"That One Kid"

What is it about a hot summer evening and a football that can turn a stranger into a memory?

My son had a friend over and after dinner they went outside to toss the football. It began with two and the two became three and the three became four and the four became five and the five became six. One boy was wearing jeans, one boy had on flip flops and glasses, another was playing in his socks while wearing a worn baseball cap, and another had on purple body-armor. They ranged in age from 10 to 16 and each boy was as different in their age as they were in their appearance.

The football was touched numerous times as they hurled it from one end of the yard to the other. They huddled and they clapped, they tackled and they slipped, they fell and they jumped. The ball was kicked back and forth and even tossed into the soccer goal a few times.

They congregated around the ball sipping cold sodas and as the evening turned dark they left, just as they had arrived; one by one. When my son came in for the night I asked about the boys. He didn't know most of their names or what school they attend and it never crossed his mind to ask, but he knew their game. His eyes lit up as he relived "the game" the kid in the white t-shirt "throws hard", the boy in the purple body armor "can jump high", the kid in the baseball cap "plays club soccer", and the little kid "plays GMFL". Each boy was as different in his ability as he was in his choice of soda, but on a warm summer evening a football brought it all together.