Chapter 451 Punting
Eugene stopped himself from bursting into laughter. “Oh. I didn’t get enough rest!” Ellen heard this when she walked in with dishes in her hand; she chuckled and responded, “I knew it. I’d be surprised if you had enough rest.”
At this moment, Olivia was rendered speechless. It’s his own problem! It has nothing to do with me. Why is his mother looking at me like that?
Seeing the embarrassed look on Olivia’s face, Ellen proceeded to explain calmly and moderately, “Eugene’s not good when it comes to sleeping in a new environment. Whenever we stayed here in the past, he’d always end up not getting enough rest. Olivia, please don’t overthink it.”
Olivia giggled; she did not overthink at all. At this point, North winked and asked, “What’s fun here on the island?”
Eugene responded, “There are all kinds of recreational facilities here like on the mainland—whether it’s water sports, powerboats, or motorboats. You can punt or even swim!”
North exclaimed happily, “Let’s go punting!”
“Sure.” After they ate something, Brian stayed back to be with Ellen while Eugene took the two to the resort. Olivia did not feel good about this arrangement as it was a rare opportunity for Eugene to come here to spend time with his mother, but now it seemed like he was taking the two of them on vacation.
“Eugene, you can send us back later, so you can spend more time with your mother. I can bring North out on my own.”
Eugene frowned slightly. “It’s fine. It’s not like she’s alone. Can you please stop trying to push me away? You are my wife and child; who else would I rather be spending time with?”
As he spoke, he put his hand around her shoulder. “Stop thinking about it. We are on vacation!”
Olivia did not know how to respond.
After a car ride and more than half an hour walking, they finally reached the resort.
She could tell that this island was very large and the available facilities were quite complete; it was no different from the high streets on the mainland—perhaps even better.
Where they were right now was a place where you could get anything—food, entertainment, relaxation, and shopping.
As long as one named it, one could definitely get it here.
Meanwhile, knowing their destination, they headed straight to the theme park.
Since North wanted to go punting, they went to the man-made lake in the theme park and hired a boat.
To attract more customers, the business owners had placed many huge and colored balls on the lake—each signifying a gift.
Now that there was an element of competition, it would naturally attract more customers. Seeing the lake now, there were indeed several people punting.
After the three got in the boat, Eugene and Olivia were responsible for punting while North would use the net to catch the balls.
Even though punting seemed easy, in practice, it was a lot more difficult as Eugene and Olivia could hardly synchronize with each other, so the boat ended up moving in a circle in its original spot.
Then, North became slightly annoyed. “Are we just going to keep circling this spot?”
Eugene looked at Olivia before turning to the land. Much to his surprise, it seemed like they had managed to move a good distance away from the land this way.
“Should we find someone to teach us?”
Olivia sniggered. “Do we really need someone to teach us how to punt? Are we that bad?”
North responded, “Follow my lead. Whenever I say ‘Go’, you’ll punt, and when I stop, you’ll stop too!”
Eugene and Olivia looked at each other skeptically. “Are you sure this will work?”
North was unsure about his plan either. “Let’s try it then. I’ve played a game like this before. The boat will start moving in a circle when one person punts harder than the other.”
Then, North appeared professional as he began to command, “Listen to me. Go… Go…”
Then, Eugene and Olivia began to punt in synchrony, and the boat started to move forward.
Eventually, all three of them got very excited, and North had found the secret to it, which was exactly like the game he played before. As such, he treated it as a game as they continued punting.
When they were about to make a turn, he would say, “Mom, you’ll stop punting for a minute while Uncle Eugene continues!”
