Posted by Os Davis in fiction by Os Davis, Tlachtli | 2 Comments
The Ball Game, chapter one
“Chapter one…” –Woody Allen, Manhattan
About a month ago, this writer answered a call for submissions for sports fiction from a book publisher which may or may not have been in Minneapolis.
The ad requested novella-length works about young people succeeding in sports for the 12- to 14-year-old market; despite the fact that the call was for stories about “baseball, football, basketball, soccer, etc.,” this old curmudgeon decided simply to feed his obsession for tlachtli and give ‘em something they weren’t expecting.
The following represents my submission and would be chapter one in such a book. “The Ball Game” is a story – based on a true story, honestly! – that BuckBokai’s been obsessed with for years and is willing to write in any format, really.
Please note that i have in fact properly copyrighted this work in two countries, so don’t even think about the p-word – internet-based non-rules about intellectual property be damned. And if BuckBokai’s average one reader a day just happens in this case to be someone of consequence in the publishing field, well, hey, get in touch. I’m easy.
Incidentally, no, of course i never even heard from the publisher again. The lesson, as always: Never apply through Craig’s List.
From “The Ball Game” (based on a true story)
Chapter One: Camargo
Some call it ollama. Others call it tlachtli. Most everyone knows it as The Ball Game and all who have seen Camargo of Texcoco play it agree on one thing: that he is indisputably the best in all of Azteca.
Ten thousand fans, maybe more in the hometown crowd cheer on their Texcoco team and Camargo always at the center of their hearts. Just now, look! He leaps straight up in the air, soaring above four of the six Tenochtitlan players who jump with him by a two feet, easily.
In desperation, losing on points, a Tenochtitlan player had tried to knock the ball through the goal – a gamble that Camargo will make them pay for. With a whump Camargo heads the ball and with a whoosh it flies far downcourt. His teammate Eztli, having seen what Camargo planned, sprints with the speed of a jaguar to trap the ball before it touches the ground.
He does so easily. The ball connects smoothly with Eztli’s knee and he hammers it home to connect with a hard slap against the wall. One more point, the game nearly out of reach for Tenochtitlan, and the crowd explodes with cheering. As the referee retrieves the ball to begin the next play at center court, Eztli sees Camargo ringed by thrilled teammates. Eztli points to him as if to say, “You. You really were the one who scored that point.”
The rules of the Ball Game are simple enough, but the playing is difficult. The I-shaped court is about 100 feet long with sloping walls that reach 10 feet in height. At the peak on either side is a hoop placed vertically against the wall. Players may touch the ball only with heads, hips, elbows and knees. If the ball touches the ground, the team last to touch the ball loses possession and the referee restarts play.
One point is scored every time the ball touches the wall defended by the opposing team, but the ball going through the hoop scores a goal, which ends the game.
Late into the four-hour game, Texcoco is leading on points 15-7, a huge margin to overcome with only minutes remaining. Camargo’s team has the game won, but until the signal comes from the royal box positioned far above the court atop one high sloping wall, the game goes on.
In the royal box, Tayanna worries for her husband-to-be Camargo. “The Ball Game is such a dangerous undertaking,” she thinks to herself for the thousandth time that day.
At ground level, six-year-old Chantico isn’t worried about Camargo, but he is worried about the view. Pressed into a cheering rocking crowd, he glimpses his older brother’s play for a few minutes at a time until a noisy adult blocks his sight again. Camargo knows two things with all his heart: That Chantico is the best Ball Player in the world and that he’ll be just as good someday.
Again the Tenochtitlan players play desperately, pushing and shoving to get at the ball – everything they can do except obviously foul a Texcoco player, they do. With only minutes remaining in the game, their only hope is to ring the ball through the hoop for a game-ending goal.
And with so little time left, the referee maybe allows just a bit more hard hitting and rough play then he might otherwise. The Ball Game is no sport for the timid, after all.
Tenochtitlan’s star Panitizin plays especially wildly, thrashing his huge body about and jumping higher than seems possible for such a massive man. The green body paint making up most of his “uniform” flies off his muscular body along with rivers of sweat as he lunges for the ball again and again. He grunts to push aside two Texcoco players to elbow the ball back to a teammate, again keeping possession of the ball.
The young Tenochtitlan player misjudges the pass, jabbing at it wildly with a hip. In a flash, he sees with horror that the ball merely floats high and slowly in the air, heading straight … to the waiting, smiling Camargo.
Camargo confidently approaches a step to make contact with the ball. Everyone expects him simply to send it flying downcourt for another easy point, but an idea has formed in Camargo’s mind.
The crowd, the players, the Princess Tayanna, all look with astonishment when they see Camargo jumping, bent knee leading. With a movement he’d practiced again and again, he sends the ball flying. It caroms off the wall … and up … and in!
The stadium is shaken with Texcoco’s happiness. Minutes pass while the noise continues, a wave of cheering that engulfs the stadium. But the roaring quickly ebbs, as one by one the crowd realizes the players aren’t joining in celebration, and that the screaming wail of a single man are overpowering their own cheering. Prone there on the court, writhing in blood and pain, his knee torn open exposing bone and sinew for all to see, is Camargo.
And now everything changes: Camargo, the greatest, will never play The Ball Game again.
Hi! Where did you get the great photo of the tlachtli player in mid-action? I would like to get a copy please. Nice story too..Thanks!