Another Rainy Day

Hey Kid races out of the laundry room and into the lobby of the Bed & Breakfast, a manic grin on their face. Gertrude follows in the devilish child's wake. Sal is behind the front desk, while Amelie busies themselves tidying up. Parish is doing his best to relax following the breakfast rush, sitting on a plush chair near where Mr. Boggs works on a crossword puzzle.

"Hey, everybody!" Hey Kid shouts enthusiastically. "We're going to play some games! You'll all play with me, right? Right! It's going to be sooo much fun after being stuck inside for so long! Let's go! I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!" They bounce about the room, buzzing with energy.

Amelie had been tidying up the ground floor first. They had intended to work their way up floor by floor, that seemed the most logical method of doing things. Efficiency now meant more time to experiment with their day later, if they finished cleaning up early. They never did though, they always found more work to do. They had just stepped into the lobby when Hey Kid burst in.

"No running in the main lobby." They chide Hey Kid, hands on their hips. "And no games either."

They point at the sign on the door. Admittedly it's something they made, a simple chalk board with very square handwriting on it, and it specifically says 'No ball games in the lobby' but that's still something. Yazeba hadn't complained when they'd decided to put the sign up, and so it'd stayed there. Since it stayed there it was a rule, and rules were made to be followed.

They stared at Hey Kid, not sternly because they couldn't really change their expression, but in such a way that might have been considered rude were it not a robot who didn't know the conventions, and a child.

Hey Kid looks from Amelie to the sign, and then back to Amelie. The child frowns. "Aw, come on! Don't be such a stick-in-the-mud, Amelie! I'm soooo bored! I gotta do something soon..." They look to Gertrude for help.

Mr. Boggs continues to consider his crossword. It is an oddity within an oddity that his raincloud keeps him damp but never affects any paperwork he is doing.

As he fills in an answer, he remarks to Parrish, "While I concede that you are both green and a knight, I rather think the answer is Gawain."

Looking up, he takes in the scene before him. "Much as I appreciate a well followed regulation, only Yazeba has the authority to impose new rules." He points out.

Boggs smiles slightly. "You know, I haven't played a ball game since we won that bowling party for beating our third quarter market projections in 09." He reaches up and loosens his tie. "I think we could set up an alley in the hallway. What do you think?"

Hey Kid cheers. "Yeah! Way to go, Mr. Boggs! I knew you secretly knew how to have fun!" The devil child rushes to the utility closet and then to the hallway, back and forth, back and forth, each time returning with a bowling pin and dropping it in the hall.

"There! That’s ten, right? Now we take turns throwing a ball at them? And how do we keep score? What’s a spare? What’s a strike? What’s a turkey? I mean, besides a big fat bird!

"Hey, Mr. Boggs? With that rain cloud around you all the time... When you go to sleep, do you wet the bed?"

Amelie produces a remarkably electronic sigh, and crosses their arms at their waist. They already know they won't win in this situation, not with a guest being encouraging and Hey Kid not taking no for an answer, but they know it's not right. They watch Hey Kid's enthusiasm and wonder what it must be like to have that kind of energy and wanton disregard for order. The thought makes them uncomfortable so they stop, and file it away for further study later.

"I don't condone this course of action." They turn to Mr Boggs. "Though the question does make me curious, I must agree. More for the sake of laundry, then anything else."

Their eyes are large on their optic display. Bright green blips of pure innocence, not understanding the extra issues their supporting the question might add.

If Mr. Boggs is upset by the questions, it does not show on his impassive face. "The bed used to become wet, but I did not wet the bed if you understand the distinction. He answers. "But now I have a special system of tarps and drainage buckets that I set up at night. Here, I've got a diagram for it. He fishes out a neatly folded piece of paper from an interior pocket of his suit jacket and displays it to those assembled. "The hard part was finding an attachment method that would remain waterproof without coming loose but these clever fellows in Switzerland designed a new kind of grommet for me. The game forgotten, it is clear that Mr. Boggs has warmed to this subject and looks prepared to go on at length.

Gertrude just knew this was going to be trouble but, at the same time, it had been boring around here lately. Sure, maybe a teenage girl shouldn’t be playing bowling in the hallway, but she could help and maybe keep things mostly under control.

She helps Hey Kid set up the lane and goes through what she knows about bowling, "Well, if you miss the pins that’s a zero. You get two rolls to try and knock them all down. If you knock them down on the first roll that’s a strike, on the second that’s a spare. I think a turkey has to do with getting a number of strikes in a row."

She looks over and adds "Mr. Boggs, can you tell us how many strikes in a row is a turkey. Also, I think there’s a special way to keep score but I don’t remember it. Do you think you can show us?"

Parish had fallen asleep, the aged frog knight had played hard racking his brain for an answer to the crossword puzzle. A long silence, a comfortable chair, a heavy breakfast. And a gently snoring frog was serenely enjoying the sound of rain. Until Hey Kid's rambunctious energy and peal of maniacal cacophony disturbed his slumber. "Thou art a scallywag!" Parish croaked groggily. "Alas, twas a fine dream. Gawain and our battle to defeat the magus. Ah but yon memory, shall I tell the tale?"

Sal looks at Hey Kid and says "How about we play musical chairs little dude? I can grab my electric guitar and some chairs from the lobby and we can play. Rainy days are a great day to play indoors,brah!"

Hey Kid's eyes glaze over as Mr. Boggs begins to drone on about grommets, but fortunately Gertrude is there to explain the rules. "Alright, I guess we don't need to know about turkeys to play. Let's play!"

The kid happily hurls the heavy ball down the hall, laughing as they knock over pins. They zip down to retrieve it and impatiently wait their turn until the other go, then they hurl it again! This continues for several minutes until eventually Gertrude declares a winner.

"Yay! That was fun! What's next?"

From behind the desk, Sal calls out offering to play musical chairs. Hey Kid shakes their head. "Nah, I want something more active! More fun! I have sooo much ENERGY still!"

Mr. Boggs looks up from finishing a perfect bowling score sheet to find that the game was already over.

At Sal's.suggestion, Mr. Boggs looks wistful. "You know Sal, I really admire your courage in trying to strike out on your own and follow your music. Wish I had that kind of confidence at your age."

Mister Boggs attempts to snap his fingers but it doesn't really work with wet hands. "Why.don't you play that song about the crabs you were working on? You know the one with the dance? He looks over at Hey Kid to see if that catches his attention.

Amelie had been standing on the side-lines during the bowling game. They hadn't played, since it went against their directives, but they'd been curious about it. The idea of games had been programmed into them, way back when, but it lived somewhere deep inside their memory cores as a distant thought. Imagination, after all, was a key part of play and hard for someone who's work came before their imagination. Or did it? They had been thinking about more experimenting earlier...

They snapped out of their temporary power down loop at the squelch of Mr Boggs attempted snapping of his fingers. They'd moved on from the bowling, and left the pins and ball in place in the corridor. Amelie tutted at the mess, their arms crossed, and added some irritated eyebrows to their optic display.

"And I suppose while you're dancing Amelie will be cleaning up?" They sigh. "Go on, have fun. I enjoy picking up after you anyway."

They paused. Where had that come from? Something they'd felt before, but never knew where it started. I felt like a bug, or a glitch, but somehow no one ever found the fault in their code. Yazeba said it was good, when it happened once before, as long as they didn't take it too far. Still, embarrassment coloured the edges of her optic display with a ripple.

---

Gertrude announces the winner of the game it was actually sort of fun you know except when Hey Kid nearly destroyed something when they went. She went over to Amelie and said, "I'll help you clean up Amelie. You do so much around here you deserve some help."

Gertrude picked up a pin, then another pin, another and one more. She had nearly six pins in her hands and there was one more right in reach if she just stretched out a little bit, she could pick it up. *Crash* The pins go flying out of her hands and despite her own embarrassment Hey Kid seems really into this new game and well Amelie did say they would do it themself. She whispers very quietly to them, "Sorry Amelie, I guess I'm not that useful around here."

With that she went on to play the Crab walk game. If she played poorly well, what could you expect? She clearly wasn't good for anything around here.

"Yay! Crab dance!" Hey Kid bends over backwards and begins scuttling around the lobby just as quickly as they can walk normally. "Who else is gonna play? We can't have a dance contest with just one participant! Gertie? Amelie? Parish? Mr. Boggs? C'mon, get down here and join me!"

Somehow, Hey Kid manages to hop up onto the front desk while still crab walking. They look at Sal while upside down. "Okay, Sal, play your crab song and let the contest begin!"

"Oh. Oh dear." Mr. Boggs murmurs as he watches Hey Kid crouch over backward and move about. "Well, I guess it was my idea." Mr. Boggs carefully puts his briefcase and umbrella down and gingerly lowers himself down to the ground. "Ready." He announces. He does not look ready.

Amelie pauses in the process of putting the pins back, and watches what's going on. They stare in curiosity. Dancing hadn't even been something they quite understood how to do. Yazeba had told them it involved moving your body to rhythm, with very little conviction on her face, Sal had said it came from letting your soul vibe with the sound. Amelie couldn't vibrate, besides what anyone could do, so that didn't sound right either.

This now didn't even look like dancing to them. They had to stick around and watch to figure it out.