Summer Vacation Day 40:Amusement Park and Dentist

Hello, Tim!

Today is an amusement park day!!!

8/9, Thursday

Several days ago, Mom told me that she would take Sophie and Aiden to a nearby amusement park, with a kid tagging. The kid, referred by all the adults around me as J-J, is actually the son of my uncle’s boss who is only back from America during summer break. That alone made me a little hesitant, and also last time I spent some time with him and the other kids watching Dr. Strange at Sophie’s house, he just felt… distant. He was nonplussed by anything anyone said. I told my mom about my slight reluctance about this (while feeling very guilty because I sounded like some mean kid who just wants to exclude someone from a group), but then, my mom told me that she heard that the kid doesn’t have many friends because of his timid personality, and his parents are apparently too occupied with their own business to put enough attention on him and that he was actually looking forward to having fun in the park. That changed my mind, for I know exactly how it felt to be lonely, and I was determined to let him have fun.

It was not quite easy at first. Not even with Eliza present.

First, I had to go straight over to the amusement park IMMEDIATELY after school, which meant that I would roam the big park with an empty stomach. Secondly, J-J, been inactive as the last time I saw him, said that he really wasn’t a big fan of amusement parks and that he didn’t really care about which ride we went on as long as it is not the spinning kind.

J-J was not very tall to start with, maybe only ten centimeters taller than Sophie, so I thought he would be at most ten years old.

Boy was I wrong. About this later. Anyway, I came up with several small talks before we arrived, just for the purpose of avoiding awkwardness, and possibly, find some mutual conversation so that we can have some real conversations, but he never elaborates, still with the passive, indifferent look on his face. I felt a little knocked down, being so helpless in such a situation like this. We went on the pirate ship first, and it was still fun, with kids and Eliza and a lot of people screaming, but when we got off the vehicle, the void in my stomach became too hard to ignore, so I went to a stall and got some fries. I asked J-J if he wanted to have some, and he (expectedly) declined, and soon stared into nothingness. I got the chance to just look at him and think. I was thinking about what exactly I could possibly do to have him open up and just have fun instead of being passive and indifferent. Just then, Aiden came around and that got J-J’s attention. I watched them while sitting at the table as Aiden dragged the boy by the hand and just dashed erratically. He let go of him and then charged at him like a bull in a bullfight (or do you call it ‘boyfight’? ;D) To my surprise, J-J did crack a smile then, and he did seem to be enjoying himself when playing with him. I said to myself, ‘Well, a kid similar in age definitely bond better.’ But again with the age thing, I was totally wrong.

The pirate ship.

Eliza and Sophie came back from their spinning planet ride and was so ready to get one the next facility that spins. We then moved on to the next area where more rides can be found. Then the two kids were talking about height and age, and it drove me to ask the question, “So how old are you anyway?”

“I’m fifteen, but I am just exceptionally short.” were the exact words of the answer.

I tried to hide my surprise, for it would be rude if I hadn’t even tried to conceal it. We reached the bumpy car, and Eliza took Sophie for some more spinning/nauseating rides while J-J, Aiden, and I lined up for the bumpy cars. In the line, Aiden kept rambling on with his small cute, serious face, about how much he wanted to be on the same car with J-J. Without asking him the question about age several minutes ago, I would try to convince Aiden about safety concerns, but now knowing that he was only two years younger than me, I had no objections to that.

It was very exciting when cars can just crash into each other knowing that nothing serious can happen, and after the ride was over, to my delight, J-J started to enjoy the amusement park atmosphere finally.

Them in a car while I was alone : [

Until the time we had to leave the amusement park, we went on several other rides that would wind the post too long to list individually and also fought some air hockey battles. I wasn’t sure, but I think I saw a glimpse of reluctance when I told him we had to leave.

Group photo! Wait, where was Aiden?

He was doing this a the moment.

Eliza left early for her friends' night out.

After the park, I went to the dentist for adjustments on my bracelets. Did I mention that I easily fall asleep during dentist sessions? Well, you know that now! I have no idea at all, how I manage to feel safe enough to fall asleep with all the poking utensils prodding at your gums and teeth, along with the soothing classical music playing, the rhythmic buzzes of the machines next to the patient’s seat, and the low, warm lights from the background….

There was actually once when during a session, I dozed off as usual, but before my senses were closed, I thought I heard the doctor said to his assistant that ‘Look, he fell asleep again.’ There was no malice nor exasperation in his voice as I remember. It was more like he was… seeing something interesting. I woke up when the session was over and when the sentence came back to me, I was so embarrassed but was not willing to ask him if he really did say that. This experience didn’t help with my falling asleep in the coming sessions, though.

This is all for today.