Is this normal Halwyn behaviour, I hear you ask? No, it was the annual Sportsman Hotel Water Fight!

As they can't open on Good Friday, they do this instead.

But, as I said, we didn't inform Garth of this.

As we walked through the park we stopped to fill the buckets up with water. At this point I think that Garth figured that something was wrong, although he came at it from the wrong direction.

"You aren't going to pour them over me!" he yelled, backing away.

"No," I replied, "You are going to throw them over people you don't know!"

Garth was obviously not sure of the wisdom of this, and kept a distance from us as we approached the picnicking group of about 35 people. We were quickly informed that the area around the table was a "dry area". Everyone was clustered around it, looking, indeed, disgustingly dry. Even though we were an hour late, not one bucket of water had yet been thrown. Well, we would have to see about that! Halwyn was here!

I suggested to one of the Gens, John, that Nene, (a renSime) should be dragged out of the "dry" area so that we could wet him. John thought that this was a grand idea, and with the help of another renSime soon had Nene out of the safe area. Whoooosh! I got all three with my bucket of water and it was on!

Soon the park was full of augmenting Simes and soaking wet Gens all running around madly from tap to tap, trying to keep the buckets full and the water flowing. The "dry" area soon became the "wet" area and anyone who thought they were "home dry" soon found that they were "out wet" instead!

Although you might think it unfair, what with renSimes being able to augment, both for speed of running away, and running towards with buckets of water, and also for being able to dry quickly, let me tell you that it definitely has it's down side. You see, people who are dry are more a target then those who are wet. Once you are as wet as you possibly can be (with me that was about 2 minutes after I threw the first bucket) people lose interest in trying to wet you. Those Simes who augmented dry, however, became interesting targets, again and again and again. And don't think that a group of 4 Gens can't manage to get a Sime wet either! We had formations that would have made the ancient Boarder Patrols proud!

Garth soon joined in, and Zoe and I sat out for awhile and watched with pride as he splashed stranger after stranger. We figured it would be good practice for when he changes over and has to serve renSimes he doesn't know in transfer (for those of you who don't know, Garth knows he is going to be Sime, thus making it fairly clear he is going to be a channel).

Eventually I got tired of being dripping wet, (those Simes never give a Gen a chance to dry off!) and we headed home. We all agreed that it was fun, and that next year we all want some of those powerful and highly accurate water pistols. Buckets may have more volume, but have you ever tried to aim one?

Eliza ambrov Halwyn Companion to Zoe Farris PS. I have just discovered that one of the local papers was covering the day and that there is a photo of Colin (a gen) throwing a bucket of water over me, and a photo of Garth throwing a bucket of water over Paul (the manager) in the paper. Feel free to comment on this Chronical Return to the Halwyn Chronicals Return to Halwyn Householding