Page 2 of A Little Christmas! 4: Song
“Oh yeah!”
They leapt together, still clinging to one another’s hands, meaning double the explosion of balls when they landed, laughing and tossing armfuls in the air. Song ducked beneath the surface, balls moving as he wormed around while Zachy turned and tried to keep track of him before he popped up right in front of him.
“Eeep,” Zachy yelped, not expecting him to be that close.
It was like trying to keep track of the mole in the whack-a-mole game at the arcade, with Song popping up in different places while Zachy bounced around waiting to see where he popped up next. When he emerged near the tunnel, Zachy showed him how to wiggle through the tube to find the slide, and then down they went, one after the other, into the bigger pit.
“This is the best night ever!” Song declared when he popped up.
“The ball pit is my favorite!”
“It’s my favorite now too! I’ve never gotten to play in one before.”
“Is this your first night here?”
“Uh-huh,” Song replied.
“Did you come with your daddy?”
“I don’t have a Daddy.”
“Ohh,” Zachy said, feeling sad for his new friend because having a daddy or, in his case, daddies, was the best thing in the world. “You can join me and my daddies for snack time later if you’d like. They bring lots when we come to play nights.”
“You have two daddies?”
“I call them Daddy and Papa, so they don’t get confused,” Zachy said before waving to them. “The one with the long hairis my Daddy Gage, and the one with the short hair is my Papa Cooper.”
“Hi Daddy Gage and Papa Cooper!” Song cried out, waving to them as well.
They smiled and waved back to them before they climbed the cargo nets so they could skip back around to the other side again.
“Ryu, Ryu, meet our new friend Song!” Zachy called when he spotted Ryu seated on the edge of the ball pit, kicking the balls with his feet but not getting in.
“Ryu’s Daddy is Mr. Hank,” Zachy explained, waving to the gruff biker as he pulled a chair over to the table where Zachy’s Daddies sat.
“Hi, Mr. Hank!” Song said, waving to him too.
Mr. Hank waved back as Ryu slid off the edge into the ball pit with a giggle. Zachy remembered his manners and the rules and didn’t do a cannonball this time. Instead, he slid in carefully the way Ryu had, since his friend didn’t play as wild as Zachy did.
“Daddy said they’re having a drag puppet show tonight, and the furries are performing too,” Ryu said. “Are you and Song gonna watch too?”
Zachy looked at Song, not wanting to be rude and answer for him. It would be sad if Song didn’t join them, because Zachy loved to watch performances. His daddies had taken him to the community theater to see Ryu and Kayla dance in the musicals there, and it was so much fun. One of the things he’d always loved and hated about the show he was a part of was getting to watch the other actors bring their characters to life. Now that he no longer had to play the part of the show’s villain, he got to take part in the cool stuff too, instead of lurking like the weasel he’d been when he’d played his original part.
Daddy Gage had fixed that and so much more for him.
“That would be awesome,” Song said as Ryu tossed balls in the air and giggled as they rained down over him.
Soon the three of them were tossing balls up and waving their arms in the air as the balls fell on their heads and bounced off their shoulders. Then Kayla joined them as her mama joined the table where the daddies sat, and the four of them joined hands to play Ring around the Rosy, sending more balls flying each time they fell down.
“I wanna play, I wanna play!” Shanny declared, skidding to a stop and shrieking when a large pup in amazing bulldog gear snatched him up and lifted him off his feet.
“You can play, but no acrobatics or cannonballs, got it?” The pup growled.
“Yes, Sir Ferocious,” Shanny said, cheeks pinking up as his pup set him back on his feet.
He sat and slid in carefully, along with his friend Ajay, who Zachy had only met a handful of times.
“This is Song,” Zachy said, introducing him.