THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY. NONE OF THE EVENTS IN WHICH HAVE TRANSPIRED HERE HAVE OCCURRED IN REAL LIFE NOR DOES IT INTENTIONALLY REFLECT ANY HISTORICAL MOMENTS.
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School had just finished. I expected to do nothing this summer except eat tons of unhealthy snacks. However, that all changed within a month…..


Near the beginning of July, my parents irresponsibly decided to take a 4 night vacation in New York. They are incredibly poor and have over $22,000 in debt. This vacation was outrageous! In New York City, EVERYTHING is overpriced! I tried to warn them that we didn’t have to go on another vacation, but I was ignored for simply being too young! Father told me, “When you get a job, you can choose how to spend your money. We’re just trying to give you an enjoyable childhood that your mother and I never got to have when we were your age… You’re very lucky…. You’ll understand when your older.” At the time, I was merely 11 years old. My parents’ stupid decision to drag me along to another vacation that I never asked for nearly changed everything……





My family lived in Maryland. I had no siblings at the time and my parents had decent jobs. My father was a cars salesman and my mother was baker. They have always spent their money irresponsibly. Besides the fact that we would stay in a hotel every year, they would sometimes buy fake awards to display on their shelf every month only to impress their friends (they would lie about how we earned them through various competitions and contests.) Our house was always in a huge mess, and because of that, my parents would buy items that they didn’t know that they already had.


While we were on the plane that was flying to New York, my Mother told me, “You know, Sam, when your father and I finished high school, we actually came to New York for a month. We stayed at the same hotel that we’re staying in during this vacation. I think I even have that same key card from our first trip. If I do, I’m not sure where I put it though....”


I pretended to care by nodding my head. I pulled out my phone and put some headphones on. My parents continued to talk, and I continued to pretend to care. I didn’t have any wifi, so I actually got bored pretty quickly. Nearly 28 minutes into the ride, and I had already fallen asleep. By the time I woke up, the flight was nearly over.





Once the plane landed, everyone got out of the plane and went to go get their luggage. The guy behind me smelled like tuna fish, but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to be rude. We eventually we got our bags and started to walk out of the station. I looked behind me, and saw that the tuna fish man wore a trench coat.


In his trench coat, he had tons of tuna fish strapped on to the inside layer. He passed tuna fish to his friend as if he were smuggling ‘illegal substances.’ (However, it was clearly tuna fish. His friend even began eating the tuna fish and yelled “DELICIOUS” each time he took a bite.)


This was just the first of the many strange people that I would encounter in New York. My father handed me a bag and told me, “Hold on to this while I get a taxi. Keep it safe.” I stayed with my mother, holding a heavy bag. He could have just gotten an Uber, which probably would have been cheaper, but he managed to find a taxi anyway. The taxi drove us over to the hotel that we were staying at. It was called “The Seasonal Winds Hotel.”






Throughout the drive, the taxi driver just kept on complaining about how the rent in New York was too high. My father tried to keep the conversation going, but it was almost as if they were having two separate conversations. The taxi driver would say, “My sister had tried to rent an apartment, but the rent just kept on growing higher and higher to the point that she just chose to live in a van instead,” and my father would respond, “Yeah, my student loan debt alone is over $9,000! It was definitely not worth the effort!”


We arrived at the hotel, and we checked in. We were given key cards for our rooms. My mother told my father, “Oh honey! It’s just like the way it was when we first got here!” We went into our rooms. The first thing I noticed when I got there, was that a part of the wall looked as if it was burnt. My parents sat on the bed and begin to turn on the television to watch the news. I used the bathroom and then took a shower. By the time I got out, it was dinner time. We went to the dining area, which offered a free buffet for anyone’s first night at the hotel.


The food there was pretty good. We ate our food and went back upstairs. After about an hour, we planned on going to sleep. However, before we went to sleep, my mother became thirsty. My father checked the room for some ice, but it appears that all the ice was gone. So then, my father had asked me to go out of the room to try to get ice from the ice machine. He passed me a key card and a cup to put the ice in.


I wandered around, looking for the ice machine, and I eventually found it next to the elevators. I filled up the ice and headed back to the room. I pulled out the key card for the door to scan. The light flashed red instead of green, the card was not accepted. I tried again, but the result was no different. I tried over and over again but nothing worked. I tried to look through the window, but the lights were off. Did they decide to go to sleep while I was gone? I knocked on the door and there was no answer. I panicked, attempting the card over and over once more. Nothing worked! “DAD!” I called out, but there was no answer. I double checked the room number to see if it was the right room, and it was. I analyzed the card to see if there was anything wrong with it. Indeed there was. It was dated to be from over 13 years ago! This must have been the card that my mother talked about from when my father and her first stayed at this hotel.








I knocked on the door even more rapidly and louder than I have ever knocked before! There was still no answer! However, apparently I woke up a neighbor. He was fat and over twice my height. He honestly scared me! He yelled at me, “SHUT UP! PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP, SCUMBAG!” I tried to explain myself by saying, “I’m trying to get into my room, but my parents aren’t-” but I was then interrupted by him mocking my voice and then saying, “Go cry yourself to sleep! I don’t need to hear your stupid excuses!”


He then went back to his room and slammed the door behind him shut. Since I couldn’t get into my room, I was originally going to sleep in front of the room. However, the ground was too hard and cold for me to sleep on. Besides, I didn’t feel safe sleeping in such an open area. I decided to go hide in a storage closet for the night. I hid behind a cardboard box and used some towels as blankets. I also managed to find a pillow in that closet, which was very lucky of me.


When I woke up in the morning, most of the ice in the cup melted. I decided that it was of no use anymore so I stopped carrying the ice. I opened the door and left the closet. I went back to the door of the room. As I was about to knock, I saw two people in the corner of my eye! They were walking over to the stairway! They were my parents! I ran over to the as fast as I could! But then… I realized that they weren’t…. They were just two random people trying to go eat breakfast. I decided to go to the first floor, maybe my parents are in the lobby or maybe they're eating breakfast too. I looked in the breakfast area first and I did not see them from afar.








I then searched the line by the hotel desk. I did not see them. However, I soon began to see them through the window outside! I ran towards them shouting, “Mom! Dad!” However, once again I was mistaken. They were not my parents. I walked a bit further north outside to see if they were possibly there. They were not there.


Then a man in a SUV slowed down in front of me. His windows rolled down and he said, “You’re missing your parents?” I nodded my head. He asked me for a description of them. I gave him a description. He then said, “Oh! I think I drove past them before! I think they were probably looking for you back there. They’re like a few minutes away from here. Let me drive you over to them!” I agreed to his offer and went into his car. There was another man in the back who was shirtless and wore shorts. He looked in his 40s and was also bald. The bearded man who was driving asked me as he drove, “So what's your name?” I responded, “Sam.” The shirtless guy repeated as he gasped for air, “SAM!”


The car seemed to have been driving to a highway. The driver asked me, “How old are you, Sam?” I answered, “11.” I then asked, “How much further away are we from my parents?” The driver answered, “A bit further. I’ll have to refill my gas tank at the gas station first though. I don’t have enough gas to get there.”







He eventually got to the gas station and then turned off the car as he got out of the door. He then went over to a person who was standing by another car. This new guy had always had sweat running down his forehead. Snot was constantly running down from his nose. This sweaty guy gives the driver some money. Then, the shirtless guy that was near me, got closer to me. He put his hand on my thigh. I began to get REALLY uncomfortable. I said, “Um, I think I’ll get off here,” as I tried to open the door. He violently grabbed my arm and said, “You’re not leaving!” I wasn’t about to let this sicko do anything else so I punched him in the face and jumped over to the driver’s seat. I turned on the car. Although I wasn’t tall enough, I tried to drive the car.


I never drove a car before, but I played Mario Kart on the Wii before, so that's close enough. I underestimated the speed of the car and accidentally drove straight into the small building in front of us. I think the car accident was enough to knock the shirtless guy out. He bumped his head against the seat in front of him and got knocked out.I got some glass stuck on my cheek, but I was too scared to pay attention. The front window was cracked. I tried to back up, but it was too slow. The original driver of this vehicle was yelling at me and shouting curse words. The sweaty guy gets into his red car.





I assumed that he was going to chase me down, so I quickly made a turn and went onto the road. I was very clearly above the speed limit, but that didn’t matter to me at the time. I look in the rear view mirrors and saw that the sweaty disgusting man was in his red car chasing after me. I drove past and bumped into many cars on the road. A lot of drivers were mad at me!


The sweaty guy was still somehow on the road behind me. I looked through the car that I was driving to see if there was anything I could throw at him. I found the original driver’s phone and tried to throw it at the sweaty guy’s car, but I completely missed. So then I got a water bottle! I threw it at his car and it made a small crack. The shirtless guy behind me woke up! He punched me on the back of my head and tried to choke me. However, I got another water bottle and threw it at his face! This time, the water was open and actually managed to wet him. Due to this fight, the car slowed down. I kicked the shirtless guy in his private area and then karate chopped his neck afterwards. Suddenly there was a loud thump and the car was pushed out of the road. The sweaty guy had driven into the car I was driving! He crashed the car!!


I was dazed due to the crash. The side of the car was dented. The shirtless guy hit his head into a window. The red car that the shirtless man drove began to back up. It appears that he was going to drive into the car again! I quickly found the strength to get out of the car. I opened the door and quickly got out! It must have been because of an adrenaline, as I had never felt so fast before. My heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten before! The red car drove into the car that the shirtless guy was in, and due to the slope of the unpathed area, both cars toppled over to the side. Neither car was able to drive after that.







I was lucky to escape that mess! I continued to run down the road until I came back to the hotel. I was tired by the time I got there. Not to mention that I was also a mess. My chin was bruised, my cheek was cut, blood ran across my arm, even my left eye felt a bit swollen. I walked through the front doors of the hotel. Some workers asked me if I was ok and suggested to visit a nearby hospital. Being stubborn as I am, declined their offer. Although, I did ask them for help in finding my parents.



However, before they answered, I found my parents. They were talking to the hotel manager. My mother was crying and my father was trying to comfort her. I ran over to them and hugged them. My mother cried even more, either from seeing my cuts or perhaps they were tears of joys, or perhaps even it was from both. My father said, “We looked all over for you!” I replied, “You gave me the wrong key card!” My mother replied, “We’re so sorry! Sam, this is our fault! We shouldn’t have been so neglectful… I’m so sorry, Sam! Thank God you’re here now!”


My father then felt the blood that was an my arm trickle down over to his body. He asked me, “What happened to you!? Are you okay!?” I just said, “It’s a long story, but basically, now I know that I’m NEVER getting into a car with a stranger ever again!”


Though my parents make flaws, it is nothing unusual. We are all only human, and we aren’t perfect. I myself have made flaws by being so trusting of a man who wanted me to get into his car. My parents’ constant spending comes from a place of love. They just want the best for me. On this day, I could’ve been stuck with those weirdos at the gas station forever…. I’m so glad to be with my parents and not with any creeps like them. I’ve gained so much more love and appreciation for my parents after nearly losing them; And, perhaps there is room for everyone to gain a bit more appreciation for what they have, after nearly losing it...