Psych

13. Hoops

The voice, to Justin, sounded more like a man, or a rather hoarse-voiced woman. At this point, he could no longer guess. His mind was dazed and so were his eyes. ‘Justin,’ he answered. ‘And who are you?’

‘Necessity,’ the stranger replied.

His eyes came together to form a squint. ‘What kind of a stupid name is that?’

‘A necessary one.’

Justin began to hear the sound of steel on concrete again but this time it was more of a light tap. It was coming from between the stranger’s feet. ‘What…what’s that?’ he asked the stranger, pointing between his feet. The boldness and audacity in his voice was abandoning him. ‘I said what’s…’

‘You look like a strong, young man. Are you an athlete, Justin?’ the stranger asked him. There was a certain calmness in the stranger's voice.

Justin nodded robustly, ‘Rugby…basketball…’

‘That sounds like it takes a lot of stamina.’

He nodded quickly.

‘Good. You see that house over there, Justin? Way down there?’ the stranger asked him, pointing at a house about a hundred metres down the road to their right.

He could only see the lights. ‘Y…Yeah, yeah, what about it?’

‘That’s your hoop, Justin.’

‘My hoop?’

‘Your destination,’ the stranger explained. ‘Make it to the front door of that house and you’ll be playing basketball tomorrow.’

Justin’s heart was pounding frenetically. ‘W…What? What are you..?’

‘I’ll give you a three-minute head start,’ the stranger said.

Justin, with a tremendous effort, managed to get to his feet. ‘You're kidding…you’re playing, right?’ His body was shaking uncontrollably in fear.

The stranger chuckled. ‘Games, Justin, games. Do I really look like I play games?’

Without further delay, Justin began to stagger towards the house. He was heaving and splashing saliva everywhere. His mind was a whirlpool. It ached and crunched and churned and so did his stomach. He really wished he was sober now. The only sound in the street was his shoes clacking onto the concrete as he made his way towards the house: his target…his hoop as the stranger had mildly put it.

He would manage a few steps then slip to the ground. He had to move. He picked his body up and swayed some more. Come on, Justin! He yelled in his head. You can make it! I know you can make it! He turned his head around. He could no longer see anyone on the bench. ‘Oh, God! Oh..!’ Tears fell in rapids down his cheeks. Nevertheless, he continued to lurch towards the house. He was now at least twenty metres from the door. ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ he laughed. His tears had become tears of joy. He lunged some more. He heaved and panted. fifteen-metres left. He staggered. Fourteen metres. Two-three more steps. Only thirteen metres to the hoop. He laughed out loud. He was ecstatic.

He suddenly felt something heavy and sharp fall hard against his right calf. He bellowed in agony. His bellow was not loud enough. The trip had drained his energy. He fell face first into the gravel. The pain was unbearable. He felt an identical pain fall on his left calf. ‘Help me!’ he yelled. ‘Someone, please!’ There was no answer. He was too weak to scream any louder. He rolled onto his back. Someone was staring down at him. He could make out the same structure of the stranger on the bench. Something long was slung over the stranger’s shoulder. Justin was in excruciating pain. ‘Whoever you are! Please, my family is rich; they’ll give you whatever you want. Please…!’ he pleaded some more. ‘I have a little sister! My mother…My sister, please, have mercy on me!’ The pain in his legs grew intense by the second.

The stranger was immobile. Frozen as Justin’s screams and pleas for help dragged on and on. Finally, the stranger rose what was in their hands above their head and swung it hard towards Justin’s face.

Sineas had been startled awake by a noise just outside his window. As always, it was wide open. He rubbed his eyes and allowed them to blindly scour the room hopelessly. It was just too dark to see anything. He rubbed his eyes and decided closing the windows for one night was not such a bad idea. He shut the windows and made his way back into bed. He got under the covers and drew the blankets to his chin.

‘Sineas.’

Sineas sat up, startled. ‘What the hell!’

‘It’s okay, it’s just me.’

He groaned wearily. ‘What do you want? Can’t you see I’m sleeping?’

‘Sleeping people don’t talk, Sineas…unless they have intense psychological problems concerning a mother in an asylum and a father who committed suicide.’

‘So you just woke me up to remind me of the only parts of my past I’m trying to forget?’

‘No, I just want to talk.’

Sineas rubbed his face in exhaustion.

‘You promised to take me to school today. Why didn’t you?’

‘It was boring. I actually did you a favour.’

‘What exactly was boring about it?’

Sineas sighed in annoyance. ‘Some hotshot guy called Justin came over to my table at lunch and sort of…bothered me.’

‘You mean bullied?’

‘Bullying is something else entirely. What that guy did was just immature.’

‘You want me to do something about it?’

Sineas growled in anguish and said, ‘Damn, now you’re bothering me too. Did you really wake me up for that?’

‘I just wanted to offer you a solution. Do you really think you can go through an entire year of high school with this kid doing this to you?’

He laid his head back onto the pillow. He shifted to his left side. ‘Can you be quiet, please? It’s a school night.’

‘ *Sigh* Fine. Goodnight.’

Sineas mumbled a goodnight too.