by K E Osborn
“It’s a badge and I wear with pride.”
While walking with her to the door I chuckle. She opens it and we step through to the sounds of children laughing and screaming and I shake my head wondering how we’re even going to be let in here. She walks us up to the counter and a large guy with tufts of red hair either side of his face that reminds me of a rather obese version of Side Show Bob, smiles a little too wide when he sees Alex.
“Alexandria, how lovely it is to see you again,” he utters in a really rather nerdy way.
I try to hide my smile and watch as she grins at him like he’s a long time friend.
“Hey, Augie! I’m glad you’re back. Didn’t like your fill in, what was her name?” Alex asks, and I furrow my brows wondering just how often does Alex come in here.
Augie sighs rolling his eyes. “Oh, yes, Tamika. She came from a recruitment agency and was only here to fill in her required hours for benefits…” He rolls his eyes. “Lousy person. Terrible with the kids. We got rid of her as soon as my back came good and I was able to get back in here to work.”
Alex nods. “I heard about your back. That happened when you were playing with the kids, right?”
I start wondering how she knows so much about this place.
What the hell is going on?
“Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to bounce on the inflatables with them, but they just wanted to have some fun and you know me, they think I’m a clown and they love to crawl all over me. I should’ve known better. That’s why I’m relegated to the booth now, no inflatable time for me.”
Alex winces. “Oooh, sorry Augie, I know you love it out there with the kids.”
“Yeah, but you know, I’m getting on. Gotta look after my health and all that… No Whisper today?” he asks and my ears prick up as I tilt my head.
“No, he’s on a Korean Fung Shui retreat or something,” she says and my mouth drops open wide.
“I love that guy!” Augie says and Alex turns to me raising her eyebrow.
“What?” she asks.
“You know Whisper?”
She giggles. “You know Whisper?”
I nod and grin lowering my voice. “He’s kinda Matt and mine’s Fung Shui master at home.”
She bursts out laughing and slaps my arm. “Oh. My. God. Don’t tell me you guys are the sexy boy twins he always talks about?”
I nod. “Yep, I think that would be us… How do you know him?”
She smirks. “Oh, didn’t you know? As well as Fung Shui he’s also an art critic at the local institute… and a part time chef at a Japanese Teppanyaki bar… and a dog groomer, trainer and apparently whisperer. He kind of has his hand in a lot of baskets.”
Shaking my head, I let out a shocked laugh. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope as serious as mad cow disease.”
“The guy’s a living legend, he has mad skills,” Augie says breaking my head trip. “Anyway, I’m guessing you wanna go to the adult section again today?”
My ears pick up… adult section? I never knew this place had an adult section. But then again I’ve never stepped foot in here, so how would I know?
“Yes, please, Augie. Is there anyone in there?” Alex asks.
He nods. “Yeah, group of college kids, but they’re mainly keeping to themselves. You guys should be right to move about the inflatables as you like. But Alex… play nice, okay?” Augie says and I half-smile at his serious face.
She chuckles and nods. “Yes sir.” She salutes and leans inside the window kissing his cheek. The flush in his face is instant, and he smiles widely as she turns to me and grabs my hand leading me off toward a black door across the other side from the entrance.
“It’s good to see you again!” Augie calls out.
I tilt my head toward Alex as Augie pushes a button, a buzzer sounds and the door opens, while I glance over to Alex as if to say ‘what the fuck’ and she tries to hold in her laugh.
Alex shakes her head while leaning in and raises her brow. “Never mind, let’s go,” she blurts out as we walk through the opening. It’s dark but not pitch black, dark enough to make it so you have to squint a little as you pass through.
I’m confused as hell and disorientated slightly from the dim lighting as we walk inside. “Alex, what was that about?”
“He thought you were Matt.”
I jolt back a little as she continues to drag me in further. “Augie knows Matt?”
“He met him the other night. I took him to a thing, no biggie, c’mon, let’s go through here!” she says trying to distract me.
“Alex, what the hell?” I ask and she giggles tightening her grip on my hand.
“C’mon, you’ll see,” she says and drags me through a hallway into a larger room where thousands of glow sticks light the walls. Neon light fills the room and it kind of reminds me of music, like being at one of our concerts when the crowd holds up the glow sticks and everything looks so bright and happy. This room is amazing and I love the feeling of being in here. It works, all thoughts of Matt hanging out with Alex and knowing Augie are dropped, and I’m instantly awed by this room instead.
Music fills the air, it’s not loud, and it’s not a beat I know but it’s a dance rhythm. One that makes you want to move, want to dance immediately. I’m not much of a dancer, but I like this song. Whatever it is. I look to Alex and she’s smiling. Well, what I can see of her with the glow sticks lighting her face. She’s a good friend and I’m glad she’s trying to distract me. But as I glance at her it reminds me that she knows Ria, that I only know her because of Ria. That I should be here in this amazing place, with Ria. An ache develops in my chest as I frown and pull in a deep breath then take another swig on the tequila. The happy buzz I had is wearing into a depressing sadness as I sigh obviously a little too loudly. Alex seems to catch onto that quickly, though.
“Right, we can either shoot hoops in here or go through to the inflatables?”
It’s only now when I look around that I notice hoops all along the walls and red balls on the floor everywhere.
Alex picks up a squishy rubber ball and throws it to a hoop, it circles the hoop but falls to the side and cascades to the floor. When the ball hits the floor with a thud, the ground beneath it lights up flashing lights out like a wave across the floor in a pattern that looks like a droplet of water plunging into the ocean. For a moment I forget my woes and half-smile at the astounding technology on display in this room. It’s incredible and Alex bumps her shoulder into mine and giggles. “Cool huh?”
I nod as she grabs the bottle from me and takes a drink.
“How come we were able to bring the tequila in with us?” I ask.
Alex chuckles. “Because you were holding it. Augie was too distracted with me to notice that you had it… if I’d been holding it he would’ve noticed and it would’ve been confiscated…” She grins like the Cheshire cat. “Like I said I’m crazy irresistible to all man and fairy kind.”
“And Simpson characters apparently,” I tease.
She scoffs out a laugh slapping the back of my head and hands me back the bottle. “Be nice… but yes he does resemble a certain… evil clown. But don’t tell him that, he gets antsy about it.”
I half-laugh and pick up a rubbery weighted red ball and throw it toward a hoop. It circles the hoop falling straight through the center. The goal lights up, the back of the board explodes in firework lights and then the ball falls to the ground sending off another cascade of water ripples across the floor.
Smiling, I shake my head as Alex grabs my hand and pulls me toward a wall where a green exit sign is lit up. I smile knowing there’s obviously more cool shit beyond the door and I can’t wait to see what else Alex has in store for me to help me forget about Ria, if only for a moment. My chest tightens just a little as Alex pulls me through the doorway into a giant open expanse. My eyes open wide as I take in the sight before me.
Holy fucking shit!
The room is massive. I mean the size of half a football field, an
d from one end to the other the floor is lined in an obstacle course of inflatable products. My mouth drops open as laughter and cheers filter through the air from the college boys currently residing on the field. Alex steps up to me, places her hand under my chin and lifts my jaw closed as she chuckles.
“It’s cool, huh? The kid’s room is big. But the adults’ area… is massive.” She gestures with her hands. “This arena is so much fun and the games are epic, Nate.” Her hand goes to her hip. “Oh… and I’m gonna whoop your ass, sexy boy.”
I raise my eyebrow at her and shake my head slightly as she pulls me toward a big barrel. She thrusts her hands inside pulling out some red socks and I chuckle as she throws a pair at me. I catch them, almost dropping our precious tequila bottle and she giggles.
“Careful now, no dropping the liquid courage. Put the socks on, gotta obey some rules,” she says pulling off her pixie flats and sliding on the red socks.
I place the bottle on the floor and kick off my boots, then pull on the red socks. They’re a tiny bit small, but as she says we gotta obey some rules… I suppose.
“Okay, you ready?” she asks bouncing up and down on her toes.
“How many times have you been here?”
“A lot… c’mon, race ya to the top.” She takes off to the start where the first inflatable is bright yellow with a blow-up arch over the entrance with START written in big green letters. Alex bolts for it jumping up onto the inflatable cushion and begins racing inside the arena. I chuckle at her enthusiasm and shake my head.
What have I got to lose?
I run forward with the bottle of tequila in hand, making sure the lid is on tight. I jump up onto the cushion and it is squishy beneath my feet. I wobble from side to side as I chuckle slightly walking in and look forward to see further inside the inflatable. As you walk in there’s what looks like a rock climbing wall, all inflatable of course, and I shake my head and chuckle noticing Alex is already nearly at the top.
She looks down to me and grins wide. “Gonna have to move quicker if you’re even going to consider yourself a competitor, boss.”
“I’m at a disadvantage, Alex, I have a bottle,” I call back.
She grins. “I would call that an advantage, but hey, I might be a closet alcoholic but you’ll never know unless you catch up to me,” she says climbing up higher.
I chuckle and shove the bottle half way down the front of my jeans and start climbing up the wall. It’s actually quite hard and I’m not weak by any means. I’m super fit, I work out, I lift weights and I train hard, but fuck this shit is awkward even for me. Alex looks down and chuckles at me as she scales the wall and stands at the top. “Ha ha sucker, see you at the next inflatable,” she says and rushes off.
I chuckle while continuing to climb, digging in and making my way quicker. She’s igniting the fighter in me and I want to actually compete with her not just be left behind like fucking always. So I race to the top and stand up to see two slides at the other side leading me down to the next inflatable. Grabbing the bottle from my pants, I hold onto it and slide down the slide. A smile creeps onto my face and I have to admit for a childish place this is actually pretty fun.
Sliding into an open ring-like area, I glance around to see little pillars. I’m not sure if they’re for people to stand on, hide behind or something else when suddenly a ball comes flying out of nowhere and slams into my side. Dinging sounds and the pillars light up pink. I furrow my brows and shake my head.
“What the fuck?”
I hear Alex giggling from somewhere in the ring. “It’s like dodgeball, and hide and seek all at the same time. I’m pink, you’re blue, the first one to get to four wins… aaand go,” she yells from a direction I can’t tell due to the sounds echoing off the walls. Another ball hurtles toward me, hitting me on the arm. The pillars light up pink and I scoff.
“Hey, I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t even know we were playing. You don’t play fair, Alex.”
“Life’s not fair, boss,” she replies running out from behind a pillar and throwing another ball at me. I dodge out of the way catching the ball, a dinging sounds and the pillars light up blue.
“Don’t I know it,” I murmur.
She goes to hide behind another pillar and I throw the ball at her, but it misses and hits the pillar instead. I quickly dart off to the left to hide behind a pillar.
“It’s true though, Nate. Sometimes life throws your curveballs. But you have to roll with the punches.”
Furrowing my brows, I pick up a ball that’s on the ground near me. “So what is this? Life lessons one oh one while playing hide and go dodge?”
“Something like that. You need to know that even though you’re having a hard time and feeling down, she’s not off gallivanting either.”
That ache in my chest is back and I wince as I rub my pec trying to alleviate the sting. It doesn’t help. “And this is supposed to make me feel better?”
A ball flies past my head and I duck out of the way. Looking in the direction from where it came I notice her arm sticking out slightly from behind the pillar. I hurtle the ball at her and it smacks her arm. The pillars light up blue as she yelps out an ‘ouch’ and falls to the floor.
“Shit,” I bolt toward her and as I turn toward the pillar I’m smacked by two balls at the same time, one in the leg, the other in the stomach. I groan as the pillars ding and light up pink with a consistent dinging. I squint at her as she smiles up at me with an evil grin.
“Gotchya, boss.”
“You evil little pixie.”
“All’s fair in hide and dodgem.”
She stands up and grabs the bottle of tequila from my hand unscrewing the lid and takes a very long swig. I laugh as she hands me the bottle and I take another sip too. The bottle’s nearly empty but the buzz is definitely there. I’m a mixture of emotionally depressed and tipsy, not to mention slightly confused as to why Alex brought me here in the first place, but I’m soldiering on.
“C’mon the next one should be fun in our inebriated state,” she says grabbing my hand and pulling me through the rest of the ring and out the other side into the next inflatable.
It’s another ring but in the middle is a long inflatable tube. I look at it wondering what the fuck this one’s about. Compared to the last ring this one looks quite boring. Alex smirks at me and grabs the bottle placing it down on the inflatable floor and then walks over picking up an inflatable rectangle. She hands it to me and then picks another one up and smiles so wide it’s contagious.
“Right, let’s duel, compadre.” She jumps up on the inflatable tube balancing like a pro and waits for me. Nodding once, I hop up on the tube and exhale.
“So, I’m supposed to hit you with this stick and knock you off, right?” I ask and she nods.
“You can trrry,” she says squinting her eyes and smirking at me.
“Alex, I’m not sure I’m up for thi—”
Without warning she smacks the inflatable rectangle into my side sending me off balance immediately. I wobble to the right but catch my balance and stand back up glaring at her.
“Alex… chill. This is meant to be fun, remember?”
She sighs, grins and hits me again which causes me to wobble once more.
I glare at her again and her smile falters and then she whacks me again. I wobble almost falling off and glare at her so fiercely I want to claw her eyes out. “What the fuck is your problem, Alex?”
She smiles and lowers her stick. “You! You’re moping around, being a sad sack of shit, when you’re obviously such a great guy. You have so much to give the world.”
“Me? I have nothing to give the world, Alex… absolutely nothing. God, I can’t even keep the one woman I thought was right for me.”
She smacks her stick into me again. I tense up and smack her back, but she doesn’t budge which pisses me off even more. “Fuck, what do you want from me?”
“I want you to listen to yourself.”
“What?”
/> “Ria told me about your self-doubt, but I see it too. I see it every day when I tell you a painting has sold and you don’t believe me. I see it in the way you look at your brother and the way you carry yourself around him. How you shrink down like you think he’s better than you. You have to stop it! Just because Ria believed in you and she left you, doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of being the amazing person that you are. Just stop… I believe in you, or I wouldn’t be here.”
“You think you know me?” I ask and shove her again, but again she doesn’t budge.
How the fuck does she do that?
“I know you’re hurting. I know you miss her. But Nate, you need to keep going, missing her doesn’t bring her back into your life. She misses you too—”
“Not helping—”
“Just because you miss someone doesn’t make your decisions easier, or the path clearer. Nate, you gotta let go.”
Those words hit me like a ton of bricks and a pain ripples through my chest so fierce it takes my breath. “No, I use the pain as my muse, Alex, without it I have no art.”
“Bullshit! You were talented before Ria, you don’t need her.”
My nostrils flare and I jab Alex right in the stomach. She wobbles slightly but remains steadfast. “I need her, Alex.”
“Nate, let her go,” she says hitting me across my left side causing me to wobble hard.
“No,” I call out.
“Let her go,” she says starting to pummel me with the stick. I wobble so hard that I lose my balance and fall head first onto the cushioned ground and bounce hard.
“She’s letting you go, Nate,” Alex says still standing on the tube.
My breathing becomes harsh and fast as rage burns through me so smoldering hot I can’t control it. I groan out loud as I stand up and start to pace.
Alex jumps down from the tube and watches me as I walk back and forth on the puffy mattress ground.
“Nate—”
“No!” I say bending down and picking up the tequila bottle and smashing it down onto the rubbery surface. Somehow the bottle smashes and a shard of glass pokes into the inflatable arena.
