Running Amuck

It’s the day after Halloween and the sugar rush is still strong. At the Fish Bowl tonight there are children everywhere, and of every age.  All of them were running amuck.

As soon as I walked in I noticed a group of teens at the arcade screaming and playing, I expected them to be the most energetic of the bunch, but when I went into the main body of the alley, I was thoroughly surprised.

I was shocked to see a little girl in pink, who looked to be about eight years of age, holding a bowling ball on her shoulder as if she was going to fling it onto some unsuspecting person.  Pink wandered toward an air hockey game awkwardly tucked away next to the arcade and balanced herself onto her knees to talk to a toddler hiding underneath.  I couldn’t hear what she was saying but her hand gestures suggested to me she was trying to coax the toddler out with the bowling ball.  She motioned for her to slide out and rubbed the ball to no avail.  The toddler stood her ground sliding in farther underneath the hockey table as she shook her head negatively towards the pink clad girl.  Pink got up looking defeated just as a teenage girl came by. 

The teenager, in her attempt, got down on her knees and spoke to the toddler holding something in her hands as if to say “come out and I will give you this.”  Of course the toddler’s mind was set and she did no such thing.  I could still see the toddler defiantly struggle to slide to the corners of the hockey table as the teenager attempted to drag her out.  Finally an adult arrived to help the teenager.  She got down on her knees and although the horrid rap music did not permit me to hear what she said the child obeyed and began to crawl out from under at least half way when she quickly went back in.  The adult took hold of her leg, dragging her partway out from under the table, before she escaped, huddling under the table again.  The adult then grabbed her arm, and pulled her out in one quick motion, holding her, dangling, in the air

At the same time a second toddler in a white blouse was running around with another teenage girl and possibly six year old trailing behind her.  White Blouse was running toward the billiards room when the six year old through an air-filled birthday balloon in the air catching Blouse’s attention.  She was more interested in playing with the white balloon that bounced all around her than running away from her caretaker.  The three of them remained behind me for a lengthy amount of time.

When I finally believed that the commotion couldn’t get any worse I noticed that the girl who looked like she was about to fling the ball earlier was playing with a group of other children.  Among them were two boys one older than the rest and another girl.  The boys were running back and forth across the length of their lanes.  They would race down the lane and throw, not bowl, the ball down the rest of the lane.  The balls would bounce and continue rolling as the kids slid down trailing behind.  No sooner than when they were up from the lane they would run and slide off of the lane near the tables.  All the adults were chatting and enjoying their beers as the kids rolled wildly in all directions.  The oldest child kept sliding into all three lanes as he aimlessly tossed his ball (which would often bounce over the railings and into other lanes) hoping to get it down his lane. 

At one point he carried the ball like a basketball and let it fly.  It missed his lane and got logged in railing of the lane next to his.  No one noticed, not even the employees who were busy having their usual conversations.  I assume all of those lanes belonged to that large group because no one stopped to ask the children to calm down much less help them to bowl instead of throw the ball.  The kids looked happy, carrying the balls over their heads, on their shoulders and like basket balls as they ran from the ball holders onto the lanes and finally sliding down as they followed their balls.