Attila the Run

When I got to practice that night the boys were standing in a circle.  Not one of them had a basketball in his hands. 

“What are you doing?” I asked making it clear from my tone I wasn’t happy.

“Working on tabs!” a boy named Hardwick said.  He explained a tab was a nickname you gave yourself, but your friends could veto.

“I play like I could be Kevin Love’s kid – call me the Love Child!” Hardwick said. I wasn’t sure Father Tim, the school’s principal, would like that tab.

“You like Kevin Durant?”  I asked. “How about Durant Durant?” He stared at me blankly, not getting the reference to the 80’s band with the similar sounding name.

One boy had been given the tab ‘Pepper.’ I was afraid it was because he was built like a pepper shaker, but the boys had given him that tab for his ability to shake a defender.

Several of the boys didn’t have tabs yet. None seemed upset because as they explained to me, you could get a tab anytime, but you were smart to wait until you had earned a really good one.

At that moment I wanted to live my life as if I were trying to earn a tab for which I could be proud.  Tabs I thought I’d like to earn someday included:

·         ‘Father Time’ because even as I grew older, my kids could count on me every time I was needed.

·         ‘Poe DM’ because  as I stood at a podium, I would know I had worked hard to become a scarily good presenter and teacher,

·          shortened to ‘Poe’ because I had become a scarily good writer

·         ‘Sun’ because I brightened my father’s day, or

·         ‘Law Firm’ because I was my wife’s partner in all things.

I smiled, liking the idea of earning tabs.

“He’s not gonna make us run,” Pepper said, misreading the reason for my expression.

“Sure I am,” I said.  “Everybody on the baseline for wind sprints.”

“Attila the Run,” Chad muttered, giving me a tab I could live with.  

Today I will earn a tab I can be proud of.

Life on Life’s Terms II © 2015 by Ken Montrose

(Just a reminder: LOLT II is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to anyone you might know is purely coincidental.)