Tommy DiScipio
Mr. Jockers- Period 8 ILA
2-10-17
Title- Joel Juice
It was one of those hot and humid days where even when there was wind it still felt 90 degrees outside. Sweat was dripping down our faces and our mouths were dry as a desert. John, Derek and I spotted some juice on a table outside of the Easton Community Center. “ Let’s go grab some!”and I pointed in the direction of the table. Without hesitation, John and Derek nodded their heads in agreement, and began to follow me. We biked up the hill toward the table and each decided to take a cup of it. Our plan was to grab the juice and quickly bike away. However, in the middle pouring it, Joel, who works at the ECC, poked his head out and said in a joking way “ you guys tryna steal ma juice?” He said it with a grin, and in a joking way that let us know he wasn’t really mad, and he let us take the juice. After we got the juice we went on biking, like we did everyday in August. Ever since that day we refer to “Joel juice” as an inside joke, I even used it as my phone password for at least a month.
We hopped back on our bikes and tried to grab hold of the handle bars while also holding the full cup of juice. This isn’t going to be an easy task, I thought to myself. As I pushed off on one foot and found my balance, the bike was a little more wobbly than usual. I was concentrating on not spilling the juice. I looked over at Derek and John and could tell by their wobbly bikes that they were struggling too. Juice splashed out of our cups as we tried to maneuver the pot holes in the parking lot. The faster we pedaled, the more juice that was spilling out. Eventually we made it to the front of the ECC with half empty cups of juice. We decided to finish drinking it before anymore spilled from the cups. It hardly quenched our thirst.
We drove down to the lower fields to play rondo (fast reacting soccer game). We played rondo for about a half hour. The ball kep getting stuck in the woods and someone would have to go retrieve it. Finally we had to end the game when the ball got stuck really high up in a tree. We tried throwing baseballs at it to try and get it down, but we failed. “ I don’t think it will come down by us throwing things at it” I said. At this point we decided that we were done for the day and just wanted to head home and cool down from the heat.
A few days later while biking again in the back of the ECC, I spotted a small white object on the ground near the tree.Squinting, I tried to get a clear look at it, but it was pretty far away to determine if it was the ball. Curiosity got the best of us, and we decided to head down the the hill toward the white object.
As we descended the hill and neared the bottom, we picked up speed and zoomed on our bikes toward the small white object as fast as we could. When we were about twenty feet away we discovered that it actually was a soccer ball. “ It must have fallen down from the storm two days ago,” I said to John, “too bad Brendan is not here to get his ball back.”
We thought it would be a good idea to send a picture of us with the ball to Brendan to show him what we had found. We assured him that we would get it back to him.
Holding the ball tightly with one arm, I slowly got on my bike. Holding the bar with one arm, I biked about 10 feet and decided it wasn’t going to work. I had to figure out how to carry the ball and manage to bike up the hills that would be coming our way. I thought about how difficult it had been to carry the juice and ride my bike, this was so much harder. I had the idea of tucking the ball under my shirt to keep it from coming loose, which would allow me to keep both hands on the bars. Slowly I pedaled up the hills carefully to make sure it didn’t slide out. I was relieved and surprised when we finally got to my house and I still had the ball with me.
The next day we all decided to meet up again at the ECC. Before I left my house I remembered to grab the soccer ball so I could return it to Brendan. This time I thought of a better solution on how to carry the ball. I grabbed a drawstring bag and stuffed the soccer ball in it. We rode around the ECC on our bikes, as usual, in the scorching heat. Joel spotted us this time and waved us over to grab some juice. This time we drank the juice before we got back on our bikes. We spent the day playing our usual game of rondo and made sure we didn’t lose the ball again. The day ended like it usually did, by us playing soccer at my house. Those were probably the most fun days of summer.
