Just Like That
By Hilary R., New City, NY (More by this author »)
Her sense of hearing moved slowly away from her asthe sound of the deafening little girls playing what they thought was basketballgot even more unbearable. He smiled at her warmly, and shrugged his shoulders inanswer to the question she'd just asked: "So, how did your year go?" Heturned back to finish his job of making the girls recognize the objective ofbasketball. Like four-year-old girls even had a clue ...
She positionedher hands in back of her, placing them on the floor, and tilted her head back.Her eyes closed slightly, still keeping sight of him and her campers. Thescorching sun wrapped around her body, making her eyes heavy, so she closed themafter catching a glimpse of him staring at her.
"See? For everyletter of your name, you shoot a basket," he started telling them. "So,for example, 'Hilary' has six letters." Her eyes shot open and her mouthformed a small smile as he shot each basket. "So you would go H ... I ... L... A ... R ... Y." With every letter he made a basket and when he was done,he walked to the middle and said quietly, "Like that." Likefour-year-old girls could ever make six baskets in a row ...
Theywere in total admiration of him, and all tried desperately to do it exactly theway he had. Not understanding fully the rules of the game, they all walked aroundshooting, screaming, "H ... I ... L ... A ... R ... Y" as they threwthe ball up in the air and watched it fall.
"Cute idea," shesaid, as she stood slowly to assemble her group for the next activity. She lookeddown at her feet, waiting for any chance that he would say something. He didn't,and she gradually made her way off the basketball court and onto the grass,holding two small hands. Like a 16-year-old girl could ever make someone like himfall ...
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