He Shoots, He Scores

Mrs. Penguin and I took Opus Jr. and a couple of the grand kids to Chuck E. Cheese the other day.  While we were there Opus Jr. challenged me to a game of air hockey.  I guess the young lion thought it was time for him to challenge the alpha male for the right to rule the pride.

We're playing and I'm beating him like a drum, of course.  I'm serious, it wasn't even close.  I think the score was seven to zero or something like that.  He was getting pretty frustrated and he was determined to at least score one goal.  He had the puck sitting right in front of him and he was planning on making the world's most powerful air hockey shot.  He had the little paddle in his hand, he cocked his arm back as far as he could, he slammed the paddle forward in a sweeping arc of power and majesty, and he completely missed the puck.  The paddle went zooming through the air and passed within inches of my head.  The best part of this trick shot is after he let go of the paddle he pulled his arm back and it brushed the puck that was still sitting right where he left it and it slid back into his own goal.

I busted out laughing and he started whining about how that goal shouldn't count. After I stopped laughing I told him that I would let him make one goal to make up for that one.  I moved my paddle off the table and presented him with a wide open goal.  He tapped the puck and it slid slowly toward my end of the table.  I couldn't help myself, at the last second I reached down with my paddle and smacked the puck back toward the other end.  He wasn't expecting it so he couldn't react in time and the puck went into the goal.  Now he was really howling!

Okay, I apologized and promised him that he could have two goals and I wouldn't trick him again.  This time he made me step back from the table.  He wasn't taking any chances so instead of just tapping the puck he smacked it pretty hard.  He was so concerned about my blocking it at the last second that he didn't take the time to aim very well.  Big mistake!  The puck missed my goal, rebounded off the wall and shot like a rocket right across the table and into his goal.

At this point I was laughing so hard that I was on the floor with tears in my eyes.  When I finally got my breath back I went to say something to Opus Jr. but he was gone.  Apparently he just put his paddle down and walked off without saying a word.  To this day that game has never been discussed again.

Some people are sore losers.  Then again, some people are sore winners too.


Don't judge me,
Opus T. Penguin