Gertrude reached over and squeezed Isadore’s hand. They were sitting on a bench at an amusement park and Gerty said to Izzy, “The grandchildren are having such a marvelous time enjoying all of the rides here in the park. I’m so happy our son and daughter invited us to join them today.”

“Yeah? With all these screaming and crying rugrats, I can barely hear myself think, much less hear what you’re saying to me. Some fun this is sitting on a bench with no shade in the sweltering sun,” Isadore said.

“Oh, come on, Izzy, don’t be such and old curmudgeon,” Gerty said. “Look at all of these marvelous rides. Remember how we used to love going on that big, wooden rollercoaster at Coney Island?”

“It hurts my knees just thinking about getting into that seat and the bouncing around makes my back hurt,” Izzy complained.

“How about that Tilt-a-Whirl ride and the one with the tall swings that go round and round at high speed?” Gerty said. “We used to laugh and have a great time in those rides.”

“If I got on any of those rides it would trigger my vertigo and I would probably end up throwing up all over you and everyone else.”

“The bumper cars, Izzy. They used to be your favorite ride,” Gerty said.

“Did you forget about me having to wear a neck brace for two weeks after that idiot teenager hit my bumper car from behind at full speed?” Izzy said.

“Oh, right. But surely you could still enjoy the giant Ferris wheel. That’s fairly tame,” Gerty said.

“Sitting on that hard seat would not be good for the hip replacement I had last year,” Izzy said.

“Izzy, isn’t there anything here at the amusement park that you enjoy?” Gerty asked.

“Yeah,” Izzy said. “I’ll enjoy it when our kids say it’s time to leave the amusement park and they pack up the grandkids into their minivan and we head home. The rugrats will be so exhausted that they’ll fall asleep right away in their car seats and then our son will drop us off at our house and I can lie down and take a nap.”

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Written for Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. Photo credit: Grace Ho on Unsplash.