It’s the weekend, no school, and a long day of fun ahead. The air is crisp yet warm like only a morning on the California coast could be. I grab the basketball from the closet and yell to my brother. We collide trying to get out the door. He does his special Judo move on me and leaves me laying face down on the porch while he runs off to Jimmy’s house. I grab the basketball from neighbors yard where it somehow ended up during our struggle yell after him, telling him that he is such an asshole.
He comes back with Jimmy; they are punching each other in the arm and laughing. Jimmy has his bike and drops in on the ground so he can land a better punch. My brother just manages to dodge it and runs up to carport to grab his Schwinn ten speed. I grab my souped-up Sting Ray with the banana seat and the high-rise handle bars, make sure the playing card is still hitting the spokes just right. It makes that cool slappy flappy motor noise as we head down the street to the top of Wisteria Way. Wisteria Way is really steep and straight down. He and Jimmy daredevil down the hill, whooping. I am sure they are going to die. I follow more slowly using my brakes to slow myself down when my front wheel starts wobbling wildly. They are driving around in circles at the bottom of the hill waiting for me.
When I arrive, they straighten up and head out onto the road the goes past the football field. I peddle like a maniac trying to keep up. We arrive at the high school outdoor courts and lay our bikes back behind the hoop. The court is empty but we feel like interlopers as it will be a few years before we will consider it our turf. Our game of “horse’ evolves into a mad affair mainly inspired by Jimmy’s insanity like the shot where we need to fart before we could shoot.
Halfway though our game, we see an older boy, a teenager, walking in our direction from the street. As he gets closer, he struts like he owns the place. He yells at us asking what the fuck we are doing on the court. I wanted to just take off but my brother and Jimmy told him that they were here first and that they should be able to keep playing. The boy’s face twists in rage. He raises his fists and tells us to get moving.
Jimmy just grins and started shaking his body around, wiggling his hips and flapping he arms. After a few seconds, he turns to the older boy and says,
“I’m moving! I’m moving! Now watcha want me to do?”
The older boy’s eyes grow wide and he gets a very confused look on his face. After a moment or two he deflates, waves his hand at us dismissively, and walks away.
