Traveller by L.W. Samuelson (english reading book TXT) 📕

players double teamed the Russian. This time when the ball was hiked, one of them was knocked flat on his butt while the other ended up five yards into the backfield where he stumbled and fell. Bill was rolling away from the Russian with the football in his passing hand. He stopped, planted his back foot, and brought his arm back to throw. Traveller swept the ball from his hand. He ran with long Benwarian strides down the field for a touchdown. No one bothered to pursue him except Jesse who ran behind him with two arms up yelling, “Touchdown!”
Everyone lined up for the ensuing kick-off. When Jesse went back to kick the ball, Traveller pointed to himself and made a kicking motion, “Me?” he said.
“You want to kick the ball?”
“Yes please.”
Traveller stood a few mezures to the left of the ball. He kicked it with the side of his foot in a soccer style kick. It sailed high into the air, well over the head of Tim who was back to receive. It bounced off the orange-bricked gym wall for a touchback.
“Hey Jesse, where’d you get him, on loan from the Cowboys?” Bill asked.
“Funny. He’s never played football in his life,” Jesse bragged.
In an attempt to run the clock out, Bill ran the ball on the next play with all his players bunched around him and the element of surprise, he gained ten yards. On the next play everyone blocked the Russian while Tim ran in the opposite direction for a two yard loss. Two more plays failed to gain any yardage with two incomplete passes. With five minutes left, Bill dropped back to punt. The ball sailed high in the air. Jesse caught it to be immediately downed by Tim. Traveller had been taken out of the play by a trip and a hold.
Jesse huddled the team up. “Everyone block. Travis you go deep,” he said beckoning down the field. “On three.”
Traveller ran at the snap of the ball. Tim was thirty yards downfield playing safety while Bill tried to run with the Russian. Everyone else on the team was in hot pursuit of Jesse as he dropped back to pass.
When Traveller broke open between Bill and Tim, Jesse threw the ball over the outstretched hands of the defense. It sailed on him headed straight for Tim who waited with both arms ready. Just as the football was descending, Traveller put on a burst of speed, turned, jumped, and then knocked the ball away.
“One more play,” said Bill panting as he walked back to the line of scrimmage.
“Huddle,” called Jesse’s center. All the players stood between Jesse and the other team.
“Okay guys. I’m going to fake a hand-off to Travis. They’ll expect him to get the ball,” Jess said. He put the ball in Traveller’s arms and took it out again. “No, I’ll keep it,” he said and Traveller nodded.
“On three, break,” said Jesse. Traveller stood on the line of scrimmage. Jesse walked over then moved Traveller three yards directly behind him. He moved his arm up and down pointing to the gap just left of the center. “Stay low,” he said. He crouched down, hoping that Traveller could figure out that if he stayed bent over, the other team couldn’t whether he had the ball or not.
When the center hiked the ball, everyone converged on Traveller except for Tim. He waited. Jesse rolled out with the ball behind his back. One of the defensive players yelled, “It’s a quarterback keeper!” when he saw that Traveller didn’t have the ball.
Tim moved to the right coming up hard to slow Jesse down so someone could get his flag. With Tim coming hard in front of him, and the other players converging; he spun back around then back peddled sidestepping a tackler. Now he was hemmed in. It looked hopeless so he threw the ball as high and as far as he could.
Traveller had run down the field a few mezures before turning to see if the play had worked. When he saw what was happening to Jesse, he sensed what his friend would do. He ran to Jesse’s side of the field angling backward. The ball flew through the air in a high tight spiral. Traveller picked the spot where it would come down, concentrated then impelled. He was barely able to throw his hands up in time to tip the ball into the air. As it was coming down, Traveller speared it with one hand, pivoted and ran for a touchdown.
Jesse ran down the field yelling, "Way to go Travis! Eighteen to eighteen, we tied the best team on campus."
Bill yelled as he was leaving the field, "Next time we'll play you without the Russian and see who wins. I've gotta go to class. Game's over." The rest of his team dispersed into the crowd except for Tim.
The other team's best player came over to shake Traveller's hand. "Good job. You're a helluva an athlete. Thanks for fixin' my neck."
Traveller shook his hand then drew him forward and patted him on the back. "Boni bon bon game," he said.
Even though Tim's team hadn’t won the game, he felt better about it than he had about any of the games they had won. He liked Travis and could sense that Russian liked him. Although he really didn't think Travis was a Russian, he did think of him as a friend. He didn't question how he could like someone so much in such a short time.
"Hey Jesse, let's get together some time. You and Travis and I."
"Sure," said Jesse. It pleased him that an upper classman wanted to be his friend.
"I'll see you around," said Tim before trotting off.
Jesse turned to Traveller. "Let's hit the sauna," he said.
They walked into the gym where Jesse showed his activity card to the student attendant. "This is my guest," he said nodding at Traveller. "It's okay if he comes with me, isn't it Jake?"
"Sure, Jesse."
The two boys undressed putting their clothes in Jesse's locker. When they got to the steam room, Jesse turned the setting to high. Pipes clinked then groaned as the hot vapor filled the pipes. It took a few minutes before the steam started hssing out of the jets.
Soon the room filled with a hot fog. This was a new experience for Traveller. He enjoyed the warm soothing vapor that enveloped his whole body.
"I love a good steam bath," said Jesse.
"Boni, bon bon," agreed Traveller.
It took twenty minutes before Jesse decided he had had enough. Traveller was just starting to sweat. "I'll wait for you by the lockers," he said motioning to where they had left their clothes. It was another twenty minutes before Traveller tired of the hot steam.
When he came out, Jesse showed him to the showers. He demonstrated how to adjust the temperature of the water then gave the alien a bar of soap.
Traveller washed in the soothing hot water. When he finished, Jesse brought him a clean towel. He dried off and dressed trying to decide which he liked most, the warmth of the steam, the shower, or the warmth of having new friends. I'll take the friends, he decided.
Now that they were clean, Jesse rummaged through his pockets pulling out his change and counting it. “A dollar thirty-seven,” he said before pulling out his wallet to find two one dollar bills. “Come on, I’ll buy lunch.”
They walked west to 5th street then turned north. Three blocks later, they came to a Taco Bell. The sign outside said “Cheese and Bean Burritos Two for a Dollar.”
Traveller recognized the word bean. “No,” he said. “Malbon, malbon.”
“Come on, just have one. It won’t make you gassy,” he shook his head no and made a flatulent sound. Jesse opened the door and Traveller followed him inside.
He ordered four burritos with two cokes. The bill came to $3.09. Traveller watched Jesse search for the money sensing somehow that his friend was making a sacrifice for him even though he didn’t understand the concept of currency.
They sat at a table to wait for the food. A few minutes later Tim entered. “Can I join you guys?” he asked after ordering his food.
Traveller brightened. “Boni bon bon,” he said.
“Hey Tim. Sure,” said Jesse.
“You guys hear about the three on three basketball tournament this Saturday? I signed up but don’t have a team yet. Has Travis ever played basketball?”
“No, but he’s a quick learner,” said Jesse. “I’ll bet he can dunk it.”
Tim looked puzzled. “How can anyone his age not have played basketball?”
“He comes from a very small village in eastern Russia.”
“Oh yeah? What’s the name of it?”
Jesse looked at Traveller, “Tell Tim where you’re from.”
“Benwar,” he said.
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound very Russian. You’re not pulling my leg are you?”
“Actually, it’s called Benwarsky, but he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s a communist.”
“Yeah right,” Tim said skeptically. “So how ‘bout it? You guys want to play? The tournament starts Friday night and ends on Saturday.”
“Sure. Let’s meet tomorrow at Holt gym at about one p.m. We’ll teach him how to play,” Jesse said.
“Number seventy-six,” sounded over the intercom.
Jesse retrieved the tray with the burritos. He sat two of them before Traveller along with a coke and some taco sauce.
The words “number seventy-seven” beckoned Tim to the counter for his food.
Traveller unwrapped the top of his burrito and bit into it. “Here,” said Jesse opening a packet of taco sauce and then showing Traveller how to put it on his burritto.
“Boni bon bon,” said Traveller after he tasted it with an expression of pleasure filling his face. When he finished the first one, he looked at Tim who was now sitting across from him. Tim unwrapped one of his tacos. I looked similar to a tortilla chip but was larger and folded over to hold some kind of filling.
“You want to try one?” Tim asked.
“Yes please,” Traveller said. Tim handed him one. Traveller bit into it enjoying the crunchy texture. It reminded him of a syntho-wafer only it was tastier by a hundred fold. The filling contained something he had never tasted before. It puzzled him. I’ll wait until we get back to Lori’s before I ask Jesse what is inside he thought.
“Your eye’s starting to swell,” Tim said. “Did you get hit?”
Traveller nodded his head up and down as Jesse looked and then said, “Uh oh, Lori’s going to be mad at me.”
Traveller didn’t understand what Jesse meant. He picked up his other burrito. “Phutt, phuttt, no,” he said. “Lori mad.” He handed the burrito to Tim.
“Thanks,” Tim said.
Jesse laughed, “We stopped at the Pilot House on our way home from Pomerelle. The beans made us silent but deadly.”
“Silent but deadly. Lori mad,” mimicked Traveller.
“At least they’re filling,” said Tim plopping the last bite into his mouth.
With the cokes and food gone, the three boys cleaned the table off then left the premises. They parted ways outside. Tim walked back to the campus while Jesse and his alien friend resumed their journey north to Lori’s.
At Lori’s Jesse took the key under the door mat so they could get in. Once inside he rummaged in the hall closet until a basketball was found. There was a driveway basketball court just down the alley that he often used to practice on. “Come on Travis. I’ll teach you a new game.”
Chapter 16 - Basketball
Jesse bounced the ball all the way down the alley to the court. Once there, he shot the ball. It arced high into the air before swishing the steel