Week Seven Journal 2
A few friends and myself were playing basketball in a park near my house. We needed a few more people to make the game interesting, rather than playing two on two, so we called a friend who we rarely hang out with, Joe. Joe came up to the park and brought a couple friends who none of us knew. We played basketball and one of Joe’s friends, Sean, was getting increasingly aggressive, even though this was just a meaningless pickup game. On one play, I had possession of the ball and was driving down the court when Sean grabbed for the ball screaming like a bat out of hell, blatantly fouling me and preventing a basket that was undoubtedly going in. He was aggressive, but never really made it clear that he was out for blood or anything. We continued playing until, once again, Sean got too aggressive and elbowed me in the nose. I spun around with both of my fists clenched tight, ready to kick him in the shins and than pound on his face. I had no idea if he had done it on purpose, I mean people take elbows to the face all the time in basketball, but this guy was aggressive the whole game, going out of his way to get at the ball. I took another step toward him, ready to pounce, when I noticed an apologetic look on his face. He began apologizing profusely and clearly felt horrible about letting his aggressiveness get the best of him. He ran and grabbed some tissues from his car, as my nose hard started a slow drip of blood at this point. In the end, I was the one who felt stupid because of assuming he would be proud of elbowing someone in the nose.
Tom had played basketball plenty of times with almost everyone there, except for two, Sean and Brian. He thought about how they played, they looked just like everyone else on the court, neither was freakishly large, and they didn’t seem to have any ridiculous amount of skill. Sean and Brian were clearly sizing up everyone else too, at least those who they had never played with before. The game started and went fine for a couple minutes, until everyone noticed that Sean was getting overly aggressive. On one particular play, Tom was passed the ball after a blocked shot, with no one in front of him, he knew that it was an easy basket. Out of nowhere Sean sprinted towards Tom, screaming, yet still speaking words, seemingly at the same time.
“I want that ball,” screeched Sean.
He dove in front of Tom, hitting the ball and causing Tom to stumble. The other players looked on in amazement, wondering why someone would purposely dive, clearly injuring themselves more than anything, just to stop a basket in a game that meant nothing. It was bewildering.
“What the hell?!” shouted Tom, “Someone’s taking this a little too seriously. Don’t forget we don’t actually get a salary for this.”
“Yeah, whatever, good thing we’re not getting paid or you’d be broke,” retorted Sean.
“That doesn’t even make sense. None of us are getting paid, so yeah I guess I’m broke, just like everyone else here,” said Tom.
“How ‘bout we finish playing.”
The game resumed. It was back and forth, basket after basket, placing them in a tie every other basket. One possession was taking place particularly close to the basket. Tom grabbed the rebound, after one of his teammates had missed. Jumping up to put the ball in the basket, Tom was elbowed in the nose by Sean, presumably trying to block the shot, although who knows why his elbow would be that close to Tom’s face. The sound was louder than anyone could have expected, almost like the snapping of a tibia or some larger bone. The game was stopped, if only temporarily. With Sean’s aggressive play, Tom had viewed this as intentional, although it was not. For a brief moment, it appeared as though a fist fight would ensue. Tom clenched his fists, moving towards Sean. Sean immediately felt horrible, and a genuinely sorry look formed on his face.
“I am so sorry, man. I did not mean to do that at all, is it bleeding? Yeah it’s starting to, I’ll run and grab some tissues from my car. I’m sorry,” said Sean, clearly sorry and maybe even a bit shaken up. With that response, all of Tom’s preconceived notions regarding Sean were wiped away.
1 comment:
Hey,Tom. I thought you did a really good job in the transition from first person to omniscient third. When you were telling it in the third, I could see that as the narrator, you could tell what everyone was thinking. There was only one part that was a little bit of a misfire. The line where you say "although who knows why his elbow would be that close to Tom’s face." As the omniscient third party narrator, you would know. Overall, though, good job!
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