A 3 Word Play and a Story

3 Word Play
     by Katie Metz


A: What was that?


B: I hear nothing.


A: Ouch! My foot!


B: Sorry... too dark?


A: Blindfolds usually are.


B: It's worth it.


A: I hear something.


B: Almost there. What?


A: It sounded like...


B, C, D, E: Surprise! Happy Birthday!




My Story

     by Elizabeth Hemingway

     Hell found me.

     I knew it for sure, this was the devil's lair; because nothing could be worse than this. It was even complete with screaming. Children screaming, only not from pain, but worse, way worse. I was a seventeen year old with her first job of supervising kids playing in a place called fun zone. But its not fun, at least not for the workers. I challenge the devil right now to come up with something worse than getting beaten, taunted, poked, pulled and shoved by little kids for all eternity. Oh okay, my shift is technically four hours long, but still, it feels like an eternity. It was my mom who made me apply for the job in the first place. She said I should "Learn some responsibility" which is basically code for "Earn some money so I don't have to pay for your massive appetite".

     I was putting kids shoes into the cubbies when a little girl in a sparkly pink dress came running up to me.

     "Those are my shoes!" she screamed, pointing at the pair of high healed, (what kid wears high heals?) red, sparkly, wizard of oz style shoes I had been moving into a cubby.

     "Um, okay." I said, handing them to her. She dropped them and made a face.

     "Ewwww you touched them!"

     "So?" I asked, resisting the urge to roll my eyes

     "You have germs!"

     "I do not!"

     "Yes you do! Now I'll have to wash them."

     "Look, kid," I got down on her level. "If you're worried about me touching your shoes, you should know the number of kids that threw up in the slide you just went down. A lot." She looked at me with wide eyes.

     "You're lying!"

     "Nope." she started screaming.

     "MOMMY! GERMS!!!!" And ran around the corner. Uh oh. I better back away slowly-

     "Robyn!" Crap. I turned to see the manager walking toward me wearing her signature you're-in-trouble-and-I'm-disappointed-in-you face.

     "Did you just tell a child that we are unclean?!" I opened my mouth to say it was true, but thought better of it. I just looked at the ground.

     "Tsk tsk. That'll be-"

     "Money off my paycheck?" I asked hopefully. Yes, hopefully, because the alternative was much much worse.

     "No, I think that ball pit duty will be a better disiplinary action for this situation." crap.

     "No! I'll do anything else!" I begged. "I'll even clean the toilets!"

     "Tempting, but you should be with the kids more. It might help you get along with them. So go along, and tell the person there that they can take a break." I walked over to the ball-pit like I was on my way to my own execution. I walked up to the pit.

     "Help! Save me!" Screamed the worker already in there. She was covered with several five year olds who were all holding her down.

     "You can go on break now!" I told her.

     "YES!" she screamed "Back demons! GET BACK!" she fought off the little kids as she crawled out of the pit.

     "Man I feel sorry for you" she said. "Its after lunch, and someone's mom brought twinkies. Sugar high mini demons." she ran off, and I looked at the kids, who were all staring at me.

     "I don't want any trouble," I said as I climbed in. The kids looked at each other.

     "LETS GET HER!" one screamed. Next thing I knew I was facedown in the ball pit begging for mercy from a bunch of preschoolers. I was sure that god was punishing me for some terrible thing I had done when I heard it. The voice of an angel.

     "Alright! Hey! I think she's had enough! Let her go!" And just like that, the kids let me up, and I looked up into the face of my savior. It was a guy my age, and he smiled at me and stuck out his hand.

     "Hey," he said. "Need some help?" I nodded.

     "How did you get them to listen to you?" I asked.

     "Oh," he said. "A little thing called bribery." He pulled a bag of candy from his pocket. I swear all the little kids looked at him like he was god. Maybe he was, sent here to save me from my torment.

All I knew was, maybe this job wouldn't be so bad after all.