life is an interesting story…
But, how do you know when exactly it goes from being a suspenseful drama to an exciting thriller, or an adventure to a tragedy?
That can never be answered beforehand.
But there are times when a part of you opens up to the tragic reality of things and you learn to accept everything around you, including your fate.
A prelude to all things around us…
Not all stories are meant to have a happy ending.
They can however have a much deeper meaning within the surface.
In a story about discovery of things never imagined, new elements open up to the senses and new emotions are embraced.
Zack and Cody have another brother.
Carrie and Kurt have another son.
But how far are you willing to go in order to discover the pitfalls of life? How far can the heart stretch before it gets ripped to shreds?
The key is to venture forth…
Because everyday is the beginning of the end of what we know to be true…
"I'm a nervous wreck." Carrie said. She had been pacing all over the place for the past few days, seemingly paranoid, and a little delusional.
It had been a week since the boys discovered that they were triplets. They have since reconciled with their parents and things kind of went back to normal. Kurt had checked into the hotel and had been hanging out around the suite everyday.
This was probably the most the boys have seen of their dad in a very long time. He had been on the road for quite a while.
"Don't be scared, you're not in this alone." Kurt said, trying to comfort her.
Kurt had spent two days on the phone trying to contact every missing child agency only to find a lot of dead ends. Finally, when Kurt was able to get through, they were able to tell him about a rescued boy matching the correct description that was in a rehabilitation center for children in crisis. It was in upstate New York.
It was a little surprising that he wasn't even that far away, a six-hour drive, at the most. With a little bit of planning, a little persuasion for vacation time from Mr. Moseby, and time off from school for the boys, they were ready to hit the road.
It was officially dooms day.
Kurt bargained with the band to have them stay in the suite he paid three days in advance for, in exchange for using the RV for the trip. The boys didn't seem a bit nervous. They were ready to see this mysterious missing link in their gene pool.
As much as they both wanted to tell everyone at the Tipton what they had just discovered, Carrie told them to keep their mouth shut about it. She could just imagine Mr. Moseby having a heart attack at the very thought there were more than two kids from the "village of the damned" roaming about in this world.
Climbing into the RV, Cody waves around a bunch of folders with papers falling out.
"Hey Zack! I got my make up homework, I went ahead and got yours too, now we won't be behind. Isn't that great?" Cody said with a big smile across his face.
Zack just looked at him with a disgusted face. Cody was actually proud of what he had just done.
"What did you do that for? This is considered vacation time! Are you nuts? You're expecting me to do something while I'm not at school?"
"Hey. I did it for the sake of your grade."
"You know that we have an arrangement. You work with the grades and I keep everyone from bothering you. It's an equal exchange."
"Equal exchange? I do your book reports, and your final projects! You know if you applied yourself…"
Zack put his hand in front of Cody's face.
"Ask me if I care."
Cody gave him a puzzled look.
"What?"
"Ask me if I care."
Cody knew where this was going. My god Zack could be annoying, it was like he had to hit a certain mark of immaturity everyday and would stop at nothing until he surpassed his old record, he was so obnoxious.
"Just ask me if I care." Zack told him, his eyes narrowing in on Cody's.
Cody just glared, folding his arms he finally gave in to Zack's demand.
"Do you care?" He said breathlessly.
"Not even a little bit. Boy, you've sure got a lot of homework to do."
Zack slapped Cody's back and after a moment of silence. Zack busted into laughter and went into the back of the RV to get a drink.
Cody of course felt like a complete idiot for making that deal in the first place. Zack would've stood up for him regardless, but since Cody provided a way out of his homework, he's been screwed over since 5th grade.
"Alright we are gonna take off soon, did anybody forget anything?" Kurt asked.
" I think I left my lungs in the hotel, it's getting hard to breathe. Carrie said.
Out of all four in the car, she was the one everyone was going to have to watch just to make sure she didn't have a panic attack.
"Alright then, we are taking off in T Minus 3… 2… 1…"
"That was annoying before, and it's annoying now." Carrie interrupted.
Kurt just laughed.
Cody stared at his parents for a while. For a second it felt like they were all a close family again. Carrie was in the passenger side and Kurt was going to drive while the boys would sit in the back like it was a camping trip.
While Cody still liked to reminisce on the past and what should've been, Zack was more of the type that accepted everything as it was and didn't care about how it got that way. To him, the point was, and always has been to "move on."
Zack noticed Cody's hopeful expression as he was coming from the backroom.
"Give it up buddy it aint happening."
Cody quickly looked away to pretend he wasn't staring.
"What are you talking about?"
"I saw the way you were looking at them, you think there's a possible chance don't you?"
"Well maybe there is. I mean they're this close to each other and they haven't started arguing or anything. Maybe if we meet our brother, he'll be overjoyed to see us, along with mom and dad. What if we can take him home? We could all be a family again.
Zack took a swig of root beer and set it in the portable sink. The RV was moving around too much.
"Why do you continue to do this to yourself? You remember what happened at Christmas last year. You thought there was a chance, and you flew with that possibility and ended up crashing and burning on the sofa. Then after watching your sickening display of emotional over flow I had to clean up the mess."
"Oh so I'm just a big baby to you?"
"Don't turn this into a soap opera. You set yourself up to fall over every time. Face it. You're just living in a dream world. You should just enjoy the trip, this is as close as they're gonna get."
Zack grabbed his root beer and headed towards the front where he could mess with the radio stations.
Cody wanted to tell Zack he was wrong, but Cody knew he was right. He never liked to admit defeat but he knew somehow that life would never be the same no matter how much he wanted it to be.
He looked outside the window to see the city just pass him by. It was interesting he though how quickly things change.
There's no greater impact on the passing of time when you're taking a drive. You look forward anticipating the future, you see the approaching bridge, and within a second it becomes the present and then just as quickly the past. You watch it disappear as if it was never there in the first place.
Life is an interesting story…
We make up excuses for life when there really is no excuse. The troubles we go through are intended to teach us something about ourselves.
Instead people find ways to blame it on other things.
"Maybe it was never meant to be…"
"If only I had handled this a different way…"
"If only mom and dad were still together… life wouldn't be this rough…"
This was the overpowering thought that always surrounded Cody. He didn't realize it, but he was slowly changing into a different person. Little did he know that each and every time he lost an inner battle, his heart was becoming harder and harder. Unless he changed his view of life, he would internally damage his emotions and never recover.
He would always let his feelings fester in the depths of his soul. He would ignore all of his doubts and continue on with life as if nothing was wrong.
Cody looked at the table piled with loose papers.
On these pieces of papers were blank columns, unanswered questions, and mysteries of life that he actually had the power to discover on his own. It was the only thing he had control of. Homework… was his life.
Immediately Cody sat down and pulled out his textbooks and started to sift through the papers. After all, he had a lot of work to do.
As the hours were passing by, Cody could hear laughing towards the front of the RV. It was coming from the three people he knew his whole life.
He was going to have to let that moment last forever in his memory because as Zack said, this was as close to a family he was going to get.
"We're almost there." Kurt said in an upbeat tone. Nobody heard him. The drive had been long and it was down to the last hour and a half. Carrie had gone to sleep; she was drooling on the dashboard. Cody was slumped over his homework assignments.
Zack had been keeping his dad company since the other two had dozed off to sleep. For about the past 45 minutes they had been talking about road life, girls, and strip joints. It was fun. They pulled into a gas station and stopped for a bite to eat across the street. It was around four in the morning so it was really just the two of them sitting down.
They were in a burger joint both wolfing down triple stackers.
"You might not want to breathe on anybody for the next couple of days after this." Kurt joked.
"It's been a long time since we did something like this" Zack laughed.
" I know. We really should do this more often."
They both laughed.
"Yeah… we should." Zack finished.
There was a brief moment of silence. Then to change the subject Zack went ahead and asked his dad.
"What do you think he'll be like?"
Kurt looked up to the ceiling and then gave a weak smile to Zack.
" To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know. I mean I've been wondering since the whole road trip if he's even going to want to speak to me."
"You can't hate somebody if you've never met them." Zack said trying to reassure his dad that there was still a chance for reconciliation.
"We're all taking a chance here hoping for the best, but ultimately we're doing this to uncover the past and accept what we have done as parents, and for you boys, accept those who are family regardless of the outcome. We all need some closure."
Kurt took a drink of his soda and looked off into the distance.
Zack looked down for a second as if to prepare for his next question.
"What were you going to name him?"
There was no response. Instead Kurt looked at his watch and got up from the table.
He looked at Zack momentarily and then looked across the street at the RV.
"We better get going kiddo."
That was it? Zack thought. Was he going to just brush off the question as if he never asked? Kurt was heading out of the door and Zack quickly followed behind.
"Dad!"
As they were nearing towards the RV zack tugged on Kurt's sleeve stopping him.
"What Zack?"
"What we're you going to name him?"
"We shouldn't talk about this." Kurt kept walking. Zack grabbed his arm again.
"Why can't we talk about this! You've been beating around the bush for thirteen years! I have to know something about my brother. Why can't you tell me his name?"
"I can't…" he mumbled.
"Why not?" Zack was trying to make eye contact but Kurt kept looking away.
"Because Zack…" Kurt finally got the courage to look at his son and realized that his greatest despair would pour out of him, the reason why he felt so guilty about his third son.
" Zack I don't know… everything happened so fast… I didn't even have time to name him." Kurt looked down towards the ground.
"I never got a chance to name him… I never got the chance." Kurt drifted off.
Zack finally realized how hard it was for his father to admit this. This must have eaten away at him for years. His own flesh and blood… he was the reason his son was just a number.
He never had a name to begin with…
A few minutes passed by before they realized they were standing in the middle of the street and cars were starting to occupy the roads.
"We'd better get going." Zack finally said.
They walked silently to the RV and slipped in before Carrie and Cody ever woke up. Zack went to sit in the back, Kurt started up the engine and they were off again. Neither of them would speak for the rest of the drive, both feeling guilty for stirring up the past.
Zack looked over at Cody slumped over the table full of homework.
"How pathetic" he thought. But in a way he envied his younger brother.
At least he was allowed to express his emotions. He was allowed to cry, allowed to be "sensitive". As disgustingly embarrassing as it was, Cody was able to be himself. That was a part Zack had to sacrifice of himself when the divorce happened.
Only one was allowed to be heart broken, the other had to stay behind and staple everything together half assed in order to make life go on. He wasn't perfect at it but he always found a way to make things better.
He was going to have to do it again when things crumbled, when this family reunion would fall apart.
Zack always anticipated failure.
He never thought of things ever succeeding, or working out to his advantage. Expecting the worst was the only way to eliminate any surprise attack on his emotions.
He had to be stronger than everyone else.
The drive finally ended and they were in the parking lot of the facility. It was still early so all they could do was wait. Kurt finally drifted off to sleep, and the only one awake was Zack. In reality he was more scared than anyone else. The truth of the fact was, Zack wanted more than anything to see this work out.
His father was right. Everyone needed closure from their past mistakes.
The thoughts of Cody played back in his mind from earlier.
"Maybe if we meet our brother, he'll be overjoyed to see us, along with mom and dad. What if we can take him home? We could all be a family again."
Zack wanted to see his family smile, not just on the outside; he wanted them to truly be happy so that maybe, just maybe he could be happy too.