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Kota marched over quickly, beating Dr. Green to her. Kota kneeled down, easing her little hand away from the foot. He looked it over and then said something. She nodded.
Dr. Green stopped a few feet away. Kota looked at him, saying something. Dr. Green nodded.
Kota put his hand to his mouth, licked his palm, and then glided his palm over the little girl’s leg.
The girl instantly stopped crying. Her face was still red and she sniffled a few times, but she held herself together.
“What was that?” I asked. “He licked his palm...”
“It’s a psychology trick,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “He probably asked if he could make her leg feel better. Children don’t understand medicine or how the body works, but if he told her licking his palm and touching her leg would make it feel better, kids will believe it, and the pain goes away.” He nudged my elbow a little, directing my attention to him. “I should take you to a lecture. It’s an interesting study on the human body’s ability to heal itself and even alleviate pain. It’s called the Placebo effect.”
I nodded as I turned back to watch. I hadn’t had much interaction with little kids. No one questioned Kota’s method. Even Dr. Green nodded his head in approval, giving the little girl a thumbs-up. I was impressed with Kota and wondered if maybe it was something he’d done on his sister, learned from Dr. Green.
Nathan carefully picked up the little girl and carried her to our side of the field while North picked up her shoe and followed. People clapped to show support.
Nathan brought her over to the edge of the end zone where we were sitting and held on to her. “Who do you want to sit with?” he asked.
It was then I realized it was the same girl who had crashed into our legs earlier. She looked at Victor, at Mr. Blackbourne and then at me, before pointing in my direction.
My eyes opened wide in surprise. Didn’t she want her mother? Wouldn’t her parents want to come over and comfort her?
Nathan put the girl down and she carefully crawled into my lap. I hesitated at first, sure that her parents would protest.
She turned herself around to watch the game, snuggling in with her back to my front.
I gently patted her shoulder, and then held onto her hips to keep her balanced. When no one approached us to take her, I had to assume no one minded.
North handed the shoe to Mr. Blackbourne. “We’ll have to watch out for those rocks.”
Nathan poked the girl in the nose gently. “Want me to win a point for you?” he asked.
The girl nodded enthusiastically.
“You can’t just award points for the injured like that,” North said. “That’s cheating.”
“You did it last year,” Nathan said. They both jogged off toward the field again, discussing the point.
I sighed and held on to the little girl. “Where’s your mom?” I asked her. I wasn’t going to feel comfortable holding to someone’s child when I was a complete stranger. I wanted at least confirmation from them that it was okay.
She pointed at the sidelines. I followed her gaze to a woman sitting amid the crowd. The woman waved shortly and smiled. She had a little baby in her arms, probably one of the reasons she hadn’t gotten up. She had trusted the boys to take care of a stubbed toe. She seemed to be okay with her staying with me for now.
I returned her wave. The girl seemed comfortable in my lap, so I sat back and watched the game over her head.
Victor leaned into me and chuckled. “Watch out,” he said. “Once you get one of the injured, they start to pile up when they get tired.”
“I only have so much lap,” I said.
“That’s never stopped them,” Victor said. “Look at Silas.”
I peered out toward the other edge of the end zone, where Silas was sitting on his butt on the concrete, his legs spread out and a pile of kids gathered along his legs, talking and trying to balance on his legs without falling off. He was like their personal playground equipment. Silas didn’t seem to mind, watching the game over their heads.
GAMES
Silas eventually rejoined the field in the second quarter. The ball got passed to him, and this time instead of going down, he carried at least eight kids around his legs and holding onto his elbows and back all the way down to their goal. The kids groaned, and got after him for cheating, but the point was tallied for North’s team.
At halftime, the players scattered and took a break. When everyone returned, players were changed out, although Victor stayed beside me.
“You’re not going to play at all?” I asked him.
“I might,” he said quietly and with an amused smile on his lips. He looked at me. “If they need someone else. I’m usually pretty bad at this, though. Did you want to play?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t so sure the kids wouldn’t pile up on top of me. “Maybe next year,” I said. “I won’t wear a dress then.”
“Good point,” he said. “Even the little princesses wear shorts underneath.”
Once play started again, the girl in my lap eventually wandered off to play with some of her friends, drawing on the sidewalk at the end zone. A little boy took her place on my lap, having run head-first into someone’s knee. Victor took on his own tired little girl from the other team, who looked ready to go to sleep.
Even Mr. Blackbourne eventually found himself with his own little three year old who had wandered over from the sidelines. At first, Mr. Blackbourne played a quiet game of trading pebbles with him that he brought over from the small side garden. But when the little boy got tired, he crawled into Mr. Blackbourne’s lap holding onto his rock collection while Mr. Blackbourne watched the game.
I stole glances at Mr. Blackbourne, sitting casually with a kid in his arms. It was fascinating to me, seeing this other side of him, though I didn’t really understand why.
Silas won another point for North’s team and then Nathan scored two for ours. North pulled his team ahead by putting nearly every four year old on his team, including one I was sure had been on our team but got switched somehow at half time.
“One,” Luke cried out in a happy huff. “Two.”
He never got to three. One of the girls started to run toward the line on Kota’s side, made up of mostly adults and teenagers now, with Kota, Nathan and Luke. The other little kids started to follow. The barged after the guys, hanging onto as many as they could, taking a leg each, wrapping their bodies around them. If they were going to walk, they would have to carry them. If anyone
with a kid caught the ball, it was an immediate down for the team.
Kota was going to race after the dropped ball Luke had thrown in a hurry, but midway, he had to slow, as a little girl crashed into his leg and held on tight. He stopped, dropped his hands, and waited where he was, shouting at anyone without a kid on his leg to keep moving and get the ball.
The ball, however, was picked up by Gabriel. He carried it for a little while, but then when he realized nearly everyone else on Kota’s team was occupied by little kids in a fray of grabbing legs, he waltzed over to a sideline. There were a few toddlers there, amid laps and chairs. He said something to them and one of them walked out. He gave the ball to him, held on to his hand, and escorted him the entire way to the goal.
The two adults who had been able to free themselves from kids started to run after Gabriel, although by this time, they were faking chasing after him since he had a kid in tow. Gabriel told the little kid to look behind him. The kid did, saw the approaching adults, and squealed. He let go of Gabriel, lifted the ball over his head, and ran head-first toward the goal line without looking. Once he got over it, he took a curve in his running, and headed straight for us in the chairs.
Mr. Blackbourne reached out quickly, catching the boy in the chest to stop him, while protectively covering the boy in his lap. The ball got close to Mr. Blackbourne’s face. I reached out, blocking it with my hand. It smacked right into my fingers, and then bounced away.
The toddler squealed with delight and laughed. The boy in Mr. Blackbourne’s lap dropped his rocks, but was very curious about this new friend who had suddenly arrived.
“Uhof…” Mr. Blackbourne said. He sighed, picked up the ball, and threw it toward Gabriel.
Gabriel came over, holding on to it with a big grin. “Oy,” he said. “Sorry. He crossed the goal line and just kept trucking. Want me to take him back?”
Mr. Blackbourne nodded, but as we watched, the toddler became interested in the other boy’s rock collection. The boy slid down, showing the toddler his rocks, and then wandered off with him, holding his hand, to show him where more rocks were. “He seems fine,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”
