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Kota told me he’d have me facing off North again, just to throw him off and let him think we’re on the same old plan. The guys laughed and the team broke off, ready in a line.
North’s team assembled on the field, only this time he had a group of little kids with him. It seemed nearly all of them had lined up, including the blue princess. I supposed if one co-coach had joined the field, it was okay if the other did.
There was a countdown, a loud shout to start, and then a rush. North stood back as a flood of kids went after...everyone.
It was a mad dash to continue on. Two adults were mobbed by the kids, jumped on by several of them. Two little boys chased after me, and I ran with a hand on the knot of the jacket around my waist, fearful they’d try grab on.
North had riled them up. Even after a down was called, they raced around in circles after us.
That was, until Luke shouted above all the noise, “You’re it!”
The kids stopped, turning toward the shouting. It seemed the kid Luke tagged was in shock as well, as he paused, seeming to work out what had just happened.
Luke stood—barefoot and sans his shirt now—in his blue jeans and the red bandana. His blond hair was whipping around his face, loose from the bandana. He reached out, touched one little boy who had been chasing him on the shoulder, and called out, “Tag!” and then started to run.
The boy turned to the closest other kid, a girl, and touched her on the elbow. “Tag!”
The little girl turned on the others, and the kids started to scramble toward the street, to other yards, and a good distance from the field. It became a crazy game of tag, distracting most of the little kids to join in. A few still remained, but not enough for North to pull his trick again.
“Luke!” North cried out, although with a smirk on his face. “You can’t start a tag game in the middle of touch football. Most of my team is gone.”
“Half of them are our team,” Luke said with a chuckle. “We’re out players, too. And since when did we start following the rules here?”
North kept a few of the little kids on his team and had them all line up ahead of him. “Go after Kota,” he said openly. “And Sang.”
I was considering how much time we had. North was trying to score points. I looked at Kota, questioning.
“Stick with the plan,” he said.
Did he really want North to win?
The line started to move, and I ran around people and toward the goal line. Some of the kids started to follow me, until Luke intervened and tried to trick them into a second tag game.
I almost stopped paying attention to watch Luke play with the kids when I spotted a ball zooming in my direction. It was a strong throw, and I reached up to catch it, sure that it would smack me in the face.
A broad hand reached out, blocking the ball before I had a chance to catch it. It held firm, and I’d heard the loud smack of the material against his palm. My heart raced, sure it hurt. I recoiled as if I’d been hit by it.
North recovered, pulling the ball back and then looked down at me, holding the ball in his hand away from his body. “You good?”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking I could easily reach out to him and touch him, causing a down.
“You’re getting good at this game,” he said. “But if you’re ever looking at a ball coming toward your face, back up a few feet and catch it in the stomach, or somewhere else. Just not the face.”
A blush radiated from my cheeks. “I think I’ll leave the football games to you and Silas.”
“Swimming seems to be more of your sport,” he said. “Unless you like something else.”
I glanced at the sidelines where someone was urging North to start running. They were also telling me to reach out to get him.
And then I realized we were still in play; he was running the clock down.
I let him distract me! I lunged at him, reaching to touch.
He let the ball drop on the ground, and then went in after me, scooping me up around the waist, and holding on carefully so I wasn’t showing any underwear, and held me over his shoulder.
I smacked against his butt. I couldn’t believe he would stoop to this. “North! Put me down.”
“Nope,” he said. “We’re about to win. You’re going to stay right here until it’s over.”
A dropped ball meant a free ball. Any team could grab it. No one on my team seemed to be able to get to it, though. I held myself up, calling to Luke and Kota, but both were preoccupied with little kids. Our adults were trying to pull them off of Kota. As soon as one kid was put down, he’d run right back, crashing on top of Kota again.
Right behind North was the blue princess. She’d followed North, and seemed to have been waiting for this. She scooped up the ball, but then hesitated, looking at me on North’s shoulders.
North turned to her. “You! Run!” He said to her. He pointed to the long distance down the yard to their goal line. “Go! That way!”
The girl stared at him with wide eyes.
Dr. Green was jumping up and down wildly on his side of the goal line, encouraging her. Everyone else seemed to be shouting at her, too.
The girl seemed confused, standing where she was. Her face started to turn red as her eyes darted around to everyone who was shouting.
“Hey,” I said, in a cheerful voice, giving her a large smile. I spread my hands out. “Little princess.”
She looked at me, seeming perplexed as she hugged the ball.
“Dr. Green wants a hug,” I said to her. I pointed to Dr. Green, who was jumping around wildly, bright-eyed and excited, and yet always so friendly. “Remember your buddy?”
North whipped around to try to turn me away from her. “Don’t listen to her,” he said to the princess. “Go run down there.”
I squirmed, getting upright on his shoulder so I could look over it back at the girl. “Dr. Green wants a hug!” I cried out. “Hurry and go give him one.”
The girl looked down the field, at the long route it would take to get to their goal, where there were scrambling kids and a Kota trying to get other kids to run after her. Some adults were closing in from our team.
“Go give Dr. Green a hug,” I said again and then laughed. I was trying not to scare her, since everyone else was yelling. “Sean. Your friend Sean. Over there. He needs a hug. Hurry, hurry!”
She spotted Dr. Green, and then started to march toward him. The crowd laughed and Dr. Green was waving his hands at her, trying to encourage her, but to go in the other direction.
North started to put me down. “You did not,” he said, although he seemed to have given up by this point. I couldn’t tell if he was just tired or he was allowing it to happen. He put an arm around me, and
we watched as the girl, excited that Dr. Green was excited, raced toward him, holding onto the ball, but clearly looking for Dr. Green to give him the hug he needed.
When she was close enough that she would have crossed the line anyway, Dr. Green surrendered. She was too determined to get to him for him to resist. When she was close enough, he scooped her up, crossing the ball over the line.
“Three points!” the crowd cried out. “That was worth three!”
North slapped his palm to his face. “Jeez.”
“Time!” Kota called out under a pile of kids. He encouraged them to get off of him and waved at the timekeeper.
The timekeeper looked at his watch and then laughed. “It ended ten minutes ago.”
There was a good laugh among everyone, although North argued that they had been ahead in points ten minutes ago. It didn’t seem to matter. They declared Kota’s team the winner for scoring the last point.
After that it was a confusing mess of people walking over the field. Some of the older kids took the ball to the street for a real game of touch football amongst them, and the parents found chairs and settled themselves together, talking.
North, with his arm around me, walked me back toward Kota. The others had gotten up, Luke and Mr. Blackbourne, Victor and the rest or our own family, and gathered in a circle.
“Well, well,” Dr. Green said with a laugh in his voice. “Sang’s a little too clever for you, North.”
“I thought for sure she’d run to the goal line,” he said. “She’d been talking about getting the goal all day.”
“She did,” he said. “Just not for our team.”
“Maybe next year,” Kota said in a huff. He had little dirty feet marks all over his shirt where the kids had walked all over him. Silas was the same way. Most of the ones who played were incredibly dirty. Even Mr. Blackbourne was rumpled, with dirt in his lap from the pebble collection.
There was a silent agreement between them all that their play time was done and it was time to help clean up. To me, it was a relief; it had been an overwhelming day.
