A Very Scary Proposition

Okay, it’s my turn,” Sofia said as she took off her right tennis shoe. “You guys couldn’t poke yourselves in your own eyeball.”

Tick wanted to argue, but didn’t have much evidence to the contrary. He and Paul had been trying to hit the button with a shoe for at least ten minutes, their only reward being smacked in the head a couple of times as the shoes fell back down.

“‘Poke yourselves in your own eyeball?’” Paul said. “Never heard that one before.”

Sofia ignored him, planting her feet and staring up at the button with intense concentration, swinging the shoe up and down with both hands as she readied herself. Finally, she swung hard upward and let the shoe fly. It missed by three feet.

Paul snickered. “Ooh, so close. Hate to break it to you, but you throw like a girl.”

Uh-oh, Tick thought.

Sofia bent down to pick up her shoe, then bounced it up and down in her right hand like a baseball. “What did you say?”

Paul folded his arms. “I said, you throw like a girl.”

“Huh,” Sofia grunted, staring down at her shoe. Then she reared back and threw it straight for Paul’s face, smacking him square on the nose.

He grabbed his face with both hands, jumping up and down. “That hurt, man!” he shouted. But a second later, he started laughing. “Ah, Tick, it was worth it to see Miss Italy mad. Her face looks like her daddy’s spaghetti sauce.”

This time Sofia punched Paul in the arm with a loud thump. “You want some more?” she asked.

Paul rubbed the spot. “Dang, woman, I give up. How’d you get so mean, anyway?”

Tick was loving every minute of the exchange, but he knew they had to push that button. He felt something—a pressure in his chest—that told him they’d better get serious quick.

“You lovebirds cut it out,” he said. “Start throwing.”

They tried for another five minutes, dodging each other’s shoes and scrambling around to pick up their own. Sofia finally hit the bull’s-eye.

When her shoe connected, a quiet click echoed off the round glass of the tunnel and the blinking light stopped, turning off completely. All three of them stared, waiting for something amazing to happen. Nothing did. Tick rubbed his sunburned neck, sore from craning it upward for so long.

“Great,” he said. “Just great.”

Sofia huffed and looked down; Tick noticed her body tense, her eyes widen. She stared at the floor, transfixed, as if hypnotized. Tick quickly followed her gaze. He couldn’t stop the gasp before it escaped his mouth.