Bowling Balls, a ball-busting vignette

Bowling Balls, a ball-busting vignette

By Caligula

Keri was at the bowling alley with her two kids, Jack and Amy. Today was Jack's 19th birthday and he loved bowling. His sister Amy had recently turned 18 and didn't have the skill with a bowling ball that Jack had, and she didn't really want to be here. It didn't make it better that Jack would constantly rub it in when he was winning. Amy wanted to wipe the smug smile off his face.

Jack was of course winning again and so Amy wasn't really invested in the game. She kept pulling different weight bowling balls off the racks and bringing them over, swinging them to and fro to see which bowling ball felt best in the hand. She had collected quite the ball collection at their lane. More than anything she just felt like being a brat...getting her brother frustrated that she kept wasting so much time between turns and just generally trying to ruin his birthday.

Their mother had just taken her turn and Jack had thrown his first ball of his own turn. He got most of the pins but missed a couple.

"Ohhh...try to pick up that spare, Jackie!" said his mother Keri.

"Darnit! I thought I had it," he replied, a bit irritated.

Feeling more annoyed than anything, Amy had picked up another bowling ball...a 10 pounder. As Jack walked to where she stood to wait for his ball to come back from his most recent throw so he could try for that spare, Amy accidentally swung her bowling ball right into her brother's nuts.

"Oooofff!!!" Jack bent over with a grunt.

Amy covered her mouth with her hand, but couldn't stifle a giggle. Keri was less impressed with her daughter's aim as she helped Jack to sit down on the floor in their little area.

"Amy! You just nailed your brother right in his balls!" she said crossly. "On his birthday!"

Amy didn't say anything. She knew if she opened her mouth to talk at that moment that she would most likely laugh and get into more trouble. As it was she knew her mother wasn't happy about the big grin she was sporting.

Jack just sat there moaning a bit, legs spread slightly to let his balls breathe.

"Are you okay Jackie?" asked their mother.

"Yeah...I'll be fine. It just stung a little bit," he said. He was lying, of course. His sister had got him square on and he was hurting quite a bit, but he wasn't going to give his sister the satisfaction of knowing how badly she had hurt him.

"I'm going to get some snacks, and an icepack for Jack's balls. Now you young lady better lose the attitude! And you better get rid of all the balls laying around here by the time I get back! We have WAY too many balls! Do you understand me?!?" Keri really laid into her daughter, which pissed Amy off more than Keri knew.

"Yeah. I understand..." Amy replied with venom dripping from her voice.

Keri stormed off and Amy reluctantly started taking all the excess bowling balls she had collected back to the public area. Some of them were so heavy. She picked up a 16 pounder and cringed with how much it hurt her wrist. The pain made her look angrily at her brother as he sat there, legs spread, nuts throbbing. That at least made her smile. Then she remembered what her mother had said: You had better get rid of all the balls. We have way too many balls.

With that, at least, she agreed. She walked over to her brother, still holding her 16 pounder. Jack looked up at her, still determined not to let his little sister see any pain on his face. Amy smiled down at Jack and lifted the 16 pound bowling ball high over her head. Then she let it roll forward and slip off the tips of her fingers.

Jack and Amy both watched as the bowling ball fell several feet and landed with a "crunch" right onto his balls. Jack's eyes bugged out and he let out an unintelligible few words, although several octaves higher than should have been possible. His hands cupped the sides of the bowling ball, trying to dislodge it from his nuts.

Amy took her foot and placed it on top of the big bowling ball, adding her weight to the 16 pounds. She could hear more crunching as she leaned into it. "I hate bowling," she stated calmly with a smile. "It puts too much emphasis on the balls."

She stepped off the ball and picked it up and placed it back on the rack, much to Jack's relief. Amy could see Jack was in no position to bowl and walked over to the lane and pressed a button, forfeiting his turn and resetting the pins for the next player.

Keri finally came back with some ice, which was placed strategically in Jack's lap, and some snacks. Keri thought Jack looked a little worse for wear. That's odd, she thought, as he said it wasn't so bad. Boys...always exaggerating that nut pain.

She handed Amy a soda and a bag of chips. "Did you get rid of all the balls like I told you to?"

Amy beamed. "I sure did. I got rid of ALL the balls."

"And does Jackie have a spare?" Keri asked.

Amy smiled even bigger, "No. Jack most definitely doesn't have a spare."

"Awe," said their mom with a pouty sad face. "Sometimes your balls just let you down."

Amy laughed. "Yeah. Jack definitely had ball issues while you were gone."

"Well I think it's my turn!" said their mother with a clap. "Now somebody hand me a ball!"