It is 9:10 PM. My eyes are droopy. I am lying under the covers and around my neck is my black fuzzy-on-one-side-smooth-on-the-other airplane neck pillow. I am in the bed closest to the bathroom. Dave is in the other bed. (He will come back over here in a little bit). Eli is sitting at the desk with his headphones on, and Kyle is lounging in a comfy chair by the window. It is quiet. We are all in our pajamas. Wet swimsuits hang on pants hangers all over the room. Some are situated in front of air-conditioning vents. Kyle just asked, “can I go to sleep?”

Earlier I set my alarm twice. Our flight leaves at 7AM. The shuttle leaves at 5:15 AM.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

“Yes. I just want to go to bed.” Kyle responds and continues, “Can we turn off all of the lights? Mom, look. I found your dental floss. Want it?”

“We can turn out the lights in a few minutes.” Dave tells him.

“Where do you want me to put it?” Kyle says as he walks the dental floss over to me.

“I don’t know. The bathroom” I respond.

He senses my distraction, and knows I will not remember the dental floss if he leaves it where I asked him to.

“Mom, I’ll just put it back in my backpack.”

Relieved, I say, “Thank you.”

Then I hear the click, click, click of Eli’s mouse as Kyle gets up to use the bathroom.

We checked out of the Andaz Papagayo a few hours ago, and are currently checked in to the Hilton Garden Inn Liberia. The rollaway bed Kyle is rolling across the room is more like a rolling box spring.

“No. No. No. Where are you going to go?” Eli asks Kyle as Kyle rams the box-spring into Eli (in an attempt to get past him).

Immediately distracted, Kyle lets the rollaway go and picks up the coconut we found somewhere along the way.

“Wait. Wait. Can I open this?” He asks.

“Let’s take it outside.” Dave answers.

Kyle walks over to the little hotel room counter. Now at the counter and with coconut in one hand and pen in the other, Kyle tries to puncture the coconut to get at the water. His efforts last for a few minutes. Eli gets up. Kyle asks, “Are you done?” I don’t know what Kyle is getting at, but Eli seems to. Annoyed, Eli responds, “Shut up.” He pauses, and because he actually loves Kyle, he asks, “Do you want a pen?” (Meaning a better pen to help him open the coconut.)

Then Eli walks over and begins working on the coconut.

“It smells kind of nasty.” He says.

Ok. I was totally under the impression that Dave said we were going open the coconut outside. What happened to that plan? I smell it. The coconut reeks. I raise my voice, “Dave, you need to get that thing out of here.”

“Ok. Look. I am covering the hole. Kyle, you take it.” Dave responds.

Eli fidgets with the rollaway. Kyle says something about not having a shirt on so he (obviously) can’t take the coconut away.

Dave asks, “where are my shoes?”

I tell him his shoes are in the closet. Kyle puts on a sweatshirt. He and Dave get their shoes and leave our now rotten-coconut-smelling room. I ask Eli to wash the counter.

“Mom, it does not smell like it (super rotten coconut) over here.”

Crisis averted. Coconut disposed of. Eli is back sitting at the desk. Dave is back in the bed across from me. Kyle is not lying at the foot of Dave’s bed, and I am still here. It is now 9:37 PM and I need to pack it in! Good night!

 

PS I would say our trip was a success!