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The festival is full of fun distractions. There are colorful rides, games that include stuffed animals if you win, and plenty of fried food for everyone. White outdoor lights hang from booth to booth, illuminating the grounds.
Drew starts making his way toward the bottle toss stand, and I follow close behind him. He hands the vendor a dollar for three baseballs and hands two of them to me.
The tower of glass bottles collapses completely on my first toss.
“Beginner’s luck?” Drew asks. I can’t help but laugh to myself.
“You’re not a beginner when you’ve been coming to these things since you were a kid.” I smile. “Did you ever go to festivals like this when you were a kid?”
“This is the first one I’ve ever been to,” he admits. “To be honest, I’m kind of jealous of the kids with their faces painted.”
“Well, if you’re a good boy, I’m sure we can work something out,” I tease.
He lets out a laugh that makes my heart skip a beat. “I’ll try my best but this game is definitely testing me.”
“It’s okay, it just takes practice,” I assure him.
He nods and gives it a go, but he only hits the top bottle of the stack. I chuckle and hand him my extra baseball, giving him another chance, but to no avail. Half of the bottle tower still stands, almost as if it’s mocking him.
“Well, if that’s not emasculating,” he says, rubbing his neck. His cheeks flush with embarrassment but he’s still smiling. “Okay, I think I should probably confess why I came on ahead of you tonight,” Drew begins. But then he gets the chuckles progressing to a bending at the waist full out guffaw. When he finally gets himself somewhat under control, he looks at me, tears falling down his cheeks.
Barely getting the words out, he confesses that he came early to practice the games so he wouldn’t look unskilled. With that he cracks up again and laughs so hard at himself that I can’t help but join in.
When we get a modicum of control, I tell him that based on his success rate so far, he should have come even earlier to practice. Of course, that just cracks him up yet again.
I’ll admit I’m starting to enjoy myself and Drew’s company as the nerves finally begin to fade away. He’s pretty easy to be with, and I love that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. How many men are there, really, who can laugh that hard at themselves.
“How about we get some slushies?” I suggest, looking over to the ferris wheel where the slushy stand line is starting to shorten.
“Sounds like a plan,” Drew agrees, as we make our way over.
As we take a lazy beeline path, children of all ages are running with animal balloons in their hands, laughter escaping their mouths, and their faces adorned with glitter and colorful face paint. Nostalgia strikes my heart as I think back to when Mia and I were that age. It’s normal to look back and miss those times as a kid, I think to myself.
He hands me a cold Styrofoam cup. Its cool temperature almost matches my hands as I carefully taste the first bite of red cherry.
“Why don’t we find somewhere to sit and relax for a second?” he suggests. The air is starting to get brisker as the wind starts to pick up a bit.
There are no tables, so he leads me over to the grassy area that’s a little protected from the wind. Some families brought blankets and are having their own picnics. They are providing a buffer against the wind as well.
Once we sit down in the grass, I can’t help but sneak glimpses of Drew, thinking how handsome he looks tonight.
“Question game?” Drew asks, taking a bite of his blue slushy. I nod as he starts the game. “What is your favorite childhood memory?”
I smile when a memory surfaces almost immediately. “Mia and I were kids. I was seven and she was nine. She didn’t listen to me when I told her she shouldn’t eat before going on the faster rides,” I begin.
“Oh, no,” Drew groans, already knowing where the story is going.
“She insisted she’d be fine and that I needed to sit next to her on the pirate ship ride that just swings back and forth. Well, I knew she wasn’t fine, and I stayed on the ground with our grandfather. Thankfully, we were out of the splash zone!” I say, trying, unsuccessfully, to hold back my chuckles.
“There weren’t many people on the ride and they avoided most of the mess. But ever since that day, Mia stays away from festival food until she’s been on all the rides. Except the pirate ship. She’s never gone back on that one again.”
“I think I would be traumatized too,” Drew agrees.
“What about you and your favorite childhood memory?”
“When I was a kid, my brother Troy and I used to sneak out at night and go on late-night drives,” he starts. “He was sixteen and I was twelve, so to have an older brother who could drive made me feel pretty cool. Sorry, I know that’s not as exciting as yours,” he scoffs.
“That doesn’t matter,” I wave. “My parents used to say that we don’t remember the big stuff, we remember the moments. Sometimes the most important memories are the simpler ones.”
