Of Balls and Shorts

“Men in their 20s play football, Men in their 30s play baseball while Men in their 40s play golf. Notice that the Balls shrink with age…”

Friday found me walking resolutely to the Auditorium to watch – A BasketBall match. One can deduce the players were – quite young. Expecting a big crowd, it would be easier to remain inconspicuous. Stood in horror to find the only sound emitting out of that place was the friction of rubber against the floor and the many fumings of the human body.

“Remain calm. Look for familiar quarters.”
And they were there, towards the left side of the hall. Not entirely familiar, but it will sure do, since we would be cheering for the same team.

Sweat was prevalent and my nostrils whiffed in a culmination of Odour – acrid, putrid, salty vapours emancipating from pores. Alright – remain cool, like you’re used to it – In The Name of Sports. Before Pessimist surfaced, I bettered it by finding an empty chair and a nervous chatting mate. Anxiety, precipitated out, while I looked straight ahead, to spare him the shame of it all.

Mundane talk: to pass the time. He excused himself, taking Anxiety with him as his team gathered for Warm-Up prior to their game. I smiled to myself, picking up fickle-minded Science citing “Warming-Up before exercising does not necessarily reduce the risk of contracting injury”.

“Sir! I’ll cheer for you.”
“You got 3 minutes for that: compulsory quota for lecturers. Just going to do it….this time tomorrow, I’ll be in Penang”.

Smiling, I insisted he enjoyed himself. Anxious, he gave me a reproaching smile as he was called for Warm-Up. I giggled in response, and attracted Attention (she must be crazy, laughing by herself). Remain Invisible!

Shorts: Anxious was so cute in them. Monday – laughter Goosebumps on flesh as I anticipated my Physics lecturer smashing ShuttleCocks and sporting shorts. (He whooped his opponent’s ass by the way). Thursday, before Friday, my MPWs lecturer’s turn came to grace the walkway: soft jeans, light blue, 5 inches above the knee – my Reason to beg leave from a lesson and watch with glee the spectacle in front of me.

Anxiety returned to fill the space he vacated. Drenched with sweat, (with a warm-up only?), I hypothesized that fear over stimulated his sweat glands. What’s more, he forgot to remove his glasses – which he said he would during Play.


Play: Yesterday it began with the checking of nails. Anxious stretched out his hands –more than the obligatory range-implying a long period of time since he left school. Today, it was practice: run Purposefully and hit the hoop. Anxiety blundered – giving Audience the Ice Ball (Boy….. he needs help).

Game: Rather Tense I would say. So much so the players had to calm the supporters instead of the other way round. What not with...

“WATCH-OUT-FOR-FOUL-SUCKER NO.4!”

So much for being Discrete. This piece of Advice flew from the left, across the court to the right-where the Benched Players were. Intense – the players even defended while stretched full-length on the floor. Another even did community service after mopping the court clean with his Jersey as the Rag and Sweat as the Detergent.

“DZEM, DZEM, DZEM, DZEM…!!!!”

I searched our team for an International. Who could it be, deserving such a chorus of support, as the opponent drew closer to Our Hoop.

“It’s DEFEND lar…”

Friend corrected me while laughing at my expense and I did just the same, to hide Shame.

By 6 p.m, it was Clear - Winners we were.