In order for you to understand why I gave a lady working at D&D a bouncy ball, you need to go read this. It’s ok. I’ll wait.

 

Ok, welcome back and now that we are all on the same page, let me just tell you that I have never laughed so hard in my life when the following happened. 

 

I had stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts and, as I normally do, I placed my order for a medium cup of coffee with double cream. The lady behind the counter was not smiling and did not look very happy.  I asked her if she was having a rough day and she simply said no, that it had been a long day and that she really needed something to make her smile.  Naturally, I took the opportunity to pull the bouncy ball from my pocket that was waiting there for its turn to bring joy into someone’s life. I opened up my hand to show her the bouncy ball and proceeded to share my brief story about the joy that this ½ inch ball could bring and how God wants our joy to be full in Him.  I told her that Jesus loved her and handed her the bouncy ball. 

 

At that moment something happened that had never happened before, at least in front of me, and especially in an establishment like the one I was standing in.  

 

Before I go any further let me add few other details to the scene. There was another lady, who was a customer, standing beside me and she wasn’t smiling and she was visibly impatient as she waited on her order that she had placed with another employee. Let’s just say I probably needed another ball for her as well because she wasn’t in the best of moods.

 

Once I had handed the bouncy ball over to the D&D employee she took a moment to inspect it, she smiled and said thank you. This is where the humor / horror began. 

 

She bounced it. 

 

She was suddenly so overtaken with the joy and exhilaration (ok exhilaration may be a bit of a stretch) of being the recipient of this multi-colored, sphere of energy, that she released it with a substantial amount of force to the floor.  As it traveled downward to the floor it managed to make contact with the uneven grouted edge of the tiled, and began returning at a much higher rate of speed than it had traveled down. 

 

Now, I know it doesn’t sound too bad at this point, but here is where things got started to get out of control and I knew I was going to have to hold back from laughing uncontrollably.  Remember the lady standing beside me that was waiting impatiently for her order? Well, the ball was headed straight for her face, and at that very second everything went into slow motion.  

 

The D&D lady shot out over the counter like a bullet and nabbed the multi-colored sphere of energy just before it could hit the impatient lady who was waiting on her coffee and donuts. The D&D lady said, “I am so sorry, but wasn’t that awesome. I caught it before it hit you!” 

 

I was doing my very best to hold in the laughter that was desperately trying to escape. I turned, and with a school boy grin on my face that said, “I haven’t done anything wrong,” I said, “Wow, that was close. I am glad it didn’t hit you.”

 

Then, the impatient lady who had been waiting on her order, picked up her coffee and donuts and turned to exit the store. Before she left, she turned, winked and smiled at me and said, “Have a wonderful day.”

 

So what did I do?  I did just as she suggested. I took my coffee went and sat down, took a sip, read my book and had a wonderful day.  I hope, also, that the impatient lady who had to wait on her coffee and donuts and almost got smacked in the face by a brightly colored bouncy ball was able to sit back later have a chuckle over the whole deal and have a wonderful day. 

 

Because you know life is way too short to be upset about almost being taken out by a multicolored sphere of rubber bouncy ball energy.