“Just wait, you’ll see. After, I thought we could rent one of the swan boats. But if you see anything else you want to try, say the word.” He paused before a sign listing the various activities inside the complex and where to find them.
“I’m up for anything here except this.” Leah pointed toward the listing for the Above The Trees Adventure. “Sounds like one of those obstacles courses where they expect you to walk on ropes and zip line from one platform to another. Between you and me, I
am not a fan of heights. I think it’s one of the reasons I don’t like skiing. Riding those ski lifts always freaks me out.”
They turned down the path leading to the mini golf course. “I’ve been though it once and have no desire to go again.”
In his opinion, calling Paradise Fairway a mini golf course was doing the place a disservice. The facility actually consisted of three separate courses. The one labeled bronze was a basic nine-hole course with silly cartoonlike animals placed throughout it, and for the most part relatively easy shots. It was the perfect course for young children, especially those who got bored easily. A much longer eighteen-hole course labeled the silver course was his daughter’s favorite and the one they went through most of the time. The shots tended to be more challenging yet not impossible. At the same time, the course contained those obstacles people expected to find on a mini golf course such as windmills and barn doors that opened and closed in an attempt to stop a player from getting the ball in the hole.
But his favorite here was the gold course. The twenty-four holes were spread out through a maze of trees and flowers. A small stream flowed past several of the holes and sometimes even though many of the greens. On countless occasions he’d had a ball land in the water. Sometimes he managed to fish it out before it washed away and other times he didn’t. The facility kept small buckets of extra balls at many of the greens so if you lost one you didn’t need to walk all the way back to the customer service booth for a new one.
A teenager with a bad case of acne looked up from his cell phone, a look of pure annoyance on his face when Gavin greeted him. “Bronze, silver, or gold?” he asked in a tone bordering on rude.
Policing someone else’s employees wasn’t his job, so he refrained from suggesting the kid get a better attitude if he hoped to keep his job. “Two for the gold course,” he replied, handing over his credit card.
The employee gave Gavin a scorecard as he ran the credit card. “The balls and clubs are behind you. Return them here when you’re done.” The teen handed him back his credit card and then started typing on his phone again.
When he played mini golf, he always used the dark blue ball. Erin always went for the bright yellow, and if Piper was with them, she picked the pink one. This afternoon when he reached for the blue one, his fingertips landed on it the same time as Leah’s.
“If you want this one, I’ll take another color,” she said, moving her hand away.
He didn’t much care what color he used. They all did the same job. “Doesn’t matter to me, I just thought you’d go for the pink or purple one.”
Leah selected a black one instead before removing a blue ball and handing it to him. “Dark blue and red are my favorite colors. They always have been. Purple is okay, but pink ranks down near the bottom unless we’re talking about nail polish.”
Gavin stored the detail away. A guy never knew when it might be useful to know his girlfriend’s favorite color.
***
They managed to make it through the whole course without losing a ball, a feat he couldn’t remember happening in a long time. After, they both attempted the final extra shot of the course, an impossible shot that if anyone made earned them a gift card for three free visits. He’d brought Erin to the course numerous times and he’d never seen anyone make the shot.
Until today.
Like a pro, Leah hit the ball with just enough power to send it up the ramp and through the narrow opening, where it then landed in the hole instead of the gap surrounding it—which was where his ball ended up.
“I still cannot believe you made that last hole,” he commented as they waited in line for ice cream. “Are you secretly a mini golf pro?”
In addition to making the impossible shot at the end, she’d successfully made all but two holes under par. According to the employee at the customer service booth, Leah’s score was the second-best ever for the course and the employee added their scorecard to the Wall of Stars.
“Is that even a thing?”
They moved forward as the customers in front of them received their orders. “I don’t think so, but who knows. People play video games for a living, why not mini golf too?”
Ice cream in hand, they headed out for a leisurely stroll along the walking path. Although parts of the path took them through wooded areas and around the lake, it also led them past the entrances to the antique carousel and to the Above The Trees Adventure. Today the place appeared packed as both adults and children made their way across ropes and down zip lines.
“Yeah, that’s definitely not the place for me.” Leah pointed at a woman as she zip-lined from one wooden platform to another.
“Erin couldn’t get enough when we went through it. She’s bugging me to come back when she comes and stays with me.”
She raised her ice-cream cone to her lips, but rather than take a bite she said, “Between snowboarding, skiing, and that,” Leah pointed toward the course, “she sounds like a bit of an adrenaline junkie.”
Anyone who spent an hour with his daughter knew she had the energy of two children her age. “She doesn’t like to sit still, and she’ll try anything once.”
“Sounds like my brother Brett. There’s nothing he won’t do. He made more trips to the emergency room than all my cousins, Curt, and me combined. I think half my mom’s gray hairs were caused by him.”
His daughter might be adventurous, but at least she hadn’t required any hospital visits because of it. At least not yet. Considering how active the girl was, it wouldn’t shock him if she found herself there eventually. “So far the worst Erin’s got was a bloody nose at soccer. Fingers crossed it stays that way.”
The path rounded a corner leading them past the south entrance of the mini golf course before it again disappeared into the woods, providing them with some much-appreciated shade. His weather app still claimed it might rain tonight, but the sky said otherwise. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. Unfortunately, it had been right about the record high temperature today. The high humidity level wasn’t helping either.