The Grams packed up the car to make the ten-hour trip to North Carolina. They were headed for Charlotte, not for a family vacation but for a wedding. Uncle Brian was finally getting married, a surprise to everyone in the family. After 38 years of his life, he had found the right woman. Though it was his fault for waiting so long, he never could make a decision very fast. Everyone in the family had thought he had made a good one.

Samuel, Rose, and Grace slept in the car on the ride to Charlotte while their parents drove cautiously through the mountains and hills. As the Grams finally arrived at the hotel, they checked in and headed to their rooms. The girls swiped the key car to their rooms and opened the door. A smell of vomit came wafting through the threshold and Rose immediately covered her mouth and stepped back, gagging in disgust. Grace then stepped into the room and sniffed around like a curious dog. She must have smelled something because she ran out of the room as fast as possible.

“Somebody must have partied and little too hard last night,” said Rose.

Brad, the father, came over to the door, assuming that the girls were just overreacting, and took a whiff. He agreed that the strange odor smelled a lot like someone’s vomit. The family then complained to the front desk and were granted a new room. The family began talking to each other about the legends of haunted rooms smelling badly. The legend says that ghosts take over and emit a horrid smell. Grace wondered if she had just dodged a long visit in a haunted nightmare.

Luckily, the new room smelled normal and they family unpacked. Thanksgiving was tomorrow and the family was to visit the bride’s family. Uncle Brian was marrying a woman named Jessica, and they were supposed to be acquainted with her family over Thanksgiving dinner. Never meeting this family before, uncle Brian warned the family about Dan, the hot head, and Peter, the unsocial one. No one figured they would be a huge problem, so the family did not make a note of these facts.

Thanksgiving day had arrived and the family of five woke and dressed for the day. As Samuel searched the room for his suitcase, he noticed that it was nowhere to be found. Everyone began looking in the closet, under the beds, and even in the shower. Sure enough, they eventually found the suitcase shoved tightly into the mini fridge under the desk. Wondering how it got there, the family resorted back to the idea that this room could be haunted as well. However, the family did not have much time, so they set off for Thanksgiving dinner.

As the Grams arrived, Jessica’s family greeted and welcomed them into their home. Dinner came and the awkwardness began. Everyone was sitting quietly around the table not knowing what to say. After Debby Gram talked about her kids, as she always does, the ice was finally broken. Each family talked about where they were from and how far they had travelled. Suddenly, the turkey exploded all over the table and all of the other food. A turkey leg landed in Grace’s lap as she stared at everyone else’s blank looks around the table. No one could quite understand how or why this happened but it sure was strange. The entire family could not hold the laughter in any longer. Everyone seemed to be laughing all around them. The kids were yelling and eating food off the floor while the Grams continued to worry about yet another strange situation. However, this incident was not the strangest thing that happened on the trip.

The Grams helped clean up the huge mess and then finally sat down to finish their dinner. “I knew we shouldn’t have had guests over,” shouted Dan from the kitchen. The Grams sat at the dining room table in astonishment to what they were hearing. Rose piped up and said what everyone else was thinking “Could the night get any more awkward?” It could indeed as Peter was now the only one left at the table that wasn’t part of the Gram family. He did not say a word, even when spoken to, which seemed very odd to the gregarious family. He continued to stay silent as the family made jokes about the strange trip they’d had. However, a slight fear filled Samuel’s mind as he thought about the strange happenings in the past twenty-four hours.

The Grams headed back to their hotel only to find that their room had been ransacked. Nothing was actually taken, but the room looked as if someone had been looking for something valuable that they never could find. This trip was not turning out to be what anyone in the family expected. Even father Gram began to talk about ideas of paranormal activity, but he settled on the idea that the family might possibly be cursed. Even his wife thought he might be onto something.

Although the Grams were having some strange and unsettling occurrences, the family had a wedding to go to. Nothing further could be done about the problem. They had to be at the wedding that Saturday and no curse was going to stop them.

Saturday came and the Grams could do nothing but hope that no paranormal activity would make an appearance. Nothing seemed to be able to abolish the curse set on the family since they had arrived in North Carolina.

Jessica looked beautiful in her lace dress as she walked up the aisle and uncle Brian’s face was priceless the moment he first saw her. Nothing could possibly ruin the moment. Jessica’s veil dropped to the ground in an instant and a sigh was was heard by the entire crowd. How could her veil fall from her head moments after it was tightly secured in her hair? No one could correctly answer the question in everyone’s head, but the Grams had a pretty good idea. Not only did it fall out on her way up the aisle, but it came floating to the floor in the middle of the Wedding vows!

“Perfect timing,” whispered Samuel to Rose in the seat next to him. The family had now cursed the wedding too! How much more damage could they do?

The reception was held in a large entertainment room at a golf plantation. The weather was perfect and the mood was right for an amazing night of good food and lots of dancing. Candles filled the room, creating a dim glow throughout the night. The trouble came when the bride and groom stood ready to cut their beautiful wedding cake. Candles covered the lower mantle of the fire place and Jessica happened to be standing between the fire place and the cake table. Grace immediately noticed that Jessica’s dress was coming awfully close to the burning flames and jumped up to move the candles away. Just as Grace reached for the candle, the lace dress went up in flames. The train of the dress was engulfed with flames as guests at the wedding screamed in fright and ran about trying to find something that could possibly put out the burning fire.

After someone finally found the fire extinguisher and put out the flames, the wedding party tried to continue with the reception as normal, but something was obviously not right. The Grams had realized that their curse had now ruined the wedding and reception. “What gave us this curse?” “Will we be cursed forever?” “How did this happen?” The Grams frantically wondered about the whole situation and never quite found an answer.

The Grams had come to North Carolina only to be cursed. Unfortunately, no curse was left behind in Charlotte, but the Grams surely left without their pride.