Kevin the Star Striker by Joachim Masannek

Author:Joachim Masannek [Masannek, Joachim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9844257-0-9
Publisher: Sole Books
Published: 2010-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

The First Touch

In soccer, sometimes the first touch of the ball can decide everything. That was particularly true for Diego the next day. Really early in the morning, about seven, he tiptoed into the kitchen of 11 St. Charles Street, took three ice cubes from the freezer, and put them in his mouth. He was sure it would be enough until his mother got up — and then nothing would stand in the way of practice.

He closed the freezer door and danced out of the kitchen. But his mother stood in the doorway, and her expression told Diego that he was trapped. He fearfully swallowed all three ice cubes at once and stammered, “Hello Mom, um, I mean good morning!” His breath formed frost on the pot that was sitting on the stove six feet away.

Luckily his mother didn’t notice. She approached him and looked into his open mouth as he continued to hold his icy breath. Then she put the thermometer between his teeth.

“Did you really think I’d fall for your little scam twice in a row?” she asked and left the kitchen.

Diego pulled the thermometer from his mouth, and took as deep a breath as he could. Then he put the thermometer back into his mouth.

“Don’t breathe, no matter what! Don’t breathe, no matter what!” he told himself over and over. “If you breathe now, the thermometer will freeze to your lips.”

Seconds passed. First ten. Then twenty, then thirty, and finally forty. Diego stopped counting. His eyes bulged from the lack of oxygen and finally his mother came back into the kitchen. Diego was sure he’d explode at any moment. The thermometer would fly out of his mouth and — just like Iceman’s ice cannon — his breath would freeze his mother and the entire apartment.

That’s when he was finally saved by the beep. In a flash he pulled the thermometer from his mouth, handed it to his mother, turned around and blew out his arctic air and took another deep breath. When his breath hit a fly, it fell to the ground, killed by frost.

“Oh God!” Diego said.

“You can say that again!” his mother confirmed. “Only God knows how you do that!”

“Do what?” Diego asked innocently as he turned towards her. “How high?”

“98.2!” his mother answered as skeptically as if the thermometer had said the sky was purple.

But Diego was already rushing to his room.

Just like us. Tyler and I were in a terrible hurry. My dad was out taking Sox for a walk, and it would just be bad timing if we were gone when he came back. As much as we loved and cared for Sox, we simply didn’t want him around during practice.

At 9:00 AM sharp we were all at the park by the lake. Of course we knew that practice didn’t start until an hour later, but we couldn’t wait any longer. So we just started to kick the ball around. I kicked it high up in the sky. Then we ran. Every one of us wanted to get to the ball first, but I tell you, none of us did.

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