October 30, 2000 Tokyo, Japan

When Tina was younger she thought turning 21 would be the most liberating birthday of her entire life. She had big plans for a fabulous party, maybe even in Las Vegas, with all of her friends there to see her have her first official shot as a legal adult.

Instead she would remember her 21st as being one of the most exasperating, embarrassing, and frustrating days of her life because instead of partying it up in Vegas she was flying from her home in Ohio to Tokyo with a very sick toddler and thanks to that, a plane full of angry passengers.

The other issue she was encountering during the nearly 20 hour flight was the fact that despite his father’s rather mediocre contribution from the gene pool two year old Parker was running just ahead of his development. He wanted out of his seat, he wanted to talk to other passengers, he wanted to do this that and the other but he absolutely refused to use the plane’s potty, much to the malign of the two men sitting in the seats adjacent to theirs in first class considering the boy’s stomach issues.

The end result was Tina sitting frazzled and exhausted while Parker amused himself singing songs he’d made up, his blonde hair falling in his face.

“Baby, why don’t you take a little nap?” she encouraged the boy, brushing his hair back off his forehead to get a good look at his flushed cheeks.

“No,” he whined, big blue eyes looking up at me sadly, “I want Daddy.”

“We’re going to see Daddy,” she assured him, “He’s in Japan right now and that’s where we’re going. If you go to sleep we’ll be there faster and Daddy will be at the airport to pick us up.”

“Promise?” Parker questioned sceptically and Tina saw tears building up in his eyes, a tell-tale sign that he needed to get some rest.

“Yes, I promise,” she sighed relieved when he crawled into her lap, finally settling down for the rest of the flight.

Except Daddy wasn’t there at the airport to pick them up, no one was. No assistant, no bodyguard, not even so much as a person waiting at the gate with a name on a white board.

Instead she found herself completely alone in a very strange and very busy airport in a place where she didn’t speak the language. As much as she wanted to just panic, find a seat and cry for a while she somehow managed to pull it together. Carrying Parker, his diaper bag, and her purse while trying to drag two suitcases along for the ride she tried to make her way through the crowds.

“Where’s Daddy?” Parker sniffled, crankier now than before thanks to a bumpy landing.

“I don’t know,” Tina said honestly, fighting through her purse to find her cell phone at the bottom.

“Miss?” a heavily accented voice asked and she turned excitedly, hoping that this man was her ride.

“Yes?” she asked, looking for some kind of identification but he just appeared to be a traveller like herself.

He smiled at Parker before motioning beside him, “Would you like my cart?”

“Oh!” she smiled though she was slightly disappointed that she was still sort of lost, “Thank you so much. I couldn’t find them anywhere.”

The man helped her get the suitcases onto the metal trolley then left for his own business.

“Parker you want to go in the seat?” she asked the boy with a false sense of excitement, trying to get his little hands from around her neck.

“No,” he whined, “I want Daddy.”

“Right,” she let out a rush of air and put her purse and the diaper bag in the baby seat instead, finally managing to find the missing cell phone, “Let’s see if we can’t call him,” she said with a quick rub of the toddler’s back, knowing she had the number to Nick’s international phone in there somewhere. But as she turned on the phone she quickly realized that it was going to be no use because although Nick had a phone that would work anywhere in the world, she didn’t and there was no signal.

Shoving the cell phone back into her purse she quickly thought of Plan B, finding the piece of paper with all of Nick’s information on it including the hotel the Boys were staying at, and the password for the front desk.

“Let’s get a cab,” she spoke aloud, more for her own self assurance than for Parker’s as they made our way to the entrance where there was a large sign for a taxi stand.

“Do you speak English?” she asked the first man in the line-up and he nodded his head, helping her get everything into the car.

“Where are you going?” he asked and she was surprised by how good his English really was.

“Um,” Tina stuttered, trying to quickly unfold the piece of paper, “The Conrad Hotel?”

Without so much as an acknowledgement they were on their way through the streets and she felt a sense of pride that she had been able to get them to this point without any serious freak outs. Being calm in stressful situations was not usually her strong suit yet she seemed to continually find herself in them.

It was almost a half hour spent in the cab before they arrived in front of a posh hotel, getting into a line of cars that were waiting to unload guests.

“That will be 2000 yen,” the man’s voice suddenly said and Tina realized in that moment that she didn’t have any money, not even American.

“Um,” she thought quickly, rummaging through her wallet, “Do you take credit cards?” she asked and mentally crossed her fingers.

“Yes,” he answered, and initially she pulled out her Visa before spying a familiar black and silver card tucked away under everything else and she eyed it for a moment. Nick’s exclusive Amex Centurion, the card he would tell anyone and everyone about since, like a secret society of rich people, you had to be invited to have one. She knew that she wasn’t to use it unless it was an absolute emergency but she did consider this to be awfully urgent, after all.

“How about American Express?” she asked, whipping it out. The man nodded and started to process the payment, “Go ahead and give yourself a tip.”

“How much?” he asked, and she smiled.

“However much the fare was why don’t you go ahead and triple it.”

He looked back at me somewhat shocked and she just grinned, “It was a really great ride.”

Soon the back door swung open and a uniformed valet got them and their bags out of the car.

“Are you checking in?” the bellhop asked, wanting to know where he was taking the bags.

“We’re in room 2410,” she informed him then followed him into the elevator with Parker securely on her hip, praying that Nick was actually in the hotel and not gone for the day.

The elevator ride felt like forever, with Parker’s ears again bothering him from the change in altitude, but finally stopped on the 24th floor and the bellhop lead them down the hallway towards the room.

Suddenly Parker was trying to squirm out of my arms, “Daddy!” he yelled, arms outstretched to the man who had just walked out of the room.

Nick smiled goofily and pulled the boy out of her arms, “Hey Buddy!” he tossed him up and caught him and she cringed.

“Nick, stop, he’s sick!” Tina complained but he ignored her protests.

“I’m so glad you guys made it,” he said, opening the room door back up to walk inside, nearly smacking her in the face as the door swung back shut.

Tina sighed and reminded herself to get used to it because as long as they were in Backstreetland she was the outsider.

"Happy Birthday to me..." she muttered, following them into the suite.