Even though I don't have any kids young enough to attend high school, I still go to a lot of the athletic games at the school that's near my home. About the only people that go to all the games are the players parents. During the past few years I have become friendly with not only lots of kids, but their families as well.
Last month as I was leaving our local YMCA, I saw one of these families standing at the front desk joining our local facility. The wife and mother, Lori is her name, is a slim five feet eight-inch tall bleached blonde.
"Is that a racquetball racket?" Lori asked as she spotted a handle sticking out the end of my gym bag. "Racquetball is my favorite sport. I played all the time when I was in college and while I was working. Now that I'm a stay at home mom I don't play at all and I'm getting fat and lazy."
"I've been playing racquetball forever," I respond. "I always have a hard time finding people who can play during the day. Would you like to hit around sometime?"
"How about Monday morning about ten," Lori said.
Leaning across the reception desk counter, I asked John, the front desk supervisor; "You have an empty court Monday at ten?"
"Sure do Mr. 'G', I'll put you and the lady down for an hour, OK?"
Lori nodded, and I said, "Great."
We played that Monday and again on Wednesday and Friday. We agreed that we would try to play every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at least until summer.
Monday of this week we had our first accident. She was in front of me, and I tried to smash a forehand past her into the corner. She was bending over and the ball hit her dead center of her right ass cheek. It was a stinger, and I knew it as soon as it hit her.
"Oh damn..." she cried as she dropped to her knees. "That hurts like hell. I'm going to have one nasty bruise."
"I'm sorry Lori...I didn't mean to hit you...I was trying to hit it past you."
"I know hon...," she said as she stood and rubbed the spot with her hand. "It just stings a little...It'll go away," and than she flashed me her million dollar smile. We continue to play, and we both laughed about it later.
Tuesday evening she called. "Can you pick me up tomorrow morning? My husband needs to drive tomorrow, and Jimmy asked to use one of our cars." Jimmy is her seventeen-year-old son.
"Sure, no problem."