Catching Fireflies

Four

A

When I was little, I always loved to play basketball. It was a passion I liked to think I gained from mom as all the stories she would tell us were from her past basketball days when she played back in high school. She bought us toys, took us to games, and even played with us. It was never something Aiden hung on too, but for me, it was everything.

When I was old enough to take a scraped knee and not fuss about it, mom would take me out onto the driveway, take out an old basketball hoop and teach me all the ways to play. Different techniques, defensive, offensive, and just how to move with the ball in general.

It was simpler times like those that made me wish I didn't ever have to grow up.

Dad was never around much. He was always working to make a paycheck and keep his family happy and entertained. But when he was home, that's when we all gathered around the dining table and chose a board game from ten different ones. Family game nights were Aiden's favorite and was the only other thing that made him so happy other than animals.

And then we got older. Aiden's love for animals became a silly hobby in the eyes of our father and instead he was forced to look into other careers that were considered more realistic and less than childsplay. My dream of being a professional basketball player was also subjected to being unrealistic, but I wanted to be an example to my brother and show him that we shouldn't care about what our father thinks and that we should do what makes us happy.

It was our lives and our four years of college. Not his.

"Who gives a shit about what dad thinks," I said to Aiden once, after dad lectured me about how basketball wasn't going to get me anywhere and was only going to be a silly game. While it was mostly for me, some of his words were thrown towards Aiden too.

Basketball won't get you the paycheck you want, and playing with silly animals doesn't make a business.

I was willing to take the crap he gave us, but for Aiden, I wanted him to be able to go after his goals without getting the same shit I was. I told him not to listen to dad, and do what he wanted to do and I kept him busy with getting onto me.

Just like dad, I was stubborn too. Just like mom Aiden was compliant and I wasn't going to let dad take advantage of that.

One day dad announced his promotion which meant we were moving states. Dad worked as a lawyer and with the promotion he was given a better job opportunity in the state of Missouri. We had nothing that tied us down in Nebraska, so without a second thought mom got the boxes and we packed all of our things.

And that was when I met her.

I used to think I was already 'living' at that time with my dreams of basketball and determination to work hard for it, but I wasn't.

Cris Harris, my next door neighbor in my new neighborhood. I was unloading the last moving truck of boxes into the new house when I spotted her standing on her side porch balcony while she ate some sort of snack.

I didn't know her then, but eventually her family invited all of us for dinner and to welcome us into the neighborhood. We all sat at their dining table, with food on our plates and smiles on our faces. Our parent's were lost in conversation and enjoyed themselves. Aiden got passionate about animals while he talked with Cris and she seemed to share similar goals as Aiden does but she was more centered around horses. I found common ground with Liam around video games and he even showed me his set up in their basement later.

Then Cris and I started talking.

She noticed my lettermans and the basketball patches lined along the sleeves. I told her where I got each one, and what they meant to me. She listened intently to each one and nodded her head in acknowledgement. It was nice to get to brag to someone about these patches. No one else seemed to care.