Vamana Ahuja

Children Stories Comedy Drama

5.0  

Vamana Ahuja

Children Stories Comedy Drama

Uncle Percy at the Beach

Uncle Percy at the Beach

6 mins
550


There are times I wonder how Uncle Percy and Aunt Maureen can stay in the same house 24/7. All six of us go crazy staying with them for just three months. Just to fill you in before I go on with this misadventure of our favourite uncle, ‘the six of us’ refers to my cousins and me: Tamara (17), Pepper (10), Tyson, Rebecca, Millie (all of them are 1) and me, Rachel (14). So on to the adventure.

Two weeks ago, Uncle Percy took us to fly a kite at the park. There, we bought so many kites that we got the offer of spending a whole day by the beach, all expenses paid. So with a lot of pleading from us, fussing from aunt that uncle never took us anywhere, and finally whining from the dog and cat (even they wanted us out of the house), uncle consented to take us. So the house was in chaos, with aunt making sure that we all had our towels, Tamara trying to find her glitter lotion, Pepper trying to stuff Tamara’s huge beach kit (sunscreen two-piece swimsuit, face powder, sand toys, a beach ball and a mystery packet she said she would show us at the beach) into the car and, of course, uncle trying to decide between the swimsuit that had a coffee stain, and the swimsuit that had a ketchup stain. They were both murky yellow, so aunt said, “Percy, you are such a disgrace. Use the new swimsuit I got you last week.” “Oh yeah, I forgot I had that,” uncle said. Aunt nodded her head in disapproval. Soon, with everything in order “hopefully” we all piled up into the car and off we went.

The beach was an hour’s drive from our house. When we were halfway there, we had a terrible realization: we left the coupon at home. We went home and searched all over the place, but it wasn’t there. Dejected, we went back to the car. My instincts told me that Tamara and Pepper were behind the missing coupon, but we had different culprits this time. The triplets had taken the coupon and turned into a paper aeroplane, and were throwing it to and fro. “Well, at least it was in the car”, uncle said to a stymied aunt. “Can we move it already? I’m hungry,” Pepper snapped. So we started off, hoping no disaster would come our way en route to the beach. 

With a pinch of luck, this miracle came true. We, reached the beach, handed in our coupon, and got the card which served as our credit card for the day. It would expire at 10:30 pm, when all the shacks were closed and the only activity on the beach was the cargo ships docking. We went, found a decent spot and settled down. For some time it was peaceful. Pepper and I took the triplets into the water and splashed around with them for some time. Then we came out and built a huge and really fancy sandcastle.

In the midst of all this hustle-bustle, what was uncle doing? Well, he decided to go look for breakfast, and he ended up loitering around, looking at the menu of each and every shack, only to criticize it. Before he knew it, he got lost. “It’s okay; I’ll just call Maureen and ask where they are.” He dug into his pockets, but what a shock for him! He didn’t have his phone with him. It was in his trouser pocket, and here he was, in his swimsuit. And even worse, he was in the crab dominated zone, where all the ships docked. He started running toward the opposite direction, and soon enough he found us, having breakfast. He sat down, covered in crabs, reeking of fish and reached for a doughnut. “What happened uncle,” Pepper asked. Uncle narrated his story to us, and we were rolling over each other with laughter. Uncle Percy is the one guy who can walk through a huge fence that says ‘off-limits’, and not realize it.

Suddenly, uncle perked up and said, “Enough talking. We are at the beach and there is no way I am gonna waste my day sitting here and blabbering.” Saying so, uncle ran towards the water and jumped in, turning the turquoise water around him all foamy white. Laughing, the triplets tottered towards the water, and jumped in. “Last one there is a rotten apple,” Pepper exclaimed, and all four of us raced towards the water and jumped in.

 After a few hours, Tyson started fidgeting. We took him out of the water and realized he didn’t have his swim diaper on, but his regular one. Her voice full of vehement, aunt said, “I wonder whose job it was to give Tyson a swim diaper.” “Relax Maureen; we are out to have fun. Don’t be a party pooper.” This being said, we went to get lunch. We ate fish pie (extremely gross), and choco pudding. Then we went back to our area and started bugging Tamara to show us what was in the mystery packet. “What will you get me,” she asked with a sly smile. “The box is empty, isn’t it,” I said. “Yes it is,” she said. “I was using it as a way to get some presents.” “What will we do with you ... and your uncle,” Aunt Maureen said, watching uncle dig through the beach bag looking for the card he was holding.

 By the time it was around 3 in the afternoon, we were all tired out from splashing in the water. Well, all of us with the exception of Uncle Percy. “Beach ball time,” he shouted. Shrieking with glee, Millie and Rebecca ran over to him. Tyson was less enthusiastic, and he fell asleep while they were playing. In an hour, they came back, all red and sandy from running around and falling in the sand again and again. Aunt handed out some fruits and a tin foil wrapped sweet. Each person got a different sweet so they were wrapped to prevent us from fighting over what sweet we got. After our snacks, we built a sandcastle. For some reason, uncle was very particular about the fact that the sand should stay on the cardboard he got. I wonder why.

 After a few hours, at around 7, we had dinner at a shack and changed out of our bathing suits. Uncle said “Maureen, you take the triplets and settle down in the car with Pepper. I’ll get the stuff.” Tamara and I went to help uncle, and found out why he wanted to keep the sandcastle on the cardboard: so he could get it into the car. We didn’t say anything to aunt. We wanted to see what her reaction was.

We reached home after an hour, and aunt opened the boot to get the bags out. What a shock for her when she sees her precious car’s boot full of sand. Oh we better pray for uncle!



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