Monday, February 12

Survivor: Youth Group

I am with the church youth group. Terry and Jane inform us that we will be playing Survivor Extreme at the Point Defiance Zoo. As we stride down the dark path, I wonder what this will entail.
We are debriefed at a picnick table near the simian house. We are each assigned a card to locate, then to bring back to the table, and we will get another one to find. Terry returns from distributing the cards, and we are told to begin!
I take off to my right, where I find an enormous topiary enclosure, with strange sculptures interspersed. Right off I spot my card, the nine of clubs, but it is in a complete deck of cards. It seems that to hide the cards, Terry took one of each from 52 different decks and hid them, then left the extras lying around. It seems unethical for me to take my card from the deck I've found, because that's not technically what I'm trying to locate.
Before I can make up my mind, a crowd comes in and begins tearing the leftover decks apart, finding their cards and leaving the garden again. I am convinced that they are all cheating, and doggedly continue my search for a card that is not in one of those decks. The other kids, though, have strewn all the cards around and it is now impossible to tell which cards are part of the game and which are not. I am distraught over the corruption of the system, and sit down on a pyramid shaped bush, tears coming to the corners of my eyes.

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