Ball Is Life

• James Moses, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

The buzzer sounded as the ball quickly left his fingers making its way slowly in the basket, almost like time was slowed down. Nick Young lived a modest life with his single mother and two siblings. He lived a life of pain and struggle at the age of eight because his father left without any notice, which made Nick the man of the house. Trying to make money for his family he took on a low paying job at KFC.

One day after a long day at work, Nick was walking home and ran inside the house, getting ready for a well deserved midday nap. He saw his mum and siblings sitting together on the small couch in the living room, crying like they just lost a loved one (like losing their father and husband). “What’s wrong everybody?” said Nick and his mother replied after taking 3 deep breaths “they want to take away our home which will leave us on the street”. His siblings added almost at the same time, “ we are being evicted from our house”. Nick was devastated with this news.

Over night he thought about how to keep his family from being evicted from the house and suddenly it hit him. If he worked an extra couple of hours, maybe he would make some more money and he would be able to pay off the house before they kicked his family out of the house and leave them on the streets. So he woke up the next morning went straight to work and asked his boss Michael, if he worked an extra 2 hours with only a 20 minute break, would he pay him an extra 50 dollars. Michael agreed and Nick started working the extra 2 hours. 3 hours later, he went to have his break on the rooftop. He had never been on the rooftop before, so it came as a huge surprise that there was a half court basketball setup right in the middle of the rooftop. Nick has always loved basketball, but he also loved making money so he challenged 2 fellow workers to a quick game of basketball for 20 dollars. First to 21 wins, so the games began and by the end of his break the score was 21-0 to Nick. He made an extra 40 dollars, 20 dollars from each co-worker. At the end of the day, he had made a total amount of 120 dollars and started to pack up and get ready for he’s walk back home. When a man in a black suit approached him.

“Can I help you?” asked Nick “actually you can” said the strange man. “You must come with me to my international basketball academy”. And in spite of what his mother might have said he took the job after leaving a letter on his mothers bed pillow saying he is leaving to get some money for the family and hopefully forgives him for leaving when he returns back home.