SallyBall

It was a normal day in the Hart household.

Let me qualify . . . In a house where there is a ‘new normal’ each and every day, it was a normal day in the Hart household.

Better.

At least it started out that way.

Don’t they all?

But I digress . . .

It was a beautiful day. Sunny. Warm.

Especially wonderful because it followed three days of pounding ‘stuck-in-the-house-with-Sally’ rain.

Sally and Mort decided they would go over to the park and play some one-on-one at one of the basketball courts.

After the surprise wore off (Who knew either of them had even heard of the game of basketball?), I decided to follow.

There were others playing when we got there, but enough courts to go around so that social distancing wasn’t a problem.

I took a seat on the tarmac beside their area and prepared to scoff/belittle/pretend to snore.

Hey, it’s an important job!

Their game of ‘horse’ began.

Now Sally, for all her faults, is surprisingly athletic. Even though I know for a fact she has never even held a basketball before, she did really well. It took about 3 seconds for her to figure out how to dribble and move. Quite effectively.

Even her shooting was pretty much amazing.

Huh. Who knew?

Now Mort, on the other hand, is all long arms and legs.

None of which is in communication with the others.

The only way he could even attempt to dribble was with both hands.

And forget moving while he did so.

After his third flat-on-his-face attempt, he gave up trying.

And simply dribbled. And shot.

From wherever he might happen to be.

There were numerous shots taken from in and around the key.

All dismal—though fairly spectacular—failures.

Surprisingly, shots taken from the ‘3-point’ area seemed to get closer. With one actually dropping through the basket.

Something that stopped play on all the courts around us.

Even engendered a smattering of applause.

Needless to say, Sally was the uncontested (and getting louder) winner of every game.

Now things had been going along for some time in this manner.

I was enjoying my task of cat-calling and verbal derision.

Sally was sailing about, looking more and more like . . . someone-famous-who-plays-basketball.

My ignorance is woeful…

Mort was dribbling. And/or shooting.

He had actually sunk a second shot and was standing there, grinning widely as Sally went for the ball.

And that’s when things . . . changed.

Sally stopped. Staring.

I turned to see what she was gazing at so intently.

A couple had sat down on a nearby bench. Totally absorbed in each other, they were oblivious to any of us in the vicinity.

Which is probably why what happened . . . happened.

It took me a moment to recognize what had only taken Sally a split-second.

The boy in the couple was our best friend Mary’s boyfriend, Troy.

The girl . . . wasn’t Mary.

Before I had barely taken in what was happening, Sally flipped that basketball at the speed of light.

With deadly aim.

It smacked Mr. Amorous on the side of the head just as he was moving in for a lip lock, knocking him right over that bench.

It may not have been just but it certainly was justice.

In a blink, Troy was sitting on the ground, looking around dazedly.

The girl in the duo came to her feet and spied Sally heading in her direction. Abruptly abandoning whatever may have been developing in her and Troy’s relationship, she lit out for the nearest far-away (Sally-less) place.

Needless to say, the kiss never happened.
Sally scooped up the ball, gave Troy a silent glare, and sauntered back to her game.

Still looking rather confused, Troy got to his feet and headed out of the park.

Sally and Mort went back to playing.

I left. I mean, how could you top that?

P.S. I should have stayed.

An hour or so later, Sally and Mort showed up at home.

They paused just inside the front door, breathing heavily.

Sally looked at us. “If anyone comes to ask you about the basketball pole that somehow got sort of . . . broken, plead ignorance, K, Mom?”

Each month, Karen from Baking in a Tornado and her followers play word games. It's our go-to for fun. Each of us uses words we've supplied which are then shuffled and re-distributed by our intrepid leader.

No one knows where our words have gone or what will be done with them.

See? Fun!

My words this month came from Karen herself.

just ~ justice ~ basketball ~ snore ~ louder

What could I do but write another 'Sally' episode?!  

See what my friends have done with their challenge!  

Baking In A Tornado

Wandering Web Designer

The Crazy Mama Llama

Climaxed

Part-time Working Hockey Mom