Off Season (8 page)

“I guess so,” Ned said. “I just wish I had some trick shots.”

“Just shoot from far away or make it a bank shot off the rim or even a hook shot,” Kia suggested. “The way you were making those three-point shots back at your place means that would be a good shot for you to try.”

“Let's play,” I said.

It didn't take long before Ned had been “lettered” out and was sitting watching Kia and me finish the game. Actually, though, he was spending just as much time staring at the school. I figured I knew what he was thinking about.

“We have an audience,” Kia said.

I looked behind me. There were three guys — they looked around our age — standing at the edge of the court. One of them was holding a basketball.

“How about if we put on a little show?” Kia asked.

“How about if we finish the game?”

“Me putting on a show should finish the game,” she said. “You're only an ‘e' short of losing.”

“Last time I checked you were only missing one letter too,” I argued.

“That's just going to make it more heartbreaking for you. Getting
so
close and then losing.”

I shook my head. “You taunting me only makes the win sweeter. Your shot,” I said and stuffed the ball into her hands.

Kia walked well past the three-point line. I knew exactly what she was going to do. Kia loved the long shot, the last-minute buzzer-beater. When we were playing for real in a game, I knew she was the one who always tried to get the ball into her hands to take that last, long shot. If she made it, she was a hero. If she missed, who could blame her?

Kia set up. The odds were against her making this, but she was a pretty good outside shooter — certainly better than I was. She lined up the shot and put it up. High, clean shot aiming right for the hoop and — it clanked off the rim and bounced harmlessly away. I scrambled after the ball.

“Now it's my turn,” I said.

“No problem. I can make any shot that you can — you're not going to do that bounce shot are you?” she demanded.

“I wasn't going to — that is until you mentioned it.”

“Don't. It's a stupid shot!”

“You only think it's stupid because you can't do it.”

“I'd think it was stupid if I was the only one
in the world who could do it. Stupid is stupid! Just don't do it!”

I smiled. “If you want me to stop using the shot, then you're going to have to learn to do it yourself.”

I walked to the foul line and held the ball like I was going to take a regular shot. I then bounced the ball on the ground so that it gracefully angled up and dropped right into the net!

“Now it's your turn,” I said.

She took the ball. “You win.”

“Aren't you even going to try?” I asked.

“I'd rather lose than look stupid.”

“Then how about if we play some real basketball?”

“What did you have in mind?” Kia asked.

“Let's see if those kids want to play,” I suggested, gesturing to the three kids who were now shooting at the hoop at the other end.

“You want to play with them?” she asked.

“Why not? They look about our age. We could have a game of three-on-three. Us against them.”

“That wouldn't be basketball, that would be a massacre,” Kia said.

“Who knows … maybe they're good.”

“Yeah, right, when I think of good basketball players I always think of Salmon Arm,” she said and laughed.

“But that's why I want to play them.”

“Because we can kill them?” Kia asked.

“No, because they
are
from around here. Maybe they even go to this school … the school that Ned is maybe going to be going to in the fall.”

“So he can meet some of the kids,” she said.

“Exactly. And so they can see that he can play ball and has cool friends who can play ball. Does that make sense?”

“Perfect,” she agreed. “Tell you what, you get Ned and I'll go and talk to them.”

Kia strolled toward the kids and I went over to talk to Ned. He was sitting in the shade, his back against a tree, staring off into space. I didn't know if he was thinking about the school or what was happening with his father, but it was clear he wasn't here.

“Ned, come on, we're going to play a game.”

“A game?”

“Yeah, me, you and Kia against those guys,” I said, pointing to where Kia was talking to them. “It will be like the Salmon Arm version of a three-on-three contest.”

Ned slowly unfolded his legs and got to his feet. We got to the center of the court just as Kia and the three boys got there.

“This is Tom and Jeff and…”

“Frank,” the third boy said.

“Yeah, Frank. This is Ned and Nick,” she said.

Everybody mumbled greetings and nodded their head.

“So since there's six of us, how about a little game of three-on-three?” Kia asked.

“I guess that would be okay,” one of the boys — I didn't know if he was Tom or Jeff — said.

“But what are the teams going to be?” asked the other.

“We were thinking the three of us against the three of you,” I said.

“I don't know,” he said, shaking his head. “I don't think that would be much of a game … we're pretty good.”

What did he mean,
we're pretty good
? I glanced over at Kia. She looked as stunned as I felt.

“You know we can play basketball,” I said.

“We're talking about a real game, right?” one of them asked. “Not trick shots like that bouncing thing?”

“That's not a trick shot,” Kia said. “That's a
stupid
shot.”

All three of the boys started to laugh. “We were thinking the same thing,” one of them said.

“Let's just play some ball,” I snapped angrily. “And since you three are so great, how about we get the ball first?”

“Sure, why not?” one of them asked.

“But are these teams going to be fair?” asked Tom.

“It doesn't matter. It's just a game. They have the big guy so it might be okay,” Frank said. He turned to Ned. “You play much ball?”

“Just by myself at my house.”

“We'll even use your ball,” I said as I took it from Frank's hands. I walked away and Kia and Ned trailed behind me.

“I was going to say let's take it easy on them,” I said. “Now let's just
kill
them. Show them how basketball is played in the city.”

“But I'm not from any city,” Ned said.

“Then play like you did when you were in the city.”

I turned to face them. They were lined up ready for us. “Rebounds of the other team's shots or steals have to be taken outside the three-point line,” I said.

“That's how we usually play,” Frank said. “How about baskets are worth a single point and anything outside the three is worth two points?”

“That works for us. Check.” I tossed the ball to one of them and he tossed it back.

“Monarch!” I screamed. That was one of the plays we'd used to win the Hoop Crazy tournament in Toronto the summer before.

Ned went to the top of the key and Kia used him for the screen. I put the ball in to her and she almost instantly tossed it back to me. Ned broke from the high post to the low position and I lobbed in a pass, well above the head of the man covering him. Effortlessly Ned tossed the ball up and it dropped!

“Is that tricky enough for you?” I asked as one of them took the ball and walked it back to the top of the key.

“Cool it,” Kia hissed in my ear. “We'd like these kids to like Ned, remember? So take it easy.”

“Yeah … fine … okay,” I muttered. I'd take it easy as soon as we were up by ten baskets and there was no doubt in anybody's mind who could and could not play ball.

They checked the ball. I was going out on my man when he threw up a long three-point
shot … It dropped!

“That's
my
idea of a trick shot,” the player said. “That's two to one for us.”

Kia picked up the loose ball and walked over to me. “So much for being nice. Now let's go back to the killing 'em part.”

“That's game!” I yelled as Ned's shot dropped through the net. Ned and Kia and I exchanged a high five.

“Good game,” Frank said. He walked over and, to my complete surprise, shook my hand, then Kia's and Ned's. The other two did the same thing.

“You guys can play,” one of the others said.

“Guys and
girl
,” Kia corrected him.

“It was a close game,” I commented. Actually a lot closer than I would have expected. Winning fifteen points to eleven wasn't exactly the beating I'd imagined.

“We just thought we'd win,” Frank said. “We play on the Salmon Arm travel team.”

“A travel team?” I asked.

“We travel all around the province and represent Salmon Arm in tournaments against other places.”

“Where we come from we call it a rep team
because you represent your city, or, I guess, town. Do you play against all the other towns in the area?” I asked.

“All the other places in the whole province. We came in fourth last year,” Frank said.

“That's pretty good,” Kia said. “We play rep too. Our team finished
second
last year.” Kia paused.

“We took first the year before that,” Frank said. “Salmon Arm is famous for having some of the best teams in the province. Especially our girls' teams.”

“I didn't know that,” Kia said. “We're not from around here.”

“We figured that,” one of them scoffed. “We know everybody in town and we didn't know you.”

“So you three all live right in town?” I asked.

“You can see all of our houses from here.”

“And do you go to this school?” Kia asked.

“Yep. All of us are in grade five.”

“That's a coincidence,” I said. “We're in grade five too.”

“And a bigger coincidence is that Ned is probably even going to be going to this school next year,” Kia said, pointing at the building.

“Not this one,” one of them said.

“Yeah, this one,” Ned said.

“Can't be. This school only goes to grade six.”

“I'm only going into grade five,” Ned said.

All three of them looked shocked, as if they didn't believe what he had just said.

“Did you fail or something?” Frank asked.

“Or fail a couple of times?” asked one of the others.

“No,” Ned said, shaking his head.

“How old are you?”

“I turned ten in April,” Ned replied.

“April 23,” I added. “I'm three hours older than Ned.”

“You're joking … right?” Frank asked.

“No. I'm ten.”

“And you're moving here … to Salmon Arm?”

“It's not definite, but my parents think so. We'd be moving in so I could start school in the fall.”

“And when you move, you're going to want to play basketball, right?” Frank questioned.

“I'd like to … do you think I could play with you guys?”

Frank started laughing. “Look, give me your phone number and I'll call Coach and — ”

“We don't have a phone,” Ned said, cutting him off.

“You don't have a phone? Everybody in the whole world has a phone!”

“Not us. We live pretty far up in the mountains so — ”

“Look, I'll give you
my
phone number and as soon as you know you're moving here, you call me. We'll come over that day and help you move in!”

“Gee, thanks, that's nice of you,” Ned gushed.

Frank turned to Kia and me. “Do you know why we finished fourth instead of first last year?”

“Why?” Kia asked.

“No height.” Frank turned back to Ned. “You move in here and we'll make sure you have a whole team of kids who'll be your friends.”

“Gee, that sounds great!” Ned said.

Just then there was a honking sound. I turned around. Debbie had pulled into the parking lot.

“It looks like we have to get going,” Ned said.

“Not until I give you my number … and remember, you call, okay?”

Ned nodded his head. “I'll call.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Here, let me get some paper and a pen and I'll write it down.”

“My mother will have those in the car. Come on and I'll introduce you three to my mother.”

Kia bent down and picked up our basketball. “I'd say that went a little bit better than okay.”

“That went really well.”

“You know the only way it could have been better?” she asked.

“How?”

“If we'd beaten them by more.”

I woke up with a start. What was that sound? I listened to the rhythmic patter … It was rain! I sat up in my bed. There was enough light flowing in through the window for me to see, so I knew it must be morning. I looked around the room. Kia was asleep on a mattress on the floor beside me, and Ned was sitting up in his bed across the room.

“Good morning,” Ned whispered.

“Good morning.”

“Did the storm wake you up too?” he asked.

“I guess so. What time is it?”

“Just after five-thirty,” he said, pointing to the clock on his dresser glowing out the time.

“This rain is good news,” I said. “Especially for your dad and the other guys fighting the fire.”

“I doubt it's even raining where they are. Storms in the mountains are usually pretty
local and stay in one of the valleys. Especially storms like this.”

“Like what?”

In answer there was an explosion of thunder and I practically jumped to my feet.

“That was close,” I croaked.

“Really close and that's what's got me worried,” Ned said.