Feeling

Chapter 9 - the Holiday begins

I got quite excited about the summer holiday ahead of me, being a week in Spain, I can’t really complain that much. Dad had gone to all the effort to book us on a plane that would cater for my wheelchair needs, it didn’t seem very long at all until I was packing my bag, ready for the holiday.

The morning of the flight I was woke up at 4 am, ready to leave at half past. I didn’t need much time to get ready, as I’d packed everything I needed the night before.

Dad packed all the bags into the boot of the car, and we all clambered inside. Me and dad were wearing tracksuits, but of course Natalie was in a summer dress with a hat on, before we even got to the airport.

Once we got there, we handed in our bags and headed straight for Frankie and Bennies for breakfast. You’ve gotta a love a full English breakfast at the airport. A good start to every holiday.

The proccesses of getting through all the metal detectors was easy. Having a wheelchair gave me and dad a great advantage of pushing ahead in the queue. Leaving Natalie behind of course. One we were in we waited another 20 minutes for Natalie to get through and then dad pushed me through customs where I picked up a few chocolate bars and crisps.

Natalie blabbered on about how nice our hotel will be, and how close we are to the beach and such. But I just kept thinking about all the sites to see, and how wonderful it will be. A place built for people to have easy access to everything, I can wheel myself around the towns and not have to worry about steps and overcrowding. It will be bliss. And a chance to get away from Natalie.

My imagination was filled with possibilities. The air stewardess helped me to my seat on the plane, being in a wheelchair there was only one space next to me, so I got to sit with my dad for the flight and Natalie had to sit by herself.

The plane – although very stuffy – was quite comfortable, and settling. The food wasn’t the highlight of the journey, but 3 hours on a plane, with my dad trying to talk about how wonderful Natalie is, made the food seem a lot better than it was. Finally we landed, and I wheeled myself as quickly as I could to baggage claim. The Spanish signs made it a little confusing, but I got there eventually.

We waited for about 20 minutes and all of our bags had come through, what luck! Dad put one bag on my lap, and he carried the other two while Natalie tottered around in her heels. We went outside to see a very large cab waiting to take us to our hotel. Because of my wheelchair dad booked us a cab rather than a coach, which I appreciated. Driving through all the towns was so lovely. We’d landed in Cala D’or, Majorca. The sun was shining, the sky was bright blue, and everyone we drove past was smiling. There were loads of stalls, and stands with women braiding girls' hair. There were men walking around with watches and lasers and sunglasses and hats. Anything you could by in a regular shop really. Loads of quaint resturaunts, and drinking bars, with people watching televisions, and playing music. We saw loads of families walking around, but a lot more poor families as we neared the hotel.

We saw a gorgeous white marble hotel, right by a bus stop. It would have been so perfect for me to get into the town, however this wasn’t the hotel we were booked into. We started to drive down a small alleyway, and came out into a large dirt field, driving down the wobbly dirt-stone path dampened my hopes of getting into the town easily.

At the end of the field there was a line of palm trees which were separated by a rusty metal gate. As we drove through I saw the horror of our hotel. The entrance was half falling apart, there was a door missing, people were sleeping on the floor in the grounds of it, and the ‘out front swimming pool’ was empty, with walls covered in mold.

Even Dad’s face was horrified. But Natalie looked more excited than ever.

“Me and my family have been coming here for decades!” she screeched

“More like centuries” I whispered in dads ear, he let out a giggle which caused Natalie to throw a strop, and jump out of the car.

Dad paid the driver and off he went, Natalie had already gone inside to pick up our room keys, leaving dad with all three bags to carry.

Natalie skipped over to us with two keys, one for her and dad and one for me apparently. But I can’t physically stay in a room by myself, and dad told Natalie this as she came over to us.

“You’ll need to have the single room, cos I’ll have to help this one up in the mornings” dad shrugged his hand towards me as he spoke then rested it on my shoulder and squeezed it.

“How about I stay in the room with her?” I was definitely not expecting Natalie to say that. I looked at dad with utter panic and he shook his head and laughed.

“I think she’d rather have me” the way he spoke made it seem like he was on my team, but he then grabbed Natalie by the waist and snogged her.

The nasty business forced me to wheel myself towards the reception. I had hoped to find out about a bus, but the only way of getting to a bus stop was by wheeling myself down the wobbly mud track, and up to the other hotel we saw. Unhappy with the news, I went to find the wonderful beach Natalie raved about. The beach, in comparison to the rest of the hotel, was pretty good. The waves were quite high in the sea, the sand was white and pure, the breeze was perfect. Enough to not let yourself get burnt, but to keep you cool enough to sunbathe, and the sunbeds were quite high quality, all the meanwhile reminding yourself that you’re in a low budget (the lowest budget) hotel in Majorca.

The breeze made me happy. The whole beach made me happy. Dad had paid for wheels for my chair that made it easy for me to get across sand, I wheeled myself right towards the sea. As a wave came in I put my hand on the warm sand, and felt the freezing ocean wash across my skin. I turned myself around to see Natalie on a sunbed, talking to a random man standing next to her. He had a bag of goods, and some goods in his hand. He looked as though he was selling things, but talking to Natalie it didn't look like he was selling much.