From Azalea

Day 16

Day 16:

Another day, a new adventure, maybe he couldn't explore Mars or wander a prehistoric earth through high quality pixels, but he had something else in mind. Grant called Daniel. He grabbed his phone and dialed a long string of numbers that would connect to Daniel's phone and make it ring. He listened to the buzzing a few times before he heard Daniel's voice. The quality was laughable, but Grant still understood him. They got together to watch old soccer tapes, the teams, jerseys, and screaming fans were long gone, but the memories were not.

"I liked playing soccer in the FIFA Arena," Daniel said.

"It was a lot of fun. What's your rank?" Grant asked.

"Global Elite."

"I'm only three matches away from Global," Grant said amazed. "Mate, that's so awesome."

"Yeh," Daniel smiled modestly. "I don't know if I'd be able to do that though," he motioned at the screen as Thiago Alcantara sent the ball into the goal with a scissor kick. "I think I'd like to try."

"We should!" Grant said, excited. "Do you have a ball?"

"I don't," Daniel answered disappointed.

"Well, let's find one. I'm sure someone has a ball somewhere."

"And they'd let us just take it?"

"We'll give it back." Grant and Daniel went walking around the neighbourhood. They met some other kids who were interested in a game. One of those kids had a ball. They made makeshift goals between trees and marked them with rope. They felt the cool air rush past them as they raced from one end of the playing field to the other. It was wonderful to feel the freedom of their bodies' movements and the breathlessness in their lungs.