© 2012 Michael Fiveson
When he was a boy he would play for hours at a time. His jump shot was second to none and he was quick too. When he received his scholarship offers his parents were so proud and when he blew out his knee just three games into his freshman year everyone was devastated. It was a career ending injury.
Now his children are grown and his wife moved out two years ago. He dreams of standing by his childhood home, basketball in hand. In his dreams he is young again, but there is no basketball hoop and he doesn’t know what to do with the ball. He is lost and alone. When he awakens, he remembers that he is.
*dark fiction……that’s all folks.
He is…hopefully living a full, happy life…with lots of beautiful moments.
That my friend is another story. He manages just fine.
“He remembers that he is”……and that is all that matters.
“I am I said”……Good point Angeline.
Mike, when I played, I could make my shoots into a basket like this. I never missed. All I had to do was hit the backboard.
Take care and have a great day.
Ivon
You be well Ivon, and have some fun.
I will and back at you.
Basket ball was my game at college – we didn’t lose a game for two years!
Well that’s pretty cool. Were you a guard?
Yes, blessed with height and speed in those days! Still tall nut not quite a fast
Tennis was my game. And baseball.
“nut” ?? someones been moving the keys around on my keyboard again!!
You watching the Olympics Mike? Opening ceremony was stunning, just listening to the soundtrack again.
I will watch, but when the competition starts. Not much into entertainment.
Fact or fiction? It doesn’t much matter. I love the story of the man’s past joined to the photo. It works beautifully!
All fiction. Thanks Paul.
Good imagination, making a story out of an old basketball backboard missing it’s hoop!
That kind of stuff falls out of me. Its not scaring people away that’s a bit more difficult. Thank you.
…but you’re working on it?
Once in awhile it’s good to go to places you don’t visit very often.
The only thing I’m working on is my motorcycle, and thankfully not much needed.
That is such a sad story. I’d rather give it a happy ending in my mind.
Yes, but It was just a vignette. A slice of someone’s experience. I didn’t talk about his recent meeting of a lovely woman. The positive relationship he has with his grown children. That he has a 250 bowling average, and just painted his house yellow.
Did you score Mike!?
It wasn’t me, eh Jude. He scored often for the short career that he had.
I score regularly
When I saw the title of this post, I thought of the Indian Hoop Dance…. until I opened it up and read your piece. The devastations that shape our lives are the very fabric of life itself. When I was a child I wanted to be a paleontologist… I had visions of traveling the world and drawing all the wonderful life that is now extinct from bones and fossils… I thought that would be just about the greatest life I could imagine. Life happened. Today I wander among poets creating images until my eyes give out… but so glad to have met the poets for then there will always be the poem. And I have some great friends who keep me abreast of some of the things I could have been doing in the scientific field…
Nothing’s ever written in stone in this old life. It’s fluid and I had to learn to swim… well at least float.
Yes, and I suppose I should put a disclaimer in my description so people know its not me, but just some random fiction.
Yes, we can resist tides but a good idea to swim in turbulent waters, until we resurface in another place in time.
Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comment. I will now add the disclaimer….
I know it was a prose poem written about the building you encountered… it just happened that these circumstances were so true to life I’m sure we all have come to that point where our lives have been changed dramatically only to find ourselves on a new path.
I try for poignant and settle for bizarre
I don’t find your posts bizarre at all… to tell you the truth. I find great empathy between what you encounter and the way you present it all. There is beauty in these things… it takes special eyes to see. Thanks for sharing and opening our eyes.
And thank you for that.
He touched many lives by his compassion towards those who couldn’t fulfill their own sports dreams, and, without knowing it, saved a young woman from despair, a young woman who went on to serve the poor in Third World Countries and developed a system which allowed the women to care for each other and their villages. She fondly acknowledges the good he did for her by giving her the strength to go in a different direction from what she initially anticipated.
It’s these kinds of stories we don’t hear when we look at our own life’s basket ball hoops. Yet, they are out there.
That is how it works when we are compassionate and do for others. In my own life I was involved professionally in a capacity where I could offer kindness and respect to some broken souls. From time to time I am contacted by someone I might have been nice to 15 years ago. It is deeply gratifying. If we practice what is called random acts of kindness, we set forth an energy that may have a ripple effect, only time will tell. As you know, there are a percentage of very angry and stunted humans out there. Every good deed has weight.
Always good to hear from you Dezra.
Beautiful and touching … Both the pic and the story.
Oh my God! That is what I was shooting for. Thank you so much.
Do you give Prozac with this story? Razors?
Hey Christina! Where you been girl? I give vacations to Puerto Vallarta with this story. Lol. Funny comment.
I’m getting divorced, actually quite happy about it, it’s a good thing. Keeps me off the abandoned properties for now.
I suppose that a healthy person celebrates the end of a relationship that wasn’t satisfying or good for them. Congratulations would be in order.
thank you so much Mike, I appreciate that insightful comment!
Kind of along the lines of someone who lives by herself but doesn’t live alone, because she has herself for company.
Exactly! I have a great time with me and I never verbally abuse myself!
Verbal abuse is an ugly thing. That kind of control is ALWAYS about the abuser.
Yep! 20 years. I discovered he is a narcissist. hopeless. had enough.
20 years seems to be one of those milestones where people decide they have had enough.
yes, 18 to 22. makes me feel so “regular” and BTW, Holy Crap! I think I was able to get most of my posts back using the source code! Damn, I love geeks!
Congrats. When geeks talk to me they have to dumb it way down.
Pay no attention to this post, all old stuff, I’m a happy kid now! I am actually a little geeky, in a good way, I can’t talk the talk, but I can do “stuff”.
thank you so much Mike, I appreciate that insightful comment! Question. I deleted most of my posts and now regret it. Where is the trash so I can see if I can dig them out?
Hmmmmm. I don’t know that there is a trash. It may well be that they are gone, but you can go to a forum on WP and ask that question.
Yes, that is exactly what I did, they told me to look in the trash or a cache source code. Oh well, no biggy I suppose, but I do regret it. Thanks anyway!
I like it…good job, Mike.
People read that and ran for the hills…..thanks Scott.
Maybe they’ve lost touch with real life, then…. And you’re welcome, my friend.
that was dark…i loved it!
And I knew you would. I am busy reading Platform. Interesting read.
my buddy who turned me onto the book is naming a restaurant after it
It is an odd book, but compelling. I am about to pick it up for some more reading.
did you finish Platform?
Yes! The best part for me was after her death when our boy lost himself.
holy shit! we are going to Thailand this spring and I keep reading about all the lovely little island fishing villages and thinking about the book and the terrorist attack. wtf, that was out of nowhere, but had to happen right? Have you gotten his other book, The Elementary Particles? Genius
You will be safe. And that attack was from militaristic radicals who were motivated by their twisted vision of religion….or how the whole world should behave. Stay away from those girls and twisted behavior and no harm will come your way. No to the other book, so far.
yeah, let’s talk
You’re a great writer Mike!
That’s a nice thing to say Michael, but that is who you are, both gracious and generous.
The image you paint with words is just as vivid as the photograph. Love your writing…
I need to write more….working on it. Thank you for that Sylver.
Really enjoy your photos and stories — so much so — that I have nominated you for a One Lovely Blog Award — please see here for more details: http://photoart7.wordpress.com/about/