"Okay little ball. Are you my friend or are you my enemy?" Jen pleadingly whispered to the blue golfball as she posed in the position to hit it.
Our innocent game of putt putt at the Putt-A-Round had turned into a barbecue with us as the main corse. Not only was it hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, but it also happened to be the right day for us to go outside and play a game like this.
Jennifer focused on putting her ball into the small hole that wasn't very far away, but I could tell, just by looking at her, that she was suffering and failing to ignore the heat. It had to be at least around 100 degrees. Her hair was hung sloppily over her shoulders as hot sweat poured down her red cheek.
We were all wearing summer clothing - tank tops and shorts, but it wasn't helping a single bit to cool us. I felt my shoulders burning in the hot sun. Isaac stood behind Jennifer, patiently waiting for his turn at hole number 7. Zac was stretched out underneath a fake rhino, set up for a putt course decoration. He looked just as hot as the rest of us.
"Now, wish me luck Tay," Jen mumbled and lightly tapped the ball which rolled just to the left of the hole.
She sighed and dragged herself over to where it had stopped so she could hit it in. "Hole in two," she told me and I marked it down on the score card.
Somehow, Ike managed to get a hole in one easily and quick. Then he wasted no time jumping over to the bench in the shade that Jennifer had claimed as he joined her to watch Zac slowly get onto his feet and step up to the golf tee.
His pink ball sat still and waiting as he positined himself and his golf club in front of the ball and even shook his behind for emphasis. My younger brother's bright blonde hair was now drenched in sweat and had turned a dirty blonde. He breathed out loudly and gently swung the golf club back and forth in front of the ball as if he wasn't sure whether to hit it or not.
The three of us managed weak laughs. "Stupid heat!" Zac said quietly. "Stupid ball!"
"Who's idea was it to come here anyway?" I piped up and suddenly noticed that everyone was now glaring at me as if they wanted to kill me. I got the point and reminded myself that I could be such an idiot at times. What in the world had I been thinking? I should have paid attention when Dad watched the weather channel this morning, I told myself gloomily.
Zac tried again to prepare himself for an easy hit. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! Hot, hot, hot!" he whined and focused yet again.
He raised the club behind him and above his head for a powerful hit like they perform in driving ranges. I leaped up to stop him. Ike and Jen's eyes got wide when they noticed what he was doing.
"What in the... Zac don't!" we all yelled in unison.
I realized I was too late. He had taken a giant swing and the poor golfball was now flying in the air as we gazed up at it, silently hoping that it wouldn't land on anyone.
"Ooops," Zac quietly said and stretched out under the rhino once again.
"What in the world did you do that for?" Isaac groaned, even though no one seemed in the mood to argue.
He shrugged. "I felt like it," he said quietly and leaned back.
I stared after the flying ball and watched it land in a the small manmade river that was flowing through the putt course.
"Nice swing!" Ike complimented a few seconds later.
The hard ball of pinkness floated in one area for a few seconds before it was carried downstream with the flow. I watched helplessly as it then tumbled down into the miniature pool at the end of the stream.
Jen was trying to hold in her giggles, but of course, she found almost anything and everything funny.
Suddenly an idea, and purhaps a small spark of craziness appeared in my mind. There was the ball, floating happily in a small pool of water. The liquid looked so cool and so refreshing. I just couldn't help myself.
Without another word, I began heading towards the small pool with my mouth hanging open as if there was a huge cheeseburger floating away instead of a golfball.
Jennifer stopped laughing. "Hey! Taylor! Where are you going?" she cried.
"I'll be right back. I'm going to get back our ball," I yelled back in the direction I was heading away from.
The sound of the flowing water made my insides jump. The slight sound was too refreshing to bare! As I stepped up to the edge of the small pool, the group of people putting at the hole nearby looked up from their game to wonder what I was up to.
Sure, the small unsuspecting golfball looked within arms length of a reach, but when I crouched down and reached out to grab it, I realized that I wasn't so sure. My fingers touched thin air. Even so, I was still just a fraction of an inch away from successfully retreiving Zac's ball.
With caution, I leaned out a little further. The ball slowly made it's way in the opposite direction. I sighed and leaned in closer once again. I felt the tips of my fingers brush the ball ever so slightly.
The soft sound of muffled footsteps behind me got my attention. Jennifer crouched down to my eye level. Zac stood behind her with a wide grin spread on his face.
"Taylor, what do you think you're doing?" Jen repeated her question.
"Like I said! I'm getting back Zac's ball!" I told her and reached out again.
A soft laugh escaped from her mouth. "Well, you certainly aren't getting it out this way, are you?" she snickered.
"Yes I am! Just watch me!"
She nodded, although I could tell she didn't believe me at all. The doubtfull expression left on her face informed me of that. Seeing that this wasn't getting anywhere in the position that I was in, I reluctantly got up off of my hands and knees and moved to the opposite side of the pool where the object I was aiming for had wandered over to. I brushed the dirt and wet grass off of my shorts and got into reaching position once again.
The simple task looked much easier now. Both Jennifer and Zac were watching me with interesting looks painted on their faces. Zac giggled and bent down towards the pool. He then got a cup of water in his hands and thrusted it onto his face, engulping himself with cool water. Zac sighed in relief and shook his hair to get dry. Jennifer jumped back quickly so she didn't get sprayed by the water droplets that were being tossed in all directions.
I reached out once again. This time, my fingers tightened around the golfball. I let out a large sigh of relief and quickly pulled in my prize. Zac stomped his foot hard on the ground.
"Man, Taylor, why couldn't you have just leaned over a bit farther! I would have loved to have seen you all wet!" he said, just imagining the scene in his mind.
"Ha! You wish!" I shot back at him as I tossed the ball into the air.
He caught it, luckily, saving me a second try at retreiving it from the pool all over again.
"Now, can we get back to the game?" I asked, wanting to leave for the nice, cool, air-conditioned hotel where I felt like curling up into a tight little ball and never coming out of our room.
"Yeah, let's get this over with!" Jen agreed.
I headed around the side of the pool and followed Jen and Zac as we made our way back to the miature golf hole. The three of us found Isaac stretched out across the bench where we had left him. His eyes were closed - we could tell that he was now in a place other than earth.
I picked up the score card and marked off a hole in five for Zac. I didn't want to take up time and make him hit again.
We would have been ready to move on except for the fact that Ike was still out of it. We couldn't just leave him. I motioned for Jen to wake him up. Zac practically needed me to carry him to hole number eight. That's how much the heat was getting to him even after splashing himself with pool water!
Jen went over to Isaac's side and began tapping him lightly on the shoulder. There was no response. Ike just continued to lay there like a bump on a log. Seeing that he was truly out of it, she got down on her knees to whisper something into his ear.
"Isaac... hey, Ike! Come on, time to wake up. Hey... hello?" she tapped him a little harder. Ike only swatted the air in front of him like a cat.
Jennifer jumped back abruptly. Zac and I were still waiting patiently by the rhino. It didn't look like we would be going anywhere, anytime soon.
"Come in Isaac!" Jen whispered a tad louder this time. She tapped him a little harder too.
When Jennifer looked back up at me, she shrugged in defeat.
"Jen, just wake him up! It can't be that hard can it?" Zac asked her.
"Well.... I don't want to scare him to death," she said, looking back down at the sleeping figure of Ike.
I shook my head. "Just poke him a little harder," I suggested and laughed quietly.
Jennifer slowly began to shake Isaac's shoulder's gently while quietly pleading that he would go easier on her and just decide to wake up. The only response we got this time was that he rolled over and got comfortable on the bench again.
"Now what do we do?" I asked.
"Gosh! This heat must be getting to everyone today, but I didn't think it was possible to sleep in this weather!" Jennifer exclaimed.
"Well, there's your proof. It's possible," said Zac with a smirk.
"Yeah, well, now what do we do?"
Silence passed between us. Only the sound of the golf clubs slowly pushing foward against their small colorful spheres and the soft sound of running water could be heard.
And that's when the idea popped into my head. It was cruel, but definitely funny! At the time, I could also tell that a mishceveous grin was forming on my face. Jen and Zac looked up at practically the same moment. We all turned to each other as if thinking the exact same thoughts. Hey, who knows, maybe we were.
The three of us made eye contact. I saw Jennifer give me a questioning look.
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked them.
"Maybe," Jennifer replied cautiously.
"Well, should we do this or not?" asked Zac.
He began digging his toe into the ground in front of him while waiting for an answer.
"No, it's too cruel," Jen argued.
"But it's halarious! Come on! How can you pass up an opportunity like this?"
A family of about five or six people walked up to the golf tee in front of hole number seven. I could tell that they were plenty annoyed with the three of us just standing there doing nothing except wasting their precious time.
Zac put on an innocent grin. "We'll be done in just a second," he informed the group and shot Jennifer a glare.
She took in a deep breath, but only a few seconds later her frown turned into an expression identical to mine.
"Let's do it," she said just barely above a whisper.
I ran over to where Isaac was lying down and grabbed his arms. Zac grabbed a leg, and Jen grabbed the other. On the count of three, we put our effort together and managed to pick him up and carry him away from the bench. The family, which was still waiting patiently, stared at us as if we were a bunch of freaks out to torture an innocent victim.
Ike didn't seem to notice a single bit that he was suddenly flying in air. His head bobbed up and down slightly and he stirred for a second. I paused in my tracks when I noticed him moving, just to be sure he didn't actually wake up... just yet.
The water was just the right temperature to get some reaction out of anyone in the middle of a heat wave. It was ice cold and it could sure snap you into attention if you had been out of it a second before. We carried Isaac over to where he was placed directly above the cool pool.
I could easily tell that Jennifer was struggling to keep a grip on Ike's foot without pulling off his shoe suddenly and ruining the whole plan for fun. I still couldn't believe that he had taken a snooze so fast!
"All right," said Zac with an anxious look sketched on his face. "On the count of three let's drop him!" he squealed!
"Drop him, Zac? Don't you think dropping him is a little harsh?"
I watched as Zac groaned at Jen's attempt to getting out of trouble. Her attempt wasn't very successful either. Zac immediately pulled out a good line and quickly shot it back out at her like a spark.
"Well, we could just place him down nice and calmly right here on the grass if you wanted to ruin all our fun! Wait, I know, why don't we just drop you into the pool instead!"
Jen could only stare at the boy in silence for a few minutes. I bit my lip and slowly swung my older brother side to side while waiting for some action.
"Well, okay, just be nice about it Zac!"
"Don't worry! I will!" he assured her and turned to me.
"Okay," I told them both. "On my count. One..."
Zac bent down and began to giggle, as usual. I watched as Jennifer quickly nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.
"Ouchies!" Zac cried out.
"Two..." I continued. "And... three!"
I let go of Ike's arms, as did Jennifer and Zac. In only a fraction of a second did everything we expected and more happen. Isaac plundged into the cold water and shot back up in almost the same amount of time. He was gasping for breath and grabbing at the side of the pool for dear life. His face was pale white. He looked like he just saw a ghost.
I was sprayed with water droplets coming from all directions. Zac and Jen were falling out of control in there own little hyper world. There they were, on the opposite side, laughing their heads off. Zac was lying on the ground in front of Ike as he sat there and pointed like an idiot.
Isaac breathed in deeply. The action was followed by a menacing and hard stare as he took in his surroundings while trying to find out what in the world had just happened. I covered my mouth with my hands to cover up my laughter.
"What is so funny?" he huffed.
"Actually... you are," I informed him.
Ike spun around. But he barely had a chance to say a single word when a loud booming voice behind us stopped us all as if someone had just pushed the pause button on their VCR.
"What in the hell do you think you children are doing?"