By JudyL

January 19, 2004

This sprang from Ines' feedback to my story "Vacation" so I suppose you could consider it a sequel. <g> Thanks for the inspiration Ines.

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"Come on Simon," Blair cajoled pulling on the big black man's arm. "Admit it, you need this just as much as we do."

"I don't know about this Sandburg. It's just a bunch of people whining about their bad luck," Simon responded, unmoved by Blair's attempt to drag him through the door.

Jim gave his Captain a gentle push from behind. "Come on Simon, it'll be good for you. It'll save you money on chewed up cigars."

The three men entered the building and made their way to the sign in table. Name badges were picked up and put on. The lady at the table pointed out the refreshments and told them the meeting would be starting shortly.

Blair grabbed three bottles of water and ushered his friends into the next room. Several dozen people milled around in small groups talking while they waited for things to get started.

Jim, Blair and Simon found three seats and waited. Soon a well-dressed man with gray hair moved up to stand behind the podium.

"Would you take your seats please and we'll get started," he said into the microphone. Once everyone was seated he continued. "Thank you all for coming to this VVA meeting. I see a few new faces in the crowd. Would you introduce yourselves briefly for us and tell us why you're here?" He looked directly at Jim, Blair and Simon.

The three men fidgeted uncomfortably for a second then Blair stood up. "Um, my name is Blair, and I have a problem. It's really unbelievable when I think about it and to see so many other people with the same problem, well, it's just…"

Jim stood up and put his hand on Blair's shoulder. "Chief," he said silencing the younger man. Jim took a deep breath. "My name is Jim and I, and my friends here, have a serious vacation problem." He turned and dropped his other hand to Simon's shoulder. "This is Simon."

The man at the podium nodded with a kind smile. "Welcome all of you to Vacation Victims Anonymous." He turned to address the rest of the crowd. "Has anyone got a successful vacation story to share with us before we hear about the disasters?"

Several hands went up.

Simon turned to Blair and whispered. "I thought the whole idea of this meeting was to share our disaster vacations?"

"Well, Simon, it's a support group. They try to help people have good vacations and just want to share any successes," Blair whispered back.

"Oh," Simon said sitting back to listen. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. Maybe someone out there has had worse luck than we have… NAH!

finis

Comments are always welcome, please let me know what you think. Judy

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