Free The Journey Prize Stories 22 by Various Page A

over to the edge of the sidewalk and picked up two shafts that had rolled away, returned and knelt beside Leo, and placed the shafts in their slots in the case and the two of them worked together until the case was almost full. One of the case’s hinges was broken and so was the handle, and when Leo stood up he had to hold it in his arms to keep it shut. Ramon stood facing him, arms crossed. His sudden kindness only embarrassed Leo and when Ramon nodded towards his Camaro ss and said, “I’ll give you a ride to the park,” Leo did not know at first how he should respond.
    He realized then that Ramon did not have anything against him, that Ramon was obligated to steal from him because he was weak, just as his Uncle Oscar was bound to hurt him and his mother because they had been foolish enough to care. Leo wondered if his uncle had ever bought drugs from Ramon, wondered if Ramon had seen his uncle pass by that afternoon. He thought about his uncle selling his custom Harley, wondered if the bike had meant anything to whoever had bought it, if that person felt anything like what his uncle had felt on the day the picture had been taken. It occurred to Leo thatjust as easily as he’d given away his birthday money he might reach into his left pocket and take out the photo of his uncle and show it to Ramon. Ramon might recognize his uncle. Leo thought that when his mom found out where Uncle Oscar had gone he could tell Ramon, and if Ramon did not care about where his uncle had gone, he would know someone who did. Then Leo thought he might like to play croquet with Ramon, if only to defeat him, that Ramon might even agree to play croquet against him if he asked him now, but Leo knew this was something else that he would never do.
    â€œNo thanks,” said Leo, and as soon as he said this he knew it would have been better if he’d said nothing at all. Ramon shrugged and turned and went and got inside his car. Leo started back down the street towards the park and he heard the engine turn over behind him and then Ramon drove by slowly and grinned and waved at him as he turned the corner and Leo did not wave back.
    He was almost at the parkette when he heard the first rumble of thunder. He watched for lightning, but there wasn’t any. The parkette was deserted except for an old man wearing a brown suit and an old-fashioned black hat with a brim. The man sat on the park bench with his hands on his knees and watched Leo set up the wickets, but as soon as the rain started the man got up and opened his umbrella and slowly walked away. The parkette was just a slide and a swing set that Leo used to play on when he was younger. There were two fir trees, and some flowers, and a good patch of grass there too, and it was flat. Leo set the wickets up far apart and at odd angles to make the shots as difficult as he could. The rain came down hard and fast, and he was soaked to the skin beforehe even started the game. His feet felt swollen and heavy and squished inside his sneakers. The rain made him need to piss, but he forced himself to ignore the tension in his bladder. He imagined that the raindrops were thousands of tiny wet fists, all pelting him with blows, trying to keep him from playing the game, and that he did not care about them because they could not really hurt him. He decided to use the green ball and he set it down next to the starting stake. He aimed for the first wicket and came up short. He didn’t make it through until the third stroke. It wasn’t easy to make the ball go where he wanted because it was wet and so was the grass, and it was hard for him to see, but he was determined to complete the course before he packed up and went home. He wondered if it was raining in Mississauga too. He thought the soccer game would be called for sure and he knew the team would be disappointed, because they liked playing in the rain. He wondered where Francesco was, if he was with Isabel, and what they were