Chapter 5: The Trip from Hell

I finally fell asleep last night and the alarm jarred me awake early this morning. I forgot to turn it off last night. I may have had too much on my mind to remember I was not going to work for a while. I'm not sure how much of the 12 weeks I would take. I first called Bob's number at work and left a message that I would be gone for three weeks minimum, but I could be reached by cell phone if necessary. Then I got up, showered again, got dressed, then knocked on the girl's doors before I started on breakfast for us. By the time breakfast was ready, the girls were out at the table dressed in shorts, fancy shirts, and sneakers. They could hardly contain their excitement and were talking non-stop about all the things they wanted to see. After eating, I had the girls get their suitcases as I grabbed my bag, and brought them all by the front door, where we waited on pins and needles until I heard the limo horn honk. I looked around and made sure everything was off. I had already set the thermostat to hold at 80 degrees and locked all the windows and outside doors. I put the bags on the porch and the limo driver took them and put them in the trunk. I locked the front door from inside, turned the dead bolt, went out to the laundry room to set the house alarm, and went out the garage door. I shut the door from the remote keypad and ran down to the limo at the curb. As I climbed in, I saw Sam and Sandy already in their seats. I sat back and said, "Well, here we go on an adventure, the first of many, I hope."

"Right on, Jeff, I hope there are more adventures for us. We need to be more a family of five than two separate families. We were so close once; I would like to see that happen again, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, Sam, I think I would like that a lot. What do you say girls, shall we be just one big family?"

All three girls hurriedly said yes. The girls saw each other in school all the time; in fact, I think Cathy and Sandy had several classes together. Sam said, "Buddy, we need to talk about a future for you and your girls. Now is not the time, but once we can unwind, we need to have some long talks. I think it will be to your advantage, but no more serious talk it's time for some fun in the sun."

We lived about an hour from DFW, in the town of Seagoville, southeast of Dallas, so the ride was pleasant. We arrived, checked in, and went through the inevitable body scan pat down by the Transportation Security Administration, commonly known as the TSA. Sam and I requested that the girls be body scanned to save them the embarrassment of a pat down, and we received the standard pat down. I secretly videoed the pat downs of Sam, and he of mine. I also videoed the body scan of the girls. Some TSA bitch came around the computer screen when Brie went through the machine and had her backed up against the wall and patted her down rather briskly and slapped Brie in the lower abdomen causing some pain on her face. Brie suddenly screamed, and I saw blood seeping into her shorts. It seems she had a hot spot in her abdomen on the screen and it was an accumulation of blood as her period had just started due to the hard slap to her lower region. Brie screamed and I rushed to her aid when I was physically restrained by two burly cops. I tried to find out what was wrong and everyone could see Brie was bleeding. I tried to comfort her, but was restrained. Suddenly there were several cops and a Texas Ranger on the scene. I tried to explain that I think my daughter had just started her first period and she needed help.