Chapter 3: a day at a Cuba port and a day at sea

The next day when the Wilson's family got up, they learned that the ship was in port already. Elijah on the other hand, was already up playing with toys for hours. The sun was shining through a crack in the curtains which had woke him up before anyone else. His playing had woken his parents up. Micheal and Abeba let Zendaya sleep a bit to see if she would remember that she had a job to do. But when it got close to the time Zendaya was still sleeping. Her parents woke her up and reminded her that she was going to take care of Zuphixy, which she had forgotten all about. Zendaya was to meet Zuphixy at the buffet by eight in the morning. Because she slept in, it only gave her a few minutes to get ready. So she had to skip doing a fancy hairstyle that she normally would have done.

Lucky for Zendaya, Zuphixy also had slept in and had gotten to the buffet at the same time as the Wilson's family. Zendaya's first task was to get a custom made omelet that was safe for Zuphixy and bring it to the table where he would be waiting. The next task was to cut the omelet into bite size pieces. After that she was allowed to get herself some breakfast, which she decided to have pancakes. As she was eating, she also had to feed Zuphixy with the other hand. After everyone was done with their breakfast, Zuphixy and Zendaya went back to Zuphixy’s room, where Zendaya had to brush Zuphixy’s teeth and hair. Just as Zendaya had taken a step to get the brush, Zuphixy's arm spazzed and would have hit Zendaya, if she had not moved at that moment.

Meanwhile Elijah was not in the mood to get off the boat. He was doing everything he could think of to prevent him having to leave. Jacklyne van den Berg happened to be there at that time and had some tools with her that were used to calm people down. She had a CD player with noise canceling earphones that she gave to Elijah to listen to calming music. The music calmed Elijah enough to learn that he didn’t want to leave the boat because he was missing his sister.

Zendaya and Zuphixy went to the Wilson's family room and Zendaya spent some time doing her hair before they all took the elevator to where they got off the boat. There were so many people Elijah was getting overwhelmed again. Jacklyne looked around and found a place away from most of the people where he could relax. Which he did to the point that he started to take his clothes off until Jacklyne stopped him without upsetting him.

Meanwhile when the tour company saw Zuphixy in his wheelchair, there seemed to be confusion whether the bus was accessible or not. It upset Zuphixy because he didn't want to have to change his plans. Just as he was convinced that he was going to have to change his plans, a bus came that had a lift, and it was confirmed that it was for Zuphixy. So he got on the bus with the Wilson's family and Jacklyne.

Some time into the tour, everyone except Elijah, was focused on what the guide was saying. Nobody noticed that Elijah had leaned over and was playing with the straps that held Zuphixy’s chair in place, until Zuphixy felt a tug. He looked down and saw what Elijah was doing and politely asked Elijah to stop, as it could be dangerous. Elijah seemed to ignore him and kept fiddling with the straps. Zuphixy tapped Zendaya on the arm and pointed to what Elijah was doing and whispered to her how dangerous it was for Elijah to do that. Zendaya tried to get her brother's attention with no success. Zendaya then told her father what Elijah was doing. She had spoken so loud that the tour guide had to stop talking and everybody looked at Elijah who was oblivious to how he had stopped the tour momentarily. Micheal grabbed his son and switched seats with him so that Elijah was in between his mother and his father and the tour continued.

The tour bus would stop at a few old buildings that everybody got to walk through. The tour guide asked that nobody touch anything, but Elijah didn't understand, and kept touching things that looked like they would have an interesting feeling for him. When the guide saw that Elijah had touched something, Elijah and his mother were requested to leave and head back to the bus.

After the tour was over everyone went back on the ship for lunch in the buffet. Zendaya was asked to help Zuphixy with his lunch just like she had done for his breakfast. Elijah wanted to help feed Zuphixy as well but he was not tall enough, so in frustration he flung his hamburger across the room while his sister kept helping Zuphixy.

Once everyone was done with their lunch, they all went back off the boat and walked around the city a bit. They found a gift shop where everyone did some shopping. While they were in the store, Elijah took an item off one of the shelves. That was a very expensive thing. When his parents told him that it was too expensive and he couldn't have it, instead of putting it back on the shelf like he should have, Elijah threw it across the room. His sister happened to see it and managed to catch it before it broke and put it back on the shelf. Elijah was so mad, anything that was in his reach he took off the shelves and threw them on the floor. Luckily the rest of the items were not breakable.

Zendaya was so embarrassed by her brother that she left the store crying. Jacklyne picked up all the stuff and put them back on the shelves before taking Elijah back to the cruise boat. She insisted on him taking a nap no matter how tired he was or not. Zuphixy went to Zendaya and calmed her down and let her know that her brother was in Jacklyne's care. Zuphixy, with permission from Zendaya's parents, took Zendaya to an ice cream stand where she got herself her favorite ice cream. In the meantime, Micheal paid for the gift his family got and anything that Elijah had broken.

After that it was time to get back on the boat for dinner. It was decided that Jacklyne and Elijah would have room service in the Wilson’s room while Zendaya and her parents would help Zuphixy in the main dining room. Abeba was scared for her daughter's safety when Zuphixy spazzed causing a utensil to fry across the room. Zuphixy managed to convince Abeba that her daughter was in no danger, because he can feel and warn anyone that a spaz was going to happen.

Meanwhile Elijah was testing Jacklyne’s patience because Elijah didn’t like that he had to be separated from his sister. He liked being with his sister, but everyone else knew that Zendaya needed a break from her brother always being around her.

After everyone was done eating, Zendaya went to the library where she could relaxingly read without her brother bugging her. As Abeba left for the casino, Zuphixy made a joking comment about how he noticed that she seemed to spend more time in the casino than with her family. To which Abeba gave Zuphixy a side eye glaring look that meant: “Well, I'm their mother and it's none of your business what I do!” Zuphixy and Micheal went back to Micheal’s room to see how Jacklyne and Elijah were doing. When they got there, Micheal saw that Elijah had pulled all the bedding of the beds that he could reach and Jacklyne was holding Elijah so that he couldn't do any more damage to the room. Micheal convinced Elijah that if he was on his best behavior then he could play ping pong with him, but if he continued to be bad they would have to go to bed. Elijah decided to be as good as he knew how to be, and was allowed to ping pong.

While Elijah was playing ping pong with his father, Elijah's uncle, who was the ship's captain, came up to Elijah and asked if he could play ping pong with him while he was on a break. Elijah, to Michael's surprise, had agreed to let the captain have a turn playing ping pong. The captain mentioned to Micheal that he had told the chefs if Elijah or Zendaya ever wanted ice cream on the ship that he, the captain, would pay for it. All Michael had to do was say his last name and to charge the captain. After that the captain left, and it was time for Elijah to go to bed. Which was ok by Elijah as he was starting to feel sleepy from the busy day. When they got to their room there was a bear made out of towels on the bed.

Now Zendaya was so into the book she was reading that she didn’t notice how late it was until she finished the book. Zendaya was scared that she was going to get in trouble for staying up so late so she rushed back to her family’s room as fast as she could without getting in trouble for running on the boat. When she got the room it was a surprise to learn that her parents were not mad at her, and that they were allowing her to stay away. They knew how much she needed time away from her brother, who was already fast asleep in bed.

Zuphixy and his caregiver decided to go for a relaxing swim before each having a shower and going to bed early because the day's events had made them tired. They also found a bear made out of towels.

When everyone got up the next morning it was a day at sea again. They went to the buffet for breakfast before they went to a worship service that was held on every Sunday that the ship was at sea. On the way to the worship service, Zendaya started to complain that she had to wear a dress again. Elijah, after hearing his sister complaining, joined her and started to make his own scene by tugging at his tie and stomping his feet. Elijah was surprisingly easy to calm down when he was allowed to not wear the tie. But his sister just got angrier that her brother got his way but she didn't. In her anger she tripped over Zuphixy's wheelchair causing her to fall on his lap. What the pastor had said in the service made Abeba think about how her gambling and drinking so much alcohol was affecting her family.

After the service was over it was lunchtime at the buffet. To Zendaya's disappointment, she was not allowed to change out of her dress first as they were already closer to the buffet than their room. Her parents decided that Zendaya had to learn that there will be times that as a girl, she may be required to wear dresses without complaining. Zendaya was not happy, so in protest she refused to eat any lunch as long as she had to wear the dress. But her father told her that she was not allowed to change out of the dress until everyone including her had finished lunch.

Zendaya signed up for a cooking course on the ship, but later found out that at her age she would need a parent to be there with her. Abeba agreed to go with Zendaya for one class as there was not much else for Zendaya to do on a sea day .After lunch, Zendaya had just enough time to change before she had to go with her mother to the kitchen. In the class they learn how to cook a rice dish which Zendaya wanted her mother to teach her at home. But her mother was always too busy gambling. Zuphixy’s caregiver, Jacklyne, also took the same class as Zendaya and her mother. Meanwhile, Zuphixy was getting another massage. After the cooking class, his caregiver came to help Zuphixy get to their room, and she found him asleep. She woke him up and they went back to their room and they played a game of chess on their cellphones over the boat's wifi together. Elijah and his father spent that time going swimming in the pool as that seemed to relax Elijah after the stressful time he had in the morning.

For the rest of the afternoon Wilson's family were relaxing in their room watching a movie together. Until about one hour into the movie, Abeba was restless because she was having withdrawals from gambling. Elijah could sense that his mother was agitated which made him get agitated. Now with both Elijah and his mother moving around it was making Zendaya mad and she suddenly shut off the movie and said “If you're going to be that way I can't watch anything” and ran out of the room mad. Abeba then realized that she had upset both of her children and went out of the room after Zendaya. By doing so she had left Micheal to calm Elijah down by himself. Witch didn't take as long as he thought it would once the tension in the air had left with the women.

Zendaya had made it to the elevators before her mother had caught up to her and tried to apologize. Zendaya would not accept her mother's apology or even acknowledge that her mother was there. Zendaya tried to pretend that her mother was talking to someone else and continued into the elevator and pressed the button that sent her to the floor of the library. Abeba then decided to let her daughter be and not make a scene in front of the other strangers on the boat. Abeba then went to the casino and gambled, even though after the service that morning she told herself that she was not going to gamble that day.

After waiting for what felt like hours, Micheal was starting to worry about where his daughter and wife were, as it should not have taken them this long to come back. So he decided to look for them with Elijah, who at first didn't want to leave the room. Micheal convinced Elijah to go by saying it was a game of hide and seek and that his sister was hiding and he had to find her. Elijah liked to play hide and seek when he was the one doing the seeking so he agreed.

Micheal didn't think to check the casino because he thought that his wife would be with their daughter, but Elijah saw his mother from the doorway of the casino and pointed his mother out to his father. Micheal then gave Abeba a hand sign that he was looking for their daughter. Abeba saw her husband's hand sign but didn't understand so she stopped playing the slot machine and went to her husband and son in the hallway. She frustratedly asked her husband what he wanted from her. Micheal then told her that he was looking for their daughter, and was asking her if she knew where she was. Abeba told him that she last saw her going up the elevator to the floor the library was on.

Now Abeba had been gambling for at least an hour but she was unaware that it had been that long until her husband told her what time it was. Then she also started to worry about their daughter's whereabouts and decided to help them look for her. They found her in the back of the library by herself with eyes that looked like she had been crying for some time. Abeba tried again to apologize and this time Zendaya accepted the apology and the family went for some ice cream at a shop near where they were. Then they all went back to their room and had their dinner brought to them. Zendaya was happy because she didn’t have to wear her dress again.

Now Zuphixy had won the game of chess just in time to get dressed up for another fancy dinner. Zuphixy was surprised that none of the Wilson's family were at their table until Jacklyne reminded him how the children didn't like to be dressed up.

After both families were done with their dinner they happened to go to the same performance and sat beside each other. The performance was about behind the scenes on how the cruise ship works which got Zuphixy’s and Elijah's interest. Zendaya was not too interested but she had gone because she didn't know what else to do and she didn't want to stay in their room by herself. Abeba also was not too interested, but she was trying to do more things with her family instead of gambling all the time. But the performance was so boring for her that she started to daydream about how much she could be winning, and ended up leaving to go gambling again. Instead of winning like in her daydream she lost half of the money she had borrowed from her husband.

Once the performance was over Zendaya went back to their room and hoped to finish watching the movie with her father that the family had started that afternoon, but her brother kept pulling her away saying let play seek like we did earlier. Zendaya looked to her dad for help because she didn't know that her dad used hide and seek as a way to find her that afternoon. Her father then had to explain what had happened that afternoon before they found her in the library. Once she understood she was not as mad, but they still had a problem that Elijah still wanted to repeat the seek game. Zendaya and her father decided that they had no choice but to play hide and seek. So Zendaya went to the arcade where she pretended to hide while Micheal explained to Elijah he had to hold his father’s hand the whole time they were seeking because they were on the ship. Zendaya had whispered to her dad where she would be hiding so that it would be safe. After that Michael went to random places that were not too busy and let Elijah look around before going to the arcade where of course Elijah found his sister. Elijah at first wanted to play again but when they showed him how busy the boat was he changed his mind and went back to their room and fell asleep right away. Zendaya decided that she was getting tired too so she also went to bed when her father reminded her what the plans were for the next day.

While that was going on Zuphixy and Jacklyne had gone swimming. While they were there, there was a movie that was playing on a big TV beside the pool with a lot of other people watching the movie on sun lounge chairs that were set up around the pool. After that Zuphixy and his caregiver took a walk around the outside deck of the boat until Zuphixy felt that the wind was too strong. Then they went back inside to their room and decided to go to bed as they were unsure of what the next day would bring.

Now Micheal decided until his wife came back from gambling, he would see what else was going on around the boat while his children were sleeping. When he came across an art gallery full of paintings. After spending some time slowly looking at all the art he realized it was getting late. So he went back to their family’s room hoping not to wake up his children, only to find that his wife had come back before him. She had already gone to bed so he joined her. Just as he got in bed he was thinking how lucky he was that he had not woken anyone up, suddenly Elijah woke up from a nightmare. Micheal quickly calmed his son down before anyone else woke up.

The next morning the boat was pulling up to the Jamaica port as Wilson's family were having breakfast in the buffet. Elijah was so interested in how the boat was parking that it was hard for anyone to get him to eat. It was decided that Wilson's family would get off the boat, even though they were scared that Elijah would make a scene like had done in Cuba. So they started the day by going to gift shops around the town to see how Elijah would do, and the stores were not busy so he seemed good.

Zuphixy and his caregiver after sleeping in found out that they have been in Jamaica for sometime. They had a late breakfast before going off the ship. They got there just in time to take the only tour that is wheelchair accessible, to see some waterfalls. It took most of the day to go to the falls and back. So they had to have lunch while they were gone, which was not included. Because of Zuphixy's diet all he could find was a plate of fruit.

Wilson's family took a tour where you can swim with the dolphins. Elijah was enjoying the dolphins until it was time to leave. He got mad and would not get out of the water until his sister bribed him with some candy she had found in her pocket. When the tours got back to the ship, the ship was ready to go to the next island, so there was no time left to do anything else on land. Which was disappointing for Zuphixy because he didn't have time to shop for gifts, and yet it was too early for dinner. Just like at the other places they had stopped, it was so hot that everyone had to have a shower to cool down. Both the Wilson's family and Zuphixy with his caregiver had room service in their own rooms.

After supper both the Wilson's family and Zuphixy with his caregiver went to a performance. Elijah and his sister were both sleepy and cranky from the day's activities so they started to fight loudly, which made the strangers around look at them. Micheal gave his children a look of disapproval to show his daughter that she should know better than to wrestle with her brother in a public place. Abeba could not handle her kids fighting so she left to a bar that was nearby. Micheal was upset that his wife left the caring of their children to him, but he let her go because he didn't want to add more disturbances to the show than his children already did. So after his wife left he forced his children to go back with him to their room where they found a snake made of towels.

Micheal sent the children to bed early. Elijah was fine with going to bed and fell asleep right away even though it was earlier than normal for him. Zendaya on the other hand was making a big fuss about going to bed at the same time as her brother because Zendaya normally was allowed to stay up longer. Even as she was trying to get away with not going to bed yet, she was yawning while swearing at her father who was insisting that she had to go to bed. Micheal hates it when anyone swears so that just made him angrier. Suddenly Zendaya fell asleep in the chair she was sitting in. Michael then went to the library where he meditated. Then he went for a walk around the outside deck of the boat until it was bedtime for him. Zuphixy was at the same performance and had witnessed the children acting up but decided that it was not his business to stop them so he just ignored the children. After they left he was glad to be able to finish watching the performance in peace before he and his caregiver went to bed and found a snake made of towels.