by S.J. Drew
melodramatic,” she retorted. “The forces of good aren't actually going to let anyone die.”
“You don't know that!” Nora shot back.
Isabella tried to think quickly. “Ravens, does this battle have to include everyone? I mean, can the battle be decided on a smaller scale?”
The birds looked at each other. “It has never been done,” said the first.
“But there have never been such circumstances,” said the second.
“Then let's do something else,” Isabella said.
“Like what?” the birds asked in unison.
“I don't know. Maybe a game or something?”
“Yeah, a game,” Leah said quickly. “You only need a few people for a game. Something not fatal either. I mean, you only need a way to determine a winner, right?”
The birds seemed to consult with each other.
“Hey! Stop messing everything up,” Callista said.
Fred and Terrence walked up to the band menacingly. “Yeah. Stay out of this.”
They briefly felt fear, but then the feeling passed.
“You back the hell off,” Nora said, getting right up in their faces. “You and your sick sister. We're trying to save these people.”
This clearly surprised the two men and they looked confused.
“We have spoken with the forces of good and evil,” the first raven said.
“They are amenable to a different type of battle, as neither appears to favor these circumstances,” said the second.
“So, the forces of good and evil will choose teams, and then those teams must choose a game, and that game must have a clear method of determining the winner,” said the first.
Suddenly the three siblings briefly glowed black.
“The forces of evil have chosen,” said the second.
“Hey!” the three siblings said in unison.
“This doesn't mean you are evil,” said the first raven.
“I'm not sure it doesn't mean they aren't,” Nora snapped.
Nora, Isabella, and Leah suddenly briefly glowed white.
“The forces of good have chosen,” said the second raven.
“What about me?” Maryann asked.
“You will either be an observer, or a referee if the game requires,” said the first.
“Hey! How come she gets to be the referee?” Callista asked. “She'll cheat for good!”
“And you won't?” Nora asked snidely.
The siblings suddenly looked quite uncertain. “Yeah, I'm not sure about this,” Callista said. “I really don't want evil to win.”
“If you wish to 'throw the game' as it were, and anger the forces of evil, that is your choice,” said the first raven.
The three siblings suddenly turned quite pale.
“Fine, fine, we'll play for keeps. And if we win, so what? It's just one soul, right?” Callista said.
“What if it's your soul?” Nora snapped.
“Is it?” she asked the ravens.
They looked at each other a moment. “No,” said the first.
“Oh, see, no problem.”
“What about your brothers?” Maryann exclaimed. “Or your parents?”
“Ravens?” Callista asked again.
“The soul in contention is not of your immediate family,” said the second.
“Argh! I mean, I can't even... argh!” the redhead said, too disgusted to even find words to express herself. The other three band members mentally echoed her rage if not her verbal incoherency.
“The forces of evil may choose the game,” said the first raven.
“How come?” the band demanded in unison.
“Do you want us to bore you with the tedious details of the binding rules of the battle or will you just accept our word that this is how it must happen?” asked the second.
“Fine,” Isabella sighed.
The three siblings huddled together to figure out what kind of game could be played with two three-player teams and would give them an advantage. “Hey, ravens,” Fred asked.
“Yes?” they answered.
“Are you going to give us stuff to play this game? Like, if we picked baseball, which we're not, how would we get a field and bats and balls and mitts and stuff?” asked Terrence.
The birds conferred. “Any equipment you require will be provided once the game is chosen,” answered the first.
The siblings talked with each other for a few minutes. “Alright, we've picked the game,” Callista said. “Three-on-three basketball.”
“Do we even get to object?” Nora asked the ravens.
“No,” said the first. “Does this game require a referee?”
“Yeah,” the twins said.
“Then she will be the referee,” the second said, gesturing at Maryann.
“But what if we don't know how to play?” she asked.
“You will be given ten minutes to learn the rules,” replied the second.
“Knowing the rules isn't the same as knowing how to play!”
“In this case, that will have to be sufficient,” said the first.
“It'll be fine,” Leah said. “I know what they're thinking. They've probably played together since they were really young and we probably haven't. And they're thinking I'm too short to play basketball anyway.”
The siblings sort of nodded.
Leah gestured for the band to huddle. Maryann stepped forward but one of the ravens blocked her path. “You are the referee.”
“Oh, sorry.” She took a few steps backwards so she couldn't hear anything.
“My brothers loved basketball,” Leah said. “They liked showing people just because they were short, it didn't mean they couldn't play. And I usually whined until I could play because I was tired of sitting on the sidelines and being ignored. So I can play. Can you two?”
“I didn't play pick-up games on the blacktop,” Nora said, “but I did play basketball as an intramural sport in high school. And Sharon actually was on the varsity team, so I had to help her practice a lot.”
“I also played intramural basketball,” Isabella said. “Mom kept bugging me to join a sport, any sport, so I picked the only thing that didn't conflict with orchestra.”
“Is everyone familiar with the rules of this game?” one of the ravens asked.
They broke up their huddle. “Yes,” Leah answered.
“Yeah, but I've never been the referee before,” Maryann said.
“If you know the rules, that is sufficient,” said the second raven.
“She'll cheat for her friends!” Callista said.
“She is the referee;” said the first raven. “Her job is to be fair.” The wind picked up abruptly, and briefly obscured the area with sand. When it settled again, the festival-goers had moved away to make room for half of a basketball court. The half-court was of regulation size and looked as though it had been lifted directly from a gym. Maryann found a whistle on a string around her neck.
“What about some uniforms and sneakers?” Fred asked.
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you picked the game,” Nora said snidely, gesturing at her white sneakers.
“Hey, that kind of stuff is part of the game,” Terrence said.
The birds conferred for a moment, and then two curtained off areas appeared on either side of the half court. One set of curtains was black and one set was white.
“I believe the correct term is locker room?” said one raven. “You may change there. The referee has shoes I believe will be acceptable and a whistle, so no accordance is made for her.”
Maryann waited outside the areas as the two teams changed. When they emerged, the siblings were wearing appropriate light gray uniforms and the rest of the band was wearing white.
“Now everything should be ready,” said the other raven. “There seem to be many variations on this game, so there will be two five minute periods and the first team to score 33 points wins, or whichever team has the most
points at the end of the period.” An hourglass appeared next to one raven. “Here is the period timer. You will have 12 seconds to shoot the ball.”
A very tiny hourglass appeared next to the other raven. “This will be your shot clock,” said the other raven.
“Referee, flip a coin to determine which team starts with possession of the ball,” instructed the first raven.
“Oh, right. Okay, well, I guess we're actually going to do this.” She took her hat off and set it down first, then dug around in her purse and found a quarter. “Okay, the forces of evil get heads, and the forces of good get tails.” She flipped the coin and it landed heads up. “Okay, forces of evil get the ball first.”
“Damn it!” Leah said.
The game started and it turned out the siblings were pretty good. The band was sloppy since they hadn't played with each other before, but they improved quickly. Maryann had no experience refereeing, but her father loved both college and professional basketball, so she had watched a fair number of games. The siblings had just pulled into the lead when she called a foul on Leah.
“Damn it!” Leah shouted. “There's a soul on the line here! We don't need them to get any farther ahead.”
“Leah, it's fine,” Nora said. “We'll play the best we can.” She leaned over and said in low voice, “All souls belong to God. I don't know what all this is, but we have to believe that.”
The short brunette did not look happy, but she stopped protesting the calls.
Maryann was nearly in tears, but the others couldn't see that because of the large sunglasses she was still wearing. She thought her friends could win on their own even though she wasn't entirely confident of that. She very much wanted to cheat and help her friends, and by extension, the forces of good win so that the single soul would be saved. On the other hand, she didn't think cheating was a good idea either.
