The head of every parent instinctively turned in the direction of the child's screams. A young blonde haired girl, around the age of five was wailing in pain while hugging the wooden railing of the bridge that connected the jungle gym to the twirly slide. She was trying in vain to free her knee, lodged between two newel posts.
There were two men nearby. One was clearly her father. He was consoling her and letting her know to relax, and that they would help her get her knee free. The other man was another father that happened to be in the vicinity.
The child, trembling in fear and pain looked to her father for direction. He attempted to reposition her knee-cap in different ways that may allow it to slip through, but it wasn't going to happen. The other man suggested that the father wait a moment while he run back to the concession stand and ask if they have any "butter, oil or grease."
The father was considering this when a woman approached. She put her hands on the two bars that the child was stuck between and gave them a pull in opposite directions.
And like that... the little girl's knee popped right out.
Having witnessed the entire spectacle, the mother of the child looked at her husband with contempt and pity and smiled appreciatively to the woman that came to her daughters aid.
More often than not, the solution is simple.
"Butter, really John"?
I like this, but I feel like it raises questions. For example, the thing with butter. For me, that's clearly something my ma would recommend. It's my dad who would probably have taken me aside with some version of, "brace yourself, boy" and then tried to get me out of my jam by bending or breaking whatever jam I was in. Or let me stay there to think about how I shouldn't have gotten myself into the jam in the first place. Why is it that the dads didn't try to bend the bars first? Also, butter on wood? That's WD-40 time for sure. C'mon John.
The railings were made of some sort of metal, therefore butter is a little less absurd. The idea wasn't to make it seem like men were idiots and women were more logical. I just told it like it happened. I did add the "Butter, Really John?" Poor kid though, she was really, really scared. Also, the poor father, he felt so helpless. I can empathize with how hard that must have been.