The Perfect Remedy

"They're bringing over a surprise."

I had been sitting on the couch and scrolling through Instagram like I had every other Sunday during quarantine when my mom told me. I had just decided that I was going to sit on the couch for the rest of the day and now I had to get up.

"They are going to put it at the front door and tell us when to come out." Mom said. My sister went to look outside from the front window. "No peeking!" Mom scolded.

I closed the shutters and waited. I wondered what they could be bringing. I ran through a list of possibilities in my mind.

Cake

Cookies

Drinks

I mentally scratched each item off of my imaginary list, my friends were being far too mysterious for those things.

"She said we could come out." Mom finally announced.

My whole family trooped outside, my parents just as unknowingly as us kids.

On our front step was a large cooler. My friends car was parked in the front of our house. Their parents sat in the car with large smiles on their faces while the kids stood lines up outside of the car.

I prepared myself for battle.

"Your husband has to open it!" My friends mom called out.

Slowly, Dad opened the cooler. It was filled with water balloons.

Instantly my friends ran behind the car and started pummeling us with water balloons and spraying us with water guns.

Staying behind the car, we threw water balloons back.

It was a full battle zone. No neighbor would have wanted to be caught in the crossfire. Water baloons flew across the front yard, splashing onto the sidewalk and onto my clothes. By the time we were done, all of us were soaked and I no longer had a desire to sit on the couch all day.

Everyone was smiling and laughing and trying to get spray the last bit of water at the enemy. Who knew that water balloons were the perfect remedy for a bored and lonley soul.