The Not so Excellent Adventure

Russell gloats silently as he waits for his twin sons to exit the ride they’re on.

His wife was wrong about this venture to Six Flags. It was going well. She had harped on the subject of the trip’s foolhardiness for such a long time that he almost started believing her. Almost.

But look how wrong she was! Not only had the three-hour drive gone with only slight hitches, but none of them were his fault. Sure, they were late departing, but that was because Gabe insisted on hugging his mom three extra times as she stood on the porch to see them off. And then cried for the first twenty minutes of the trip until his brother, Sam, threatened to push him out of the window.

All this threatening and crying fazed Russell not at all. The child locks were working just fine. Neither Gabe nor Sam would be pushed out on to the interstate.

There was another small delay when they stopped for a pee break. Gabe and Sam bolted from the car as soon as he parked in front of the store. He must have waited too long. Thank God they were growing up. Just two years ago, they would have had to drive the rest of the way with the windows down to dry off the upholstery and tackle the stench, erm, scent of boys with bladders the size of peanuts.

He must not have been paying close enough attention when they came back to the car. Ten minutes down the interstate, he caught the scent of chocolate. Looking in the rearview mirror, he sees his two boys with chocolate rings around their mouths. Both of them are stuffing the remainders of a candy bar in their mouths.

There was more crying when he pulled over and, using his best DAD voice, wrangled the information out of them that they had stolen the candy bars. He vowed that on the way back home they would stop at the convenience store where both boys would apologize and pay for the stolen goods from the money earmarked for the amusement park. Said funds were tearily handed over and right now residing in one of the many pockets of Russell’s cargo shorts.

This ride was taking a while. From the shrieks he was hearing, it was a scary one. Gabe and Sam insisted they were big enough to go on their own. Fine with him. These sissy rides weren’t for him. Amanda would have insisted they ride along, to keep an eye on their sons. Strapped into the carts? Where were they going to go? And wasn’t that the whole point of park employees, to make sure no harm befell their precious cargo?

Russell shifts from his position of leaning against the wall. He’ll send Amanda a text, tell her things are going great and that neither boy was missing her. He chooses a picture of their sons, their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders and mugging for the camera.

“Going great, honey. Wish you were here!” Attaching the picture, he sends the text.

Maybe he should go easy on the boys. There’s a T-shirt shop just across the way. He could buy them each a souvenir shirt to take back home. He wants this to be a happy memory of the time they spent here, not a memory of their dad yelling at them in the car.

As he’s debating, his phone dings. Amanda. He opens it to read her message. “All fun and games now, but remember, NO chocolate.”

Russell rolls his eyes and tucks the phone back into his pocket. Amanda sure is bossy.

Just then, the doors to the building burst open. Gabe and Sam, shepherded by an irate looking employee, step out into the sunshine. Both kids look like they’re about to pass out. Both of them have almost matching brown stains covering the fronts of their shirts.

The man looks around, then spots Russell. “Hey. You their dad?”

Russell nods and steps forward. “Yeah. I’m their dad. What happened?”

Gabe starts to cry. “My tummy hurts.” Sam, taking his brother’s cue, clutches his stomach and moans. “I’m gonna barf again.”

The man lets go of their shoulders and steps back. “These two made a mess. We gotta shut down the ride for the day.”

Hearing this, the two boys look at each other. Forgetting their misery for a moment, they smile conspiratorially.

“Oh wow. Sorry man. I’ll get them cleaned up.” He’s speaking in vain. The man is already gone.

After a quick trip into the T-shirt store, Russell finds a bathroom and washes the kids down as best as he can.

“What brought this on?” he asks, as he dumps the reeking shirts into the trash can on the way out. “Was the ride that scary?”

His sons still look a little green around the gills. “I guess it was the chocolate we ate,” Sam finally admits.

Russell thinks back to the text he got from Amanda. He pulls out his phone and shoots her another text. “What’s wrong with chocolate?”

Her reply is almost instantaneous. “DO NOT let them talk you into getting them some. They get sick. Really sick. Monumentally sick. This is just a fair warning.”

Russell doesn’t reply.

He herds his sons back to the car, supplying them both with plastic bags to employ should they be needed. By all accounts, they’ll be taking the trip back home with the windows fully down.

Three hours should be enough time to come up with a good enough story to tell Amanda about why they’re home early, and what happened to the shirts the kids were wearing when they left home.


***
951 words

For tomorrow, write a story or poem that takes place at an amusement park.
Include the word chocolate in your piece.
One of the genres must be FAMILY.