The Legend of the Basketball Court

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by michaelalonzo

by michaelalonzo

The Legend of the Basketball Court

            When I was a kid we moved around a lot. Seriously, we moved all over Southern California. We never lived in one place for more than a couple of years. It wasn't until I was ten that we stayed in one spot, and by then my dad had moved away.
            Still, despite always moving around and perpetually being the "new kid", I wasn't much different than a typical ten-year-old boy. I pretended to be a mutant X-Men team member and flew away in my dreams. I fought alongside fellow Ninja Turtles and explored the stars in the Star Wars universe. I knew every dinosaur from Acanthopholis to Zephyrsaurus in my Dinosaur Encyclopedia. I knew the secret identities of every Justice League member and every original G.I. Joe member by heart. I could play Godzilla's theme song on the piano by ear. I was a nerd. I liked me. I liked that I was smart and that books were fascinating; where I can travel from Narnia to Tatooine to Cobra-La to Eternia with just the flip of a page.
            How was I supposed to know that I was different from other kids? My mother never really talked about stuff like race or ethnicity to us. She spoke Spanish to my grandma only when she didn't want us to know what they were arguing about. I thought that was normal;no one ever said it wasn't.
            When we moved to Hesperia in the High Desert there were more fair-colored kids but I didn't really notice. I had a huge crush on Kelli Peterson, then on Angela Ellis (her cousin, as it turns out) but beyond that I just did as kids do. We played soccer and climbed on the jungle gym and jumped off the top of it (which ticked off the proctors during lunch recess). We were kids. My best friend was darker than I was and had short, really curly hair. My other friends were all various shades of color but that never really mattered. I had friends who were born in India, Hawaii,Long Beach, Hong Kong, Apple Valley, and Mexico and no one really paid it any attention.
            Almost no one. There was this one person. I don't remember its actual name but we called it the Creature. It was mean. It was haughty and cruel. Just like those stereotypical school bullies that you see in movies and shows, It had her inklings; these pathetic followers that trailed behind It like It was some kind of deity or something. I remember that It said it would remember our school when It was president of the US. Ugh.
            One of the things that the Creature insisted upon was that girls were NOT allowed to go near the basketball courts.I didn't know why at first. It was my second week into third grade and I had asked Amy Porto to come play dodgeball with us on the courts but she shook her head and explained that girls weren't allowed to do that. I asked why and she just shrugged.
            "I don't know," she told me, "That's just how things are."
            In Fourth grade I remember this girl, a little blonde thing, came running towards the basketball court to get a stray ball that had bounced too hard off of the handball wall. She got to the outer boundary line, looked at us playing basketball, then she gasped and ran back. I remember her crying later because, according to some of the others, the Creature berated her and told her off because she went near the basketball courts.
            Now the school only went to Fifth grade; the Sixth graders were shipped to the junior high. So by Fifth grade our little crew of basketball players had become something of a force to be reckoned with. I mean, we were the Dream Team in our own eyes. We always won and we always played together. It was me, JJ my best friend, the "Flyin' Hawaiian" Ramsay, the "V-Man" Paul Virk, and "Too Tall" Ken Meyers. We were all different colors and races: I'm Hispanic, JJ's Black, Ramsay was pure-bred Hawaiian Islander, Paul was from India, and Ken was a big German-Dutch white kid. Even the guys who subbed in with us were from different races: Nandish was Pakistani, Chou was from Hong Kong, and Mark was a red-headed Mormon kid. Dude,if there was ever a group of more racially-mixed kids then I've never seen one since. We loved the game, though. We had fun and we did everything we could to play as much and as often as possible.
            Well, one day at lunch JJ said something rude to the Creature. JJ had a knack for making fun of people (I knew that all too well) and he must've said something to It because, after we had eaten (rather quickly so that we could play ball) we rushed to the courts.Well, no later than a few minutes had passed when the Creature and Its inklings,all in similar floral dresses and skirts, showed up. I noticed them first but It ried to ignore them. It was hard to ignore them, though, because by then every single person on the big blacktop had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the Creature, who was staring at us. Ken and JJ were the last to notice them.
            "Don't look at her," JJ said, "Let's just play."
            So we kept on playing. It was a good game, I think, but something happened that changed the course of our history.
            JJ missed his shot. Now JJ was phenomenal. He knew tricks and moves that made me think he'd beat Magic Johnson in a game. He was good at three-pointers, too. But that one shot, that one shot that he tried to hit from downtown, it clanged off the rim and the backboard, sailed in a parabola in the air, and landed right in front of the Creature. It caught the ball in Its hands. We paused and looked at It. It looked at us, then at the ball, then back at us. Then, unceremoniously, It tossed the basketball into the soccer fields.
            "Man!" JJ whined. He ran after the ball, calling It all kinds of names under his breath.
            It made a groaning, grunting sound of disgust, and said under Its breath, "Black people."
            I remember it like it happened yesterday. I felt like the world blacked out and a volcano erupted within me. I didn't know much about racism, but I knew that what It had said was not only mean, it was evil.
            It turned to leave, the inklings imitating It and were in Its tow as It left. I parted my way through the inklings and walked up behind the Creature. I tapped It on the shoulder. It turned around. It gave me a look of disgust, very much like the one that It had given JJ.
            "Ew," It said at first with a scowl, "What do you want?"
            I didn't give It much time; I just reacted. I reared my hand back and slapped the Creature in the face.
            The world froze in that instant. Tether balls stopped in midair. Kids on swings hovered for a brief second. Gravity was defied and all the laws of physics ceased to be. All eyes,adult and child, turned to that one epicenter on the blacktop, just before the big painted circle, and watched as my face struck the Creature where It stood.
            In horror and shock It stood,holding Its hand to Its face. It stood motionless, frozen in time. You see, the Creature had not been the one to create this boundary around the basketball court but it had been the Creature's older sister. The older sister had declared long ago that only "Black and Brown people" played basketball, and ifany girl had any intelligence or self-respect then they'd stay away from the courts.Naturally, to avoid being picked on or bullied, the girls stayed away from the basketball courts.
            But when I struck the Creature that day, it was as if an evil spell had broken. The next sign of movement came not from the Creature but from the inklings. They shook their heads, looked around as if they had woken from a deep sleep or a haze of confusion, took one big step away from the Creature, then they dispersed. The Creature spent the rest of the lunch recess frozen there with Its hand to Its face while I returned to my basketball game.
            Two things happened after that day. One: We never saw the Creature again. I don't know if It switched schools or what-not but it vanished. Two: Girls started playing basketball. It was as if a curse had been lifted and all was set right at the elementary school.
            I grew up with that same mentality all my life. I hate racism, but I hate racists more. Sometimes they just need a swift slap in the face to see just how powerless their ignorant views are and how utterly useless that kind of thought is.