Sophia Turns Four

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It was Saturday a week ago that the family swarmed into the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant near my daughter’s home. The place was jammed with every imaginable electronic game, game of chance, game of skill and things to climb.  There were 300 or 400 children in various stages of going berserk.

A waiter brought every kind of pizza that can be made on cardboard for our enjoyment while the children, pockets stuffed with tokens, raced from one adventure to the next.

All went well until about an hour into the festivities. It was “present opening time” and August, my 3-year-old grandson, was nowhere to be found. His parents showed reserve as they sprinted from place to place, at random, in search of their son. Since I am more experienced, I kept a cool head. I knew if desperadoes had taken Augie, they would let him out of the getaway car at the curb in front of the restaurant within the hour. He is a handful that you could not trade for a million dollars. I know. I have tried.

Feeling left out, I began a slow, methodical search of the gaming complex. Eventually, I passed a racecar game for two players. The two seats had high backs, so anyone under five feet tall would not be visible from behind. Augie was one of the players. He was out of tokens, so he was playing the “demo,” over and over again.

In time, I caught the eye of his over-stressed father and pointed down at the seat in front of me. Augie is anything but tall. My son rushed over and peered over the seat. I watched as he deflated and his BP returned to triple over double digits. He leaned on the seat a while as Augie continued playing. Once his composure returned, he said, “Thanks for turning up, son.”

We opened presents, sang the birthday song and ate cake, but relief vacuumed up the party spirit out of at least two adults well before the singing began.