Benders

by O G Bridgman

  I just sat and thought about what had happened. I’d had a lucky escape. I felt sure that Mrs Williams had noticed but I was also sure that she wasn’t going to tell anybody.

  I had also found out that it wasn’t just during sport, it could happen anytime. I just focused really hard on a task this time. It wasn’t a game. It was school work, a test. More important than that I had to learn how to control it or people would start finding out and seeing me as a freak. I had to be more aware and to learn to control when it happened.

  Chapter 5 Too Much Time

  It was the first game of the season and I was actually hoping we would be batting first, so that I would have more time to think but unfortunately we were fielding. Usually I love fielding but I was nervous. Nervous that if I wasn’t careful people would see what I could do, just like Mrs Williams had.

  As the game started my good form continued. The ball was going straight into my gloves and after each one I checked with my team and coach, who was umpiring that I wasn’t doing anything strange. I started to relax. People expected speed and reflexes in cricket and so far everybody had just thought I was getting faster.

  In the fifth over our opening bowler bowled a brilliant ball, it swung in the air back into the batsmen then he got an inside edge. Inside edges are always hard to catch for the keeper because your body and hands are expecting an edge from the outside of the bat. So to take one of these catches you have to stop, and throw your body and hands in the opposite direction to grab the catch.

  Again I saw it early, and again, my focus somehow made it happen again, the ball slowed in the air for me, I watched it carefully reached out with my left hand (I knew I couldn’t reach it with both) and caught it. My teammates appealed, the umpires finger was up! I was pumped, it was our first wicket of the season, I’d taken a great catch but most of all, nobody had noticed anything weird. I felt especially pleased because time hadn’t slowed down so much. It felt as though I was just starting to get some control. It was as though I had slowed down time just enough to get there, but no more than I needed.

  We were in a good position. They hadn’t scored many runs and we had taken two wickets when our captain, and legspin bowler in the rep team, Dave Kerr came on to bowl. It was my favorite time to be keeping. Dave confused almost all batsmen but I had been playing with him a few years and knew most of his tricks. The legspinner spun away from the batsmen a lot, which always made it hard for me because he would land the ball on the leg stump and then spin it across the batsmen. I would often lose sight of it for a second when the batsmen was in my line of sight, then it would re appear and I would have to catch it.

  I was also pumped because it was a crucial time. Even though we had taken three wickets altogether their best batsmen was still in. He was on strike now so I was really concentrating, if a chance came I was determined to take it and get this guy out.

  Dave looped up his first ball and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! The batsmen was down the wicket trying to drive Dave. It made sense in a way. That’s what Pup Does. He is my favourite player, I love how he gets out and dominates spin bowling from the first ball. He attacks it straight away. Well this guy was doing the same thing. Except he is not Pup. Dave had bowled a perfect first ball. It looped up but dropped and spun straight past his bat. I was so focused that even though I lost sight of it for a moment I saw it easily, the ball slowed right down for me again. I even had time to noticed just how far out of his crease he was. I would still have to be quick so I kept my focus, time slowed right down for me, I caught it, and I hit the stumps. He was almost half a metre out of his crease in the end. I run down the wicket to celebrate with Dave. We had just got their best batsmen out!

  Then I heard it.

  “No Ball!”

  The square leg umpire and our coach called it. Instead of putting his finger in the air to say that he was out the umpire was showing the scorers that it was a no ball, by putting one hand out horizontally to his side. My heart sank. I knew what I had done immediately. The wicket keeper has to wait until the ball had passed the stumps before catching it. I had slowed time down so much that I had grabbed the ball too early. Instead of being out I had given the opposition 1 run and their best batsmen was still in. I was gutted and furious with myself. I knew this rule, why had I done that! There was so much time I could have waited and easily stumped him still.

  I looked at Dave and said sorry. He smiled back and made the best of it. We all went back to our positions.

  We didn’t get another chance to get him out. He got all the way to his 50. He retired and helped his team to get 143 in the end. Which was a pretty good score. If I hadn’t stuffed up the stumping we would have bowled them out for under a hundred.

  Our coach had a dig at me afterwards about it. But he was just joking. I loved it when he did that. He had reminded me just the other day to wait until the ball passed the stumps. He just said I think I mentioned that you can’t catch the ball until it had passed the stumps. I just smiled back and said ‘Yeah yeah. Should have reminded me this morning maybe too!’

  On the way home I thought about this time slowing thing. It was becoming more trouble than it was worth. Yesterday I was caught by Mrs Willaims. Today I had slowed time too much. And had let their best batter get 50. Last year I wouldn’t have mucked up that stumping. It was so easy I didn’t need to slow time. I had to develop more control. It was essential or I might as well stop doing it!

  Chapter 6 Practise

  For me there was a simple solution to all the problems of the last few days. Practise, practise and more practise. When I was frustrated and angry about that stumping I would get my bat and ball and practise. When I was worried about people finding out about me I would practise. When I was determined to learn control I would practise it.

  I worked out a simple way to do all of these things. I always find that if you’re learning something new and difficult find a way to practise that with something easy and familiar and you’ll get it. So I thought what is a simple ball game I like to do? And I remembered that it’s a good warm up activity to just use your bat to tap the ball in the air as many times as you can. Last season I was really happy when I got to 100 and that was using the whole face of the bat.

  Well after the first 10 minutes using the face of the bat I found that this was way too easy. I had seen Dave doing it before he batted by tapping the ball with the edge. Well after the first hour my best was 20 in a row on the edge of the bat. But I started concentrating, and getting in the zone. I found that I could slow time down, but this was easy and a bit of a problem too. It made me tired quickly and I needed to rest all the time.

  That was on Sunday. On Monday afternoon after thinking about it at school I realised that the trick would be to only slow time down when I needed to. This meant when I did a good tap and the ball went straight up in the air, I would not slow time down. But if the ball was off course and I had to move the bat further then I had to slow time down to get to it.

  After an hour on Monday afternoon I had gotten up to 50 and I wasn’t so tired, still pretty hungry for my dinner though. I was careful to go right down the back of the backyard behind the big gum tree so that no one would see. I thought it wouldn’t matter anyway because it didn’t look strange when I was playing a ball game but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  On Tuesday I figured out that I could practise other ways. I decided handball at school would give me lots of chances to just slow down time when I needed to. During recess I didn’t get out the whole time with my usual friends in year 4. So at lunch I had a go against the year 5’s. I got out three times. They didn’t notice anything strange. I was getting it! I only slowed it down when I had to move fast and get to the ball to hit the next shot. Otherwise I played as normal. I had always been pretty good at handball. The Year Fives didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

  By Wednesday evening I was still really hungry but I had gotten up to 200 on the edge of the bat without the ball
hitting the ground. And I had only gotten out once in handball the whole day. Even the time I did get out I was not really trying and had decided I better make sure I eat my whole lunch.

  Thursday training came around and I was determined to have my best batting session ever. My batting technique was good but I had never had many shots and would often stay in for a while but only get 10 or 20 runs. My top score was 34, I had never scored a 50 and was determined to get one this year and hopefully this week. If I did, it would make up for that stumping!

  I wasn’t sure how best to use my ability to help my batting but I figured I would just give it a go and see. If I got tired it was just training and my turn to bat only went for 15 minutes anyway.

  I got my focus and watched that ball and it slowed. I tried hitting my drives harder but I still didn’t have the strength yet. But I found a new way to get runs. As soon as I saw the ball short, I focused. The ball slowed and I moved my feet and body back and pulled it, hard. It didn’t matter even if it wasn’t that short. I had the time now. I would just focus, get my back foot right back and across. I knew about using the crease to be forward or back. I loved how Pup moved his feet to give himself more time against the spinners. Anyway now I was smashing pull shots and hitting them through square leg, or fine leg or midwicket. I even hit one straight back at the bowler.

  On the way home I thought about my plan of attack. I decided that in order to save energy I would not slow down time if the ball was full. But as soon as I saw it was short, I would focus, slow time down and try and pull the ball for 4. My coach was impressed with how I was playing off the back foot so he said I was opening. First in, great I thought. I get the chance to make up for my mistake last week straight away. Saturday morning couldn’t come fast enough!

  Chapter 7 Triumph

  Saturday morning came. I felt confident after how I had played in the nets. I knew what I had to do. Before each ball was bowled I relaxed and watched it very carefully. When I saw that it was full I stayed relaxed, I moved my foot out to the ball and blocked it if it was at the stumps or I left it if the ball was wide. But if I could see it was short, I focused. I concentrated hard and the ball slowed down. Then I watched it even harder, I moved my right foot back and across and I hit it hard. I mostly played pull shots and by the end I even hit a few cut shots.

  At drinks we had only lost 1 wicket, I was in with Dave now and for the first time ever I was out scoring him. I only had about 5 to 10 more runs to get. I had never batted so well and my coach was stoked. Just keep going was all he could say at the drinks break. Get your 50 and then you can relax. I felt amazing, I already had beaten my top score.

  After drinks I was back on strike and a good length ball came it wasn’t really short enough but I was feeling so confident. I thought I could slow down time just enough to pull this ball too. I focus and smacked it. But it was in the air and straight to the mid wicket fielder. He grabbed at it once, fumbled, grabbed again. Time had slowed down again, not that I meant it I just was so anxious as I watched the ball bobble up in the air again, and then finally… to ground. Phew, he had dropped it!

  I was getting tired now, and I knew that I had just had a massive chance. I surely only needed just one or two more fours to get to 50. After being so reckless I was now determined to wait until I got the right ball. It took 3 more overs, Dave was starting to bat well too now. He was catching up to me. Not that it mattered. Finally a short ball, I got back and wacked it concentrating on hitting it down and away from a fielder. It was through the field. The umpire was signaling four and at last the scorers were calling me in. I’d done it! My first 50! Normally I hated leaving the field but I was tired, and I knew I had done my job and done all I could to make up for my silly mistake last week. I could relax and rest.

  We ended up winning comfortably in the end. Dave got 50 too, we passed their score with 5 overs left and only lost 4 wickets. My coach was really pleased and said that the way I had been keeping and batting that I should go out for Rep trials next weekend. Mum said that I could, I was overjoyed! My coach said the other keeper was good but he had trouble keeping to Dave and that I would have a real chance because I knew how he bowled and always kept well to him. Dave was excited too. He said we should get there early to warm up together. I asked mum and she said that would be fine.

  Chapter 8 Bad Timing

  At school that week Dave and I talked about the weekend and how we couldn’t wait until next weekend and more cricket. I was nervous about the trials but was so confident and just couldn’t wait to get there and give it a go. Dave and I were talking in the line at handball.

  We both loved playing handball but just then Steven came to play. We couldn’t stand him. He thought he was way better than what he was, and would never take it. He’d find some excuse so that somebody else would be out. It would drive the rest of us crazy. Still we wanted to be nice so we let him play. He was fine for a while but then Dave hit a great shot. They were having a good rally and Dave wrong footed him. Steven thought Dave was going to hit it to the open court but instead Dave went behind him. Steven got to it though, but it had bounced twice and we all knew it. Of course he said he got to the ball in time so Dave was out because he caught it.

  We all said ‘No Steven’

  But it didn’t matter he wasn’t moving from his square. Dave said

  ‘It’s ok I can take it’.

  Looking across at Steven as he did. Steven saw what he meant, he knew Dave was having a go at him and he hated it. While Dave had his back turned, Steven moved over to shove him, as he left the square to go to the end of the line.

  I’d had it. My best friend was taking it even though he’d won the point and now he was about to be pushed. All of these thoughts went through my head like lighting and I knew I had to stop if from happening, and now I knew I could. It started to happen immediately, I wanted it to otherwise I wouldn’t get there in time to stop Steven. Just before he touched Dave I’d made it to him and I pushed him in the shoulder. I was just trying to make sure that he didn’t hit Dave. But I had focused so hard on getting there I didn’t concentrate on how hard I pushed him. When I did get there I was moving fast and with the force of my push added to that, he spun away sideways, lost balance and then hit his head on a step at the side of the court as he fell.

  He was bleeding, quite a bit by the time the nearest teacher saw him. He was sent straight to sick bay and the teacher immediately began asking what had happened. There was no point lying everyone had seen it and I felt awful anyway. I knew I deserved whatever was coming to me. There was no excuse, what could I say?

  ‘He was going to push my friend so I pushed him first?’

  We weren’t allowed to push at school and with what happened I’d be lucky to escape with just a detention.

  I was lucky, probably because I hadn’t been in trouble much before and I was honest and didn’t try to get out of it. All I had was a detention the next day. All of lunchtime, I’d never had one before, part of me was curious about what happened but mostly I was dreading it. Losing my lunchtime was not the worst part though. The part I was truly dreading was the note that I would receive that mum would have to sign. Every student who got a detention also got a letter, which had to be taken home and then signed by a parent and then brought back to the deputy who did the detentions.

  The afternoon I took it home was awful. I didn’t know how to tell mum. In the end I just left it on the bench with the other notes. When she read it and asked me about it she was calm, I almost wish she was angry, she asked why? All I said was that he was going to hurt Dave and that he was a cheat. She said she would have to think about what the consequence would be. I had trouble sleeping that night, most of all because I had let her down but also because I was worried about what would happen next.

  Mum told me the next morning before school that I wasn’t going to go Rep trials on the weekend. I was devasted, I never thought it would be that. Mum looked sad too. She said that she was sorry
but it was very, very important that I knew that it was totally unacceptable to hurt others. She said how she hated violence. She said that it was important to her and she knew that others might think she was being too tough but that she had her reasons and one day, when I was older, she would tell me why. Mum had never explained anything like this before. She had never had to. My sister and I had gotten in trouble before and there’d been consequence but we knew we deserved it. There was something strange about this. As sad as I was I knew that mum’s decision was final, especially the way she had explained it this time. I just said ok. But I was so sad and didn’t even want to see Dave the next day because I would have to tell him the news.

  Chapter 9 Changing Times

  I got to practice early that week. I thought it might make me feel a bit better to have a hit before anyone else got there. I started hitting the ball on the edge of my bat to practise again. I was focusing on the ball as usual. It slowed down, which was weird because my tapping had gotten better and I hadn’t meant to slow down time. It kept slowing, and slowing and at the very top of its bounce it stopped. Totally frozen in the air, a hand came and grabbed it. I looked up.

  I stood and gaped, it was Pup!

  “Sorry to disturb your practice, you are making excellent progress by the way, but after what happened at school it has become rather urgent that we talk to you.”