Chapter 15
ALEC
The league teams playing tonight turned out to be the ship’s youth teams. I helped put up bumpers for the Moms, Pops, and Tots group who enjoyed informal games without any announced winners or losers, just a bunch of kids aged four to six enjoying learning to bowl and chowing down on pizza, milk, and ready made ice cream cones from the freezer.
There were a few easily handled meltdowns, with me only having to go assist once, when a four year old girl lost her mind when her ball missed the pins entirely.
“Oh wow! Your ball traveled through the wormhole! I bet it thought those pins were an asteroid belt,” I said, approaching.
She paused, looking at me for a moment before starting to bawl again.
Unfettered, I said, “You all know what that means, right? Wormholes mean gummy worms for everyone!” I held aloft a sharing sized bag from the vending machine.
And you,” I held it out to the little girl whose name was apparently Cindy, “have to be the one to hand them out and make sure everyone gets their fair share, because you were driving the ball. Of course, that also means you get one extra gummy worm.”
Cindy was merely sniffling now. “Really?”
“Yes,” her grateful mother interjected. “But it only applies to the first time a ball flies through the wormhole.” She looked at me meaningfully.
“That’s right. After that, everyone just has to say, “Oh, man, I gotta make sure to pilot away from those wormholes, because there’s one on each side of the pins, yeah?”
“Yeah,” she replied, taking the now open bag of candy from me.
“Let me hold those while you take your second roll…err…flight,” her mom said. “I’ll give them right back after, okay?”
Crisis averted. I stepped away as her mom mouthed a thank you to me. I didn’t have much time to give myself a mental pat on the back about it, though, as my watch was buzzing to let me know more pizza was ready to be sliced and put on the buffet.
After that, the Pin Pilot team of six to eight year olds were ready for an ice cream break, already perched on the barstool seating at the counter where they had to eat their ice cream.
This was followed up by malted milkshakes I had to whiz up myself as the nine to twelves, or Lane Conquerors, came up asking for their ice cream cones to take back to their seating area.
The thirteen to fifteen year olds simply ate pizza and nachos and drank canned soft drinks they got out of the vending machine in between games.
I smiled at their league designation, as well as their team name, which were Pin Smashers and Spacely Sprockets, respectively.
There were also regular bowlers coming in and out, so we also had to issue their shoes and handle their food orders, too, which meant I got to fry up some burgers while my co-worker made nachos and handled lane assignments.
To my surprise, the guy I met in the elevator wandered in, but he merely waved hello and watched everyone play for around half an hour or so before wandering out.
“Hey, I meant to ask,” I said to Mark when we had a moment, “why are the kids playing here during the week while it’s school hours?”
“See the two adults with each group?”
“Yeah?”
“Those are assistant teachers who come to this, or to tennis, swimming, chess league, or whatever. Sports related stuff like bowling, swimming, and tennis are considered phys ed, so they get a pass to come here during school hours while it’s not really busy.
Same with the pool and tennis courts. Brainy stuff like chess, Go, or Kythif, which is a Mylos game of logic and strategy played in 3D, are considered part of developing advanced critical thinking, so again, they’re excused to go participate.
It’s a once a week thing for them all, and the other students get to enjoy art classes or music lessons, or simply to go read in the library for two hours. ”
“So these guys miss out on art and music?” That didn’t sound fair.
“No. It’s an extra two hours for everyone else, which they’ve opted out of in favor of this.
Except for the tots group, which is now, as evenings are too busy, kids that small go to bed earlier, and the preschool simply lets parents come take them to their activity, as it’s preschool and they are learning through play anyway.
Kindergarten starts at six, as long as the kid is six by September first, by the ship’s calendar. ”
“It’s pegged to Hawaii just like the time, yeah?”
“Yep.”
He wandered over to accept a set of shoes back from a trio of ladies who were done playing.
Soon, it was two o’clock, and the kids were all leaving, leaving us to scramble with getting their shoes and handing out smiling bowling ball stickers for the younger kids to wear on their shirts.
Then it was clean up time, which Mark and I managed to get done before the evening adult players came in, thanks to the alley shutting until five and the evening shift employees showing up.
I was exhausted, but unlike my previous jobs, I felt content.
I’d done more than merely serve food, give out a bag of gummy worms, and handle check out and the return of shoes.
I’d made kids smile and helped them enjoy something they could do for fun with family and friends for the rest of their lives.
I felt really good about that, and I was buzzed about it all the way home, where I ate the leftover pizza we got to take home with sweet tea I replicated.
“Ohh, pizza!” Winchell said when he returned home.
“Yup, help yourself. There was enough for us to take home a box each of leftover slices.”
“Nice! Have a good first day?”
“I really did. I think I’m going to really enjoy working there.”
“That’s great. Hey, wanna watch TV while we eat? Mike at work told me the original Thunderbirds and Stingray are on here, as well as Captain Scarlet, unless that’s too childish and geeky for you.”
I held up a hand in surrender. “No judgment here. I like to watch the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, and stuff like that. If they’re cartoons, I’m down.”
“They’re Supermarionation, and I bet you’ll love them! Umm, let’s start with Captain Scarlet.”
He was right. I loved it, and we ended up watching seven episodes before calling it quits, as we needed to shower and get to bed so we could get up well rested in the morning for work.