Courtney blinked a bit. Then, recalling Nadine’s sentiment about prizes that matched her own, she made a choice. If she wasn’t that good at games she wouldn’t have any tickets for the prize counter.
“There is the capsule machine over by the playroom entrance,” Courtney said.
There were signs of delight amongst everyone’s faces, which made Courtney feel like she was being included.
“Yeah,” Sawyer said, “that machine is cool!”
“And we’ve got enough people for a race,” Marcus said.
They walked over to the capsule machine. It was huge, taller than an adult, with a giant hopper of prize capsules at the top. Each plastic orb was a single color, opaque so you couldn’t tell what was inside until you opened it. The machine was in low light mode until it was activated. Inside the case were numerous twisting paths, chutes, funnels, lifts and jumps that dispensed the capsules out the little doors on the bottom of the machine.
Courtney stuck in some quarters and twisted the knob, dispensing a capsule from the hopper. It went into a clear funnel with two twisting arms that slid from the side, keeping the capsule popping up and down in the sealed funnel. Soon Sawyer, Sabrina, Marcus and Nadine had their quarters inserted as well, more capsules joining in the mixing funnel. Above the coin slot there was a set of flashing lights pointing to a button labeled RELEASE.
"I'll pick Green!" Sawyer said.
"Orange," Sabrina said.
Marcus took Blue and Nadine took Purple.
"Guess that leaves me with Pink," Courtney said. It wasn't her favorite color but it was all that was left. Sure, a single person could hit the RELEASE button right away if they just wanted one capsule but the real fun was filling up the mixing funnel. Upon release the scrambled capsules would have to roll through several routes in a race to see which got to the bottom first. Kids liked to pool their quarters and bet which color would get to the bottom first. The prizes were almost ancillary; small toys, keychains, sticker packs or tasty tasty treats.
Marcus hit the button. Whirring lights and a muted klaxon went off in the machine. The rotator retracted and the mixing funnel popped open. Each of their capsules dribbled down the splitter, some going along ramps and others in tubes. Blue bounced off a drum into a series of seesaw drops. The kids eyes darted back and forth, barely able to track their pick of color.
And then the first capsule fell into the exit chute, soon followed by three others and a straggler. Which one ended up in first?
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