The Gym

Twice a week, Simone takes Benjamin to the gym.

This gym is located inside a physiotherapy office and, for the most part, remains empty other than the occasional fitness class. Some patients make use of the facilities but most sit in the waiting room reading well-used magazines or watching television. So usually, Simone and little B have the place to themselves.

Little B has some favourite things to do: he loves to take all the pilates balls out of their bucket and pitch them about the room; he loves to use the tennis racket as a variation to the hand-pitching of pilates balls; he climbs onto the wobble board with Simone; he tries the toe strengthening exercises and does the stretches. But the best entertainment comes when another person enters the gym.

Yesterday, a gentleman walked through the gym with a coffee cup in hand. He disappeared into the washrooms then returned having donned a pair of khaki shorts. Now. This gentleman would not have been amiss playing the role of a gruff, English officer visiting the colonies in a bygone era. Simone rather imagined him with a pipe firmly clenched between his teeth, bellowing orders.

The man dragged a machine over to the middle of the floor, adjusted the knobs and climbed on. He balanced, sliding from side to side, using a pole to help maintain his balance. Little B found this highly entertaining. In fact, he decided to get closer to the action and thoughtfully pitched a ball (it missed, thank goodness) at the erstwhile British officer.

When Simone growled her disapproval, little B changed tactics, opting for sliding one of the pilates balls at one end of the man's machine. Little B thus successfully blocked the machine. At this point, the man's face had become a dangerous shade of red so, after apologetically removing the pilates ball, Simone offered to read little B a story. Unfortunately, little B would not be deterred. He chose instead to run circles around the poor man, whose moustache quivered as his narrowed eyes tried to follow little B's circuit.

The man paused his exercise session for a sip from his coffee cup then put away the machine to climb onto an exercise bike instead. Attracted by the mechanical beeping of the bike, little B extended his hand as though to touch the front wheel of the bike. The man looked down his nose at little B in a vaguely threatening manner. Little B, no stranger to that look, squeaked and resumed the tennis racket version of the pilates ball game.

Simone, wobbling on the wobble board, decided to move to the toe strengthening exercises in hopes of attracting little B to the same thing before one of the pilates balls struck the bike rider. It worked! It really worked!

Maybe next time they go to the physio office, it would be best if Simone and little B quietly read instead though...