Kick-off

In the center of the field and thirty feet in the air, a soccer ball slowly, dramatically materialized as if from nowhere. About half of the players assembled under the ball, it dropped to them, and the game started.

The middle fielders kept up a high tempo and intensity when one on one, very much like Patrick was used to watching on TV. But they were not allowed to cross their lines or shoot directly on the goal. The ball first had to pass through one of their team’s attackers on the strike field. The field around the goal was for the goalkeeper alone; if any player passed those lines, the ball was moved in the other team’s favor to correspond with the violation.

The first pass to one of the West team’s attacker girls changed the character of the game because they and the defenders were slower, but the intensity was still there and the play equally exiting.

Adding to the fast pace was a seemingly invisible force moving the ball around the field when necessary, instantly and accurate to the officials’ calls. When a foul occurred the ball would drop by itself from one spot on the field to another. If someone kicked the ball out, it was immediately bounced in again in the other team’s favor. There were almost no interruptions in the game.

So with no goals scored in the first fifth of the game, it was thrilling nonetheless. Dennis and Jack were cheering loudly and jumping up and down in their seats, and during the few brief lulls they argued and commented on everything. Tobias was cheering too, waving his silly hat, while Nina kept a somewhat lower profile. Patrick, who was sitting between Tobias and Jack, had gotten caught up in all the excitement on the court and all the people watching/singing/cheering/making all kinds of joyful noises. He hadn’t experienced this kind of excitement before, where people supporting opposite teams sit together, cheering instead of fighting.

Between fifths was a ten-minute break, and Dennis and Jack dragged Patrick along to get some snacks and something to drink. Tobias and Nina said they were okay for now. Snacks and drinks were free, of course, and with no money hassles there were no queues. In fact there were so many stands handing out snacks that in no time Dennis, Jack, and Patrick were back at their seats with their arms full of popcorn, nachos, hotdogs, and candy.

Before they could get settled again Tobias had snatched a packet of Nerds from Patrick’s snack box as he was putting his drink down.

“Hey, I saw that!” Dennis argued, laughing at his father.

“Yeah, watch it Patrick—he does that all the time and still he says he doesn’t want any,” Jack added leaning over to Patrick.

“What, who me?” Tobias said, teasingly, and snatched some popcorn this time from Jack.

“Ahh, watch it Jack, now he’s stealing from you, too!” Dennis flew up from his seat with a grin.

“I’m allowed too, I have my snatch hat on,” Tobias argued.

“But that hat’s silly—Mom says—and you should get your own food.” Dennis was trying to protect his brothers.

“No, it’s not silly, is it?” Tobias spoke loudly, seeking support from the people sitting near them.

Now some good-natured arguments started to spread among their neighbors about Tobias’ hat, with people pointing at his and some at their own team hats. Nina just laughed—this was typical Tobias, teasing and making a scene out of nothing. Patrick enjoyed it, too, sitting in the middle of it all, trying to take part in the arguing.

“Here, Patrick, fair is fair. Now you can swipe from me,” Tobias said, putting his silly hat on Patrick’s head with everyone laughing.

“But you don’t have anything to eat!” Patrick argued.

“It’s only a matter of imagination; I’ll show you,” Tobias answered, taking back his hat, putting it on, and at the same time snatching some French fries from Patrick with his other hand while Patrick was eyeing the hat.

“Watch it, Patrick, he’s doing it again!” Dennis shouted.

Everybody around was laughing, and while Patrick quickly locked down at his snack box, Tobias was quick to put the fries in his mouth.

“Do you want to try and borrow my hat again?” Tobias asked.

“No—I don’t want it—you look ridiculous in it.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, Rid Icculus is my name, and with the magic of this hat I will now, openly, fair and square, snatch a French fry from this young man without him knowing.” Tobias stood up from his seat proudly presenting the scene to everyone nearby.

But while drawing everyone’s attention and holding his hat high in the air with one hand, he snatched yet another fry from Patrick with his other hand without anyone seeing and put it in his sleeve.

“Right, okay Patrick, are you ready?” Tobias announced.

Patrick held both his hands over his snack box to protect it. Tobias smiled, and with a quick move he put his hat on Patrick’s head for a second time and then held it high again. He then tipped the hat and dropped the fry into it without anyone noticing. After yet another announcement he proudly picked the fry out of the hat and showed it to everyone.

Tobias was greeted with applause and laughter, although nether Patrick, Jack, or Dennis understood a thing about how he did it. Tobias bowed, thanking his audience dramatically, and then he sat down again smiling, without meeting his kids’ wondering eyes even slightly. Nina laughed quietly, enjoying the scene.

“Right kids—the second fifth is coming up—are you ready?!” After a couple of seconds pretending to talk to Nina, Tobias suddenly cheered his kids on again.

All three of them sat up in their seats and instinctively moved their snack boxes away from him. He grinned.

New team players were entering the field, and as before the ball was dropped from above to start the game. Again, the character of the game changed, with girls in the middle field, some equally looking handicapped boys as attackers and defenders, and two fully capable adult men as goalkeepers. However, this time the goals were set up to be much bigger and easier to make.

It all reminded Patrick of a pinball game, with the ball going back and forth and never really put out of play until someone scored. The players had to be constantly alert all over the field, because when there was a foul somewhere or the ball passed a boundary line, it disappeared from the player who had it and showed up somewhere else on the court without any notice of where that would be. This extra element caused the game to shift quickly, and the funniest situations occurred when the ball disappeared and everyone ran around trying to be the first to find it again.

There was no anger on the court between the players. Instead there was laughter; all players were obviously enjoying themselves. As the game ended five to three in the West team’s favor, they all clapped for each other.

As people stood up and started making their way out of the stadium or down to the field (many workers in bright yellow shirts appeared to help those with handicaps get where they wanted to go), Patrick’s TeeWee rang. It was Lilly, locating him. Through his TeeWee Patrick could see where Lilly was also, and they agreed on where to meet.

“You go on, Patrick; we’re going down to the field for a while. There’s some fun for the kids there after the game that Dennis doesn’t want to miss. We’ll see you back home later,” Tobias said.

“And dinner is at eight,” Nina added.

They separated, and with the guidance of his TeeWee, Patrick soon found the certain hotdog stand where he was to meet Lilly, and soon after she showed up with her friends, Gina, Amy, Finn, and Henry. Patrick recognized Finn and Amy from before when they played croquet. 

They greeted each other and discussed the game a bit. The after-game show they wanted to go to was in the castle and for teenagers, Lilly explained to Patrick. Excited, they left the stadium to head there.

The castle rose tall over the grounds around it, and it was a massive sight from all directions, especially from the stadium. They didn’t go underground to take a worm there; instead they walked, taking some park paths that were more like park avenues in width, with various sports fields and playgrounds along the sides. Closer to the castle were parks with many kinds of flowers and trees.

They entered the castle through the main gate facing north, a different gate from when Patrick entered for lunch with Mr. Green that first day of class. This north gate was huge and swallowed many people at once. The staircases were wide as streets, and in the hallways the ceiling was several stories high. Down under the castle was a big worm junction, from where you also had a quick and swift access to the four mush tower terminals. Lilly explained to Patrick that she and her friends had direct access through a distance worm from down under there to back home.

After having passed by two big hallways, they climbed a staircase taking them two stories up to another hall where a lot of teens were gathering. This hall was smaller but nevertheless held at least five hundred people. The stone walls, stone floor, and massive wooden furniture were all impressive, just as in a fairytale. On the walls were big monumental paintings of magnificent landscapes and paintings of various animals.  From what Patrick could see there were no portraits of people, at least not here. After a few minutes of waiting, a massive oak door opened at one end of the hall, revealing the room where the event was going to take place. The room overwhelmed Patrick.

It had long, draped curtains hanging down from the high ceiling, between ancient-looking, high castle windows that broke the sunlight into soft, sometimes colored beams covering the room. The ceiling was carried up by massive beams and made of foot-wide wooden planks, and hanging from the ceiling were six giant, ornate chandeliers, seemingly covering the room from above.

The room easily held as many people as could fit in the outside hall. In the back of the room from where they entered, a built-in stage jutted out about ten feet, and above the stage were the same type of castle windows, but of course much shorter from the top of the stage. The main high windows on the walls however must have been at least twenty feet high, starting from about six feet from the floor and reaching almost to the ceiling. From the floor up was a wooden panel about eight feet high with a cut out for the windows and stage.

This room was situated in one of the many castle wings that ran from the main section, stretching up and ending with lots of towers and pinnacles at different heights. To Patrick’s amazement, there was no graffiti anywhere that he could see, no broken or worn-out furniture. And all this first-class stuff was for kids? Patrick felt he was walking through a king’s palace, like he was being invited to a royal celebration.

“Come on, Patrick, let’s go to the bar and have something to drink,” Lilly pulled his arm.

Along each side was a very long bar, with many high bar stools. Small tables and smaller stools were nearby, plus a couple of massive, long oak tables with benches. In the corners was a bit of free space, revealing doors to the restrooms.

The six teens found six barstools all in a row, which they occupied in a hurry.

“What do you want to have, Patrick?” Henry asked as he sat next to him at his right.

“I don’t know; I’ve never been in a place like this before.”

“Then I suggest you ask the bartender. I’m going to, too,” Lilly said, taking a seat to his left.

“I will, too,” Gina joined in, while the others wanted to have a look at the drink menu that they found on the bar.

One of the many bartenders approached them, and Henry asked for a recommendation. Just to hear the bartender describe the drinks (all non-alcoholic of course) Patrick enjoyed much. They were treated like adults, which meant to him that this was no children’s party with kids running around screaming, and Patrick felt mature.

After a short discussion, Patrick was recommended a mango/pineapple/squash something with ice, and the others were recommended something different for each of them. Patrick was handed a tall, thin glass that looked seriously expensive, and the others’ glasses matched their different drinks too. Gina ordered some appetizers to go with the drinks, and then they made a toast to welcome Patrick to the group of friends. He noticed that here drinks and snacks were free as well.

For a reason that Patrick didn’t understand, he felt comfortable with Lilly and the rest of them, and rather immediately they all started talking, interrupting each other and finishing each other’s stories and singing little jingles together. Patrick was acutely aware of being out with kids his age in such a cool place; he still had a hard time believing it was true.

After they chatted for a while, telling Patrick about themselves and their school and asking him a few reserved questions, the band got on stage and the room fell quiet.  This was no children’s band; these were serious young musicians, some visibly handicapped and others not. There were eight of them up on the stage, arranged like a very full rock group, with drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, a singer, and a small horn section of three.  They played something kind of like jazz and kind of like rock; Patrick had never heard this exact style but he liked it.  They weren’t quiet, but he could still talk with his new friends over them sometimes. 

Almost as soon as the band started, about twenty teens, boys and girls, walked out to the floor in front of the stage and started to dance, and in time others joined them. Patrick looked at them with big eyes—handicapped or not didn’t matter—they were all bouncing and wriggling around with smiles on their faces.

“Do you want to dance?” Lilly asked, stepping down from her barstool, as did the others.

Patrick had never danced before and of course had no idea how. But again, after looking at the other kids out there, obviously not fabulous at it but still out there having fun trying, he thought, “What kind of a person am I if I don’t even try?”

What he said was, “I don’t know if I can—I haven’t danced before.”

“No worries, we’ll show you,” Lilly said as if there were nothing to it.

So Patrick, too, jumped down from his barstool, and they all left their drinks for later. Patrick was reluctant to leave his, so Lilly said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be here when we get back!”

It took Patrick a few songs to loosen up and get his body moving. Lilly and her friends included him in their tight group, everyone facing the band and then each other at different times, casually moving around to the beat. Now and then they went back to the bar for a pause, and they had time for one more round of drinks before Patrick had to head home for dinner.

No one asked him to stay longer than he said he could; instead they all said variations of “See you later, Patrick!” with Lilly saying, “Let’s keep in touch.”

Patrick left with an impression he would never forget. He followed his TeeWee’s directions back home with a smile on his face all the way.

Opening the front door, Dennis and Jack were on him right away, asking nosey questions.

“Guys, stop it! Let Patrick come in—don’t bother him like that,” Nina shouted at them.

Unwillingly, Dennis and Jack stopped to let Patrick pass, but they followed him hard wherever he went. Patrick first went into the kitchen where Tobias and Nina where preparing dinner. It was going to be a cook out on the balcony.

“Did you have fun, Patrick?” Nina asked.

“Yeah, I’ve never been in a place like that before.”

“Glad you enjoyed it. There’ll be more events like that up in the castle— at least once a month,” Tobias chimes in without teasing.

“Did you meet Lilly?” Dennis asked while smiling from behind, with Jack joining in smiling at him too.

“Guys!” Nina called at them.

Tobias laughed. “Scram. Go and wash up for dinner—you’ve got fries sticking out of your ears.” Tobias reached for their ears with both hands. There was a cheering shout, and both Dennis and Jack escaped in laughter.

Patrick sat down at the kitchen table for a while, happily telling Tobias and Nina about the event, his new friends, and them dancing. After a while Dennis and Jack showed up again, clean and dressed up a bit, and Patrick cheerily chatted with them at the kitchen table before he went to the bathroom to do the same.

At about eight o’clock dinner was ready, right when the second sun had passed below the horizon, making the sky dark. But it was still warm; no one bothered to put on a sweater; they just turned on a few lantern-like lamps on the balcony. Tobias was going to grill pork loin, and he and Nina had prepared fresh vegetables and sauces to go with it. While preparing the food, Tobias and Nina took turns in the bathroom washing and dressing up a bit. If there was going to be a late evening party, everyone needed to fit the mood, and both Dennis and Jack knew it and now Patrick, too.

That Saturday dinner stretched out with ice cream for Dennis and Jack and various desert cheeses for Tobias and Nina, with Patrick tasting some of it all.

When the clock got close to eleven, Dennis went to bed while Jack stayed to keep playing cards with Patrick. Tobias and Nina were chatting, planning for next week and what was coming up on their schedules.

“You know I’m going to start work on Monday, Patrick?” Tobias asked.

“Yeah, I’ll manage. I have class, and after that some of us in class are going to the west wing to check out some of Mr. Zed’s TeeWees. Like that one Doris showed me.” Patrick answered while playing out a card on the table.

“Great. And in any case, if something comes up, we just call, right?”

“Right, I will,” Patrick answered.

The evening ended with Jack going to bed and soon after, Patrick. Nina and Tobias stayed up, enjoying a good glass of wine, the silence, and the night. Next week would be the first regular week now with Patrick included, and they were looking forward to that. Patrick had enriched their family in just one week, and, as Mr. Green had said, he was family and he fit in. So far Mr. Green had just helped his students get to know each other as well as himself and the East Wing building and those who worked and studied there. On Monday they were set to start.

Tobias felt different after having met Mr. Green in Patrick’s class, and he had thought a lot about it. That Mr. Green had come out like this he never had expected, and obviously there was something to it. Mr. Green knew about his Bangers & Mash performance, and that meant something, too. Next Thursday he was supposed to present his Bangers & Mash scam at a masters’ meeting, where they would plan what’s needed and how to proceed. He knew that others had been appointed masters too, but for something else, and they too were supposed to attend this meeting. So there was definitely something extraordinary going on.

…

To be continued next Friday.