Ty said his goodbyes and headed to the park and youth center. The sun
was shining, the birds were singing, and all was right with the world.
Dustin was following Ty, and kept stumbling over his jeans. His
mother had gotten him longer jeans because she thought he'd grow into
them.
When they got to the Youth Center, Ty smiled. Dustin's old teammates
and friends were there. Ty looked at Dustin who was now hiding behind
him.
"Why don't you go play with your old buddies, Dusty?"
"I don't think they're my buddies now," Dustin whispered.
Ty grinned, and Dustin's clothing felt really loose on him. As they
collapsed off him, Dustin hit the ground and bounced. He was a basket
ball. Ty caught him and walked toward Dustin's buddies, and shouted,
"Up for a game of basketball?" He tossed Dustin toward his former best
friend Jake, who hammered the ball into the asphalt and then dribbled
up and made a slam dunk. Soon two teams of 5 formed, and the rest
went into the youth center. Dustin's team were the shirts and Jake's
team were the skins. The skins lost.
Sweaty and thirsty they headed into the Youth Center. Ty noticed the
smaller kids were sitting unhappily on the wall by the foosball game,
air hockey, and pool table. The footballers were playing all the games
except the foosball game from which all the plastic men had been
removed. Only the steel rods were there.
"What happened to the foosball?" Ty asked casually.
"They happened," said the nearest gloomy faced kid wearing a stocking
cap. He pointed at the guys playing pool.
"So what's are forfeit, Ty?" asked Jake.
Ty grinned. The noisy youth center got suddenly quiet.
"Volunteer for foosball, Jake," Ty said looking from the empty space
where Jake had stood to the foosball game.
"Where'd they all go?" asked the stocking capped kid as he hopped off
the wall. Jake's warm clothes and shoes lay at his feet.
"Foosball," Ty said pointing.
All the plastic players were there. On one side were the shirts and
the other the skins. He bounced Dustin one last time, and dropped the
silver metal ball that Dustin became on to the foosball field.
"Have fun!" Ty said heading toward the soda machine.
He enjoyed listening to the kids laughing and having fun.