by Joy Argento
“It’s three strikes in a row, isn’t it?” Hope’s nose was beginning to itch.
“Oh yeah, it’s that, too. I was thinking of the big heavy bird that we eat at Thanksgiving. I was just testing your knowledge of animals.” Carried giggled at her lame joke.
“You’re a turkey,” Hope said laughing.
“Back to my bowling tales. I really am a decent bowler and if you beg me I can teach you to bowl. So what do you say? Want to beg me?”
Hope thought about it for a moment. “Oh please, oh please, oh please teach me to bowl. How was that? Was that good begging?” Hope’s smile was wide.
“Wow, that was great begging. Okay, I’ll do it, seeing you asked so nice. When does the bowling league start?”
Hope scrunched up her face. “Next week.”
“Next week? We better get moving on this then. What are you doing tomorrow?” Carrie examined her sketch, moving her chair back, so she could look at it from a distance.
Hope tried to look over the top of the sketchpad to see if she could she anything that Carrie had drawn. She couldn’t.
“I am having breakfast with my mother and sister at nine, but then I’m free the rest of the day. What were you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that you didn’t invite me out to breakfast with your mother and sister.”
Hope laughed. “Believe me, I did you a favor not inviting you. A good time will not be had by all. I can take my sister and my mother each by themselves, but together they make me crazy. They don’t stop talking and they always have better ideas on how I should run my life than I do.”
“Then tomorrow when you can’t take any more you just tell them you have to leave because you have a date with a really good looking, really hot bowling coach and you come and get me. And then we bowl, baby. We bowl.” Pencil still in hand, Carrie made the motion of throwing an imaginary bowling ball.
“All right. Let me get this straight so I can remember it.” Hope looked up as if she was trying to file the information away. “Good looking, really hot bowling coach.” She brought her eyes back down so she could look at Carrie. “All right. I think I have it. I can plan on leaving there around eleven. How about I come and get you around eleven-thirty? If you are serious about helping me.”
“Of course I’m serious. When have you ever known me not to be serious?” Carrie crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Hope. “But seriously,” she said, ”I would love to help you become a better bowler. And eleven-thirty would be fine. Now hold your head still for a couple of minutes and then I’ll let you take a break.”
Hope stopped talking and held her head very still. Carrie tilted her head sideways looking at Hope. She squinted her eyes so all she saw as blurry shapes and values, without any of the detail.
“Tip you head up a little and slightly to the left.” Hope did as she was told. “Just a little more,” Carrie said. “And don’t look directly at me, look a just a little up and left.” Hope moved a little more. “Right there. Perfect.” Carrie continued to draw, working on the head and face. “Okay, that’s it for now. Hang on and I’ll get you a robe to put on.”
Carrie returned with a soft pink cotton robe and handed it to Hope.
“Thanks,” Hope said. Carrie turned her back while Hope unwrapped the long cloth from around herself and slipped off the stool to put the robe on. “All set,” she said.
Carrie turned back around. “Would you like some tea? I have regular tea and I have some flavored herbal tea. And of course I have fresh baked cookies.”
Hope followed Carrie out of the room and into the kitchen. “Tea would be great and I guess I could force one of your cookies down.”
Carrie surveyed the cupboard in the kitchen. “I have regular tea, Lemon/Ginger Twist, Raspberry Delight, or Oolong Tea. What is your pleasure?”
“Raspberry Delight sounds good.” Hope sat in the kitchen chair, pulling the bathrobe around her tighter. She retied the belt to keep it closed.
Carrie put the teakettle on to boil and took two cups down from the shelf. “Help yourself to the cookies,” she said, placing the plate full of chocolate chip cookies in the middle of the table.
Hope pulled a paper napkin from the holder on the table and took a cookie. She bit into it and her face lit up like a delighted child. “Wow, this is so good. I think I’ll give up regular food and just come over here and live on your baked goods.”
“Okay,” Carrie said pulling up a chair. “No need to eat yucky carrots when you can eat sweets.”
They sat and talked until the whistle on the kettle pierced through the air. “That is such an obnoxious noise,” Carrie said removing it from the burner and turning the knob to off. She poured the hot water over the tea bags. “Would you like milk, or sugar with yours? Or I think I have some honey.” She set the cup of tea down in front of Hope.
“No, this is fine just like this.” She reached for another cookie, letting her tea steep.
“How are you doing? Are you comfortable posing?” Carrie asked as she sat across from Hope.
“It’s fine. The time goes fast because we are talking. When I did modeling for the art class back in college, the room was totally quiet. No music or anything. The only thing you could hear was the professor’s shoes squeaking as he walked around. It drove me crazy and I felt like time stood still. This is so much better. I don’t mind this at all.”
“Good,” Carrie said, “I would hate it if you were uncomfortable posing for me.”
Hope took a bite of her cookie. “Even if it was difficult to pose for you, any pain of posing would be compensated by the taste of these cookies.”
“You make a great model. I think these paintings are going to come out nice.”
Hope smiled as she continued to eat her cookie.
It didn’t take long for them to finish their tea and cookies and head back to the art room. Carrie reposed Hope into the correct position and started again on her preliminary drawing.
They talked continuously as Carrie drew, her attention going between the drawing in front of her and Hope. After a while Carrie said, “It should be just about break time, but if you can stay like that for about ten more minutes, we can call it a night. I think I’ll have enough to start the under painting from this.”
“That’s fine,” Hope replied. She had been having such a good time talking to Carrie that she totally forgot that she hadn’t moved in quite a while.
It took Carrie another fifteen minutes to finish the drawing. “Sorry about that, took a little longer than I thought,” Carrie said as she stood. “Go ahead and get dressed. I’ll meet you back in the living room. Do you want some juice or something else to drink?”
“Sure, whatever you have will be fine. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Carrie left the room, closing the door behind her. Hope was a little stiff as she slipped off the stool. She twisted her neck and shoulders to loosen them up. She folded the blue cloth up into a neat pile and left it on the stool before getting dressed and joining Carrie in the living room.
Chapter 11
Hope tied the bowling shoes on her feet. She scrunched up her nose as a look of disgust crossed her face, her features drawn tight. “Are you sure these are sanitary?” she asked Carrie.
“They spray them after every customer. At least that’s the theory. If you want, we can buy you a pair of bowling shoes before we practice next time.”
Hope stood up. “Yes. I want to do that. Can we go get them right now?”
“No.” Carrie laughed. “We can’t go now. You will just have to take your chances that you won’t catch some fatal disease from those, because right now we are going to practice bowling.”
“But they are so ugly. Ugly, germ-infested bowling shoes.” Hope followed Carrie to the hard plastic seats.
“Since when are you a germaphobe? You play in people’s mouth’s all day. I would think you would be very used to germs.”
“I’m not a germaphobe. It’s just the thought of
putting my feet into shoes that have been worn by millions of other people is gross.”
“I doubt millions of people have worn that pair of shoes. It probably wasn’t more than ten thousand.” Carrie smiled.
“You aren’t helping here.”
“Come on we have to get to work. Forget about the shoes for now.” She unzipped the bowling ball bag that she brought with her. She pulled out the sixteen-pound ball and handed it to Hope. “How does that feel?” She asked her.
Hope thought about it for a moment. “It feels hard and round,” she answered.
“Ha, ha,” Carrie said. “I mean the weight. Is it too heavy?”
“Yeah, I am thinking that this is too heavy for me.” She put her fingers and thumb into the holes and held it up with difficulty. “Yeah, I am pretty sure it’s too heavy. I feel like such a wimp.”
“You’re no wimp,” Carrie reassured her. “We’ll find you a ball that works for you. Come on.” She walked over to the rack of balls lined up by the wall. She picked up several balls and examined them, feeling the weight of each in her hands. She handed Hope a twelve pound ball with pink and white swirls. “What do you think of this one?” Carrie asked.
“It’s pretty,” Hope said, with a smile. “But that’s probably not what you meant, huh?”
“Smart-ass. No, I meant the weight and finger holes.”
Hope slipped her fingers and thumb into it. They slid in easily. She held the ball for several seconds. “I think this one would be fine.”
“Let’s give it a try then.” Carrie and Hope walked back to the lane.
“Okay, lady, show me what you got,” Carrie said, settling into the hard plastic seat.
“You aren’t going to show me how to do it first?” Hope frowned. She looked like a disappointed child.
“No, I want to see what you can do first. So, go ahead and I’ll watch.”
Hope held the ball up to her nose. Her left hand supported the ball from the underside while her right hand gripped the ball with the finger and thumb holes. She took three awkward steps forward, stopped completely and swung her right arm with the bowling ball, down and back. She bent slightly at the waist as she brought the ball forward, flipping her hand completely over so that her thumb faced down when she released the ball.
The ball traveled only a short distant before landing with a slight thud in the gutter to continue its journey down the alley. Hope stood there and watched the ball until it was completely out of sight. The pins were lifted in the air, and the pin sweeper did its job. She turned to face Carrie. “How many points was that?” she grinned.
Carrie tried her best not to laugh but a small snort escaped anyway. “Um, let me think. Gutter balls are zero points, I think.” She couldn’t hold back the laugh this time. Hope joined her.
“I told you I suck at this.”
“That’s why I’m here, to help you suck less.” Hope’s bowling ball made its rounds and was safely deposited back on the ball return to wait for her.
Carrie got up and took the ball off the rack. “Let’s start with holding the ball the right way.” She handed the ball to Hope. Hope slipped her middle and ring finger into the holes and did the same with her thumb. She held the ball up to her nose, supporting the ball with her left hand.
Carrie reached over and placed one hand under Hope’s left hand and the other on top of the ball. “Lower the ball, and move this hand over here to the side.” Carrie could feel the softness of Hope’s hand under hers. She continued with the lesson. “Okay, that’s the way you should hold the ball to start. Now let’s turn around and face the pins.” Carrie dropped her hands from Hope’s and Hope turned to face the lane. Carrie stood behind Hope and whispered in her ear. “Remember that this game is about accuracy. It’s not a race. We are going to go nice and slow. You want to be in control.” Carrie put her hands around Hope’s waist. “Let’s move back just a little here.” She stepped back and moved Hope with her. “Good, now start from here.”
Carrie stepped away from Hope. “You are going to take four steps to the line, start on your right foot. As you step you are a letting the ball swing, nice and easy. Let it swing straight back and let it swing straight forward. Bend your knees a little on the fourth step and let the ball go. Don’t worry about where it goes right now. Let’s just worry about getting the rhythm of the steps and letting the ball swing.”
Hope tried to take in everything Carrie was telling her. She counted her steps to the foul line, letting the ball swing back and forth with the steps. She let it go and it bounced once before skittering down the alley and into the gutter.
“Much better,” Carrie told her. “But you let the ball go a little too late. Here let me show you. Come on back here to start.” Hope moved back a few steps. Carrie came up behind Hope and put her left arm around her waist. With her right hand she took Hope’s hand in her own. “We are going to walk through this,” she said into Hope’s ear. She could smell the faded scent of honeysuckle perfume.
In unison the women took four slow steps. Carrie guided Hope’s hand back and then forward again. “When your hand is here…” Carrie said stopping her hand for a moment, “…is when you let it go. Keep your hand in this position. Don’t let it turn.” She stayed close behind Hope for a moment longer before letting her go and stepping away.
Carrie retrieved the bowling ball and handed it to Hope. “Give it another try.”
Hope looked at Carrie. “Can you show me a few times so I can watch you?”
“Amateurs,” Carrie said as she shook her head. She retrieved her ball from her bowling bag and walked to her starting point. Carrie turned to look at Hope. “I’m starting a little closer than I told you to start at because my legs are a little shorter, so my steps are a shorter.”
Carrie turned to face the lane. She narrated her movements as she went. “See where I’m holding the ball. This is a good starting point. I’m looking down the alley at a spot just left of the head pin. That’s what works for me. We’ll figure out later what spot would be best for you to look at.” She continued talking as she went through the moves. When she released the ball it slid smoothly down the lane, taking a slight curve to the left before hitting squarely on the head pin, sending most of the pins flying. The seven pin in the corner teetered back and forth before settling back down in an upright position.
Hope clapped her hands together. “Wow, you are good.”
Carrie smiled and went back to the ball return to wait. She threw her second ball, again talking through it, explaining where she was aiming and why. The ball easily took out the seven pin. “That’s a spare,” she said to Hope.
“That was great.”
“Now let’s work on your stance. We’ll work on your release and accuracy later.” She took a seat again. “Start where I told you to start.”
Hope walked to the area, bowling ball in hand. “Here?” Hope asked.
“Perfect. Start there. Do you want me to talk you through it again?”
“Would you mind? Just until I get the hang of this.”
They continued to work and Hope made steady progress. Pins started to go down with each throw.
“Now that we have the basics down the only thing left to do is practice, practice, practice,” Carrie said as the lessons for the day came to an end.
“Wow, that’s the same way you get to Carnegie Hall,” Hope said.
“Funny lady. What are you doing tomorrow night? We could come back and get some practice in then if you want.”
“I would really appreciate it,” Hope smiled, “but can we go buy me a pair of my own bowling shoes first?”
“Oh sure. I’ll take you to get bowling shoes before we come back here. Now come on, I’ll buy you a soda after you get out of those disgusting, germ infested things,” Carrie said, pointing at the rented shoes on Hope’s feet. Hope gave her a playful swat.
Chapter 12
Hope knocked on Carrie’s door. “Are you ready?” she asked when Carrie opened it.
“Just about. Come on in. I need about two more minutes,” Carrie said. “I just got home from the visiting my grandmother and I want to change my clothes.” She led the way to the living room. “Sit, make yourself comfortable, and I will be right back.”
Hope sat down without taking off her coat. “You must be hungry,” she called to Carrie.
“A little bit,” Carrie yelled back from her bedroom. She emerged a few minutes later wearing a pair of butt-hugging dark denim jeans and a long- sleeved dark blue tee shirt. She looked at Hope. “You didn’t even take your coat off. Aren’t you getting too warm sitting there?”
“Umm, I’m a little embarrassed about the shirt I’m wearing,” Hope said.
Carrie smiled. “What do you mean you’re embarrassed about your shirt?” Is it really low cut or something?”
“No, it’s just really ugly?”
“Why are you wearing an ugly shirt?”
“It’s our team bowling shirt. I can’t believe they are making us wear these.”
“Well, seeing you are bowling on your league tonight for the first time, I think that wearing the team shirt is only right. Let me see it,” Carrie tried not to laugh at the strange look on Hope’s face.
“I’m not sure I want anyone to see it,” Hope said.
“I’m not just anyone. Are you planning on bowling with your coat on all night?”
“Maybe,” Hope said. She stood up. “Are you ready to go?”
“We can go right after you show me the shirt. Come on. Let’s see it. It can’t be that bad.”
“The only thing that will be more embarrassing than my bowling tonight is going to be this shirt,” Hope said.
Carrie took two steps towards Hope. She unbuttoned the top two buttons on Hope’s coat. She stopped suddenly. The move felt much too intimate and personal. She felt flush being so close to Hope. “Sorry,” she stammered, unsure of what else to say.
“It’s all right,” Hope reassured her. She unbuttoned the rest of her coat and pulled it open, revealing a shocking orange bowling shirt with her name embroidered above the pocket on the left side.
