a hop, skip'n a jump

Finding Neverland?

we had an hour to kill until joni's dance rehearsals ended. mom had a meeting that would run late into the evening. it was me and the kids.

6 o'clock and i sat on a bench and watched andrew play with other children on the playground. the sun still warmed us like it would in the early afternoon.

after dance rehearsals, the three of us enjoyed a quick dinner and had dessert in the backyard. the sun was still up and we most certainly did not want it to go to waste. we swung on the patio swing while eating our ice cream, talking about silly things and made-up games ... just enjoying each other's company, really, in the quiet of the early evening sun.

but it was in the last hour of the day's light that the adventure began.

i sat outside by the front door to keep an eye on andrew who insisted on skating for a while before bed. it was quiet outside. just me and him (joni was inside showering and getting ready for bed). with his helmet on, he looked like a bobble head holding a hockey stick and donning blue and black in-line skates. as a matter of fact, the more he looked like a bobble head because he was on skates, and being the amateur hockey player that he is, he wobbled!

he skated down the driveway keeping his stick low to the ground the whole time. he stopped at the manhole in the center of our cul-de-sac.

NO, it was the center of the ice rink.

it was time for the face-off. tap.tap.tap. off he went. there were motions of him passing the puck. skate left. right. towards the goal. he shoots. he scores!

he skates up towards me, and another player takes to the ice. he's on the bench for not even a minute when they switch up again. this happens several times during the first fifteen minutes of the game.

it was an exciting first half. i knew the first half was over because andrew threw his stick down to the side claiming that the zamboni was coming out. half-time lasted about as long as his time on the bench during switch-ups.

"1-2-3, FIRE!" he yelled. then he was off to the manhole again ... er, the center.

the second half was more exciting than the first. there was some brutal pushing going on and andrew's teammate was sent to the penalty box. andrew was off the ice at the time of the foul, and he wasted no time when the call was made. he got onto the ice, and apparently made a great play. there were some great passes and at the shot to the goal i yelled out "Ooooooh! Good try." and he corrected me at that. evidently, it had slipped right by the goalie and went in!

i do believe that andrew's team, FIRE, won. unfortunately, the score slips my mind.

it was a great game. a REAL game. it could not have been more real. every time i tried to step back from the game to see that we were really just outside the front door where he was playing alone in the street, i got sucked right back into his momentary reality.

the power of his imagination was so intense that i became a part of it as well ... and i allowed myself. it was a great thirty minutes and the best hockey game i've seen thus far.

posted by angeline @ 10:19 PM