The Price of Fun
When she walked out of the ladies’ room, Pete was still at the vending machine.
“Oh my god, Miranda. You’ve got to look at this!”
He had his camera out. “I need to get this shot.” he said. “No one at home will believe this.”
“What?” Miranda said.
“Guess how much this water is…” he asked holding his hand over the sticker
“$1.50”
“No.”
“Higher?”
“More than double,” he said in a whispered, deep voice as though he was gossiping about someone nearby.
“Oh my god!” Miranda yelped and quickly removed his hand from the price tag so she could see it for herself. “You have to take that picture. I can’t believe it!”
“I’m trying. I’m trying. I know there’s a setting for close up shots somewhere on this thing,” Pete said.
Miranda watched him fumble with the camera and take a few pictures. But then just as her mind was about to wander, it hit her.
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait!” she yelled.
He took his eye off the camera. “What?”
“I think I saw a water fountain across from the bathroom.”
“No!” he yelled.
“Yes, I swear. Come here.”
He followed her toward the ladies’ room and saw it. Two water fountains–one for adults, one for children. “This is hilarious,” he said. “I wonder if I can get both in the same picture. But there’s no way, I’ll get the price too.”
“Oh, good point. We’ll have to put it in a caption,” Miranda offered.
“Good idea,” he said. “Or we can put up one picture after the other. We’ll figure out something.”
He took about 6 shots from various angles that showed both the water fountain and vending machine. When finished, he remembered that he was thirsty.
“Ok, well I’m so not buying that,” he said.
“The movie started 6 minutes ago. I’m going in,” Miranda said.
“Ok, let’s go,” he said. “I’ll just get something after.”
When they walked into the theater and their eyes adjusted to the dark, they saw that nearly every seat was filled. There were only random single seats available. Rather than create a scene asking people to move or decide to leave, Miranda said, “We can fit in here. We just have to split up.” So they kissed goodbye, sat down at opposite ends of the theater and both thoroughly enjoyed the film.
But the bottle of water that cost $4.25 outshined Star Trek. It also outshined Ground Zero, Macy’s, and even the Empire States Building. And they didn’t know it yet, but it would outshine the Statue of Liberty too (even though there were $3 beers on board the ferry). It was an amazing story they could share with their friends. It was the highlight of their trip.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
well, now I know what to expect when we come to New York. That water must have been Figi water, it’s costly even in Iowa. I’m glad they didn’t buy that water. Drinking bottled water is not very green, and there is nothing wrong with tap water.