Last Tuesday, Dominic sent an email to me asking if I was up for racquetball Wed or Thurs night. I almost responded with a “Yes” when I recalled that Patrick had asked to play on Thurs. And it wouldn’t be a 3-way game, because KT was busy with a Dutch class that afternoon. So with the gauntlet of a father-son game facing me, I turned the Dom down, and suggested Saturday as a possibility.

The Dominator game postponed, I girded my loins for Thursday’s game. Patrick showed up right on time, and after about 10 minutes of chatting, we got down to work. P. scored first, and then the adrenaline started churning, and I pulled ahead. There were many opportunities for kills, but instead of smashing the ball into a strip 6 inches above the bottom of the front wall, I systematically made my returns to the rear corners. I do so love to watch P. make those impossible leaps and back-handed smashes at the corner balls. He is almost always successful in returning them, but he can’t kill from the corners, so when his ball comes down from the front wall, I just lob another return into the opposite corner, from which he makes another incredible return.

So that’s why our games go on so long. After half an hour of one corner lob after another, I won, and we went into the 2nd game. (With Dominic, it’d be the 3rd or 4th game. The Dom doesn’t mess around. It’s one kill or miss-kill after another.) We were panting heavily in the 2nd game, and I was up 11-5, when Katie appeared. After an excess of unpronounceable Dutch words, the teacher quit early. Aha! It’s a reprieve for all of us.

P and I both switched to left hands. The 3 of us played for 20 minutes, and had a great, relaxing game, which KT won. At 6 pm sharp, the 2nd game went into sudden death at 10-10-10. My serve, and it happened to hit a floor-wall corner and die. So I pulled that one out, just by accident.

It’s Friday now, and I’m wondering if the Dominator has had some practice with his other partner. I can’t rely on him going into our once-a-week games without an intermediate game anymore. He gets a chance to polish his serves and kills without me watching. But then, I get a similar chance, too. So our games may be interesting. Stay tuned.

–rakkity