It was Saturday morning and Bill met Bernard down at the Conkrite Gym for their weekly basketball session. Eight of their close friends usually joined them for some very competitive five on five full court games. This time one of the regulars, Pete, couldn't show so his cousin took his place. His name was Arnie. Arnie was a very smooth basketball player. He had good handles and a deft touch around the three-point arc.

Bill was usually the sharp shooter in the bunch and a fair rebounder for his height. He got off to a good start and put his team on top. That's when Arnie started"trash talkin". First he informed Bill that he would score at will. And that's just what he did. He was just too strong to stop on the inside. As good a shape as Bill was in, it wasn't enough to stop Arnie. He just muscled his way past Bill. Bill tried positioning himself so that he could stay away from Arnie's strong body and finesse block Arnie's shot, but it was almost like Arnie was inside of Bill's head. Arnie was always one step ahead of Bill.

Bill thought to himself," At least I have my jump shot working." That's is about when Arnie announced to all the players that he was going to shut Bill down. Bill was confident and he had heard this kind of trash talkin before. He was one heckuva offensive player and that would not happen. But Bill was wrong. Arnie did shut him down. He stole the ball from Bill several times and blocked Bill's shots at will, sometimes unmercifully. The final block was so powerful that it sent Bill hard to the gym floor. Bill was a little frustrated, tired, angry, and embarrassed by Arnie's athletic escapades. Bill attempted to inbound the ball to Bernard when Arnie blocked it back into Bill's face, splitting his bottom lip. Bill glared at Arnie, while tasting the saltiness of his own blood, for a minute. Bill never flinched.

Arnie's team never looked back and with his help easily won the game. Bill was mad very mad. Arnie walked up to Bill an offered him a spot on his team. Bill declined the offer and was terribly offended by Arnie's cockiness. Before the new game got underway Arnie hollered our"Hey Bill I guess I got to dog you again, old dude!" Bill had had enough of Arnie but he kept his composure and kept on playing. On the next point, bill was positioning himself for the rebound when Arnie caught him with a ferocious elbow in the ribs. Bill hit the floor struggling to get oxygen into his burning lungs. Arnie stood above Bill laughing and saying" You guys better get some one else to guard me, old dude ain't quick enough or tough enough to guard me". That was it. Bill had had more than enough. Bill ignored his pain and sprung quickly to his feet. He walked straight over to Arnie and planted a hard right fist into his rib cage. He finished him off with a quick left hook that sent Arnie sprawling on the floor. Bill stood over Arnie ready for more action when Terry, one of the smallest players on the floor, at 5'4" tall, stepped in between Bill and Arnie and told Bill to stop.

Bill was still angry. He told Terry to stay out of it. Terry put his hands on Bill's shoulder and Bill pushed Terry. Terry just stepped back up to Bill very quickly and very calmly and said" Hey Bill, you don't want to mess with me". Bill thought about it a minute. Then he observed how calm Terry was about the whole thing. Although, Terry had an inner peace about him, his eyes were steely cold and almost lifeless. Bill had just handled a much bigger guy than he. Terry should be a breeze."Deck'im Cuz", shouted Bernard. Terry mockingly echoed Bernard's request,"Yeah deck me why don't you Bill". Bill hesitated; he wanted to, but he wasn't sure. Terry looked right into Bill's eye's and calmly said," I didn't think so Bill" Then Terry turned his back on Bill and shouted to everyone, "Yo let's play some mo b-ball yall!" Bill just stood there stunned. He glanced over at Bernard and Bernard just glared at him in disgust and walked back down the court. I t was very embarrassing for Bill. How could he not act? What was it about Terry that transformed him into a coward?

After a moment of deep thought, Bill re-joined the game. Arnie behaved himself and even apologized to Bill. But Arnie was still a better player than Bill and Bill's team lost all of the games that morning. After the game, Terry walked up to Bill and said" Nice game. What happened wasn't personal. You were holdin up the game, man. We still cool". "Yeah we cool". Said Bill.

As soon as Bernard and Bill left the gym and got into the car, Bernard lit into Bill. "What a wuss you are cuz. You let a little pixie back you down just after you nailed Goliath." "Yeah Yeah Yeah", replied Bill," It was something about him. He was just to calm". "No its somethin about you my little sugar plum fairy", Bernard said laughingly. Bill didn't reply. He just smiled a Bernard, started the car, and began driving. While he was driving, he was having, for some unknown reasons, thoughts about his own mortality.