Page 17 - Publishing Inspiration Christmas Card 2022

concerned that it might push her heart a little too much. When I
asked her about it, she brushed it off.
“No,” she replied. “I do just fine, and I make sure I get my
fair share of shots. My team ended up winning three of the five
games. And a couple of the times, I was the one that made the
winning hit across the net.”
She was proud of the excellent job she did, and I was pleased
she found something she enjoyed. But the more she talked about it,
the more shocked I was. Still, I tried not to show my angst for her. I
didn’t want to say anything that would deter her from doing the
things she liked.
There were a couple more times that she played volleyball,
and every time, she had to tell me about the games. She said her
team was even getting so they would set the ball for each other so the
people on the front could slam it.
By this time, I was so perplexed about her playing volleyball
that I took some time off work to come see the next match. When I
got there, I found the tables in the cafeteria scooted to the sides. A
net between three and four feet high divided the room. All the
residents sat in chairs on their side of the net. A worker launched a
ball-shaped balloon out into their midst, and the residents started
smacking it back and forth with paddles.
When the match was over, I told Mom she hadn’t described
the low net, the balloon ball, the chairs, the paddles, or any of that.
She looked at me with disgust. “Why should I? What else
would we be doing?”
I thought of what I had imagined and smiled. “It doesn’t
matter as long as you were having fun.”

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