A Time to Run

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

  Logan howled like a hyena. "She doesn't like sports. Not one bit," he said. "Like not even a little bit. Not even an inch of a bit. All she likes is boring old studying."

  Bethany shrugged. "What can I say? We're all different. She's up in her room with her headphones on. We're all good to go here. I'll take her up some pizza when it arrives."

  The game started and I found myself on the sofa with Logan in between me and Bethany. Logan bounced around like a small puppy looking for treats, on his knees, off his knees, up and down. And Bethany sat forward and didn't take her eyes off the television.

  I watched the game like I used to watch games, with a critical eye, but I also watched Bethany. She seriously jumped up and cheered every time the Raptors stole the ball, and when they got a basket she waved her foam hand like a maniac. And she talked to the television, telling the players to get moving or get in position, and she told the refs off.

  "That wasn't a foul!" she yelled halfway through the first quarter. The Raptors' best player was on his second foul and they were down by five.

  "Agreed," I said. She was right. It was a dubious call.

  "No way. How could he make that call? The guy went up with him but didn't touch him." She turned to me. "What a pile of poop."

  I burst out laughing. "I can't believe you just said that." "She's not allowed to swear around me," said Logan.

  I laughed so hard, I almost spit water out of my mouth.

  She reached over Logan and batted me with her foam hand. I pretended to be hurt. "Ouch," I said.

  "That wouldn't hurt," said Logan.

  "Did you play basketball?" I asked Bethany. "You know a lot."

  She snorted. "Me? Have you checked my height? I'm 5'2. I tried in junior high but the coach cut me, even though I thought I was better than the girl who was 5'7. They picked the team based on height only. So I decided to stick with soccer."

  "Probably smart."

  Since a commercial was on she looked over at me. "What about you? Any other sports?"

  "I tried just about everything but hockey. My parents didn't have the money for equipment."

  "I play hockey," said Logan.

  "I can see that." I pointed to his hockey photos on the wall.

  "I play basketball with Dillon sometimes," said Bethany. "Just simple games of 21."

  "Yeah, I used to play with Stuart."

  "Didn't you say you could still play recreationally?" "Yeah." I picked at a thread on my shirt.

  "Let's get Dillon and Stuart together for a little game of basketball. It would be fun. You don't have to run after the ball because they will."

  Fortunately, I didn't have to answer because the doorbell rang and both Bethany and Logan jumped up to go get the pizza.

  ****

  I ran into Cecil the next morning at school, and before I could think, I said, "What a game last night!"

  "You watched it, dude?" He playfully punched my shoulder. "And you didn't call me!"

  "Yeah, I saw it."

  "Did your dad stronghold you and make you watch?" "Something like that," I said.

  "I'm glad to hear you're back to the land of the living, bro. Okay, so how about that three-point shot at the end? Holy mackerel, was it a shot to behold!" Cecil used his hands to talk then he jumped in the air and pretended to take a shot himself.

  And just like that we were talking about the game, the NBA, and all the teams left in the playoffs. It felt okay. Well, more than okay. Like something had returned. I still wasn't sure about playing though, and I hadn't given Bethany an answer about a game of 21. Not sure I wanted to pick up a basketball ever again in my life—to hold it, feel it. I didn't want the longing to return.

  After my first class, I met up with Mr. Rossi to talk to him about Stuart, like he'd asked me to the day before. I knocked on his door.

  "Come on in."

  "Hi, Mr. Rossi," I said.

  "Sam, good to see you. Have a seat."

  Uh oh. Having to take a seat meant we needed to have a chat.

  "I'm not sure this is going to work with Stuart," he said. "Maybe the school meet just isn't the right event for him. He seems to do well at the Best Buddies events. Maybe keep him there."

  "I think he can do it," I said.

  Mr. Rossi leaned back in his chair and swirled his pencil around his finger. "I know you do. But we have to be realistic."

  "Please, let me keep trying. It's just the school meet. If it doesn't go well, then he won't make Cities, and that's the end of it."

  He sighed noisily and leaned forward. "Okay. We'll give this one more go. He deserves it. He's worked hard."

  "Thank you so much." I stood up.

  I had my hand on the doorknob when he said, "You should probably go over the gun with him again. And also false starts."

  "Right," I said.

  "You can handle that? Because I can help if you need me to."

  "I can do it," I said. "But thanks."

  ****

  At lunch my mission was to find Stuart. When I didn't see him in the cafeteria, I went to the room where his aide often ate lunch with him. There he was, doing some sort of work.

  "Can I talk to him?" I asked Tony.

  "He's supposed to be doing his work."

  "No, I'm not," said Stuart.

  "Well, you are but…" Tony looked at me. "Have at it," he said with a shrug. "He's in a bit of a mood today. Right, Stuart?"

  "Yeah," he said. "I'm in a bad mood all right."

  Tony shook his head and said, "I'll go get a coffee. I know you got new shoes with turbo jets but no running, okay?" He gave Stuart a wink and a smile, obviously trying to get him to smile back.

  Since Tony worked with Stuart every day, I thought I would ask him the best way to teach Stuart about false starts. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

  "Sure. Stuart," he said. "Do one more question, okay?"

  "I. DON'T. WANT. TO!"

  When we were out of Stuart's earshot, I said, "I have to teach him about false starts before the track-and-field meet. Any suggestions? I don't want to stress him out, but he needs to understand what they mean."

  Tony shook his head. "I wouldn't right now. He's in a mood and he might fixate on it and not run at all. Wait until he's a little calmer."

  I nodded. "Thanks," I said.

  I went back to Stuart and sat down across from him. His arms were tightly wrapped around his chest and he had a huge scowl on his face.

  "What's up, Little Man?" I asked.

  "Mary is going to have her baby and I'm not going to be able to be an uncle."

  "Why not?"

  "Declan said so. He told me I was going to jail."

  Okay, so this was something new, I thought. I'd never heard him talk about jail before. How to deal with this? Was he telling the truth or was this something he saw on television?

  Questions. I was always supposed to ask him questions if he was in a mood. And give him choices so he made decisions. His parents had talked to me on the phone before we joined Best Buddies. Anger issues were part of his FASD, among other things, like running away when things didn't add up for him.

  "Why did he say that?" I asked.

  He shrugged and looked down at the table. I waited for the "I dunno" but he just slouched and slid lower in his chair.

  "I'm sure he didn't mean it," I said.

  He scratched his thighs, his jeans, for a few seconds and I waited for him to say something. The noise of fingers against denim echoed in the small room. Over and over. Up and down. I just sat there and watched him and listened to him scratching, wondering what he scratched in the summer when he wore shorts. The table? Walls?

  Finally, he stopped, looked up, and said, "Do I get to run?"

  "You do," I said. "I just talked to Mr. Rossi and he said a-okay." I held up my thumb. "Do you still want to?" I will admit, after seeing him like this, a part of me wondered if it might be better if he just said no.

  When he didn't answer right away, I said, "I'll be there to
help you. I believe in you, Little Man."

  He nodded. "I want to," he said. His scowl had disappeared, and the corners of his mouth actually lifted a little to give me the smallest of smiles.

  I held up my hand. "It's a deal. You're on, dude."

  He slapped it so hard, I almost fell off my chair, or at least I pretended to. Stuart was so interesting because his mood could change in seconds.

  Since Tony hadn't returned, I pulled out the cards. "Snap or…" I leaned closer, "Blackjack?"

  Now, he grinned. "Blackjack!"

  We played a couple of hands before I said anything about the track-and-field meet.

  "Listen," I said, as I shuffled the cards. "On Thursday, you can't run away, okay?"

  "Okay," he mumbled.

  "I'm serious. And you can't just run off the track in the middle of the race either. If you want to win the race you have to go to the finish line. You did it on your first day of practice so I know you can do it again. There's a time to run and a time not to run."

  He looked at me with his head tilted sideways as if he really was listening, and perhaps he understood. I knew he often only hears snippits of sentences and not the entire thing.

  "You understand that, right? So, in the race, you can run to the finish line. Always. At school, you can't run in the halls."

  A grin, which resembled a mischievous smirk, appeared on his face. "I know that," he said. "But it's fun. I dodge people."

  "But you know to go straight, right? When you're racing?"

  He furrowed his eyebrows. "Not always. When I run the 400 I have to go around corners."

  I burst out laughing and instantly felt relieved. "You're right. Just stay in your lane for every event that you are running. Between the white lines. And you will start with a gun, just like you did at practice last night. Remember: Only go with the gun shot."

  "I know, I know!"

  Okay, perhaps I had gotten the point across and Tony was right. I didn't need to discuss false starts just yet. "And don't push anyone, okay? Don't even touch anyone who is beside you."

  "That kid doesn't like me."

  "That's okay. Not everyone has to like you."

  "That's what my mom says too." He paused before he said, "Let's play another hand. I want to beat you."

  We played until Tony returned, which was close to bell-time. I gathered my things and made my way to math class. As I was walking down the hall, I decided to text Bethany and tell her that I'd convinced Mr. Rossi to let Stuart run. As I was using my thumbs and walking, head down, I felt a bump on my shoulder.

  "Your mama again?" Cecil laughed.

  I quickly pressed send before I shoved my phone in my back pocket. "Nah. Just someone with that Special Olympics program."

  "Uh-huh. Yeah, right, bro. You don't fool me." He fingers to make quotation marks: "That Special Olympics program." Cecil laughed and slapped my back. "Who is she? Come clean, my man."

  "Okay," I said. "I met her through a Best Buddies event. She doesn't go to our school."

  "You seeing her?"

  "Nah, nothing serious. I watched the game with her last night but her little brother was there too."

  "You watched the game with a chick?" He shook his head. "That's gotta be a first. And she wasn't complaining or talking about stuff that had nothing to do with b-ball?"

  "She knew more stats than you and me combined."

  "Go on. You're pulling me."

  "I'm not, Cec."

  "Gift from the gods. When do I get to meet her?"

  "How about never." I laughed and hip-checked him, sending him flying across the hallway.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN STUART

  The day before the track meet, I sat in my math class. It wasn't just Tony and me but other kids too. But Tony always had to join me.

  He pointed to my math question. "We did this one yesterday," he said. "You got it right."

  There were a bunch of kids in my math class who were also in the Best Buddies club at school. Tony had to work with more than just me. He worked with Gloria too and she didn't know how to do math either. Neither did Madeline, although she was probably better than me and Gloria. I liked Gloria because she told funny jokes, sometimes dirty ones (my mom got mad at me at home if I told them) that made most of us laugh. Tony worked with some of us, but we had a teacher too, Miss Ellis, who tried to get us to do math. She was the one who gave us the problems and then we were supposed to work on them, and Tony would go around and help, and so would the teacher.

  I stared at the numbers. They didn't make any sense. I looked and looked at them. They just seemed to sit on the page like lumps. I had no idea what to do with them. Not a clue. I pushed my book away from me.

  "Remember how you figured this out yesterday? You added this number with this." Tony pointed to one number on the page and then to another number. "You can do it again today."

  I kept staring. If I tried, I could get it. Maybe. Then I looked at the clock. "I'm hungry."

  "Five minutes until lunch bell," said Tony.

  "I'm getting french fries today," said Gloria.

  "Yooou get Freeench Friiies eveeery daaay," said Madeline.

  "Do you guys have a Best Buddies dodgeball game today?" Tony asked.

  "Dodgeball!" I jumped out of my chair. I didn't want to do math anymore. I wanted to go to the gym and play dodgeball. And eat my lunch.

  "Sit down for just a few more minutes," said Miss Ellis. She came over to me and made me go back to my seat.

  "Tony is right," she said. "You got the answer to this problem yesterday." I chewed on the end of my pencil as I looked down at the numbers. Miss Ellis showed me what to do again and I stared and stared. Finally, something happened.

  "I got it!" I yelled. "I got it!" I started to write down the answer.

  "Good for you," said Miss Ellis.

  The bell rang and I closed my book. "I'm done," I said.

  I was shoving my book in my backpack when Sam came into the room. "Hey, dude. You ready for dodgeball? I just talked to Justin and he said he's got a surprise for everyone."

  "I'm ready," I said, slinging my backpack on my shoulder.

  "Okay, we'll eat first then we'll go."

  I gobbled down my lunch and then Sam and I went down to the gym. When we got there, a lot of the Best Buddy kids were already there. Some must have eaten their lunches in the gym. Justin was making sure that everyone put their trash in the trash can.

  Anna, who is Best Buddies with Harrison and is like a math wizard, came up to us. "We're so glad you guys are back," she said. "We missed you."

  It seemed like a long time since I'd been at dodgeball. "I haven't been here since Christmas," I said.

  "We were here after Christmas," said Sam, patting me on the back. "We've only not been here since…" he paused and I looked at him. He put his hand on his chest. "Since I got this hunk of metal put in me."

  Then he crossed his arms and turned to Anna. "So, what's the surprise?"

  "Yeah, what's the surprise?" I asked.

  She smiled at me. "Just you wait."

  Soon the gym was filled with kids and we were all playing soccer for fun before we played dodgeball, and we were running and kicking the ball.

  I was the fastest runner and beat everyone to the ball. Gloria laughed every time she kicked it and missed. Once she kicked it so hard she went flying and fell on her butt. She still laughed. Willa asked if she was okay. When Gloria still laughed, Willa told her she was as tough as they come, and helped her up. I just kept running because that's what I do best.

  Then Justin called us all in to gather in a circle. He always did that. When everyone was in a big circle, he said, "One of our Best Buddies is running in the track-and-field meet on Thursday."

  "That's me!" I stuck my arms in the air.

  Erika put her arms in the air too and said, "Go, Stuart, Go!"

  Then Anna went running over to where all the balls were in a trolley, the ones we used to play dodgeball. From behind the trolley, she
pulled out a bunch of signs and brought them over to the group.

  "We have made signs for everyone to take to the track-and-field meet, and we can hold them up when Stuart is running."

  She held one up. It said, "Go, Stuart!" Another one said, "Go, Stuart, Go!"

  I liked them!

  Then she held up a couple more, like one that said, "Run Fast, Stuart!" "I like that one best," I said.

  "We made them in art class," said Erika.

  "I was not a part of this project," said Harrison. "I'm not particularly fond of art class as it is too abstract."

  "Erika and Madeline made them for everyone to use," said Gianni. "We can all still cheer, even the ones who didn't make the signs."

  "I'll make sure to get the times that Stuart is running to everyone," said Sam. "He's in the 100, 200, and 400 metre races."

  "Way to go, Stuart," said Gianni. "Three events! Wow."

  "I was in three dance numbers," said Erika, holding up three fingers. "When Gianni and I were in Grease."

  "Rock on, dude," said Willa.

  "Now, time for some dodgeball," said Justin. "I'll be It first. Who wants to be It with me?"

  Not me, I thought. I wanted to run away from the ball and try not to get caught. I win this game all the time.