"I am glad to hear your father is fine. Now can we eat?" Sheldon's concern for Penny's father ended three days ago when she called to inform them he was doing well. And he was now his usual cantankerous self. Though that didn't diminish how grateful she was to him.
"Way to show your support, Sheldon," Leonard had been walking on eggshells since his girlfriend had come home. He wanted to remind her that he was there for her. She had left in the middle of the night with barely a goodbye. That meant something - didn't it?
"Just eat," Penny beamed and giggled. She was in such a good mood nothing could bother her. Not Sheldon's anal retentiveness or Leonard's mistaken insecurity. "Ooh!" she nearly spat out her dumpling as she spun toward Sheldon. "Do you know someone named 'Sparky'?"
"Sparky…" his head tilted forward and his eyebrows were as high as they could go.
"Yeah - I can't believe I forgot to ask you! My Dad and I spent the entire time talking - which is amazing 'cuz my Dad and I have never 'talk'. Anyway," she didn't even seem to care the guys were frozen waiting for her to finish, "he had this buddy from Galveston when he was a roughneck in Oklahoma" she got no response from Sheldon. "Com' on, Sheldon, how many guys walk away from getting hit by lightning six times?"
"Please," Howard snorted. "No one has been hit by lightning that many times…and lived."
"Roy Cleveland Sullivan," Sheldon lectured, "was hit by lightning on seven different occasions and survived all of them. He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being. However, my father was very honored to hold the record west of the Mississippi."
"Your father?" the guys looked at him like he was crazy while Penny beamed in delight.
"Oh my God! Really?" she couldn't believe the coincidence.
"Yeah," Howard listened to Raj, "it does make sense."
"Am I to understand that your father is 'Rocket Bob'?"
"Rocket Bob?" Leonard couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"According to the rendition I'm familiar with, 'Rocket Bob' was atop the crown block when the blowout preventer failed. When the pressure released the oil out of the top of the rig, he was propelled into the air. His safety strap broke and he plummeted to the earth without a single injury."
"Mostly," Penny had heard the story enough times to know it by heart. "He actually dislocated his shoulder and can now feel storms 'a comin'," she used her fingers to quote him.
"How do you know?" Leonard asked Sheldon.
"It was my father's favorite story of his youth."
"Did he ever drag you to one of the reunion picnics in Oklahoma?" by this time Penny had completely discarded her dinner in the excitement.
"Unfortunately, yes," Sheldon was still finishing his meal in the hopes of the subject being changed.
"I used to hate going to them. But it is where I had my first kiss," she grinned. "I was eleven and there was this older boy with dark hair and blue eyes. He was being picked on by some other boys so I threw rocks at them and told them to go away. And then I remember kissing him and running away giggling," she laughed. It was one of her all time favorite memories.
"That was you?" Sheldon squealed nearly choked on his dumpling.
Everyone stared at them in absolute horror.