Chapter 46
Lindsay remained silent, slowly rotating the basketball in her hands as Rodeeia took a few steps closer to her position. After taking note of Lindsay hesitant demeanor, Rodeeia decided to break the silence.
"What's wrong?" asked Rodeeia, "You look like you seen a ghost! The B-ball ain't gonna bite ya, go ahead and try to dribble."
"Oh no..." said Lindsay in a feminine manner, shaking her head side to side as she did so, "I can't, I don't play..."
"JOG AND PAT!" yelled Rodeeia, interrupting Lindsay using her coaches voice, "Two laps, let's go move!"
Due to being conditioned to respond to Rodeeia's drill commands over the last few days, Lindsay proceeded to oblige, dashing quickly back and forth from cone to cone while patting her hand downward over the marks. However, much to her surprise, her hand pats were no longer simple empty motions; as she ran, she now unintentionally dribbled the basketball, filling the air with a series of moderately loud pings reminiscent of a drum beat.
After a quick dash, Lindsay ceased running and returned to Rodeeia's position, holding the basketball in her hand with an expression of surprise.
"Okay..." said Lindsay, "How did I just do that?
"Easy," said Rodieeia, "You just did what every basketball player does...make dribbling the ball a subconscious effort. There too many other things you have to think about when you on the court, finding a good shot, remembering plays, and watching where your teammates are. There ain't not time to think about avoiding the traveling call. Plus, dribbling while running is a perfect exercise for the development for hand eye coordination, and that's what you wanted to gain right?"
Lindsay remained silent, still quite in awe at the seemingly simple spectacle she had just carried out. Rodeeia giggled slightly.
"Ya surprised yourself, didn't ya?" asked Rodeeia as she gazed upward into Lindsay's eyes, "I've been using that technique to teach B Ball to beginners since I volunteered coaching the kids at the rec center in high school...I developed it to help a certain young lady get over her fear of her physical awkwardness."
Rodeeia placed her hand on Lindsays shoulder.
"And now twenty years later," said Rodeeia, "I have the honor of using it to help her baby girl."
Lindsay remained silent, sharing a brief smile with Rodeeia. She then gazed back down toward the basketball, once again containing expressions of doubt.
"But, I don't understand," said Lindsay, "I don't play sports, and..."
"Geez, not this again," said Rodeeia, "I don't play sports...I thought we got away from all that negativity nonsense last night?"
Rodeeia paused, folding her arms as she decided to pose an additional question.
"Let me ask you a question," said Rodeeia, "Prior to joining cross country, have you ever even tried to play any kind of sport?"
Lindsay swallowed.
"A really long time ago," said Lindsay, "My dad bought me a basketball when I was little, but I never got into it because..."
Lindsay paused, seeming to not want to finish her sentence.
"Because why?" asked Rodeeia, turning her head to the side, awaiting Lindsay's answer.
"Because..." said Lindsay, "I didn't want to have to give up my love of fashion, make up, and doing my nails."
"What do you mean by that?," asked Rodeeia in a gentle, understanding tone.
"Well," said Lindsay, "In my mind, I didn't think girls that get all dolled up and love fashion should play sports. I mean, how could I possibly choose both and still be a girl?"
"What the hell girl," said Rodeeia in a playful manner, "You looking at the embodiment of sports standing in front of ya, and I'm all women. You see these double Ds and big booty? What kinda man has assets like these?"
Lindsay giggled slightly at Rodeeias joke, gazing downward as she did so. After a few moments, Rodeeia approached Lindsay, placing her hands on her shoulders as she gazed upward into her eyes.
"Imma tell ya a story that may help you out," said Rodeeia, "On the night of the senior prom, all us girls decided to get together at your momma's house to do our hair and get dressed. The boys rented a party bus to take us, and like in all the movies you probably ever saw, hung out downstairs waiting for us to come down to take pictures, put on corsages and all that fancy shit that go with it."
Rodeeia paused.
"Let me tell you something," said Rodeeia, "Your momma was a naturally beautiful woman, just like you, even though she never flaunted it. However, when she came down those stairs in that pretty lavender dress, her hair self styled in that beautiful up do, and that amazing makeup, she absolutely stole the show. Your Daddy's jaw nearly hit the floor when she made her grand entrance, the only other time I saw him beam like that was when Big T was walking down the aisle toward him at the wedding. Shit...even my date tried to cop some extra looks on the Big T, I had to practically turn his head to get him to look straight at the camera! He would have got worse if we were in a real relationship, you know Mama Dae!"
Rodeeia and Lindsay shared a laugh, at which point Rodeeia decided to continue.
"The point is that your momma didn't ever care about choosing between beauty and athletics," said Rodeeia, "They ain't mutually exclusive, and they never will be. And besides, they don't define the person you are...it sounds like some serious bleedin heart Sesame Street shit, but here's the truth, it's what's in here that counts."
Rodeeia pointed towards Lindsays heart, at which point she took a few steps backward.
"I ain't telling ya you have to play basketball or any kind of other sport," said Rodeeia, "But if you ever wanted any pointers, I'm just a video call away. It's the twenty first century after all."
Rodeeia turned away from Lindsay, taking a few steps towards the patio door and leaving Lindsay to ponder her words. After a few seconds, Lindsay lifted her head.
"Mama Dae," said Lindsay.
Rodeeia ceased walking, turning to face Lindsay with a neutral expression. After a brief silence, Lindsay uttered a few more words in a determined manner.
"Teach me how to shoot." said Lindsay.
"You got it girl," replied Rodeeia.
As these events continued within the Williams yard, Marie and May had made it to their destination. The girls had dropped off their "evidence" as planned at a lab associated with a famous website used to determine individuals genetic makeup, and had begun their relatively short trek home through the woods.
The Kingsberg woods were slightly more primitive than those of Peach Creek. The roughly two acre area was underdeveloped and contained no hiking paths. The tree density was far less than those of Cobblers woods, consisting of expanses of open spaces, coupled with pockets of dense forest. The moonlight shined quite brightly into the clearings, however, the surrounding forested areas remained in an envelope of near complete darkness.
The two girls were currently walking side by side through one such clearing, observing grassy patches and fallen logs surrounding them as they dod so. In addition to these features, the clearing featured a small swampy area of sorts, consisting of a heavy muddied area, populated with lily pads. A couple of small toads had occupied these lily pads, emitting small croaks as their throat sacks filled with air; each occasionally shooting their tongues out of their mouth at fast pace in an attempt to catch flying insects.
As the girls approached the small quagmire, they decided to stop for a few moments to admire the scenery. Taking seats on two high rocks in front of the muddy pond, the girls decided to initiate a conversation.
"Look at the cute little froggies!" said May as she removed a small sliver of beef jerky from her pocket, holding it out towards the frog, "Want some beef jerky?"
"Frogs don't eat that you moron," said Marie, "They eat bugs."
"Well excuse me, Misses Double Dee" said May as she placed the beef jerky back into her pocket.
The girls emitted a small giggle, after which Marie sighed.
"I miss Double Dee," said Marie.
"Yeah," said May, "I've been thinking about Ed a lot too, especially at night."
"This little swamp," said Marie, "Kind of reminds ya of when we first met the Eds in person, huh?"
"Yep," said May, "They were covered in mud, but we sure did clean them up and feed them nice! To bad they left before we could give them desert!"
Marie adopted an expression of shock.
"May you bad girl!" Yelled Marie, "You just met him, and you were already thinking about that!?"
Marie giggled as May adopted an expression of anger.
"No," said May as she blushed, "I was talking about real desert, like ice cream or cake."
"Calm down lug head, I'm just teasing you," said Marie.
The two girls remained silent, after which Marie decided to continue.
"Did you ever imagine we'd have boyfriends?" asked Marie.
"Not really," said May, "Then again, I never really thought about it until we met the Eds. I was just happy that I was able to make friends on the softball team back in the city."
There was a slight pause.
"It's weird," said May, "I always felt funny that I had friends."
"Okay.." said Marie, "I'll admit, that does sound pretty backwards. Care to share why?"
May sighed.
"I always felt like the oddball of the family," said May, "I mean, I'm the only one of us who knows their real birth father, and I not only had friends from practice, but it also kept me shielded from a lot of the crap you had to deal with from the punks after we changed schools. I feel like you and Lee protected me too much, and I never did anything in return."
"Hey," said Marie as she placed her hand on May's shoulder, "Don't you ever worry about that, that's what sisters are for! Besides, you don't know how much that bubbly, sometimes annoying personality, helped me through it all. I said it before, and I'll say it again, you were the glue that kept us together!"
May smiled as Marie turned back towards the pond.
"If you want the truth," said Marie, "I feel like I'm the one who doesn't belong."
"What do you mean?" asked Marie.
"I don't know," said Marie, "Maybe it's just middle child syndrome. Maybe it's the fact that Lee always had Lindsay, and you always had your friends, and I was never able to make any until I got to know Nazz, but I always felt like I was the one who was the oddball of the bunch."
"Get out," said May.
"I'm serious," said Marie, "I never doubted I had the love of my sisters, but it would have been nice to..."
At that moment, Marie was startled as the frogs populating the pond suddenly jumped off of their Lilly pads and into the water; concurrently, the woods seemed to fall deftly silent, as if time suddenly stopped.
"Whoah," said Marie, "That was weird. It's like the frogs..."
Marie was once again interrupted as May jumped to a standing position, covering Marie's mouth as her eyes darted around.
"Listen," said May as she scanned the dark, deep surrounding forest, "We're not alone..."
Marie lifted her hand, slowly removing Mays hand from her mouth as she did so.
"Geez May, you've been watching way too many scary movies," said Marie, "You're acting delusional, it's probably some kind of animal or something."
"No," said May, adopting a serious expression, "Human footsteps...someone is out there..."
Marie, taking note of Mays concern, began to trust her sisters instincts. The black haired girl slowly rose to a standing position, joining her sister in scanning her dark surroundings.
"It's probably Lee trying to screw with us," said Marie, attempting to reassure herself, "She's been known to do that before."
May remained silent, refusing to respond to Marie's proposition as she continued to intently focus on her surroundings. Her blue eyes darted between the trees, attempting to pinpoint the source of the small noise she had heard.
A few seconds passed, at which point the slight sound of darting footsteps filled the air; this was accompanied by the appearance of a shadowy figure, quickly darting between the trees at what appeared to be the speed of sound. The figure was in fact, so quick and quiet that May's eyes and ears were unable to keep up with it; she was unable to directly lay her eyes on the dark shadow, only viewing it from her peripheral vision as it seemed to appear in and out of the forests physical plane.
After a few more tense seconds, May suddenly reacted, adopting an expression of distress.
"GET DOWN!" yelled May as she suddenly tackled Marie to the ground, narrowly avoiding a rain of small rocks that had been launched from above in a manner similar to "kunai" knifes commonly used by ninjas. The series of four rocks pierced the soil one at a time in a machine gun fashion, and while they were not meant to inflict lethal injuries, could have been quite the nuisance to an unprepared person.
"Jesus Christ," said Marie, "What the hell was that."
"I dunno," said May, "But someone is obviously trying to hit us."
Marie began to slowly rise to her feet, again examining her surroundings as May intently attempted to located the source of the noise. As she did so, Marie attempted to speak.
"Do you think..."
"MORE MOVE!" yelled May as she took hold of Marie's hand, pulling her to the side as she did so. One by one, the girls continued to dodge their onslaught, narrowly missing three more bursts of rocks that seemed to come from several different directions.
Eventually, the bursts of rocks once again ceased, leaving the woods in a still silence once again. Both girls, startled by the predicament, stood as still as statues in the middle of the small cleaning, scanning their surroundings with nervous expressions.
"Okay..." said Marie, "I guess I was wrong. That definitely wasn't an animal."
May listened for a few more seconds, at which point she once again decided to speak up.
"Marie," said May, "I'm scared..."
"Relax May," said Marie, "Like I said, it's probably just Lee messing with us. Besides, what the hell do you have to be afraid of? You dodged those rocks like a champ!"
At that moment, both girls froze as the sound of a voice unfamiliar to them filled the air from above; a gentle, feminine voice that seemed to echo through the silence of the woods.
"I have to agree," said the voice, "Your skills were most impressive. Most ordinary people would never be able to dodge an ambush such as that, let alone anticipate it."
At the conclusion of the statement, both girls slowly and simultaneously friend their heads upwards, eventually meeting eyes with the source of the voice. Standing in one of the tree branches overhanging the clearing, was a tall woman of Asian descent, donning a black robe, obi and a pair of matching boots; the physical characteristics of the individual known as Mingxia. She stood with her legs somewhat spread, attempting to maintain her balance on the tree's woody surface, smiling as her straight, jet black hair flowed in the slight breeze.
The three women remained silent, Mingxia staring in the direction of the somewhat fearful girls with a smile for a few moments; eventually, the mysterious woman proceeded to utter a few additional words.
"So we finally meet...face-to-face."
