Casper the Friendly Ghost

When I was about 20 years old or so, I was on my way home to San Francisco from Davis, and as usual I stopped off at Gah's place to pick up the kids. While we were packing the kids in to the car, Gah handed me a 20 dollar bill. Hmm...okay, what's the catch?

"What's this for?" I asked.

"You have to take them to see Casper." Aw, you've got to be kidding me!!! Of all the movies playing in the theatre, I had to go watch that! Well, so be it. I guess as an uncle you've got to take your lumps. So my niece and nephew were packed in to the car and we drove to San Francisco. The next day, we went to go see the matinee showing of Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

One would think that this movie, which was a children's movie would be geared towards children. But the beginning was actually quite creepy. Gong-wing was laughing through the whole show and having a good time. At the same time, Mui was bawling her eyes out because she was scared. She kept telling me she wanted to go to the park and was climbing all over me in the theatre. So what do I do? I have a 4 year-old enjoying a movie and having fun. Then I have a crying 2 year-old who's scared and wants to leave the theatre. The thing is I was all alone with no other adults. And in this day and age, I would be foolish to leave a child unattended, even in a movie theatre (there are always 2 exits, remember?). Regardless of what I did, one of them was going to cry: if I stayed, Mui would cry from fright from this movie. If I left, Gong-wing would surely cry from being dragged away from the movie. What to do, what to do? I almost made the wrong decision and dragged everyone out of the theatre, but thatnk God I didn't. At that point, I had to quickly consider who could throw the bigger fit, the 2 year-old or the 4 year-old?

Sorry Mui, we were going to stay. Besides, we had to get our 20 bucks worth.