-One-
Theo
Theo knelt in front of the open suitcase, his fingers brushing over the few clothes he had packed. He didn’t need to look out the window to know that the sun was shining; summer had arrived in full force. He exhaled and stared at a solitary t-shirt for a long time before folding it with little enthusiasm and placing it in the suitcase.
In a corner lay a pile of sketchbooks and colored pens. Theo reached for them, his eyes indifferent. His two older siblings would have been excited about this trip, eagerly filling their bags with swimwear and sunscreen.
But Theo, almost 18 and soon to be free, felt only the weight of being the youngest in the family—the child who still had to participate in these family outings.
He likely would have avoided it if he had secured a summer job, but he was unsuccessful in doing so.
He could almost hear the sound of Mediterranean waves when he closed his eyes. Soon, he would come of age, but here he was, bound to yet another family vacation With the notebooks secured in his suitcase, he allowed himself a moment to dream: pages filled with verses and lines, capturing every nuanced feeling he experienced throughout the holiday.
“Fourteen days,” he mumbled as he closed the suitcase. “It’s only fourteen days.”
A faint sigh escaped him as he thought about the villa where they would be staying—a house with its own pool in Torrevieja. He tried to envision what it would be like to lie on a sun lounger, pretending to savor every moment of it.
“It’s not like I’m going to die either,” he muttered quietly to himself, attempting to mask his lack of enthusiasm. It wasn’t typical for Theo to acquiesce to others’ wishes, especially when it involved sun and beach life. However, the expression on his mother’s face when she asked if he wanted to join them—hopeful yet tinged with fear that the family would drift apart—touched something within him.
Perhaps the villa would offer a different kind of escape—a secluded place where he could immerse himself in his own projects without the constant reminders of everyday life.
Time ticked slowly. Theo stood with his arms crossed, gazing out the window. Below him, traffic flowed, and people rushed by, oblivious to the man in the window who bore the weight of a vacation he had not chosen.
He drew the curtains and glanced at the clock. The flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until later; there was plenty of time. He had ample opportunity to gradually let go of his inhibitions, even if only by millimeters, as he embraced the idea of a summer vacation in Spain.
“Theo!” his mother called from the hallway. He sighed softly and stood up from his chair, knowing there was no way to avoid it. He grabbed the suitcase and rolled it out of the room, down the long hallway, toward the exit door.
He let out a heavy sigh. A mixture of irritation and resignation spread through his chest, and the sensation of being trapped within his own family.
But as he approached the exit door and caught sight of his mother’s beaming face, he couldn’t help but notice the genuine joy radiating from her eyes. It was a smile that stirred something within him—a warmth he couldn’t ignore. Perhaps it wasn’t solely a sense of obligation that compelled him to embrace this vacation; perhaps it was also the longing to see his mother happy.
“I am so happy that you are joining us,” she said, embracing him in a warm hug. “Come on now, before Dad gets too stressed!”
Theo glanced at his father, who already had large sweat stains under his arms as he struggled to fit the suitcases into the car.
“Damn! Now I can’t close the luggage compartment either!” he exclaimed, looking wide-eyed and frustrated at Theo’s suitcase. “Couldn’t you have chosen a bigger suitcase?!”
Theo couldn't help but smirk at his father's comical behavior, despite the irritation he felt. He knew that his father had a tendency to overreact in stressful situations, making it difficult not to find humor in the situation.
Theo replied, "I did. But I thought it would be more entertaining to watch you try to put it in the trunk."
His father grunted irritably, then shook his head and continued with the luggage. Theo turned to his mother, who stood behind him with a smile. “It’s going to be an interesting vacation,” she said softly, teasingly glancing at his father, who was still struggling to fit the suitcase into the trunk.
Theo could not resist the temptation and burst into laughter with his mother. It was rare for him to see her so carefree, as if an invisible burden had been lifted from her shoulders in that moment.
Ulrik
Ulrik leaned back slightly in the car seat, attempting to find a comfortable position between his energetic twin sisters. There wasn’t much room in the back seat of the family’s packed station wagon.
He wore a casual tank top that displayed the tattoos on his upper arms, and a pair of sunglasses rested on his head, ready for use when they finally reached the Spanish coast.
The twins appeared to be mirror images of each other in identical light blue summer dresses, adorned with matching ribbons in their long, blonde hair. They resembled two angels, if one were to overlook the spark of unrest in their eyes and the synchronized movement when they both crossed their arms in indignation.
“You could have remembered the brush!” Nora snapped, while her reflection rolled its eyes in exasperation.
“It was your turn to pack up the hair products!” Vilde retorted with equal indignation.
“Quiet back there!” shouted their father over his shoulder.
“Girls, girls,” Ulrik said with calm, turning from side to side to meet his sisters’ gazes. “If this is the biggest problem we have on this trip, then I will gladly declare myself the world’s best mediator.”
The sisters stared at him for a moment before he continued, “Imagine that without the brush, your hair will be naturally wavy and beautiful, like the sea. It will surely impress the charming Spaniards down there.”
Nora and Vilde exchanged a glance before bursting into laughter, which soon filled the entire car with their joyful sounds. Even their father couldn't suppress a smile as he glanced at his children in the rearview mirror.
“I cannot express enough how grateful I am to be here with you,” Ulrik said as the laughter subsided.
“We are grateful that you still want to go on vacation with us, old folks,” their mother replied lovingly, turning to send him a smile.
“Oh, it wouldn’t have been the same without the family traditions,” he said, his heart feeling lighter than it had in a long time, filled with gratitude and a deeper love for the small moments they shared.
Ulrik shifted uncomfortably in the increasingly cramped back seat, his long legs contending for space with those of his younger sisters. His already weary eyes gazed out the car window as the cityscape faded behind the horizon.
He understood that, although the car was filled with lively voices and laughter, there could also be challenges during the vacation.
The family dynamics were always characterized by love and joy, but they also included minor arguments and rivalries among the siblings.
However, at that moment, as the sun streamed through the car window and he listened to the familiar voices surrounding him, Ulrik couldn’t envision being anywhere else. He recognized that, despite any difficulties they might encounter along the way, this vacation would be filled with memories to last a lifetime.
“Have we checked the seat numbers on the plane?” Ulrik asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he leaned forward between the seats. His hair was tousled by the wind from the partially open window.
His father glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “I think Mom has them,” he replied.
Ulrik sank back into his seat, still wearing that light, expectant smile. He had never been the type to worry about details; to him, seat numbers were merely numbers, and the entire world was just one big seat on the journey to the next experience.
The mother retrieved the tickets from her purse, and the crisp papers fluttered lightly in the air before she gently placed them on the dashboard. “Here,” she said with a smile, “we have seats 14A to 14D.”
Her eyes widened, as if she couldn’t believe the number glaring back at her on the last ticket. “And this one”—a brief pause filled the car while tension hung thick in the air—“is 30 B.”
“30 B?” Ulrik’s father shook his head, his brows furrowed in confusion, and his eyes met his wife’s through the mirror.
“How,” he emphasized, as if the word could rectify the mistake on its own. “It must be,” he began again, a thoughtful expression crossing his face as he maneuvered the car into the airport parking lot, “because we took the last seats on the plane.”
Their mother nodded slowly, clearly in agreement with the father's words, as if each movement affirmed the reality of the situation. The four seats that would accommodate the four of them together, along with one lonely seat separated by an unknown number of rows and passengers, should have merely been numbers on a piece of paper.
However, at this moment, they represented something more—small islands of uncertainty on a journey they had eagerly anticipated.
Nora squirmed in the backseat “Who has to sit alone then?” she asked, her eyes revealing both curiosity and a touch of concern.
Their mother, with the tickets gently folded between her fingers, scrutinized the text and numbers to identify the name that corresponded to the unwanted seat number. The deck of cards resembled a lottery in which no one wished to draw the short straw.
She paused at the last card. “It’s Vilde who has to sit alone,” she said, her tone soft and gentle, as if she were attempting to soften the impact of her words.
“No,” Vilde said, slightly frustrated.
Nora gazed at her sister through a veil of sympathy, struggling to suppress the urge to embrace her and pull her to safety among the familiar rows of seats. However, the reality of the ticket prevented her from doing so, leaving her with only an uncertain smile to offer.
“I can take that seat,” Ulrik said. “It doesn’t matter to me where I sit; all seats will eventually end up in the right place anyway.”
As Ulrik's lively tone filled the air, a chorus of laughter erupted.
Nora chuckled, while Vilde exhaled a sigh of relief, gratitude sparkling in the corners of her eyes.
In that moment, the car transformed from merely a means of transportation into a space for camaraderie and playful teasing, with Ulrik assuming the role of the self-proclaimed knight, ready to leap down from his white horse—or, in this case, the family's infamous middle seat row.
That's right! Ulrik was the knight who sacrificed himself to occupy the lonely seat in the back of the plane.
