The Misadventures of Emerald

I JUST GOT TRAPPED INSIDE OF A PINBALL MACHINE!

Mom got another raise recently, and she announced that she'll maybe have enough money to drive us to the casino. If you're unfamiliar, Ruby and I just LOVE going to that casino. I can't exactly explain, but there's something about it that just makes me want to live there. Anyway, Mom ended up getting enough cash and she drove us to the casino. As soon as we entered, Ruby dashed to a game to check out, Mom was counting the money she was about to spend, and I was gazing up at this new machine that I never noticed before. It didn't take long before I figured out what's going on.

The announcer of this place said on the loudspeaker, "Good afternoon, ladies and gents. If you've just shown up, feast your eyes on our new pinball game near the front entrance."

The person then talked about how this new game never worked before but now it's modified and functional or something. I couldn't exactly get all the details, because Mom was giving me my tokens and telling me how I should use them wisely. I then walked over to the new game, or at least I tried to. A whole crowd was around the thing and I thought that I would never be able to play it that day. I couldn't think of anything else to do then so I just sat down and waited for the crowd to clear up. The crowd did clear up, but it was so late that Mom tried pulling me towards the exit. However, after some kneeling and begging, Mom decided to let me try the game out. Since weird stuff has always happened to me, I observed the pinball machine to make sure it was REALLY normal. After all, the announcer DID say something about it once being busted. I inserted a token and... well... it was your average pinball game. Nothing strange seemed to happen, and I thought it was perfectly normal. It wasn't until the game ended when the weirdness began.

There was a screen on top of the pinball machine which normally showed you your final score at the end. Instead of my score, I got a creepy, pixelated message saying, "I hope you got what you wished for" and then it released this weird spray. Everything went black all of a sudden.

I woke up and found myself with vertically no room to work with. Basically, the ceiling was so low, I had to crawl around the place. After some exploring, I found some familiarity. The area I found looked like the game I was playing not too long ago. In fact, it WAS the game I was playing not too long ago. I then realized that I was stuck inside of the pinball machine. I could even see the outside world, because the ceiling was transparent. Thanks to that, I spotted Mom and Ruby just sitting there looking as if they were waiting for me. I was thinking to myself, "Well, I'm not getting out of here anytime soon." To my surprise, Ruby told Mom something, (I couldn't hear a thing from in there) walked up to the machine I was in, and actually started playing. Of course, since it was pinball, it required to have a ball flinging all over the place. I looked back to make sure I wasn't near one, only to find a chrome sphere headed in my direction. I tried crawling away, but that thing was just too fast. Then I was stuck to a ball that was rolling, and rolling, and just never stops rolling. It would occasionally hit a wall, but other than that, it was rolling and only rolling. After what seems like half an hour, the ball finally fell down. I then thought, "Is that it? Is this the way out? Can I finally get out of here?" It was still falling, and I was still trying to free myself from the ball, but at the same time, I had a lot of hope. "It has to." I was still thinking. "It has to be the exit. If not, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself."

This was where the disappointment began. The ball finally landed, but I could feel it going upwards. When it stopped going upwards, I freed myself from the ball only to find myself in the same place BEFORE Ruby started the game. "That's it." I was thinking to myself. Again. "There's got to be a way out." I was getting a little desperate at this point. I could see the window through the ceiling, and it was getting dark. I saw Ruby walking towards Mom, telling her something I couldn't hear. Mom then walked over to an employee and told him something. I then slapped myself in the face, remembering that I needed to find a way out rather than watching what they were doing. I looked across the entire ceiling, seeing if I could find a hole or something. The fact that the ceiling was transparent didn't help much either. I turned around, still looking at the ceiling, and found what looked like a circle. I pushed the circle, then I suddenly heard Mom's voice.

"Ruby, are you sure you looked everywhere?" That was Mom alright.

I heard Ruby's voice too. "Yeah, but I couldn't find him anywhere. Maybe he went to the bathroom."

"For 45 minutes!?"

Wait a minute... I was stuck in the machine for 45 minutes? Wow. Anyway, it turns out that the circle was, ironically, a HOLE. After climbing up through the hole, it looked like I was floating in midair. Well, the ceiling was transparent, but I knew that I couldn't just sit there and admire the scenery. I ran towards my family, but somehow slipped and slid along the practically invisible ceiling (which really wasn't a ceiling now that I was on top of it) until I suddenly fell down... again! Thankfully, I landed a little sooner and didn't go back upwards again. I was laying on the floor, which looked WAY bigger than usual. I was just thinking, "I'm small? Again? How many times is this going to happen?" I got up and ran towards my family, noticing that as I get closer, I get bigger too. By the time I got behind Ruby, I was up to normal size.

Mom turned around and gave me one of her where-the-heck-did-you-go-I-was-so-worried-about-you looks. All I did was shrug and gave a weak smile.

It wasn't until the 3 of us got back into our car when I tried to tell Mom the whole pinball scene. "Alright look, I was inside that new pinball machine."

Mom said, "Emerald! This is no time for jokes! I was very worried about you! Where were you?"

"In the pinball machine!"

"Emerald!"

"What?"

"Emerald..." She was saying that as if I was hiding something.

Obviously she's not going to believe me. Why do I even bother trying? I don't even know. I guess I just feel lucky. I sighed and then I said, "The bathroom..."

Then Mom loudly said, "For 45 minutes!?"

Ruby laughed, and I was just sitting there, saying softly, "Apparently."

Neither of us said anything else throughout the rest of the ride home. She didn't ground me or anything. As soon as we got home, I got out of the car, headed straight for my room, and started writing in my notebook. It's worth noting that I still have some tokens from the casino tucked away in my pocket. What am I going to do with them now?