Growing up in a wonderfully dysfunctional family of seven, which would later become eight, I accumulated quite the collection of wild, yet somewhat unbelievable stories of the strange situations we so often found ourselves in. When my parents decided that myself along with my brother and three sisters, were simply not enough, they decided to take in one more. My cousin Holly, who was a year older than I, then packed up her life and moved from her little rural town in Maine to our busy city neighborhood in Haverhill, Massachusetts, thus, completing our crazy household.
A few months after Holly had settled in, I joined her and my Uncle Peter on the two and a half hour trip back up to Maine to retrieve her little tabby cat named Maddie who would also be coming to live with us, along with the rest of her things. When we arrived at the house in Maine we began loading up the back of Uncle Peter's Kia Soul with a suitcase of clothing, some miscellaneous boxes, a weird lamp, and probably a Nick Jonas poster or two. Once the trunk was full, we headed back in to get the final item on the list, the cat.
"Do we even have a cat carrier?" I asked once we were inside.
The answer was no. Apparently, my uncle had read online that cats are more relaxed in the car when they can't see what's going on around them, so once we tracked down Maddie, we scooped her up in a pillowcase, tied it off at the top, and off we went. Much to my surprise, the trick seemed to work. Maddie was calm and content, spending the majority of the ride asleep on my lap wrapped up in her little cotton sack and purring like the engine of a new sports car. A little over an hour into the ride we decided it was a good time for a break so we pulled over at a truck stop to stretch our legs, use the restroom, and grab a quick snack.
"But we can't leave her in the car alone," I said as I climbed out of the back seat still carrying the sack.
"Then don't, just take her inside," my uncle, who was already walking away, casually replied.
I looked over to Holly with a bit of skepticism, but she was already reaching for the pillow case with a mischievous grin across her face. As we headed across the parking lot toward the door we were slightly in fear of getting caught, but I admit we were also excited, considering causing trouble in public had become second nature for the two of us. We had already lost track of Uncle Peter once we reached the front door. We hesitated, but then walked inside making a b-line for the ladies room constantly checking around us to make sure no one noticed.
We decided to switch off between using the bathroom and standing outside the stall with the pillow case. I took my turn in the bathroom first and when I was finished Holly handed over the sack. I stood leaning against the tile wall impatiently when all of a sudden a woman in a polo shirt wearing a badge that said "Rita" entered the restroom pushing a cart of cleaning supplies. I began to visibly tense up when I noticed her glancing over at the pillow case, then looking up at me with suspicion. She shook her head and continued wiping down the sinks with a rag. I let out a sigh of relief and did my best to relax and act natural when all of a sudden the sack began to move. Maddie had woken up inside the pillow case and was growing more restless by the second. Then much to my horror, she proceeded to let out a soft little meow. Rita immediately stopped what she was doing and turned to look at me, I tried to play it off cool but when Maddie continued to meow I panicked and did the only thing I could think of to cover it up, I too began to meow. When Holly finally emerged from the stall she quickly caught on to what was going down. We booked it out of the restroom and began making our way back to the entrance, at this point with both of us meowing. As two young girls practically running across the food court with a pillow case meowing in between fits of laughter we had caused quite the commotion and dozens of truckers were now looking up from their meals in confusion watching the scene unfold before them. By the time we made it back to the car we were hysterical and fully satisfied with what we had just pulled off. That day was just one of many wild memories we have made in our adventures over the years, and no matter how flawed our escape plan from the truck stop restroom that day may have been, I wouldn't have done anything differently.
This has been a "Story Time With LC"
The end.
