April 2005

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As I was coming home from work this evening, I walked through a ballgame. No, not one with bats and a diamond. One with four children, two soccer balls, and a building being used as the goal. Since I had to walk by the building to get from the bus stop to my apartment, I was automatically included in the game.

Which was a version of a tossing game. The children were trying to see who could throw the ball onto the roof, instead of who could throw it to the child on the second-floor porch waiting to catch. While I was part of the game (for me it was dodge ball, by the way), no one caught anything, and at least two times a ball hit the roof.

In case you've forgotten this law of the physics of childhood ballgames, once a soccer ball hits the roof and bounces off, it will not be catchable by anyone on the ground. It will come down at such an angle that its trajectory takes it to the edge of the parking lot, instead of to the person waiting to catch it.

That law will cause said catcher wannabe to turn around, giggle, shriek, dart past the adult trying to stay out of the way of the ball and the child, turn to the adult to apologize, then catch the ball at the edge of the parking lot before its second bounce.

The game's sequence may be repeated as desired, with or without the dodge-ball-playing adult. If the adult has left, no apologies need be included.