Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream - Dream 13

Dream 13

This is not how Susan envisioned her Saturday morning to be. The grief support group had met again and a couple more people attended. A sweet young couple, Molly and Brad whose young son had been killed in an accident they survived. The group had decided to meet at the paintball facility at seven in the morning on Saturday. It was colder than Susan expected, but that didn’t bother her as she was already dripping sweat or as her mama would have said, “Darlin’ ladies don’t sweat, we perspire.” Well, not today, she was sweating buckets due to the amount of layers she was wearing to protect herself from the sting of the paintball pellets.

She had read several websites on paintball and tried to prepare herself for this activity. She was a tomboy from childhood and had even gone with her father target shooting as a teen. But, she hadn’t held a gun in years.

She was covered from head to toe and now had the added layer of protection from the padding Georgia Paintball Unlimited provided her. Jacob grinned when he saw her emerge from the back, she felt like a mummy walking out with stiff arms and legs. But in time she knew she would be able to bend her arms and legs better once they grew accustomed to the added weight and armor.

“Don’t laugh,” she ordered him as she waddled past.

“Never,” he chuckled, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Betsy walked up to her, she was already in her padded gear as well and said, “Don’t we make a sight. Mama would just about have a fit if she saw me in this getup.”

“I’m sure she’d be proud of you. Besides, I can’t wait to kick a few male egos out there on the course. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m afraid to break a nail or pull a trigger.” Susan’s gaze lingered over on Jacob and she knew Betsy saw her look at him longer than she intended. But it really was rude of him to think that just because she was a woman she couldn’t handle herself out there. Sometimes actions were better than words and she knew deep down this was one of those times.

They stood and watched the teenager go over the rules of engagement with their group and the other two groups that they were “at war” with today. They tied the blue ribbons around their arms signifying the team they were on. They were going up against the red team who consisted of teenage boys who did this at least once a month from their chatter of previous weekends and the green team who were a bunch of twenty-something college friends getting together for a reunion, it was only seven thirty by now and Susan could tell they had been up late the night before tying one on.

Each group went out on the course to get into their place. Right away, Susan could tell that this was not Jacob’s first time using a paintball gun. She was also surprised to see that Rick knew his way around the paintball grounds.

Leaning over, Susan asked Kathy, “Has Rick done this before?”

She nodded, “We both have. We use to do family building activities... before. It’s been a long time, but he loves this sort of stuff. You should have seen his eyes light up when he read the email about today. First time I’ve truly seen him smile since... before.”

Susan nodded, “I’m glad. Those teenagers look like they’re experts at this sort of thing.”

Thirty minutes later, the green team was already packing up and heading to a local bar. They were laughing so hard at each others follies that they were easy to take down. Susan herself had a hand in sending at least three of the group of seven to the locker room.

Now all they needed to do was find the red team, which had been laying in wait for them since the game began. Good strategy, she thought, let one team take out the other and hide until the numbers were down. But, they didn’t figure they would be up against determined people who had already lost so much.