The sun glossed over me. The beaming light bleached my dark skin and left me drained. Grass lessened against the edge of my shoes. This grassy knoll was near Hill’s house and it faded, exposing the dirt in some places, so we needed greener pastures.

“How you practice like that?” Arden retorted, with a smile. I wrinkled my brow at him, for as I was now, I was wearing no shirt. Half of the players were without shirts, while the ones in shirts battled us. We practiced routes and coordination mostly in football practice, because this was a violent sport and unnecessary injuries were something we avoided.

The protective gear we had was rather old and we preferred playing without them to preserve them for matches anyway.

As usual, some of our members weren’t here. Those were the typical members. A typical member was someone who joined up and was more absent than present. A lot of people just were not interested in the sport to take it seriously.

“Yes, we should be fine. What, you worried about me?” I asked.

He snorted. “No, like hell I would.”

I snickered for a bit and reached for the laptop out of my backpack, handing it to him. “Still, thanks for dealing with this for me.”

Arden looked at the laptop back and front. His eyes drifted. “Seriously though, who took it?”

“I can’t disclose that. You are not supposed to mention me either.”

Arden frowned. “Boy, a bare problem you're put yourself, inna brother. Who you defending?”

David Arden was too inquisitive. “Nuh worry about that, just take that to them,” I said.

Arden shrugged and nodded.

I begin to say, “Hey if they give you any prob–”

“Don’t worry.” Arden crouched, slid it into his backpack, and got up. “The man will be too happy to get it back. But yo you need to make sure your friend nuh steal again. We can’t have them type of tiefing foolishness round Berry Hill yuh ze me.”

“He is not a friend of mine. I just recognized something about him and acted on it.”

“Whatever you say.” He watched Leon charge and push over Ember who tried to sidestep him. Ember skated the dirt and laughed at the raising dust blanketing him. Some of the other guys laughed, congratulating Leon on that tackle. Arden widened his eyes momentarily.

I opened my mouth.

“See ya.” Arden turned and swiftly left. I closed my mouth, hesitantly. I wanted to call him back, but I had to realize it was not the right moment. Besides if I pushed too hard he would resent it. A second ago, I saw interest in his eyes.

Would he join? Probably not, best to tackle some younger blood. Arden was a bit short, but his overall build showed he could power his way to a good position on the team. His arm and leg muscles looked chiseled.

I blinked. Shaking my head, I twirled and trekked to my teammates. Leon watched Arden walk away. Leon pointed at Arden. “New team member?”

Leon was one of our best players and my friend, but we were never emotional about it. He was short like most of us on the team, but that pink-shaded smile never fell off his face in the face of any man or woman, especially women.

I shook my head. “Nah.” Though, I would love for that to happen.

“You good?” Hill patted my back as he faced me.

Mikey Hill was the team’s leader, more or less its manager. It was his father who started the team. Father and son, they loved American Football. So had I, I had never grown up on it, but I learned it quickly enough. His father used to play it in high school, so he knew it like the back of his hand.

“Yo Mike me ago buy something at Baker!” One player shouted.

Mikey said nothing and the player left.

Leon yawned. “Back to work, hey, Donavan, when you finish, we affi link up after training see me?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah man, sure.”

Leon walked off.

Mikey taught me a lot about it and we used to watch Super Bowls together. We had a foolish dream of becoming a top team in Jamaica. Well, we had that dream, it cannot be too bad to dream.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Three years later, not much had happened for us.

“You found any new people?” Mikey asked.

I wanted to mention Irwin, but that might be too hopeful. We had to talk to him about it. I really wanted him on the team. We really needed a running back.

“Not yet, I got some hopefuls in mind,” I replied.

He smiled at me brightly. He was darker than me and had an oval face. It was hard to look up at him sometimes. Damn, he was tall, at six-four he towered over us, short men. We commonly got joked about for our height. Most of us were below six feet.

Jake Ember was tall as well, but he was our best player. He played as a wide receiver. He was really good. Teams sought to take him off our hands. That sucked, we trained him and taught him everything about the game. Who would have thought he would have been a natural at it?

Nobody good wanted to stay with a bad team. Jake was going to leave for the Montego Bay Cats by winter.

“Well, this season looking like it might be fierce. Too bad I might not be here for it. They say Alwayne come off injury, so it looks like Kingston going to get their goose cooked this time around. But keep recruiting, we have to try and grab a spot mi general. But I should be able to get connection and watch your games. So just deal with your...”

The rest of his words died with the slow squinting of my eyebrows. I turned to him. “Huh?”

“Hm?” he asked.

“Wait, where are you going? Bou watching games?”

"My visa got accepted.”

“Oh right.” Of course, he told me about that. He was applying to Phoenix University. It was his father’s old alma mater. Pride ran with the decision, I wondered if he was planning to try for the American Football team there.

Though, such an idea was a dream more often than not, Jamaican players were not on the level of performance of American Players who had better nutrition, training, and experience. It would be difficult for him without any natural talent.

Most of us lacked that, the only player that I could definitely say will be in the NFL soon is Alwayne Douglas. He was too good for football down here.

“Yo, but when yuh leaving brah?” I asked.

“End of this month?” he said that as if unsure.

“End of…dog does anyone else even know this?”

“Ah, yeah you know.”

“My youth, how will they react to this?” I pointed at them still practicing.

Hill rocked his head. “Most of them won’t care really. They will be more wondering about the team. Father will be dealing with that. This is an opportunity for me, I want to take this. Besides you are here, that is why I said to look for more people. Reliable people, that will come and do the job seriously. I was doing this, but even I know I suck at commanding anyone. So you are now the captain and…coach!”

The whole of this coming down on me was too heavy a weight. I tried to think positively, but each route I foresaw was marked. It felt like a tough trek to the end of the field.

“How am I any better?” I asked.

“You are smarter than me and the guys already like you. You pretty much are the dean,” Hill said as he tilted his body to the side. I looked away. That was not the issue. I was just a member. All I wanted to do was enjoy playing football, work, eat and sleep.

This was not that, it was minus the enjoyment and more. Hill’s job was harder than he would say. It was easy to play a game, but managing a team was a different level of work which I honestly flinched at.

“You even ask me if I wanted this?” I asked.

“Come on, man you love playing Dynasty on Madden NFL, you lived for this moment.”

I groaned at that. Turning from him, I breathed out hard. “Mikey, that was a video game. This is real life, even now we struggle to keep anyone here. The only reason some men like me and Leon stick to it is because we love this game. Most youths do not care for it. We need money.”

“Father will be dealing with that side of things. You know he is good for it. I mean you got paid last month so you are good.”

“That money not going to attract nobody, his money alone won’t do anything. We need a sponsor, better yet, sponsors.”

Mikey Hill smiled twirling with arms open wide. “See you are thinking, there you go and you acting like you can’t do the job.”

I widened my eyebrows. “That is simple stuff we talked about all the time. Nothing much has changed.”

“No, change is inevitable. Me leaving is a change. Besides mi know you might not be able to play soon.” He whispered the last part almost.

I needed no reminder and I was trying to forget that part. My condition has not worsened, but the older I got the worse it got the doctor warned me.

That meant if I was ever to achieve some minuscule of a dream I had to do it now, but how? I can trust Leon, Jake. Everyone else, they were just like me, untalented. The opportunity was in my hands though. This was my chance, but could I pull it off?

He continued, “You can adapt. We won’t get different results unless we do something different. I need to do something different, so do you. You wanted to play in the JGL. I do not think I can bring you there. But I have a feeling you can. Sometimes you need new blood. A new vitality, you feel me?”

The JGL, the Jamaican Gridiron League was the highest competition in this country. We never played in it. But my dream was higher than that. I started my journey as a player under some dumb assumption that if I worked hard I would find myself being in the NFL through some miracle.

The assumption that I had some hidden talent, it never materialized. Here I was with just basic below average skill. It infuriated me, I waded my eyes on the guys practicing. I had little time left on that field.

I had to do it now. Now was the time. A sigh escaped my brittle lips. “Whatever you want, when I win the JGL and the Freedom Cup I will win it in you and your father’s honor. The founders of the Berry Hill Assassins,” I said.

“Oh, you are planning to go far, yuh chest too high,” Hill said, with a wide grin.

Serenity gripped me at that moment. I absorbed its magnificence. “Better we go to the ends of the earth than a look pon the same old earth we walked a million times,” I retorted.