When I woke up, the car was empty. My blurry eyes searched anxiously for movement outside the windows of the silver-blue minivan. The car seat belt choked at my neck and I felt small within its clasp. When I tried to reach for the button to unbuckle myself my stubby fingers fell short. No matter how hard I stretched them they just barely grazed the warm red plastic. I cursed my little arms, the only thing standing between me and freedom. Frustration overcame me and I slouched back into my booster seat with a huff. I could see the sun beaming through the front windshield reminding me it was summer. The heat made itself known through the beads of sweat trickling from the back of my neck into my shirt and my sticky palms. 

Looking down at my clothes I remembered why I was even in the car in the first place. My soaked Strawberry Shortcake swim bottoms were now dry to the touch. I held out my legs and stared curiously at the dirty toes that wiggled in my pink flip flops. I began to have the sneaking suspicion that I’d been left behind. I remembered getting ready this morning, my sisters ran naked through the house while my parents chased them around with swim pull-ups. They squealed and kept running, not realizing that it wasn’t a game. I sat quietly by the door, Mommy promised me that I could have an extra popsicle if I didn’t cause trouble. My sisters would not be getting an extra popsicle. I smiled.

At the river I played mermaids until I was called to eat. My wet hands made the hot dog bun soggy, and as my hair dripped down my forehead into my mouth, my food began to taste more and more like sunscreen. I threw a chip into the water to feed the fish. When it was time to leave I whined “Please five more minutes?” but Daddy gave me the ‘shut up’ look and I did. I crawled into the back seat, allowed myself to be buckled in, and before I knew it I had dozed off. 

I wondered how long I’d been in the car for, the sun still shined which meant it couldn’t have been for too long. I tried to find ways to quell my boredom, but soon enough my stomach began to ache and I started to cry. I was so thirsty and the crying didn’t help, my head began to feel like the world was spinning in circles. I had almost even fallen asleep again when Mommy ran outside and threw the sliding door to the side. “Oh my poor baby!” she cried, frantically unbuckling my seat to take me into her arms. She held the back of my head and squeezed me, swaying her body back and forth while my flip flops bobbed in the air. 

“You poor thing I am so so sorry,” she said to me, she apologized over and over again. I could feel her tears getting my cheeks wet. “You were just so quiet we just forgot.” I draped my head on her shoulder while she closed the van door, thinking about how loud and distracting my sisters must’ve been, my poor parents. I was still so sleepy though, and my eyes began to droop as we walked back into the house, the minivan blurring in and out of focus through my slow blinks. 

When we got inside she set me on the couch and yelled at Daddy “Why wouldn’t you wake her up? You’re the one who buckled her in!” 

Daddy yelled back “I was dealing with the other two! What were you doing? Why is it my fault?”

“Mommy?” I whispered, but she didn’t hear me. 

Mommy shouted through her tears, “I was bringing all the stuff in! I thought you had all the kids!” 

“I had the two kicking, screaming toddlers, don’t make it my fault that you’re a bad mother. All you had was a bag and a few floaties.” Daddy screamed.

I whispered again, “Mommy…I’m thirsty.” But they kept yelling, and so I waited.