A Short Story

Fifteen years ago, almost to the day, a young woman was walking around her new college campus, headed to the cafeteria with a new friend. As they walked along the path, in front of the building named Baker, they ran into another young woman and a young man who were friends of this girl's new friend. They had gone to High School together and had no idea that they were all three going to the same college as well. They talked and had a lot of fun laughing over the surprise when this young friend decided to introduce the young unknown to her other two friends. They met and talked for a little while. Eventually, this young woman began running into this same young man. And, as time led on, their simple acquaintance began to develop into a friendship as their groups of friends began to intermingle and merge. Three years later, after a terrible (yet silly) argument, the group of friends began to splinter off and find new friendships. But this same young woman and young man continued on with their friendship, which began to deepen until a point where they would call each other "best friend" and knew each other well enough to be able to sit on their beds in their dorm rooms on the opposite sides of the campus, watching the same TV show and calling the other person so quickly at each commercial break that often the phone was just "connected" and neither side's phone ever rang and neither knew which of them actually made the initial call. A semester later, this young girl professed her newfound and developing crush on this young man. And this young man said, "Ummm...OK" and drove away. Not one to be ignored, this young woman decided to be conniving to get her man and eventually won his heart. After a few more conniving (yet imaginative) moments, she finally found a ring upon her finger on the steps along the sidewalk where this young man and this young woman first met. A few months later, they were married. And 11 years later, almost to the day, this young woman still marvels at the fact that she grew up wanting to marry her best friend and so many years later found her fairy tale dreams coming true.

There was something a little quirky about this young man you should probably know. He wasn't a typical young man. His dorm room wasn't trashed like every other college man's room. It was neat and clean and dusted every day. The girl found that she actually like that - especially because her room more closely resembled the normal man's trashed room. But there was something else she liked because it gave her a great opportunity to tease said young man. It was the funny bedspread on his hard-mattress-on-a-wooden-board dorm room bed. It was covered in Mickey-heads. And funnier still were all the other Mickey-head decorations scattered throughout the room. Like I said before, not your typical college-age young man's room, but something that gave a whiff of the personality of the young man who never really wanted to grow up in his spirit. And while that may be a deterrent for other young women, this young woman later grew up and realized that this small whiff made him the ideal father for several young preschool children because he could giggle with them as they watched cartoons, and he could come up with the most imaginative games to entertain his kids, and could dream up the most amazing preschool songs to teach his children how to spell their very long and difficult first names.

But as all young men and young women eventually have to do, especially after finding themselves upon the path of marriage and adulthood, they found that they had to grow up. And their lives got a little bit harder. And their sweet, gentle spirits with one another began to turn into something angry and bitter. They had to work all day and their tiredness changed their moods. They no longer wanted to play as they began to feel the to-do lists growing. And then children came along and life got harder. They learned that they didn't like each other in the middle of the night as their small offspring was screaming through the night. Their schedules grew from just being a work schedule with a weekend free at home, to a schedule full of "stuff" taking more and more of their precious hours away from one another. And the reality of funding this young family began to take a toll and they made unwise decisions that would force them to pay a greater price as the years went by.

And then this young mother found white hairs upon her head. And began to look up and realized that her firstborn was suddenly no longer a young child and was quickly hurtling towards young adolescence. And the first whiffs of womanhood began to appear and this young mother began to feel a great sense of loss. She again looked around and saw that the little baby boy she had always relied on to remain a baby was trying to follow in his sister's footsteps and sprout his own wings. He was starting to get a little taller, talk a little better, and his sweet round baby face was starting to grow long and begin to take on the appearance of a young boy. And this young mother began to cry.

She cried for days (pausing to work, clean up messes, and take care not to neglect the schedule). and then one day she opened her email inbox and saw a new email. It was adorned with that same sweet Mickey-head that had been plastered in her young man's dorm room so many, many years ago. And she felt a little tug at her heart. But the reality of finances was all too bleak and she closed out her email and moved on with life. But that sweet little image of that sweet little Mickey-head just would not go away. So she opened the email a few more times just to take a glimpse. And then one day, she got another email with a newsletter she had signed up for a year ago just to win the prize of a link to cheaper tickets from the last family trip they had taken last year. And the talk of that famous Mickey-head, followed by a link to a preferred travel agent, made that young woman's heart perk up just a little bit. Shyly and with a giggle, she jokingly sent off an online request for a free, no-obligation quote with that code from the previous Mickey-head email that had promised a very good deal.

And then one day the appointed Travel Agent responded...with an even bigger deal than that that sweet Mickey-head email from a few months ago. And then one day that sweet, graying-haired young woman shyly spoke those tempting words. She mentioned the free, no-obligation quote and that young man, who is now 33 years old and yet so easy to tempt with his favorite Mickey-head, suddenly got an idea. They had taken a family vacation previously where this young family had been surrounded by more family that they loved and missed frequently. Growing wiser and making smarter decisions had given them a little extra spending money for this vacation which had actually gone unused. And this little extra spending money, when put with a little other money tucked away for various reasons somehow managed to add up to more than what was needed from this free, no-obligation quote. And this young couple began to giggle. And they began to plot deviously and allowed their imaginations to run wild. And this giggle began to turn into a laugh. And this hardworking and yet very tired young couple began to feel a little loose and free and realized that maybe this would be a small opportunity which, although it would come with a frown by their favorite financial wisdom guru, enable this young family to drop their load for just a little bit. They dreamed up four days where there were no schedules save for a few reservations to a few restaurants where their young children would be entertained and fed beyond their wildest imaginations. And this young couple began to dream of four days where they would be shuttled around and graciously taken care of and entertained in a land known for being the happiest place on earth. And their minds filled up with visions of their young offspring filled with smiles and giggles, and days where they could just spend time together as a young family with no worries and no cares. And when this young couple realized they could do it financially without going into debt (which would make our favorite financial wisdom guru smile just a little bit), well, that just put the deal into concrete stone. So they paid their deposit to their new favorite travel agent and, for the next few months, will spend each day going to bed with heads full of sweet Mickey-head dreams. They will still keep their schedule, but spend the car-driven moments filled with talk of dreams of what they will do and see.

So, from October 17-21, don't be surprised if this young family drops out of view and is nowhere to be seen or heard. Because they're just spending a few days being surrounded by their favorite Mickey-heads and filling their spirits up with childhood joy and light-hearted laughter. They're off enjoying a few days full of no worries or concerns and simply enjoying being this sweet young family full of dreams and happiness.