Hippity-Hooping

Playing the Pros GAME FOURTEEN

PLAYING THE PROS
Game #14

We played against a bunch of octopuses last night. I swear the girls were all arms and tentacles. No matter which way we turned, there were arms around us, and I felt as though I were trying to shoot baskets from the inside of a cage.

I worked the entire game long just to get the one and only basket I finally managed to make. It felt like a great accomplishment. So many arms in the air, around my face, fingers flying in my space . . . rhyme intended. I may as well make poetry out of it since I couldn’t manage to do much of anything else. Neither could the rest of our team. It was a tough game, but it ended all too soon. Just as I was starting to warm up, the whistle blew and it was over.

I really wanted to play well tonight, I just never got the opportunity. Now if the other team had been considerate enough to stand back when I got the ball, and allow me room to stop and think, to get my aim just right, and to shoot at my leisure, I’m sure I could have scored all night. Vikki reminded me that the girls on the other team are a lot younger than we are and that they’ve been playing the sport all their lives. She needn’t have said anything. They were like playing against a team of pros.

We have the next two weeks off due to school holidays. I remember what happened to me the last time I had so many weeks off in a row. It was like being away for a year. I hope it doesn’t affect me like that this time.