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Cage was a natural with kids. He treated them like adults without forgetting their age.
“Whose team is the big guy on?” One of the kids asked referring to me.
“I don’t know,” Cage replied and looked at me. “Tell me, Quin, what team do you play for?”
“Do you mean, which team am I playing on?” I corrected unsure if he was asking what I thought he was.
“Isn’t that what I asked?” Cage said with a knowing look on his face.
“No,” a kid corrected. “You said, what team do you play for.”
“Oh. My bad. Quin, which team are you going to play on?”
“Which team usually wins?” I asked.
Cage looked at the kids who were split up into red and blue shirts.
“Usually the red team.”
“That’s not true,” a kid on the blue team protested. “We won the last time.”
“But, was it luck?”
“No!” he protested.
“Then let’s see if you can do it again. You have the big guy.”
“Yes!” He said pumping his fist.
It was just a kid, but it felt good to be wanted for a team sport.
Thinking the whole thing would be a cinch, I was wrong. My being so much bigger than everyone else turned out to be a disadvantage. The object of the game was to pull the flag from the belt of the person with the ball. However, the waist of a ten-year-old is surprisingly close to the ground. The most I could do was block them from running while one of my teammates grabbed their flag.
Cage’s role in the game was as the designated quarterback. No matter which team was receiving, he was the one throwing the ball. Not only was his throws pinpoint accurate, but the kids could catch.
“I see a few NFL stars in the making out there,” Cage told me as the kids ate orange slices at halftime.
“You enjoy this, don’t you?”
“I really do,” he said with a smile.
“Hence taking ‘Intro to Childhood Education’?”
He tightened his lips and nodded his head.
“You ever thought about teaching instead of going to the draft?”
“All of the time. But I can’t. There are too many people counting on me.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you?”
“I do,” I told him thinking of the world I left behind.
It was getting harder to think of him as just a guy I was crushing on or who I was tutoring. Cage was beginning to feel like a friend. I was sure he was someone I could share things with if they needed sharing. And, the things I was keeping from him about my life were starting to weigh on me.
“I get the feeling you’re not much for revealing stuff about yourself,” Cage said picking up on my hesitation.
