A lot if your names are Ashton and Gage but for the purposes of re-telling my PA Day pre-holiday frenzy at Funworx they will forever herein be known as Action and Cage.
‘Tis the season for day camps to arrive by the holiday truck load dumping thousands of kids into a small climbing area filled with slides, Nerf guns, tubes, more children, rogue socks and row upon row of mothers not-so-secretly scarfing their kids chocolate chip/marshmallow granola bar snacks.
When the appropriate number of kids (zero) were in the ball pit, I decided to allow Chloe the opportunity she’d been waiting for. In she went while I anxiously helicoptered from the side of the enclosed germ pool looking at the plastic balls, each with a unique DNA sampling, each its own bacteria smear, no two viruses alike.
Chloe enjoyed trying to move through the sea of balls, she laughed when her big sister tossed them in the air and thought it was peculiar when a little girl (let’s call her Waldo) entered the pit wearing the same colours on her outfit as the balls and completely disappeared.
Things were going just fine and aside from planning where to begin my aggressive rub down with two parts sanitizer one part Cinzano, I was pleased with Chloe’s first ball experience.
Enter Action and Cage. Action and Cage may have been brothers, maybe even twins. But they might also have come from different ethnic backgrounds or even holograms. They were never in one place long enough to get them both in the same frame nor were they still enough to capture their essence. Two blurry bodies, heaving themselves into each other, walls, balls and other kids while delightedly squealing and showing off the chocolate chips stuck in their teeth from the one remaining granola bar that hadn’t been eaten by one of the bench moms.
Chloe panicked (rightfully) and headed for the exit. Of course her upper body leaned but her legs remained trapped, possibly even being held under the balls by a giggling Waldo. She nervously shook and screamed for help. I tried to lean in and saw her wading toward me, sockless. Balls were flying and being pelted in her direction but coming so fast, I couldn’t assign blame to either Action or Cage, they might have been fused together but using one set of wind-milling arms. Maybe they carried their own pitching machine. It all happened so fast.
“Leave the socks honey! Swim! Swim!”
Action and Cage were enjoying the drama and the last morsel of marshmallow left on their lips while they engaged in a piggy back fight with a mesh wall and anyone who came near the pit.
We managed to fish Chloe out just short of calling for the Jaws of Life, her socks forever a striped reminder of what lies beneath.
Ashton & Gage 1—Baby Socks–0
