2) A father who decided to camp his family right behind us on the hill, pull out a grass-surfboard thing and yank his kids down the hill, one at a time, right by us, screaming the whole way;
3) A work-out dude who decided that, of all the places on the large hill, it would be a good idea to run sprints, uphill, right by us, so that we could be treated to his sweaty, scrunched-up face and his heavy breathing every two minutes or so;
4) Two mothers of small children who decided to sit down near us and talk VERY LOUDLY and laugh IN A VERY SHRILL WAY, so that I had to raise my voice for my own kids to hear me.
Didn’t everybody understand that we were trying to finish the second Harry Potter book? Didn’t they comprehend the importance of this?
Finally, I said to no one in particular, “What the hell is going on here?”
Was this some sort of funny hidden-camera show, where they take the nice, quiet Reading Family and throw all kinds of crazy obstacles at them?
I looked around. I stood. I tried to convince my kids that we should go someplace else.
“No! What? We have to finish the book!” they said.
“And you don’t mind doing it here?” I said, and my stress on the final word indicated that “here” was Crazy-Town.
“No, we like it here!”
They hadn’t noticed a thing about our surroundings. I sat down and began reading again.
Soon, the annoying people cleared out. We were left alone with the dramatic, plot-twisting, and very satisfying conclusion to Chamber of Secrets. And I was left with my kids staring at me, wide-eyed, hanging on every word.
Man, it was some serious pressure!
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