Getting Along & Making Things Right
The Goalie Part
Saturday. The last few minutes. The ball came across low, Jonah got a foot to it, and… GOAL! His team won two to one. His grandpa shouted something nobody could understand. Best thing all year. Easily.
He told the lunch table about it on Monday. Then again on Tuesday, because Yara wasn’t there on Monday. Then a bit on Wednesday. On Thursday he started again. Because there was one part he had never actually got to.
“You already said,” said Ravi. Not mean. Just flat, sandwich still in his hand. Then he took a bite. Chomp. And looked at the middle of the table.
Suki, on Jonah’s other side, swiveled around on the bench and started talking to Ilya about something on the next table. Not fast. Not rude. She just turned, the way you turn when a thing has finished.
The part Jonah never got to was the goalie. The goalie had a HAND on it! The ball went under his hand, off the inside of the post, plunk, and in. That was the part that made it a good goal. Not just a goal. A GOOD goal.
So the table went quiet. Except it wasn’t really quiet. Suki was talking to Ilya. Somebody two places down was doing something with a yogurt lid. It was only quiet in one spot. The spot where Jonah was sitting.
Ravi: eating. Suki: back half-turned. And Jonah: still holding the best part of the goal, the goalie part, right at the front of his mouth. Twelve minutes of lunch left.
What does Jonah do?
Every choice costs something. Let’s see what.
Finish the story anyway, and get to the goalie part
“No, but the goalie had a HAND on it,” said Jonah. Louder now, so Suki could hear over her own talking. “He actually touched it. It went under his hand.” Jonah showed them with his own hand. Whoosh.
Ravi kept eating his sandwich. Suki kept talking to Ilya. But Wes put his fork down and watched Jonah’s hand do the save. Wes was only at their table because his own was full. But he was listening.
So Jonah told Wes the whole thing. The low ball. His foot. The goalie’s hand. The inside of the post. He did every part with his hands. And Wes said, “Off the POST?” Exactly where Jonah had hoped somebody would.
On Friday Wes was already at the end of the bench. He moved his bag to make room. Further down, Ravi and Suki were already talking to Ilya. Jonah sat next to Wes. And started telling him about the goalie again.
Ask Ravi what he did on the weekend instead
“What did you do?” asked Jonah. “On Saturday.” The goalie part was still sitting right at the front of his mouth. Ravi looked up, as if the question had come from somewhere totally unexpected.
“My cousin came,” said Ravi. “He’s got a mark on his arm from a DOG.” Suki swiveled back around. Somebody two places down said, “What dog?” Ravi’s story took up the rest of lunch, and everybody kept asking questions.
Lunch went on. The dog turned into Ilya’s uncle, and Ilya’s uncle turned into an argument about whether you can be allergic to grass. The goalie part didn’t come up again. Jonah didn’t squeeze it in. By the bell, it had gone.
Walking back in, Jonah knew about the dog. And the cousin. And that the cousin was coming again over break. At the start of lunch he hadn’t known any of that. At the classroom door Ravi said, “He’s going to show me the mark.” “Cool,” said Jonah. And it was.
Say nothing else about it, or about anything
Jonah shut it down. Click. He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t say the goalie part. He ate the rest of his lunch and said “yeah” twice when things got said near him. Nobody at the table noticed anything had changed.
It went on into the next week. Jonah didn’t bring up the goal. That was the plan. But he didn’t bring up the bird’s nest on the shed either. Or the movie. Because he couldn’t figure out which things were the ones you were allowed.
Nobody said “you already said” again. Not once, all week. Lunch was fine. Jonah sat in the same place every day, ate his sandwich, said “yeah.” And nothing at all went wrong.
On Thursday the nest on the shed had FOUR eggs in it. Jonah had checked before school. At lunch Suki said something about a bird, and Jonah opened his mouth… and then didn’t. The four eggs stayed in his head all afternoon. After school he told Grandpa. All four eggs, twice. Grandpa wanted to hear it both times.