Melody the Pickleball Champion

An exhausted Melody after playing Pickleball

As usual at the end of the school day, Rosa barged through the front door of her nest, throwing her book bag down and making a beeline for her father who normally stood on the other side of the front door waiting to catch his daughter in his wings and wrap her up close to his body for a few seconds before releasing her.

After that, Rosa would head down the corridor towards the kitchen to see what Julia had for her as a snack giving her mother a perfunctory kiss and wave before entering the kitchen, leaving her father to pick up her school bag. But this day was different.

As Rosa, with all the force she could muster, opened the front door hoping to be wrapped up in her father’s wings she stopped as George wasn’t there. She then looked up towards the kitchen and saw that her mother wasn’t there either. This initially concerned the little sandpiper who was about to panic when Julia walked out of the kitchen shrugging her shoulders. “Where is everyone?” asked Rosa stooping down to pick up her school bag off the floor and take it to her room. As soon as she did that, she heard a roar coming from outside the nest and the look of confusion on her face made Julia smile.

“It’s ok,” Julia explained, “they are back out there again this afternoon. But before you go out there, I have a snack for you.”

“Did you make something?” asked a defeated Rosa.

“Your favourite bagel with butter and lox on it.”

“No cream cheese?” she asked.

“You know Timmy and daddy wouldn’t agree to that. It’s not kosher.”

“Oh, ok,” replied Rosa heading towards the kitchen but on the way making a slight detour to drop her book bag in her room. She noticed that Brenda wasn’t in her cot. But she didn’t ask Julia, she just knew. She heard the roar again. “I think I’ll stay here,” she said to Julia as she picked up the bagel and made her way back to her room.

Julia followed her. “Why aren’t you going to go downstairs?”

“Because,” lied Rosa, “I have a lot of homework and who wants to watch a stupid game anyway!”

“Oh come with me,” pleaded Julia, knowing why Rosa didn’t want to go down to the beach. “The game can’t go on for much longer. I don’t think anyone has won a game against Melody.”

“Ok,” Rosa didn’t sound any brighter, “but let me finish my bagel first,” which she did. Once she had prolonged not going outside as long as she could, Julia grabbed her younger sister’s wing and pulled her downstairs. The roar of the crowd made up of robins, sparrows, crows, one seagull, a bunch of hermit crabs, the congregation of Sandpipers and Melody, drowned out the waves coming ashore. Melody, seeing Rosa, put down her racquet and came over to her. “Hello Rosa. Why don’t you come and join us?”

“It’s a stupid game,” replied Rosa looking around for Brenda. She then saw her with Sybil and began walking over to them. George saw his daughter and excused himself as he pushed through the small crowd and gave Rosa a hug.

“You should try the game, Rosa. I bet you’d do really well.”

Rosa was determined not to like the game, especially since she learnt the name of the game was Pickle Ball. “Where are the pickles?” she had asked and Melody, who had become addicted to the game as soon as she picked up a racquet, tried to explain that the ball wasn’t a pickle. “That’s a stupid name,” Rosa replied, “why should I play a game that sounds stupid?” Nothing Melody had tried worked and so she was determined to give it one last try before she gave up.

“Oh, come on try it just once, and if you don’t like it, then I will never ask you again.” “Promise?” asked Rosa.

“Promise,” replied the slightly devious cat. And so began Rosa’s addiction to Pickle Ball. Once she had the rules explained to her and she picked Moshe as her partner, believing that having a Falasha on her side would be beneficial to her, she played her first game. She and Moshe were opposed by Melody, the reigning North Topsail Beach Pickle Ball champion, together with a hermit crab called Herman, and after a hard fought battle, they won. Both Rosa and Moshe couldn’t stop playing even after the crowd had dispersed because of the incoming tide, they kept playing. When they only had the two of them, they played singles until George had to grab his daughter and take her upstairs. He told Moshe to go home because he needed him to be at work early the next day. They had a shipment of rags coming in from Uganda and he had to take inventory.

Rosa was told to finish her homework. “I don’t have any,” she explained until Julia reminded her of what she had told her earlier in the day. “Oh, all right,” she replied not wanting to get into a losing fight. So, she went into her room slamming the door behind her. She came out a few seconds later saying, “All done,” and before anyone could catch her, she grabbed Brenda and was heading back downstairs telling her she would teach her how to play Pickle Ball. Brenda cried. Rosa stopped. It was the first time Brenda cried when she was with Rosa. Rosa let go of Brenda’s wing and slumped in the corner of the nest burying her head in her wings. “What’s wrong with me?” she said rather pathetically until George went over and slid down the wall to sit with her.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, young lady. You just found out a very important lesson in life. Focusing on doing something and doing it well is very important. But focusing on something and forgetting everything else and everybody else around you isn’t good.”

Rosa looked up at her father with a sad face and he wrapped his wings around her. There was a knock on the window. It was Melody. “Don’t you dare poke your head through the window again!” reprimanded Sybil knowing she had damaged the window frame once before by sticking her head through.

“Rosa,” said Melody holding the window open with her paw. “I have a great idea. Would you like to go and have ice cream? Just you and I. My treat.”

Rosa perked up. “Where do you want to go?”

“Oh, we can go to the bar,” she replied.

“No,” implored Rosa, “I don’t like it in there. Too many drunk humans.”

“How about the ice cream bar at the Villa.”

“You have a deal.”

“Sounds like a plan,” added Sybil.

“No mummy,” replied Rosa cutting off her mother, “it’s just for Melody and me.” She noticed the look on Brenda’s face, “and I’ll take you when you’re older and can appreciate ice cream,” and with that Rosa flew out of the window and the Blau family watched the two friends walk along the beach towards the Villa.

George sighed. “What’s for dinner, Julia.”

“Bagels and lox,” she replied. “I didn’t have time to cook dinner.” And with a collective groan, the Blau family slid onto the floor and contemplated the rest of the evening until Rosa and Melody returned.