The Evil Inside (book 4 of Genesis 64)

Chapter 11 - the basketball game

Basketball season, mid-March, 2012

It's the final game of the girl's basketball season. They have a good team, but not quite good enough for the playoffs. Zoe Cross, the team's captain, gets more and more frustrated with the team's play as the season goes on. She usually takes out her frustrations on Kate, who's just a reserve, and tonight's game is no different.

"Kate, what kind of a pass was that?" Zoe yells.

"Sorry! I didn't see #23!" Kate replies.

"Well, open your eyes!" Zoe growls. "I don't want to lose this game too!"

"I'm doing my best," Kate says defensively.

"That's an understatement!" Zoe snaps.

It's late in the third quarter and Michael is the last of the boys to report to the locker room. He's slowly moving along the sidelines and is almost to the far corner. He's interested in the game because it's a good and close game. Kate, even though they haven't spoken in days, is still a good friend, or at least she was. And Kim, who is playing well, is almost his girlfriend, although they haven't gone out on a date yet. Suddenly there's a loose ball rolling across the court, and Kate and Zoe both charge after it. One of them has to get the ball or the other team will get it back. Kate is a half-step ahead of Zoe and is reaching for the ball, when Zoe's left foot comes up under Kate's right ankle causing Kate to put all her weight on her left knee at exactly the wrong time. Kate's knee buckles under the pressure and she falls to the floor in a heap already screaming in pain. Michael, from his vantage point at the corner of the court, is the only person in the entire gym that sees their faces. Just before Zoe's foot makes contact with Kate's ankle, he see a look of hatred and jealously come across Zoe's face like he's never seen before.

As Michael rushes to Kate's side, a thought hits him squarely in the brain "She hates Kate so much that she'd give up the ball and maybe lose the game just to be able to hurt her!" Kneeling at her side he asks "Kate, are you okay?!"

"It's my ACL again!" she replies. Then she realizes that it's Michael and she adds, "Don't you touch me, Michael! Just don't!"

As the coaches reach Kate, one of them says "You better go get changed, Michael." As he goes to the locker room his mind drifts back through the years to the many times that Kate had stuck up for him.

After the game, Kate is the only one left in the stands. She sits on the front row, her head down, with an ice-pack covering her injured knee. There's only a few people left in the gym and most pass silently past her. The last few members of the girl's team walk by. Zoe says, "It couldn't have happened to a worse player."

"Too bad it wasn't earlier in the season," Marielle says.

Kim replies, "That was our bad luck." All three girls laugh.

Kate feels her face redden even more and the tears fill her eyes again, but she wills herself not to cry. As the last of the boy's team files past, Michael quietly says,"I'm sorry, Kate, I'm so sorry." But Kate ignores him. Finally she's alone, except for the old custodian sweeping the gym floor. The only sound she can hear is his soft steady footsteps and the industrial-size mop-head going "swish-swish-swish" across the floor. All is pretty quiet, so she can hear the sudden sound of the wind picking up and coming down the mountain and through the Red Oak valley.

'Could it be?' she wonders. The sound of the wind grows louder and louder then, almost as if on clue, the door to the gym snaps open and someone enters. She keeps her head down and eyes closed, 'Please, please God let it be him' she prays silently. The soft, leather soled sounds of tactical boots quickly make their way directly toward her. She's afraid to look up until the person stops beside her. Looking up she gleefully exclaims, "Jonah! It's you!"

"Kate!" he responds.

She momentarily forgets about her knee, jumping up to greet him. The pain, though, is unbearable and crying out she crumples toward the floor. Jonah reaches out catching her in his arms and guides her gently back to the bleachers.

"I heard you messed up your knee tonight," he says. Kate nods. The pain is too much for her and the tears start to roll down her cheeks. "Here let me see," he says as he puts his hand on her knee. As a teenage girl being touched by an older man she instinctively tries to pull away, but then is mesmerized by the reddish glow emanating from Jonah's finger tips. The glow from his fingers then turns orange, then yellow, then spreads to his entire hand and finally to Kate's knee. Her knee glows yellow for a second as she feels a tingling and a warm glow, not from outside her knee, but from the inside!

"You healed my knee!" she gasps as she bends and flexes her knee.

"Shhh...," he shushes her by putting his finger to his lips, and then points upward. "Not me, remember?" he adds.

She jumps up this time, hugging him and saying, "Thank you, thank you for coming tonight".

"Your family is waiting for you and I've not even been home yet," Jonah tells her "Why don't you meet me at noon up on the mountain?"