Trained in the Deadly Art of Disco

I took Will to Burger King in the middle of the day to play. They have an air conditioned indoor playscape, and it was way too hot to be outside. He had TONS of energy to run off and it beat watching him do laps inside the house.

We were probably there about an hour and a half and several groups of children came and went. But there was this one little boy that I may never forget.

I didn't catch his name, so I'm just going to call his Stu. Stu appeared to be around seven years old; a good two years older than Will.

Will and Stu had been playing together about fifteen minutes. They were running and chasing each other and doing odd Ninja Turtle/Power Ranger fight sceanes. But they never actually made contact, so I wasn't worried about it. For those of you who haven't raised boys, this seems to be pretty universal at their age.

I just happen to be paying close attention to them when Stu pulled back in a stance of some sort and said, "I am trained in the deadly art of ---"

Some crying child, loud parent, or blaring speaker kept me from hearing the rest of his sentence clearly. But I watched him, expecting to see some karate or wrestling moves. He did a few odd jerking movements that I couldn't identify.

Now, I'm not much of a fight watcher. But my ex took a few months of karate while we were together. I've seen a few movies. If Stu's parents were paying for lessons, they were getting jipped.

Then he lays on his back on the floor and does a half spin.

He jumps back up and starts doing those same odd movements. I'm suddenly reminded of how bad we all looked as children, practising for our first school dance.

Then he does something that looks like the robot.

Stu freezes in position and tells Will again, "I am trained in the deadly are of disco."

And I almost choked on my tongue.

The kid wasn't joking. Some idiot had shown Stu some half-baked disco moves and convinced him they were fighting stances; a deadly art.

Who every it was, must not have liked the poor boy.

I myself, felt very sorry for Disco Stu and hope he wisens up before his first playground fight (or wears tap shoes that day).