Quite possibly the most memorable part of our vacation was the day that the rest of the family left Mariana and me on the beach all by ourselves, no note of explanation, no apologies, nothing. It happened like this...
Mariana and I headed out for a walk on the beach. We enjoyed a nice stroll along the water with great conversation besides. In the process, we were gone longer than anyone had anticipated. Fearing that we had gotten lost, been mauled by sharks, or swallowed by the ocean, our loving family members decided to wait no longer for our return. Without as much as a signal flag message or campfire smoke signal announcement, they took off, not caring about what would happen when we arrived back to an empty King family section of the beach. No one to stay behind to give us a message. No care for the women. Nothing.
On our return, we approached our former location only to find that we couldn't locate any members of the King family. We're not that difficult to spot but at this moment, we couldn't recognize anyone. We looked up the beach to where our chairs and blanket had been located but now, only one lonely chair remained, still with no family members in sight. We continued on to that lone chair to find our clothes and my shoes but nothing else (the family later claimed that they had written us an explanatory note in the sand but as it could not be verified, we have our doubts). No shoes for Ana, no towels, no water, no money, no phone. Nothing.
The sun was hot, the sand hotter, and the macadam in the parking lot was the hottest of all yet that's where we went to wait for the (hopefully) returning van. We thought about going into the shops to cool off, but Ana had no shoes. We thought about getting something to eat, but no money. We thought about making a sign that said we were homeless and needed money for shoes and water, but they hadn't even left us cardboard or a marker. We were stuck.
Hours later, the Good Doctor pulled up in the van. No explanation. No apology. No idea of all the distress their abandonment of us had caused. Nothing.
Mariana's feet were blistered from that hot parking lot for 3 days. And the story will last for a lifetime.
Remember that time when ... ?
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