Good Aim

It's been awhile since I've given you a real Stephen story. Here's one that's short, but every time I think of it I laugh. Actually, it is more of a Randy story than a Stephen story. (Not that kind of randy.)

I believe it was about this time of the year. I was still living at home. Daddy was gone and Mother was living in a trailer up in Blaine, MN. Stephen and Randy had come over to see if I wanted to go out with them. Absolutely. So while I got dressed they went back outside. Now Stephen was in one of his "high energy" moods. This meant he was up for having crazy fun.

When I came out I saw him and Randy having a makeshift snowball fight. Randy wasn't too keen about it, but Stephen was in his mood. Seeing me, Stephen then declared that he and Randy would have a "fast-draw" using snowballs. Randy wanted to know how they would decide when to draw and Stephen said I could count to three.

Well I had a better idea. I would toss a snowball, and when it hit the ground they would draw and fire. Everyone thought this was wonderful.

Now, I was standing a good long distance from them. My concern was that I would throw my snowball and either have it land where only one (or neither) could see it, or even (worse) hit one of them. So I thought it through. What was the best way for me to avoid hitting one of them? Why of course! Aim for one of them. Randy was the closest.

Remember it was spring? The snow was quite wet and made for excellent snowballs. I took aim and tossed. I watched the snowball arc up and then begin its graceful decent. I saw it splat into a zillion pieces - against the side of Randy's head.

He went down like I had shot him with a cannon. Stephen waited about two seconds and then tossed his weapon away.

"I win!" he said.

No wonder I was never Randy's favorite.

We had something similar happen in the fall, when the crab apples are ripe and ready for eating - by insects and birds. It was night and again Stephen and Randy had come by, only this time to see if I had any ideas on what to do. We took to walking around outside my apartment building. I bent over and picked up a crab apple and, seeing a telephone pole about twenty feet in front of us, said, "How's about we toss apples at that pole until someone hits it?"

I threw the apple and the sound of it bouncing off the pole echoed into the night. Stephen was right on top of it.

"Well, that was fun. What should we do now?"

I love Stephen. Someday I'm going to see him again and it's going to be wonderful. I'm going to tell him all about the friends I've made and he'll get ready to entertain you all when you arrive. He is good at that.