Linksshifter II

A Path Between The Waves - ~~

"Miss – miss – can ye gies back wur ba? Ra ba –" Sonali blinked, trying to focus on the bunch of kids over under the lights, and they changed their tune too as they got a better look at who had the ball. "Tam – you go an get it, she's a burd aye, no goany lamp it here." "Naw I willnae – you lost it, you go an fetch, mate." "Get tae – am no goin way up where she could roll it down, you go an –"

Sonali had had quite enough of this. Maybe she was just a useless football getting punted around between two or three groups of adults who thought of her like a Photoshop brochure diversity filter or a piece of interior décor like a fucking plant stand right now, but not a week ago she had been in the first XI of a premier league club, and fucked if she was going to let a bunch of primary schoolers talk to her like that. Sonali dropped the ball off her foot and spun it down with the sole of her trainers, the backspin popping it up to where she could hit it up and ahead with her knee: get some air, get a running start.

The kids were barely watching at the start, arguing between themselves, but they definitely noticed by the time that Sonali reached the bottom of the slope, just about just on time, barely needing to jump to put her head into the ball – they just weren't expecting it, couldn't react fast enough to do anything about it as she ran onto the falling header at full speed, picking it up just as it would have hit the ground between the two boys who'd been arguing about who had to go humor the girl. She popped the ball up and spun, carrying it through the knot of kids on her chest, shielding it just like she'd do in a real game, eyes and ears scanning automatically, picking up the piles of jumpers they were using for goalposts. Against grown people, she'd knock it down by knee and put it on her right boot for a shot just inside the left-hand post, half again the height of the ball off the ground, going up, but it took a real shit to run a ball down for kids and then go lamp it halfway across town again. Sonali caught the ball short along her right leg, still not all the way through the turn, and dribbled backwards, bringing the ball up, foot-knee-foot-chest-foot-head-foot-knee-chest-knee-chest-knee-head-knee-head-head-head, popping the ball up as she crossed the goal line, rolling it back under her foot. She smirked at the kids staring at her, half angry, half awestruck. "Well? That in aye?"

It took a second for it to sink in, but only a second, and the kids started babbling at her, at each other. Eventually one of them managed to push his way out, a spotty spokesman in second-hand British Knights, to yell more directly over. "Who in feck are you?"

"I don't give out my name to weans who can't take a ball off me," Sonali said, warming up a little, "but I don't wear this just to look good." She pulled at the badge on her chest, snapping the fabric of her tracksuit.

"That wurny fair," another one of them said. "We wisnae ready – if we wis nae burd'd come burstin thrae like that. You'll no like it when we try for real."

Sonali smiled. "We'll see anaw. Mon then – how bout it? I'll go up an score the other end, then come score down here again, an if any of yous takes the ball off me, we'll see who's good an who's just haverin." The kids looked around from one to the other, not sure if they wanted to go ahead with this, but not backing off, and Sonali tapped the ball ahead, head up, looking to pick an opening.

The kids were poor losers, and Sonali had to score twice more at both ends before the last of them finally collapsed, breathing deep and heavy as he pushed down on his knees, and gave up trying to cobble her and maybe take the ball while she tried to see if she could put weight on her ankle. Sonali stopped and pulled the ball back, hands on her hips. "So yeah, we done yet anaw? Dunno about yous, but I can keep this going as longs you like."

"Fuxakes, Tam," one of them said from the ground, "hale aff. Wur deid. It's dark, an ma maw'll be wantin me hame. She's won. Ye want tae keep it up, dae it yir ain self."

The one who was bent over pushed himself up, wobbling, wiping his nose or maybe wiping the sweat and grime and tears out of his specs. "You give up. I'm no. I'm no let –" Sonali tapped a heel pass over to him and hit him in the shins; he nearly fell over, half in surprise and probably half from just the impact of the ball.

"There you go; got the ball, didny lose to a girl, just had her take pity on you is all." The sun was down and in the bare light of the distant streetlights it was hard to tell, but the kid was twisting himself up like his face was burning. "And your mate's right – it's dark out, and good kids got to run home to their maws. Good game – maybe next time I get the day off training, we can have another match." Sonali rolled her head around, stretching out, as the other kids started to roll themselves off the ground.

"See, that's whit I said," the speccy one was saying to some of the others as Sonali caught up with them on her bike, limping along the far side of the park. "If it's no big boys it's big girls; that's no fitba, that's bullyin'. I said I widny, an from today am no goany. Am goany catch Pokemons after school the morra, ye dony get malkied daein that."

"Aye, but you dony need big kids to come an take yir Pokemons – ye get weans an saddos anaw, and there's nae good spawns round here the now."

"Naw, there is – I got a tip, that there's types that like the sea – an I know where there's a bit that's marked a beach an naebody goes there. Am goin there the morra." The speccy kid kept going, but Sonali had gone along past and out of earshot, picking up speed as the slope of the road changed; it was probably just the extra speed, or that she was breathing heavier from the workout, but she had the feeling that the trilobite around her neck was pressing more heavily on her than it should, stone cold against her skin.