It all happened so fast.
At first it looked as though the girl didn't notice the grace and effort that was being displayed at the top of her section's stair as she ascended the risers. "How could that be? Is she a blind child who can climb arena stairs unassisted somehow?"
"Oh, that poor girl is on her way to get some ice cream and doesn't realize her stair has been commandeered by Dancin' Guy," we all thought. "Shucks! We'll all have to put this on pause for a moment." And then a collective, "Oh, oh, oh. Oh no," set in.
Suddenly, she stopped to dance along his side and the crowd was swept up in a nervous tempest as this was already a very creepy and bad situation for all attendees at Rupp that night.
Once he picked her up, it was like the entire crowd entered the headspace of Steph Curry turning around to react to a made three before it reached the rim and we momentarily accepted that there is no free will and we are merely passengers along our own cosmic railways - inevitable, powerful, freeing.
Then her parents gesticulated and admonished her for a while as she sat between them.
The dad had the aisle. If this was a Sumo event and not a 9pm SEC game, he would've performed seppuku right there.