Football Short Stories

Good Feeling - Xavi Hernández

Good Feeling
Won't you stay with me
Just a little longer
It always seems like you're leaving
When I need you here
Just a little longer

"Mamá look!" exclaimed a little boy pointing proudly at a shapeless pile of snow.

Rena smiled tenderly at her four-year-old son, guessing the formless white bundle was meant to resemble a snowman. "It's beautiful cariño, did you do it on your own?"

She got up from the frozen bench she had been seated on and made her way through the snow covering her front yard. She walked over to the little boy, who was still admiring his creation with pride. Giggling slightly, she ruffled his hair for a moment and pecked a kiss on his cold cheek.

"Aye Iván, let's get you inside or you might freeze on the spot." Rena said grabbing her son's little gloved hand.

Iván had been playing outside for most of the afternoon and she could tell he was starting to grow tired. They walked back inside the house, where the delicious heat of the fireplace welcomed them in comfort.

"Sit here cariño, I'll make you some hot chocolate." Smile said showing the sofa of their living room. She turned on the TV for her son and walked towards the kitchen. It was an open one which made it easier for Rena to keep an eye on her son who was already absorbed by the children's television program.

"Mamá?" Iván called a few seconds later, moving his attention away from the cartoons to look at his mother who started to heat some milk on the stove.

"Si?"

"Is papá still coming today?"

"Yes honey, he promised to visit remember?"

...

"Mamá?"

"Si?"

"Is papá going to see my snowman when he comes?"

"Of course cariño."

...

"Mamá?"

"Si?"

"Are you going to make hot chocolate for papá too?"

Rena smiled, like many four year old children, Iván was always one to ask a million odd questions all the time.

"If he wants some, sure, cariño."

...

"Mamá?"

"Si?"

"Is papá still going to be here when I wake up?"

Rena cringed, she knew what the question really meant. Iván was asking if his father would spend the night at their house and it put her in a very delicate place.

Her son's questions were always very endearing unless he started asking questions about his father. It was difficult for her to give him apropriate answers whenever he opened the subject because Iván never quite comprehended the fact that his parents had been separated for a few months and were soon filing for divorce.

She always did her best to tell the truth while being gentle enough so he would accept it, but the four-year old still had trouble understanding what this separation meant and why his father wasn't living with them anymore.

"Papá has his own house cariño."

"But why doesn't he just live in this house?"

Because your papá is unlivable, can't hold a relationship with his wife and would put football in front of his own son's needs... she thought wearily, but of course she'd never say it out loud.