A Trip To Forget
George, James, Kathleen and Jack entered a raffle to go to Lapland but it was only tickets for a hotel stay. It was late on Friday night in the year 2012 when someone rang their landline to say that they had won the raffle. James went online to book plane tickets. They lived in a place called Appletown. They had to get up at six o’clock in the morning to be at Cork airport two hours before the flight which was due to take off at 8am. What they did not know was the people that ran the raffle rang the wrong family.
The family were really happy about the trip. They had to start planning their big trip straight away as they were leaving in a few days. Their mother Kathleen was dreading the packing as she had to pack a lot of clothes because they were staying for one week. It would be freezing in Lapland so she had to buy a lot of jumpers, coats and woolly pants. She eventually packed everything.
The day came to go to the airport so they set off early. They were just in time for check in, but she did not notice that she did not have the hotel tickets as the people who ran the raffle sent the tickets to the winning family. They went through security but that’s when she noticed that the tickets were missing. They were all really sad but they had to get on the flight as there was no chance that they could go back through security. Jack was the saddest as he never saw the real Santa but George did when he was younger. After twenty five minutes they boarded the plane.
Jack had to sit on his own as there were only three seats in each row. His mother and George came back to him a few times to see if he was ok. The plane took off. Jack was a bit afraid of being on his own. Two hours into the journey George came to check on him and said, ‘You cannot stay on your own for the whole trip’. So Jack went up to his mom and dad. The flight flew by but it did not for George as he had to sit alongside a German man who did not speak English. They landed in Lapland ten minutes earlier than they were suppose to arrive.
When they got their luggage they did not know what to do next. After a while they decided that they would go to see the real Santa. They found an exit but they could not get out because they were snowed in. Jack started crying but the rest of his family were not that sad. George found a good place to sit down as they would be there for a long time. After a while they saw that the snow was clearing so their dad James went online to see could he get a flight back to Ireland. All the flights were really expensive. Eventually he found a cheap flight back to Ireland. It was due to take off in four hours. They were happy that they got a cheap flight back to Ireland but they were not sure that it would take off on time. They went through security after being told that the plane was ready to take off. They rushed to the gate and boarded the plane.
They landed safely in Ireland. They went home to unpack all their clothes. James then rang the people that ran the raffle to see how they got their phone number mixed up with the winner’s phone number. The people who ran the raffle said that they got the digits six and eight mixed up. James was really cross when he heard this. ‘Ye must be as blind as bats to get that mixed up!”.
The whole family was disappointed about the whole trip. Their mother was not too happy as she bought new clothes for them all. That evening at home Jack started crying because his brother started to mock him about not seeing the real Santa. He did not know however that their mom and dad had booked a trip to Lapland next year as a surprise!
Jack O’Connor, 5th class