1.
There were five of them: three boys around 7 years old and a younger boy and girl. Their parents were on the other side of the playground. The kids were playing with a yellow tennis ball.
The oldest of the three boys told the other two where to stand.
“Here,” he said to one, “you stand here.”
And then he walked over to the other and told him where to stand. They formed a perfect equilateral triangle.
The little boy and girl were waiting to be told where to stand, but that’s not what the oldest boy had in mind. Instead he told them to go over to the other side of the playground. The little boy was particularly unhappy with this and began to pester the big boys.
The little girl was willing to play by the big boys’ rules. “You stay away,” she said gently to the little boy as he kept reaching for the yellow tennis ball. And she began to push and pull him to get him out of the triangle.
At this point, the game changed for the little boy. It was no longer about the ball. Instead, be turned to the girl with a big smile on his face and began to chase her. And when she ran away, it just made him chase her more. So in that way the three older boys finally got to play fetch.
2.
They weren’t very good throwing or catching, and the ball would frequently roll off into the gravel beneath the swings or onto the grass on the hill. But they were enjoying themselves and enjoying the fact that the little kids were gone.
And then an errant throw, and the ball rolled into a thicket.
All three boys dashed up to the trees and shrubs and looked poised to scramble in, but they pulled up short. The Juniper and Oak and stabby things mastered them, and they stood there puzzled. Two moms came up to help, but they were of no help.
This was the scene: three boys, two moms and the two little kids all gathered at the edge of a thicket peering in, all seven trying to figure out how to retrieve the yellow tennis ball.
“The yellow ball!” one of the little kids shouted to one of the mothers. “The yellow ball!” But neither mom was up to the task.
3.
I stood up from where I was stretching on the sidewalk.
The sun was getting low. I had cooled down from my run. And it was time to drive home anyway. So I got up and walked over to them with sweat running down my face.
“I’ll get it,” I said.
I turned around and backed into the Juniper and Oak and stabby, leafy margins of the thicket into the dark leafless interior with snapping branches and poking limbs grabbing at my shirt. And I picked up the ball which was all of five feet away.
The moms were grateful. The three boys were grateful. And the little kids ran around cheering and proclaiming that I had sticks and other stabby things in my hair.