Stand in line. Talk to nerdy customer service rep. Pay too much for a “rechargeable” card. Give said card to small person standing to my left. Head off into the caves of electronics and toys, diligently following the small person..
It’s the Gameworks trek. And it’s a tradition.
Tonight was our fourth annual evening at Gameworks. This year, it took less then thirty minutes for the small person’s focus to turn away from driving and hunting simulators and toward the ticket room.
A select number of games spit tickets as a reward for a lucky break: dropped coins landing on the color green…on a button marked “cut the cheese”…into an open toilet bowl…onto a miniature mining cart.
They’re simple games – almost too simple. Sized specifically for kids, utilizing primary colors. Small people never know how many tickets those machines will spit out – if any. Sometimes one ticket; sometimes fifty. But what they do know is the more tickets they collect, the better the prizes they can trade them for.
My small person relished having full control over the rechargeable card. After a few cursory attempts to get me to play Dance Dance Revolution or Waterski Challenge (both of which I was NOT exceptional at), he decided to focus on the real fun: running the card through the slot that spits out coins, then hustling from the coin machine to a ticket-spitting game.
He went back. And forth. Back. And forth. I watched him racing around, trying new games of chance. Attempting to figure out which one dispensed the most tickets the most often.
I stuffed my pockets with his tickets and tried to look interested as he rode the highs and lows of “how much will I win?” I asked him if he was thirsty. Perhaps he needed a snack. Should I hold his jacket?
Then I realized: the boy was clearly in training for Vegas.
The excitement, the furor, the “one last try” mentality. Even me waiting on him so he wouldn’t get distracted or lose momentum.
Gameworks and I may very well have sown the seeds of a gambling problem tonight.
At least he got some prizes for his trouble. And he bought me a box of candy with some of his proceeds, which I found both generous and in keeping with a blooming high-roller.
(Small person was also one ticket short of the prize he really wanted. But thankfully good judgment prevailed: he didn’t ask for a card recharge. This time.)
Every day another story -
Sofie
Brilliant!