 The Last Normal Day Haley spun the basketball in the air in front of her, let it land and caught it as it came toward her. The ball spun in her hands as she grabbed it, just another part of the routine she had practiced all year. No one in the gymnasium spoke. She’d never experienced such silence in there before. What a change from the normal, she thought.
She cleared her mind, trying to forget her friends sat in the stands, along with her parents, her brother, and worst of all, Mark Wyler. He liked to make fun of her. If she missed these free throws, he’d talk about it all day the next day. He’d write things on the blackboard like ‘Choker,’ or worse. She couldn’t worry about him, or anyone else. The basket, only ten feet away but looking much further away, was all that mattered. In practice, the basket looked so much closer. Haley tried to shrug that thought off, telling herself it was no different right then. If she could only really believe that. Her teammates looked at her from each side of the paint, smiling encouragement toward her. She knew the score. Her team needed two points. The elbow in the ribs the girl on the other team gave her still hurt, but the pain would be worth it if she sunk the two free throws and tied the game. Roryville North elementary school deserved to lose. They were the enemy, had been since Haley started school. Those kids in the north always thought they were better. She had the chance to show them otherwise. Breathe, she told herself, doing her best to focus on what mattered and not how the whole school would hate her if she missed, or what Mark would write on the board. And no, she couldn’t think of how bad the basketball uniform made her look. The basket. It mattered more than anything. She had a simple task. Put that orange ball into the basket, twice. Greater things had been accomplished. Heck, Tommy Skarolis took a shower. Anything was possible. She looked at the basket one more time, trying to imagine the path of the ball falling into it. It only took concentration, her coach said. Concentrate and the ball will do what you want. Funny, that didn't seem to work so well on her last jump shot, which missed the basket, the backboard, and everything but the opposing player's hands. Hopefully, it would be different this time. She flipped the ball again, caught it, and brought it up above her head. Focusing on the red rim of the basket and nothing else, she released the ball, watched it sail toward its target. It would go in, she knew that for sure, judging by the flight. Maybe it would hit the back of the rim, but it would go in. The swoosh of the ball going through the net broke the silence, followed by jeers from the hometown (or south part of the hometown) crowd. She heard her father say, "Way to go Haley!" in his booming, sometimes embarrassing, voice. She only needed to sink the next shot and then they'd go to overtime. How many times had she seen this play out on TV? Too many, she thought, and realizing it put more pressure on her. Those TV stars made the last basket, they even scored the final shot of overtime to win the game. Fellow teammates, parents, coaches, even the mascot came over to greet them afterward. They went on to become class president, prom queen, leader of the free world. All over one basket. One she wasn't supposed to be thinking about all so much. "Empty your mind," her coach had said as he attacked his chewing gum like it had done something wrong. How exactly does one empty their mind? She hoped there was a release valve or something to help with this strategy but of course there wasn't. She had wanted to say something back then, something like, "If I empty it, will all my thoughts fall all over the floor?" or "Won't I forget to breathe?" but Coach didn't exactly like responses. He just liked to talk and talk and see nodding from his players. Players talking cut into his hearing his own voice. Two bounces of the ball and she brought it up again, staring at that basket, willing the ball to fall in, giving it every ounce of concentration she had. The ball had a destiny to fulfill, landing in the basket. The universe would not recover if this destiny went unfulfilled. She played her part; now it was up to the ball to play his, or hers, or whatever it was. Before she launched the ball toward its purpose, she closed her eyes. When she did, images flashed before her. A wide open area, like a desert, lay before her. Her brother falling, she trying to save him. It all flashed so quickly she couldn't make sense of it. Finally, a spinning sphere hung above her, pulling her toward it, not unlike the dream she had the night before. Then, like the dream, a voice echoed in her head. "The time is coming." The voice seemed recognizable, but she couldn't place it. "You okay?" her friend and teammate, Jessica, asked. Haley opened her eyes. "Yeah," she lied. "Fine." The basket seemed even further away now. Her hands shook a little and she steadied them, sending the ball to the basket. It was high enough, for sure, and on the proper line to the basket. It sailed through the air slowly, as if suspended by her hopes, getting closer to the rim. It hit the left side of the rim with a thud. It bounced up and over to the right side, hit that, then went off the backboard. It would not fulfill its destiny, Haley realized, and she, along with the other nine players on the court, rushed toward the basket, hoping to grab the rebound and shoot it in the basket. Maybe she could be like one of those TV stars. She could grab her own rebound and win the game with one shot. It would be nice to be the star, if only for one night. Nailing the shot to beat the dreaded North team certainly would put her in that role. She moved quickly, shoving left and right to push opposing players out of her way. The ball came down toward the players. Haley watched it closely, judging where it would go and when she had to jump to get it. Someone to her right drive a knee into her leg and she almost screamed out in pain. She held it in, driving the pain from her mind if only for a moment. The ball dropped toward her. She times her jump and reached up, the tip of her finger touching it’s both rough and slipper surface for a moment before someone else snatched the ball out of the air. Haley came down with a crash, the pain in her knee sharpening as she did so. When she looked up, she saw Jessica shoot the ball into the basket. Everyone from the team put their arms around her. Perhaps a little disappointed, Haley did feel glad one of her friends got to be the star she wanted to be. Not everything works out. With a moment to think, Haley considered what had happened, the vision just like the dream she had the other night. Something certainly was up. What sort of person has daydreams like that and hears voices telling them the time had come. Crazy people, Haley figured, and she decided right then not to tell anyone about it. Unless, of course, the visions became stranger, like if she saw something like she and Jack actually getting along. Then it would be time to worry. Braden had run out of challenges. He knew he shouldn’t feel so confident but none of the enemies in the game could really beat him. They had a pattern, one he saw easily, and they never deviated from it. Defeating them became nothing more than running through the same strategy over and over; the faster he could memorize it the faster he could kill the zombies and move on to the next level. He felt like he could see the programmer’s code and know what the enemies would do before they did. That’s just bad game design, Braden thought. He learned not to say things like that too often in front of his parents. His talk of wanting to program games only made them talk about him being a doctor or lawyer when he grew up. They said game design was a nice hobby. He tried to show them how many game designers were millionaires, but they had him saving the world already. That was too much for an 8 year old to have on his mind. Chapter 2 Five Kids + A Basement=Trouble It all started at a house on Long Island, during a family gathering, for a birthday. All the adults sat at the table upstairs talking about whatever adults talk about. This time, they talked about the family golf trip, where all the men went to Pennsylvania to play golf while the women planned a trip somewhere else nearby. The kids didn't care much about it. They had other things on their minds. In the basement, away from all the adult talking, Jack and Braden played a video game, Sly Cooper. Jack had the controller in his hands, pressing the buttons as fast as he could. Jack was eight years old, with blonde hair. Normally, he did pretty well at the game, but at this moment, he had trouble getting past one of the monsters. He tried to jump left and got hit by the monster hard. He tried again, and the same thing happened. He couldn't figure out the right strategy. Braden, his cousin, stood up quickly from the couch. “I know how to beat that monster. I did it last week. Let me show you,” he said, reaching for the controller. Jack pulled it away. “No. It’s my turn. I’ll get it.” “But you’re doing it wrong,” Braden insisted. He knew the right way. It frustrated him to watch Jack keep making the same mistake. “I got it.” “No, you don’t. You’re gonna get killed again.” This time, Braden was right. Jack tried to jump left again and the monster grabbed his character out of the air and slammed it to the ground with a thud. Jack wanted to throw the controller on the floor but he had gotten in trouble two weeks ago for doing that. Throwing controllers wasn’t a nice thing to do. Instead, he handed the controller to Braden. He figured he might learn something. “Okay, it’s your turn.” “It’s about time.” Braden took the controller. He would turn eight soon himself, but unlike Jack, he had dark brown hair, a little bit longer and curlier than his cousin's. He wore a camouflage flannel shirt and tan pants, one of his favorite outfits. He went toward the monster. It came at him with a big hammer and swung hard. Braden jumped right and avoided the swing but didn’t see the next one coming. The monster clonked his character on the head and knocked him out cold. Braden thought he had the right strategy but still couldn't defeat the monster. He did something wrong, but couldn't figure out what. If he could only remember what he did last week to get past him. Haley played with Jillian and Gabriella, her two younger cousins. Gabriella, who was only two years old, played with blocks and Jillian, five years old, helped. Haley wanted to play something else but she knew Gabby couldn’t play along so she decided the right thing to do was let her do what she wanted. After all, Gabby kept quiet, which was what the adults liked. Haley really wanted to talk about the dream she had the night before. It was really weird. She felt something pulling her in the dream, upward and toward this spinning circle. She wasn’t scared because it wasn’t scary, and in the dream she felt stronger than she ever had before. She felt like she could leap high into the air easily. She just wanted someone to explain it. The problem was, before she woke up, she heard a voice tell her not to tell anyone about it. The voice sounded familiar, like someone she knew, but she couldn’t remember who. She wondered if maybe one of her cousins ever had a dream like that. She wanted to ask really badly but she figured the best thing to do was listen to the voice. Plus, her cousins were younger than her. She was almost eleven. No way they would understand. She figured everyone would just think she was crazy anyway. “You got killed again,” Jack said to Braden. “We’ll never get past this monster.” He fell onto the couch, frustrated. Why did some parts of games have to be so hard? “I know one way we can,” Braden said, smiling. Together, they yelled, “Uncle Johnny!” Haley and Jack’s mom came to the top of the stairs. “What do you guys want?” “We need Uncle Johnny,” Jack said. “He’s eating.” “Oh,” Jack and Braden said at the top of their lungs. “Do you want me to come down there and turn that system off?” Haley and Jack’s mom, Aunt Tina, asked. Braden and Jillian’s mom came to the stairs too. “What are you doing, Braden?” “We were trying to beat this monster and couldn’t so we wanted Uncle Johnny to come downstairs and show us how,” Braden said, as nicely as he could. He knew better than to sound angry. Moms had a way of making that end badly. “Didn’t Aunt Tina say he was eating?” “Yes. But I thought everyone finished eating already,” Braden said. “Uncle Johnny got here late.” “But—“ “Stop it or both Aunt Tina and I will come down there and turn the television off, do you want that?” Aunt Lisa asked. “No—“ “I didn’t think so.” “But—“ “But nothing,” Aunt Tina said. “I’ll ask Uncle Johnny to come down, when he is finished eating.” The last few words sounded sort of angry, Haley noticed. Not angry angry, like when someone broke something or lied, just angry, like if Braden and Jack didn’t give in, angry angry would come next. “Okay,” Jack said, and plopped down on the couch. Haley thought he might say something else back, but she was happy to see knew better. Braden went back to playing the game. Jack was pretty smart, but sometimes he didn’t act that way and they got yelled at for something she didn’t even have anything to do with. When Aunt Lisa and Aunt Tina left, Jack said, “Parents can be a pain.” Haley knew he said this as a joke but he still shouldn’t have said it. Sure, there were times when she got angry at her Mom and Dad, but not too many times. She wanted to tell Jack to take it back but she didn’t. He probably wouldn’t listen anyway. “Oh no,” Jillian said. “What?” Haley asked. “It’s my doll. She went wee-wee again.” Jack stuck his head out from the side of the couch. “Your doll did what?” He did all he could to not laugh. “She went wee-wee. I gave her too much water again. When she has too much water, she goes wee-wee a lot. Now I have to change her diaper. A mommy’s work is never done.” “What kind of doll goes wee-wee?” Jack thought he'd heard of every silly thing a doll could do. “Baby-Wets-A-Lot,” Jillian said. “I brought her and three other dolls with me today. Baby-Wets-A-Lot drinks water and then either goes wee-wee or cries. Sometimes she does both.” “That’s stupid,” Jack said. “Don’t be mean,” Haley shot back at him, wondering why he had to be mean sometimes. “It’s okay, Haley. Jack, you go wee-wee and cry and I bet when you were a baby you did both at the same time.” Everyone laughed, except for Jack of course. Jillian was right, everyone did that so there why not make a doll that did?. Haley didn't think she would want a doll like that. Well, she had other things she wanted. She wanted a laptop the most. That would be cool, to have a laptop, so she could play games and go on websites almost anywhere. She didn’t think she had much of a chance of getting one, but that wasn’t going to stop her from asking, for sure. Braden and Jack tried to beat that level of the game a few times more but they got bored because they just couldn’t get past that one part. They grunted, exhaled, and made a lot of other noises of frustration. They did their best to keep quiet so their parents didn't come down, but had a hard time with that. Haley wanted to try herself but she didn’t think she’d have a chance and she didn’t want to fight to get a turn. Those two could get crazy when it came to video games. Silly boys. Just when it seemed like Jack and Braden would give up, Uncle Johnny came down the stairs. “I hear someone’s having trouble down here,” he said. “We can’t get past this monster,” Braden said, “We tried going left and right but he keeps getting us.” “I even tried jumping,” Jack said, “just like you showed us but it doesn’t work. Maybe the controller is broken.” “We haven’t been throwing the controller, have we?” Uncle Johnny asked with a smile. “No,” Jack said. “I thought about it but remembered I am not supposed to do it, so I didn’t.” “Good. Now, what part are you stuck on?” Uncle Johnny sat down on the couch between them. Haley wondered how he stayed calm and didn't get angry when dealing with Jack and Braden, would could get to be a bit much when it came to stuff like sports and video games. Jack and Braden showed the part they couldn’t beat and Uncle Johnny remembered the part, the same one they had a problem with the week before. It was pretty tough, but Uncle Johnny knew the trick and showed it to them again. “You have to jump and swing at the same time. That throws the monster off balance so you can sneak past him on the right. Sometimes you don’t have to knock out the monsters to beat them. Sometimes you have to use your smarts and beat them that way. Fighting isn't always the best thing to do to win.” “You don’t have to beat them up?” Braden asked. “Not all the time. A lot of these monsters are bigger than your character. Your character is smarter than them, and so are you. So use that. Avoiding a fight sometimes is a lot better than winning one.” “I like beating them up,” Jack said. “So do I,” Braden agreed. Uncle Johnny turned and looked at Haley. “Silly boys.” She wondered if he read her mind.“Uh-huh. I am the one who has to be around them all the time,” Haley said, rolling her eyes. “Maybe you should show them how silly they are sometimes.” “Good idea.” “Okay guys, I got you past this part. Think you can take it from here?” Uncle Johnny asked. “Sure,” Braden said, “it’s my turn so I can take it.” “No, it’s my turn,” Jack said, trying to take the controller from Braden, “you remember, you died last.” He pulled at the controller and Braden pulled back. “But I still had one more life left,” Braden insisted. “No, no. You got killed twice. Every two lives we change turns.” “Enough,” Uncle Johnny said. “I don’t care whose turn it was. If you guys don’t stop, I’ll keep playing, and you know it will be a long time before I die.” “Oh!” Braden and Jack said. “Do you guys want to keep playing?” “Yes.” “Then learn to get along. I could tell you who goes next but I want you to solve this yourself. You guys are cousins, right?” “Yeah,” they answered. “And friends?” “Yes, but—“ “Hey, what’s rule number one?” Uncle Johnny asked. Haley smiled, rolled her eyes, and said along with Jack, “Listen to Uncle Johnny.” “And rule number two?” “Listen to Uncle Johnny.” They'd been taught that years before when Uncle Johnny took them to McDonald's. If they didn't follow the two rules, he said he would take them home. They listened. Now, it was more of a joke than anything else. After all, they had grown up since then. “Okay, then. So, like I was saying. You are cousins and friends. You shouldn’t fight, you should be nice to each other. You guys figure this out. I am coming back down here in a minute and I want to see you guys getting along, not fighting over something silly like whose turn it is. There are more important things than that.” Haley agreed. Getting a laptop was certainly more important than arguing over who got to play some stupid game first. But, like Uncle Johnny said, silly boys. Haley wondered how silly Uncle Johnny was when he was a boy. Probably pretty silly, she thought. Continues... | 
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