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Lee woke up early and headed down to his karate school. He wanted to check that it was all right and had last in his absence. He got there well before business hours. So for anybody else being there wasn’t a worrying sign. He looked around the two teaching rooms and the office. Nothing seemed out of place and there looked to be no cause for alarm. After twenty minutes or so his second in command came in.
“Lee, where have you been, man?”
“Hey Steve, sorry, I had to go and see some old friends. Went in kind of a rush and forgot to take my phone with me. You know sadly enough I don’t know the phone number for this place unless I have my phone or a business card with me. As for your own number, well no offence but I don’t know anybody’s number.”
“This is the curse of modern life: over reliance on technology.”
“Isn’t that the truth? I might as well have to take off the next week or so. You guys can cope without me can’t you?”
“Yeah sure, no problem! Without wishing to make you sound redundant, are you sure everything’s all right?”
“Oh yeah! I just decided that I needed a little time off to refresh the batteries a little.”
“Well didn’t have a break since you opened this place. So that’s perhaps a good idea.”
“Yeah I think so. I’ll be seeing you soon. Look after the place while I’m gone.”
“You know I will.”
“Yes I do.”
Lee left the building and set off walking the streets. Without particularly planning to, Lee ended up walking to the streets that he roamed as a kid. Looking around as he walked, most of the buildings were still the same. Some buildings were a little more vandalized than other buildings. Some walls had more graffiti on. But by and large the area was very recognizable to Lee. What he found more fascinating were the kids on the streets, most of whom probably should have been at school at the time. He could easily imagine himself in those groups just five or six years ago. Some were just standing around trying to look cool as well as menacing. Others were walking around looking at each parked car they went past. One group in particular caught Lee’s eye. They were probably younger than the others on the streets and they were playing a game of baseball. An old tennis ball was the ball and a piece of wood that looked like a table leg was the bat. Lee smiled as he remembered all the improvised games of sport he played on the streets in his younger days. He lost the smile as he thought how somehow it became a natural progression from being in the gangs having harmless fun to being the gangs of criminals. As if growing up on the streets meant you went from having fun to committing crimes. Really sad thing was that virtually all of them had more fun playing baseball than they did committing crimes. But it was seen as the thing to do. And if you carried on playing sports and games all the time then you’d be classified as soft and not as grown up.
“Well, well. Lee Morris, it has been a long time man”– the voice came from behind Lee.
“Frankie!” Lee turned round and enthusiastically greeted his old friend, who maybe seven or eight years ago would have been playing baseball with Lee on these very streets.
Both of them hugged then shook hands.
“I’ve seen your karate school. Good work! I was worried about you for a while, man. But you came through in the end.”
“I haven’t seen you for years.”
“It has to be seven maybe even eight years.”
“Yeah, not since we were playing ball somewhere round here.”
“That’s right, then you went on to join the street gangs.”
“You wisely opted out.”
“I did indeed.”
“So what are you doing now?”
“I’m a fitness instructor at the gym a couple of blocks down. Plus I’m the basketball coach at our old high school.”
“That’s awesome.”
“So Lee, what brings you to this neighborhood today?”
“You know, Frankie, I was just thinking how much I want to join in that game of baseball. You want to join me? We could go on separate teams.”
“Hell, why not. As long as you don’t mind getting whooped like old times.”
“Age does terrible things to one’s memory.”
Both of them walked over and asked to join in the game. The kids were more than happy to have an adult on each side. Lee and Frankie had a great time and the kids fed of the enthusiasm of the two adults and everybody had lots of fun.
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