Don't dig your own pit
Don’t dig your own pit
A day of fun at the beach can turn into a wasteland of regrets. The sand is scorching hot and you’re probably sunburned and dehydrated. You get in the car for the long drive home, kids sleeping on either side of you squealing about how thirsty they are now, too. If it weren’t for those snacks in your bag, they would have resorted to eating sand by now.
You’re stuck in traffic, and you realize that your car doesn’t have AC, and your fans are ineffective at cooling the interior of your car.
Peeved at this situation and wanting to get home as soon as possible, you decide to cut across a different street than usual. As you’re cruising along the new road, you come to the realization that it is unfamiliar. Strangely familiar. You were here once before and there was a detour sign where now there is none. You know where this street leads too: back to the beach that caused you so much agony getting away from . . .
It feels like someone has punched you in the gut when reality sinks in. You realize this detour sign is a mirage. The street is taking you back to where you started. Oh, dear. What a terrible thing to do to your family, going against what everyone advised and taking them to the beach again for the last time. You knew it wasn’t a good idea before you even got there, but now that it’s over you won’t have a single new memory of the place that brings up bad memories from last time.
Your kids are sleeping happily in the back seat and you want nothing more than for them to stay asleep and not question why the scenery keeps looking so familiar. You wonder what they will say when they wake up and see they’re being taken back to where they were before. You want desperately to just get home, but you feel like this detour sign is mocking you. The road leading home is probably jammed with traffic as well, and you’ve remembered that there’s a gas station up ahead.
You know the gas station has a Jack in the Box for sale, and you could use some time away from your kids to yourself. It’s just around the corner from the exit back onto the highway, so it won’t be that far out of your way . . . and your kids are still sleeping. You’re sure they’ll be fully awake in a few minutes, and you could use the time to go inside and get something to eat. You just want to get them home before they wake up. You wouldn’t mind eating away from them while they were sleeping in the car.
You drive by the Jack in the Box to look for a parking spot and quickly find one. You pull into it and hop out of your car, wondering if you will be able to get something to eat in there alone with peace of mind that they are sleeping soundly. You run inside, quickly find an empty table, and sit at it before looking around for food options. You decide on some breakfast food for dinner, grab a menu to look over your options, order a full meal and one of those sweet Icedream shakes you love so much. You order with the television on and find yourself drawn to it, watching it while you wait for your food. The news is on and there’s a story about how much rain is expected over the next two days. You remember that the beach will probably be wet tomorrow when you go, but you couldn’t care less now. Just as soon as you finish your food, it will be time to head back out on the road with kids in your car screaming their heads off because they just want to go home already. You take a sip from your shake and grimace at the taste.
You decide it would probably be easy enough to drive to the gas station mini-mart to buy new ice cream flavors, and you were planning on getting some gum or candy while you were there. You pay for your food and walk out of Jack in the Box with an arm full of fast food bags. You pause when you get outside, considering just driving away now that you’re holding food, but you remember that your car doesn’t have AC. It may be better if you just run into the gas station and then head back home.
You are confident that they will still be sleeping when you return. You can pop your new ice cream flavor in the freezer tonight, and by tomorrow you won’t have to eat your old flavor and the gum or candy you planned on buying. You get to the car and open your door and set the food bags down on the passenger seat. You’ll stash them under a seat if you can once you get them home.
You hop back out of the car with your shake in one hand and your handbag in another, deciding to walk inside this time so that you don’t have to get back in a hot car every time you want something from inside. You hop the overhang to the mini-mart entrance, feeling a bit safer once you’re inside. You decide to go inside the store so that you don’t have to fume in your car for another minute longer.
Your kids are sleeping soundly in their car seat on this side of the car when you get home, and you instantly feel better knowing that they won’t be able to ask where each item went from this point forward. You swoop into your hidden stash under the seat, pop open one of your ice cream flavors, and take a sip before getting back into your car, waiting so long for some relief from this horrendous detour sign before it even becomes clear what is going on again.
You are abruptly thrust into the place you left your kids, and you realize it is because they have woken up. You hop out of the car, not bothering to close your door this time, and you are so relieved to have found some frozen ice cream flavor to eat while they were sleeping while they were still in their car seats that you don’t even wonder where the other one went.
You pull up right behind them as you walk away from your car, thinking that maybe once they see you in front of them this way, it will help them understand what’s happening. You know it probably won’t help much since there is a detour sign on the way here that makes this road look familiar . . . but it’s all you have. You are on your way back to where you started, hoping that the beach will be there and not a gas station this time.
You open the gate to the playground again, and hope that this time it isn’t a detour sign so much as a shortcut to somewhere else. You walk up to your kids and see that they are in tears, having understood since long before you arrived here that they will be heading back the way they came very soon.
You start the car off again and find yourself heading home with nothing but peaceful silence ahead of you for the first time all day.
Conclusion
Good luck in your next adventure!
* * *
“I am not a single, solitary person. I am a creature that you know. You have known and recognized me for as long as you have known yourself. I am another human being, just like you.” -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“You don’t become a legend just by making the right moves, or winning the right fights—you become a legend because of the decisions you make.” -Muhammad Ali
SOURCES
Buckley, John D.