Fictional interlude

We interrupt this thrilling travel log to present the following cute little story, which we have written in honor of the world cup.  

Once upon a time there was a girl who loved to play sprockball.  Near her home, there was a huge field where all the sprockball teams would line up and play for hours, every day.  She loved the colorful uniforms, the pretty flags that the sponsors flew, the smell of the grass, but especially she loved to see the players run back and forth, up and down the field, kicking and bouncing the sprockball. 

As the girl grew, she learned to play sprockball herself, and she became very good.  One beautiful day, she received an offer from Team Green to play with them, as a full teammate!  She was so excited.  Although she had kind of been hoping to play wearing yellow or purple, what difference did the uniform make? She could really play sprockball!  As she carefully dressed in the bright green uniform, she thought of how hard she would work to do the best she could as a Team Green player!

To her pleasure, when she arrived on the field, she found that the grass on Team Green's court was greener and thicker and lusher than any grass she had ever seen.  As she ran around warming up, she breathed deeply the scent of it.

"Do you like that?" asked the team captain.  "We are one of the few teams owned by a lawn care company.  Our grass is always the very greenest."

The girl smiled.  She was proud to work for a team with the greenest grass.

As the game began, the girl noticed that the lawn care company started up their mowers.

"What is happening?" she asked the captain.

"Our sponsor is a lawn care company," he replied.  "They run their machines on the side of the court while we play."

"Isn't it a little loud?" she asked. 

"A little, but you'll get used to it.  And stay within the lines of the court."

The girl looked at the brightly painted lines on the sides of the sprockball court.  Of course she would stay within the lines.  She was an excellent player!

"Why stay within the lines?" she asked casually.

"So that you don't get hurt by the lawn machines."

Shocked, the girl looked at the lines again, the mowers on the edge.  "Do people get hurt?"

The captain smiled.  "Oh, not for many many years.  Not inside the court lines, at least."

The girl was a little shaken, but she was an excellent player.  She would stay within the lines. 


Over the next few months, the girl worked hard.  She used her sprockball skills to help the Green Team.  While they had never been the best sprockball team, she could tell they were improving.  They began to score more goals.  They began to win!  And the girl herself even scored a few of the winning goals!  She was a team hero! 

Although she was mostly happy, the noise of the lawn mowers still bothered her occasionally.  Sometimes she couldn't hear her teammates over its roar. Once, while trying out a new sprockball move, she got a little dirt in her eyes as an unexpected leaf blower neared the edge of the court a few feet away.  She blinked a little, teared up a little, but the dust washed out.

"Sorry about that," said the team captain.  "You ok?"

He was kind. They were all kind, her teammates.  Dust washed out.  She could still play sprockball. 

Meanwhile, her friends from other courts looked across hers with envy.  How green the grass was!  How lush and healthy it grew.  The girl smiled.  It was true.  The grass here was the most beautiful on the whole sprockball field. 

Only one day, something terrible happened. 

The lawn care company, out with their massive mowers, slipped over the line just a little, and caught one of the players in their blades.

The other players froze, and the game ground to a halt as everyone watched in horror, blood and screams. 

The girl was petrified. She had never seen anything so terrible.  As the injured player was carried off the field, the lawn mower started up again.  The game began again.

"What?  What?" the girl cried.  "We just carry on?"

"What else can we do?  We are sprockball players."

"But that player was terribly injured!"

"He shouldn't have been playing so close to the line," said the team captain.  "It's disturbing, yes, but it won't happen to you, as long as you stay far away from the line."

"But he was inside the court!"

"No," said another player.  "I think I saw him step out, just before it happened."

"And anyway," pointed out another, "the lines used to be a little closer in.  If he had stayed within the original lines, nothing would have happened."

"Yes," agreed a third.  "It's better not to have these modern players on our team anyway.  They forget where the original court lines were drawn."

Shocked, the girl turned away.  Didn't her teammates realize that she was a modern player too?  That she played outside the original, more traditional lines, but still within the full court?  Quietly, she turned to the team captain.  "Maybe we could have the lawn mowers moved?" she whispered.  "Just a little further away?"

The captain looked at her in concern.  "Our sponsor is a lawn care company," he said.  "If we want to play on their court, we have to stay away from their mowers.  Please don't say anything else about it."

The girl tried to play again, but the blood on the side of the field was too horrifying.  Sometimes, she knew, her sprockball playing led her to the edges of the court as well.  Sometimes, to be the best player she could be, she had to follow the ball where it led, even outside the traditional lines, which had been removed many years before.

She began to look around the sprockball field, farther away, across to the other courts, where the blue, the yellow, and the purple teams played.

No one had grass as green and lush.  Some of the other teams kicked their ball through dirt, or even mud.  One player in yellow tripped on a rock, and skinned her knee.  A player in orange knocked over another, leaving him bruised.  She watched them fight.  Those teams were not as kind as hers.  She watched them scrabble over the dirt.  Their lawn was so thin and brown. 

But none of them had lawn mowers. 

And they all played sprockball.

"Come play!  The grass is so green!" called the Green Team captain. 

And it was.  It was very green.