Last summer, I challenged some of my students to help me with some columns over the summer. They gave me the first and last lines of a potential fictional short story. My task was to take those lines and write the middle. It was a lot of fun, so I’ve asked my students to help me again. This week’s inspiration was provided by Brenlee Knudson.
It was a rainy day. I stared out as the drops falling from the sky grew larger and larger. This was the third day in a row the skies had opened up and dropped unneeded moisture on us.
Today was especially disappointing because my softball team was supposed to play tonight. All the recent rain meant that, even if it stopped right now, the field would probably not be in any shape to play tonight.
I loved playing softball. I was okay as a player, but the fun of being out there with my friends and competing was the best. The boys in our class always gave us a hard time and said that softball must be easy because the ball was SO BIG. Little do those dorks know that hitting a softball is much harder than hitting a baseball. For one thing, the pitcher stands a lot closer to the plate, 43 feet compared to 60 feet, six inches, for baseball. So even if the ball is bigger, you have to make up your mind to hit it a lot sooner.
I glanced out the window again and saw a brightness start to fill the sky. Could it be? Yes! The rain was letting up and the sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds. As the rain finished, a wonderful rainbow shone as if to alert us that we could come out from hiding and live again!
I went outside and checked the rain gauge. We had gotten an inch and a half overnight and up to now, just after noon. That made six inches for the week. Ugh. There was no way we’d be able to play ball tonight, I just knew it.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a message from our softball coach to our team group chat. Our game was postponed, of course, but she was inviting us to the field to push water around and give it time to dry. If we could get the field in shape, we’d play tonight’s game tomorrow instead.
I hopped in my car and headed across town to the ball diamonds. It was a beautiful set-up with two baseball and two softball fields situated near a great park for young kids to play in. Most nights, all four fields were in use. During school, the varsity teams would each play on the nicer diamonds while the JV teams would use the other ones. We had been told from early on how much work went into these fields and how we were expected to help pick up and take care of them too.
As I pulled in to the parking lot, I saw a few of my teammates arriving as well. Our coach was already there with a rake in hand. She was moving water off the infield toward the fence. We grabbed some other rakes and followed suit. As more girls arrived, there weren’t enough field rakes for everyone, so some of the girls went to load up some more red rock to replace the washed-out areas of the diamond.
We were working to slue the water toward some of the natural run-off points and finally started to see some progress. After about an hour of work, the coach declared that we’d done all we could do for now. With the water off, we had raked some lines in the field to let it breathe. Now we had to hope for no more moisture and it would be game on tomorrow night!
When I got home, I checked my weather app. It said there was a 30% chance of rain the next day. I looked at the hourly forecast and the best chance of rain was in the afternoon. Hopefully that would just stay away. The way our coach talked, if we got anything significant, we would have to postpone again.
The next morning, I had a shift out at the local convenience store. As I was finishing my time there, I was back in the cooler, stocking beverages. I went to clock out and headed for the door to go home and get ready for my softball game. I stopped in my tracks when I looked out the front windows. Oh no. Once again, it was a rainy day.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is slue, which means to turn or slide in a particular direction, as in, “He was able to slue the boat away from the oncoming jet ski before they collided.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!