Over the summer, my parents and my brother Caleb and I took a trip to Ocean City, New Jersey with our cousins. Our cousins are named Elena and Charlotte. As we stepped inside the large beach house we would be staying in, Charlotte’s head popped around the corner like a balloon and charged at Caleb. It would be better to say that Charlotte did not charge directly at Caleb, but instead she charged at his stomach. We had nicknamed Charlotte the saber-toothed Charlotte for a good reason. Whenever her adorable head came within a mile distance of Caleb, she would run at him and sink her teeth into his stomach. At first we only thought she was teething, but as the years passed the habit continued. As I watched her charge at Caleb’s stomach, her cute blond pigtails bobbing with every step, I saw Caleb’s face twist in dismay. In less than a second, she had latched onto him. After a devastated look at me, Caleb dragged her away, her teeth still embedded into his torso.

As Caleb disappeared around the corner, Charlotte’s sister Elena appeared from the bathroom. Elena’s passion is for jokes centered on gibberish. “What did the coo coo la la bum bum poo la say to the ca mun lab doy?” Elena said while giggling. Without waiting for an answer, Elena replied, “Pa mun poo poo pee butt.” I silenced her quickly here because she was beginning to say some “potty language.”

“Why don’t we,” I suggested, “play with balloons?” I pulled out a pump and a bag of balloons from my bag. Before I had finished my sentence, Charlotte and Elena were already pleading for balloon sculptures. I first made a dog for Charlotte and a penguin for Elena. Unfortunately, Charlotte popped both of those. I made a dolphin for Elena and a bunny for Charlotte. Charlotte popped those, too. I made a butterfly for Charlotte and a flower for Elena. Now Elena started popping balloons, too. The room was quickly transformed into a sea of  broken balloons.

 “Why don’t you,” I said, pointing to Elena and Caleb, who was nursing his stomach, “have swordfights with the balloons? You can order two weapons to fight with and no one will get hurt.” Elena agreed and ordered a balloon bow and arrow and a poisonous viper lasso. Caleb requested a mace and a battle ax. The fights began. Caleb had a severe disadvantage because Charlotte was biting his legs as he fought. Elena was not much better off because of her weapons. When Elena shot the bow and arrow, the arrow slowly drifted five inches from the bow and fluttered to the ground. The lasso merely floated for about a second where it was released and descended to the ground at about a millimeter per second. Caleb’s weapons, though better, still failed. The mace hung limp on its balloon stick and the battle ax merely flopped around. The fight was intensified by Charlotte insisting that it was her birthday while popping balloons and biting Caleb’s legs. Finally, the valiant knights gave up fighting and Elena went back to popping balloons while Caleb nursed his new wounds.

Every day Charlotte and Elena went through the same routine of popping balloons and every day I cleaned up after them. As they popped, they sang made up songs. Elena sang “Two Little Lovebirds Kissing in a Heart” because of two balloon birds that she thought were kissing and Charlotte sang “Aligator, Aligator, Aligator” which only had one word that was repeated a lot of times. The racket of balloons popping and the tiring work that followed was enough to make me very glad to be home.