Chapter 49: Yeah, Right…That’s the Ticket!
When I planned this evening, I thought it would be fitting to end our week-long trip with a real bang... with a double shot of pure Disney wonder... the
Wishes fireworks spectacular and the
SpectroMagic Parade! 
This night seemed to be the perfect match to our sleep-in-and-relax kind of day. The
Magic Kingdom hours had been stretched (at the last minute) to a midnight closing, and that most wonderful of planning bonuses had been bestowed upon me….
double Spectros!!
Lately, when given a choice, I always prefer the later parade; it’s typically so much less crowded! And it was so much more do-able now that the kids were getting older. (They are turning into real night owls, just like me!) As expected, its possible to get in a couple of really good rides with minimum waits during the first
Spectro since so many guests are drawn to the parade route.
As we made our way down the ramp from the monorail station and were faced with a large swarm of Saturday night guests slowly filtering through the bag checkpoints, I wasn’t bugged in the least. We had already enjoyed two whole days at the
MK and had done just about everything we had wanted to do, so I wasn’t even thinking about rides. We were all tired and Aunt Rae had
overdone it by walking around
DTD all afternoon, so she was beginning to limp a little.
This was our last night and all I really wanted was to do was walk around the park and soak in the atmosphere. Just give me my
Wishes and my
Spectro; anything else we managed to do that night was going to be pure gravy! I was a happy woman.
Until….
We got to…
The turnstiles.
There was a
green light for me as I placed my card in the slot and my finger on the sensor. A pleasant, “Have a good time,” from the CM and I was in. Ed placed Billy’s card in the slot and again, the
green light flashed, and he came right on through to his mommy.
Tricia….card in….
green light.
Ed….card in….finger scan…..
green light.
You
know what’s coming next. (Of course you do!)
Aunt Rae….card in….finger scan….
no green light. Not to worry, she had been having trouble all week with the finger scans. Usually the CM would help her adjust her finger and….
No green light.
Tried it
two more times, still
no green light.
The CM told her she needed to go to
Guest Services, outside the gate, to have her card checked. He stamped Ed’s hand and let him exit to accompany her. I wasn’t too worried. Remember, she carried her
Key to the World Card in her wallet. It probably just got de-magnetized, that’s all.
I held Billy’s hand as he jumped up and down excitedly. I was jumping up and down too; you just couldn’t see it...
much! Here we were, poised on the brink, just steps away from
Main Street, USA! 
Let me at that Magic Kingdom!
“Mom, we never got to do the teacups,” Trish said, pulling my attention away from my inward struggle against impatience. “Can we do the teacups first?”
Absentmindedly, I replied, as any mother would, “You want to ride the teacups when you just ate dinner? No, I don’t think so.” I craned my neck to see. Where were they? Ah, there they were, waiting in the Guest Services queue with a few people still in front of them.
“I’m fine,” she continued, “can we please do the teacups,
pleeese!”
“Tricia, you’re going to get
sick.”
“No, I
won’t!”
“Yes, you
will; you just ate.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t eat as much as you!”
Sigh. 
Ed and AR were up to one of the windows now.
Good, I thought,
they should be back in no time. I held Billy’s hand tight and took a good look around, admiring how pretty the landscaping was in that area. We always seem to rush right past it in our zeal to get into the park; I was going to use this time to appreciate it! Tricia resumed her lobbying for the
Mad Tea Party, but I was only half listening.
What was going on over there? I squinted. (This was the year BG... Before Glasses.) There seemed to be some sort of commotion... was that... was that Ed and AR
arguing in front of the GS window? Yes, yes they were
definitely having a disagreement; I could tell by Ed’s body language; he was throwing his hands up in frustration! Hold it... wait a minute... was that Aunt Rae
slamming her baggallini on the counter and
shaking her fist at him???
What on Earth...?!
Tricia whined, “Come on, Mom, I wanna do the teacups….” I shushed her. (yeah, like I was going to be able to
hear what was going on way over there!) Billy was pulling on my arm and stimming really loudly and I shushed him, too! My mind was racing… I couldn’t hear myself think. What could have them both in such a state?
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Ha! Thought you were gonna get another cliffhanger, didn’t cha??
I turned my attention back to the
Guest Services counter. They were doing something over there; but whatever it was, it was taking for-ev-er! Finally, they were finished and began walking back toward the turnstiles, still arguing back and forth. The CM who had checked us through saw them and waved them around (thanks!) so they didn’t have to get back onto the end of the growing line. This time, Aunt Rae’s
card was okay.
But
she wasn’t.
She hobbled slightly as she approached me and began to explain. Ed said nothing, his lips were pressed together tightly as he grabbed Billy’s hand from mine and began walking toward the closest opening under the train trestle. I opened my mouth to say something to him, thought better of it, and shut it once more. I motioned to Tricia to follow him, then I turned to Aunt Rae. She did not look pleased with me.
“Kathy, I had to buy another ticket. They said that my days had run out.”
What??? Oh no, there must have been some mistake. I distinctly remembered that first night in Epcot, I told her we would be here from
Saturday to the following
Sunday, so she needed an eight-day ticket. She must have purchased a seven-day parkhopper.
Why, oh, why hadn’t I supervised her purchase?
Because I hadn’t wanted to insinuate that she didn’t know how to manage the transaction, that’s why.
“You told me we only needed a seven-day ticket!” she said, accusingly.
I opened my mouth….then shut it again. (It just wasn’t worth it.)
“So, I had to buy another ticket just for tonight,” she said in a huff.
Ugh!
(What we had hee-ya was a fail-ya to communicate!)
But, what had the big argument been about?
“Your husband is so
stubborn!” she declared as she took my arm and we began walking into the tunnel after them. “He wanted to pay for my ticket, but I wouldn’t let him,” she said, tossing her head in his direction. “He’s such a (insert Italian word that I don’t know.)”
Ah-ha. No wonder he was really annoyed. Naturally, he would have wanted to pay... he’s very old school like that.
We emerged from the tunnel and entered the crowded
Town Square where Ed and the kids were waiting for us in front of the
Exposition Hall. She was leaning heavily on my arm and breathing rapidly (and not just from the excitement.) I paused and indicated that we needed to stop to rent a wheelchair before we went much farther, but she flatly refused.
“I am
not getting a wheelchair, Kathy, and that’s
final.”
I opened my mouth... then shut it again.
(I had been doing
a lot of that on this trip and it occurred to me that I really should stop. To the casual passersby, I must have looked like a fish….. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Open. Shut.)
As soon as Ed heard that, he turned and started walking with Billy toward the Castle. We all followed suit, but Aunt Rae kept going on and on about how I had instructed her to buy the wrong ticket. I told her I was sorry there had been such a mix-up and then I just kept my fish-mouth shut. I was trying not to let it spoil my last walk up Main Street.
Nevertheless, there was a little voice inside my head that whispered,
“Never again!”
This had not been the first time I had heard the little voice. In the beginning, I would brush it aside the way you would a tiny insect buzzing around your head. I had made all sorts of rationalizations for her changed demeanor: fatigue, embarrassment, anxiety, medications, diet, etc. Then I would feel guilty that I had not been as patient with her as I should have been.
But as the week had worn on and there had been more and more issues with Aunt Rae, I had found that those two little words would pop into my consciousness with ever increasing frequency. And I wasn’t brushing them away quite as quickly....
I shook myself out of my own reverie and decided that I should just get back to the business at hand: enjoying the nighttime atmosphere in the
Magic Kingdom! Hey,that
atmosphere was beginning to feel a bit close! Then I remembered; of course, it was Saturday night!
I haven’t yet mentioned how heavy the foot traffic was at that time. In addition, all up and down Main Street, small groups of people were already beginning to stake out their viewing spots for
SpectroMagic. I looked back at the station platform and it was jammed. It was not yet seven o’clock and the parade wasn’t scheduled until eight. (With
Wishes at nine and the
second Spectro at ten.) I was glad we were planning on seeing it later; there’s no way we could sit for an hour just waiting for the parade to start.
We circled about a third of the way around
the Hub and I realized that Tricia must have persuaded Ed to let them ride the teacups. Oh well, perhaps enough time had been wasted... er... had passed since dinner! Aunt Rae sat herself down on a bench to watch (and to catch her breath), and as soon as the next cycle went through, Tricia scrambled to find the teacup that suited her taste. Billy ran, laughing and chortling, right after her and they both had a teacup to themselves.
Spinny-rides? Billy
loves them!
I walked around the outside and positioned myself in an attempt to get at least one photo that would come out!
Ed came over and proceeded to tell me how frustrated he had been with Aunt Rae.
“She was going to leave and go back to the resort if I paid for her ticket,” he sputtered. “What is she, nuts?” I shook my head, sadly, in sympathy.
“She kept giving the guy a hard time about the ticket; she didn’t understand that it was
eight days that we were here, not seven,” he continued. “We actually had to count them out for her... Saturday, Sunday, Monday, all the way up to today before she
finally got it!” he fumed. “Then she got all embarrassed that she had made a mistake and began arguing with me when I tried to pay for the ticket!” He looked over in her direction, but she was out of our line of site.
“It was really embarrassing, there were people waiting behind us and when I finally gave up and let her just pay for the (darn*) ticket, she took forever!” He shook his head. “I don’t care that she messed up, but she really made me angry when she just stood there fighting with the guy and then with me!”
I listened with interest, but continued to snap away as the kids whirled around and around. For a moment, Ed forgot about Aunt Rae as the kids spun close enough for us to wave and call out their names. Forget about waving back, they were busy laughing and laughing and spinning that teacup just as hard as they could. The look on both their faces was simply one of pure joy.
Ed took a deep breath and blew it out, literally trying to blow off steam. Then he turned to me and said,
“Never again, Kathy…never again.”
To be continued…
Kathy
for `Ohana!
I think it's actually good to split a group up once in a while!
so I'm not sure if she will want to bring a doll next time. She still plays with them, though just not as often.
. I feel your pain going with someone that you have issues with, it makes you never want to do it again. 
