Not Having Fun

045

"The what?"

"The Dominican Republic," Mum grins, the tickets in her hand. "That's where I was born. We're going for a whole week!"

Chris looks at the tickets. "This is for the last week in June,"

"Mhm," Mum smiles.

"School doesn't finish until July,"

"That's right," she smiles even bigger.

"We get to miss the last week of school?!"

"That'd right," says Dad, and Chris celebrates.

Mum look at me. "Are you alright Max?"

"Why can't we go in the holidays?" the last week of school is the best week. Why can't we go in the first week? Or one of the middle weeks? They all suck.

"I'm sorry Max, this is the best flights we could get. It's a lot of money to go to the Dominican," Mum sighs. "But you'll have the whole holidays when you get back! An extra weeks of school, isn't that fun?"

"'Suppose so,"

I do want to see were Mum is from. She told me that its so warm that I'll need to wear suncream all day! And I'll need to get a malaria injection. And that means needles! I hate needles, I think we as drive to the doctor's.

"It won't hurt Max, it's just like a little finger prick,"

Grown ups always say that, but it always hurts anyway.

We get there, and get in fine. I lie on the weird squishy table doctors have. The nurse is an older woman and she sounds really strict. There's a picture on the wall that has lemons on it. She tells me to look at that and when I look back, it'll all be over and I won't even have felt it. I look at the picture. I like lemo-

"Ow!" I look at my arm and there's a big needle in it. I start crying and she pulls it out.

"It's all done, it's just a finger prick,"

"It hurt!"

"No it didn't, come on, be a brave boy now,"

"Excuse me," Mum holds me and pulls me on her knee. "You told him he wouldn't notice it and it did. Of course it hurts!"

"Well, he's the first child I've never had a problem with!" The nurse looks angry now.

"That's fine," Mum holds my hand. "Let's go, Max," she walks me out the doctor's office.

Two days later, we're at the airport! The airport is always warmer than the outside temperature. We go to lots of different shops and I get a Real Madrid football strip! We get lots of sweets for the plane, and Mum and Dad stuck up in the duty free. I don't know what the duty free is. I think it just means airport shops.

"I want this!" I hold up a box of Kinder bars. The bars are tiny and the box is so big! There must be like 100 in this box.

"No Max, it's £10. You can get that many Kinder bars for three quid out the shop," Dad says.

"But not in a big box like this!"

"Behave, or you're not getting anything! I'm not paying ten pounds for a box, Max,"

I throw the box on the ground. "You never get me anything I want!"

"That's it," Dad grabs my arm and pulls me behind a big pillar.

SMACK!

"Ah-ow!" I short my hands back and rub my bum. I feel myself crying a little big. Dad smacked hard! He knees down.

"The airport is crowded and we need to be on time for our plane. You need to listen to me and you can't misbehave in the airport! Do you understand?!"

I wipe my eyes and nod. Dad stands up and holds my hand.

When we get back to the counter, Mum and Chris have done the shopping. They got me an M&M box, that has a lot of sweets in it! How didn't I notice this?

"Was someone misbehaving?" Mum asks and looks down at me. "Maybe he doesn't deserve these,"

"I'll behave, I promise!"

"Alright then," Mum gives me the sweets (their package can be a toy too!) and we keep going through the airport.

The plane is 10 hours long! It's so long they have to show films on it so people don't get too bored. I bring my book, and read it on the plane. After a while though, I get bored.

"Mum?"

"Yes Max?"

"Can I go for a walk?"

Mum looks up at the seatbelt signs. Sure enough, they're off. "Alright Max. Just up and down this bit, don't go to the other sections," the other sections are separated by a curtain.

"I won't," I explore the plane for a little bit (there's a dog on it!) and come back when it's time for dinner. The plane food is horrible. Just as bad as Chris said it'd be.

"It's getting dark," Mum looks out the window.

"It'll only be five when we get to the Dominican once we account for the time difference. D'you think we should try and have a sleep?"

"They won't sleep when we get there if they do," Dad shakes his head. "We'll all be jetlagged to buggery,

"I'm tireeeed!" I whine.

"I know Max, I'm sorry. Try to stay awake. You can sleep once we get to the hotel,"

I whine and lie my head on Mum's shoulder. I don't care about the movie anymore.

"Chris, keep him occupied, will you?" Mum asks while she plays with Roxie on her knee. Chris is sitting over with Dad and he leans over the aisle.

"Alright Max, lets play a game called MASH,"

"Okay!" I nod. I know some of the older kids at primary school play MASH.

We do play, and before I know it, it's light again and we're flying over land.