Chapter 24: The Phantom of the Opera

Labatt Guest House, London, Ontario

6:38am, Saturday, December 1, 1979

“Ohh, Ohh, Ohh, Dievs,” Zupena softly whispered as she rocked her butt and tightly squeezed thighs against my slumbering body, but with my morning wood unknowingly planted firmly in her warm, wet pussy.

“What are you, ‘Oh Dievs-ing’, about 3-Z?” Lynette barely whispered over her shoulder at the blonde giantess to her rear.

“Ohh, Mikhail, he ... Oh, Dievs,” Zupena whispered in Lynette’s ear.

“No, he’s ... you’re not,” Cano whispered a little louder than before.

“Hum, what is goin’ on?” Lisa groggily whispered, as she squeezed Lynette’s hand tightly to her large left boob.

“Zupi and Mike are...” Lynette whispered in Brick’s ear as all of six of us had moved nary an inch, except for Zupena, as we all fit together like Lego pieces on this queen-sized bed.

“No ... they aren’t,” Lisa softly said as her morning fog lifted after hearing Lynette’s claim.

That chain of what and their replies went all the way over to Tempe via Shannon, while the thinking part of me was still out like a light. My pleasure head was definitely into it, in Zupena’s wonderfully tight pussy. Like Dominoes falling, first Tempe turned towards Zupena and me, then Shannon, then Lisa and finally Lynette.

Zupena’s pursed lips allowed a louder, “Ohhh, Dievs, This is sooo good!” to escape from her mouth as she now had more room to actively move her hips to bring on the orgasm she so disparately craved.

“I can’t believe you’re doing that, Zupi,” Shannon whispered from over Lisa’s bare upper back.

“Mikhail’s dick, it poke my poossee this morning. I no choice but to enjoy, yes?” Zupena softly replied with her face scrunched up, seeking just the right spot on the front side of her vagina to have my large crown press against.

“My God! He’s still asleep ... His eyes are darting around behind his eyelids, but his breathing ain’t going crazy like it should if he was really fuck-fucking Zupi,” Lynette whispered after she pushed herself up to peer into my relaxed, sleeping face.

“Yeah, his hips aren’t moving other than when Zupena’s butt pushes back into him,” Tempe said as she gotten out from under the covers and sat on the bed beside Zupena’s and my long, bed-spread covered legs.

“His hand barely, it barely move with no squeeze of boob,” Zupena softly added as she barely moved her pelvis but forcibly squeezed her strong pussy muscles around my impaled cock.

“Ho! What?!” I jerked to life as my cockhead was squeezed and mashed tightly by and against several things I wasn’t currently aware of.

“Morning, Loverboy,” Lynette giggled as she had reached down to finger Zupena’s clit and scratch the inch or two of my shaft not gripped by Zupena’s pussy.

“Ohhh, Dievs! Yes! Yes! Ohhh! Dievsssss!” Zupena cried now that she wasn’t purposefully trying to inhibit her pleasurable vocalizations. Her pussy got even tighter as her incredible abdominal muscles rebelled against the invader within her body.

“Uhh, I want some of that,” Lisa purred before she leaned over Lynette to kiss Zupena’s perfectly rounded, pursed lips.

“Can we have some of that, Mike?” Shannon softly asked as she got on her knees with the covers around her ankles.

“I just ... what time is... ?” I mumbled as pulled my hand from Zupena’s left breast, over her spasming stomach to lazily stretch out my arms and legs.

“It’s almost seven,” Tempe sweetly said as she rubbed over my and Zupena’s covered legs.

“Wa-why are you ah-up! Oh! God!“ I stammered and upped my vocals as I thought my shaft was gonna snap when Zupena straightened her legs. That unexpected action bent my trapped shaft at its midway point with my cockhead wedged super tight against Zupena’s ‘G-spot’.

Lynette quickly figured out the cause of my distress and pulled Zupena’s upper body forward to ease that wicked bending force against my shaft. I figured Zupena didn’t have a clue as to what happened, since her orgasm was still rippling through her body. Thank God Lynette was there to finally extricate my now sore shaft from Zupena’s powerful pussy.

With my hard cock now ‘just squeezed’ between Zupena’s strong thighs, the relief in my shaft hit me hard and I slumped back on my pillow.

“I think he’s actually sleeping, again,” Tempe softly whispered as my face snuggled up to the back of Zupena’s sweet smelling hair.

“We just need to leave them be for a few minutes,” Shannon whispered as she pointed to Zupena, who was also out of it after her early morning orgasm.

“If you two wanna take a shower in the master bath? Shan and me will use the one in the hallway bathroom,” Lynette softly said as she nudged Lisa and pointed to Tempe, setting them into motion.

“I’ll get our clothes from the drier,” Tempe said as she pushed herself up from the bed, and scurried her bare butt out to the hall laundry closet. When she carried the basket of clothes back into the bedroom she laughed, “‘Bout the only thing I know for sure, is that this is Bricky’s bra.” Tempe then held up the large, navy DD sling shot and tossed it at the busty beauty grinning on the edge of the bed.

“The hunter green set is mine,” Shannon said.

“The black set is mine and I think the purple and white striped ones are Zupi’s,” Lynette said as she got out of the bed and stretched her long, lean body.

“C’mon, Tempe. Shower time,” Lisa said as she picked her matching navy panties from the basket and took Tempe’s hand to lead her into the master bath.

Jason’s Limousine on Road to Parkhill, Ontario

8:23am, Saturday, December 1, 1979

“You better eat something right away, Cuda, and then you can nap,” Lynette said as she nudged my foot from the seat across from me.

“Yeah, yeah ... I hope I can stay awake long enough to eat a muffin and some fruit,” I lightly replied.

“Here’s a coffee, Mike,” Tempe said as she held an insulated mug out for me.

“Thanks, B-G,” I said as I took a few sips of the ‘joe’.

“I super sorry for waking you up, early, Mikhail,” Zupena softly said as she scratched the back of my head.

“No-no. I’m sorry for poking you in your privates with my...” I countered with a yawn.

“Less talk, more eat, and then you can nap,” Momma Cano laughed as she leaned forward with a heaping plateful of fruit and a buttered, chocolate chip muffin on it for me.

As I got some calories in me, my body responded and came more to life. “Is there anymore coffee, Tempe?” I asked after I finished that first mug, washing down my muffin.

“A pot and a half,” Tempe replied as she took my mug and put some cream and sugar in it before stirring some coffee in with a long spoon.

Soon, I was relatively alive and functioning, and half-way participating in the girls’ conversations. They definitely were fully awake as they went to town about our Strathroy show and the unbelievable news about our three songs being played on several of Ontario’s best and largest radio stations.

When Zupena turned to gaze in my eyes, she had tears in her and said, “I luckiest girl in world, now. I have great boyfriend and super sweet girlfriends.”

“We all love you, Zupena,” I said as I pulled her head onto my shoulder.

The tall blonde then turned her resting head to the other girls at the back of the limo and said, “I sorry for doing mīlēšanās with Mike this morning. It selfish of me.”

“Don’t apologize, Zupi. Any one of us would have done what you did ... if Mike’s morning wood was between our legs. Heck, I gave him my cherry when I woke up with him like that, last weekend,” Shannon said.

“You did it for the first time after waking up? How sweet,” Lisa said as she was the only one, I guessed, who hadn’t heard all the details about Shannon and my hotel sleep together, last weekend.

Zupena then sniffled and wiped her face with her rugby shirt’s sleeve and said, “Still, with four other girlfriends in bed, I no want to make you upset at keeping Mike to self.”

“Do any of us look upset with you or Mike ... This, this Phantom of the Opera?” Tempe said from the seat across from us.

“Good one, Tempe,” Lisa said as Lynette added, “You’ve done nothing needing an apology, 3-Z.” Lynette used our private name for Zupena, and quickly looked at me to see if she screwed up.

Thankfully for Zupena and Lynette, none of the other girls picked up on Cano’s slight slip, and they neither asked about nor used that private name with Zupena. The current focus of discussion was Tempe’s ‘Phantom’ usage regarding my coming to my girls in their dreams, and it some cases, our dream-reality unions.

About fifteen minutes from Parkhill, Lynette asked, “What do you know about Goderich, Cuda?”

“They have short, quick guards, who were good shooters, but they don’t have the overall size to deal with Andrew, Gary, Dennis or me,” I replied and appeared to snap completely into game level focus.

“Can you hang with their quick guards?” Lisa asked, not fully aware of my own ability in that department.

“I see Goderich play when we arrive, yesterday. Mikhail will have no problem guarding smaller players,” Zupena said as she squeezed my right thigh.

“Here’s a Gatorade, Cuda. Better drink this now, so you won’t feel too bloated at game time,” Tempe said with a purple grape flavored drink in her hand.

“Thanks, Sweets,” I replied and twisted the top off the twenty-ounce plastic bottle.

“You shoulda seen the pressure Mike and his teammates put on those poor Clinton boys,” Shannon said with a laugh.

“Yes, pressure was different than our ‘war dogs’ press, was more in face type defense,” Zupena added to Shannon’s statement.

“So, Coach W has upped the challenge this year for you, huh?” Lynette said as she held the last plate of grapes, strawberries and pineapple chunks out to me, Zupena and then to Shannon and Lisa at the back of the limo.

“Yeah. He’s really having the others overplay their man to force their point to go one-on-one against me. We both like the odds of me winning those battles, or limiting quality offense plays with their trigger man under constant pressure,” I said before I popped another two grapes in my mouth.

“I hate we missed last night’s game,” Tempe softly said as she snagged a pineapple chunk from the plate.

“Hopefully, the Cowboys will put on a similar show. Gary, Mike, Andrew all had awesome dunks in the first half,” Shannon added with smile.

“Mikhail’s reverse dunk was neticami, just unbelievable,” Zupena said as she lightly slapped my right thigh.

“Yeah, he caught Matt’s long lead pass as he was flying by the rim and just ‘whoosh’ ... jammed it in over his head,” Shannon excitedly said as she mimicked my catch and overhead slam for the other girls.

“That wasn’t planned. I just ... it was the only way I knew of scoring right then,” I said as I noticed we were slowing down as we entered Parkhill.

North Middlesex Secondary School Gym, Parkhill, Ontario

10:11am, Saturday, December 1, 1979

“Jon-Jon!” I yelled in excitement as our shooting guard nailed his third long range jumper in a row to increase our lead to 9-2 over the Goderich District Collegiate Institute Vikings.

“Pick him up, Little!” Coach W shouted to me as I immediately found my man and used my fast feet to cut off the Viking guard’s intended path down the court. When I forced him to pick up his dribble along the sideline, Coach yelled, “Up! Up! Up!“ to my teammates.

Goderich’s coach called a timeout to prevent a five-second turnover. My teammates and I jumped for joy towards our bench as Coach W waved us over. “You’ve got him rattled, Little. Let’s jump-trap him a couple of times to see how he responses to that new situation.” He then looked at Jon and said, “You’ve got to rotate back super fast, as their big man is pretty slick on the blocks, ‘kay?”

“Yes, Sir!” our leading scorer replied as Big-Mike smacked his left thigh.

“Little, run 4-down, and then 4-up on our next two set pieces against their 2-3 zone,” Coach said to me and to my teammates. He turned once more to Jon and said, “Hot hand keeps shooting, Jon-Jon!” Jon’s grin spoke volumes after Coach’s confidence inspiring statement.

Both of those calls were double screens, designed to get open, mid-range jumpers from either the baseline or the free-throw line-extended. I reached over to Jon and shared a high-5 with him as we stood up to break our huddle. As we exited the huddle, I said to Andrew, “Roll to the goal on those screens. They might be looking for Jon-Jon, so you could slide into an open area under the basket.”

“Will do, Cuda,” Andrew said as he headed for his man, while Jon, Big and I moved to the Vikings’ end to pick up our men.

On the inbounds pass, I eased off my pressure and forced their point to go left in Big’s direction. Ten feet from the mid-court line, Big jumped up to trap my man as I upped my pressure. The Viking fired a bullet pass, which his teammate couldn’t corral as Matt was on him like mange on a mongrel.

After that turnover, I took Matt’s inbounds pass and dribbled into the attacking zone with my right hand held high with four fingers pointing skyward. As I thought might happen, the Vikings were very motivated to keep Jon from getting open off Matt’s and Andrew’s staggered baseline screens. With the low post defender fighting to slow Jon’s low screen cut, I faked a pass down low to him. At the same time, Andrew rolled to the opening in front of the basket and I fired a no-look pass to my six-five teammate. Andrew caught that pass, and in one motion took off and cuff-dunked the rock through the goal.

“Andrew! Little! Great cut! Pass!“ Coach yelled as he jumped out of his seat on the bench.

The Vikings decided to have Jon’s man bring the ball up the floor instead of their regular point, my man. That really didn’t make a difference to us on our jump-trap scheme. Jon and me simply replaced rolls, with him steering the Vikings’ less skilled ball handler towards Big and Matt’s side of the court. Because they saw how we rotated our man coverage in that jump-trap, the ball handler thought he could make a cross court pass to my man as I started to rotate back towards the goal. With the ball hanging in the air, I reversed course and out jumped their smaller point guard for that pass.

Because I was in full sprint mode with the ball and had a clear path to the basket, the Medway fans in the crowd screamed in excitement. With time to think about things, I decided to do my favorite North Carolina Tar Heel and future LA Laker star, James Worthy’s favorite ‘The Statue of Liberty’ dunk. I took off to the left of the free throw line and powered up to the basket with the ball held high in my right hand like Lady Liberty does with her torch. I lowered the boom on the basket as I started my downward path back to earth.

With that breakaway slam, we jumped out to a commanding 13-2 lead, and we really weren’t super taxed in gaining that advantage. As I found my ‘14’ opponent, I saw Wayne’s second unit get up and move to the scorer’s table. When Coach yelled out, “D-5!” I got right in 14’s grill on the inbounds pass. I forced him to turn or reverse dribble eight times coming up the floor.

The referee’s loud whistle startled me because I knew I didn’t reach in to foul 14, but I then bent over backwards and let out a loud yell after the ref said, “Ten second violation. Red ball!”

“Great job, Cuda!” I heard Lynette scream from the stands as my teammates ran up to me and patted me on the back for creating that turnover.

“Great Pressure! Mikhail!” Zupena cried in her thick Euro-accent.

“Way to stay in his grill, Little!” Matt yelled at me as we headed towards the bench.

“You guys didn’t allow him an easy pass, so that makes it worth my while to bust chops,” I said as we high-5’ed our replacement players.

“Don’t let ‘em breathe, guys!” Big-Mike yelled from the bench as the five of us shared our team’s three water bottles.

With four-forty-two left in the first quarter, Coach W walked to us and crouched down to say, “At the two minute mark, check back in. I don’t wanna let them to get comfortable playing against our zone team.”

“You got it, Coach,” Matt said after he passed his water bottle to Andrew.

“Let’s jump-trap them on their first possession,” Big-Mike said as he looked at me, Jon and Andrew.

“Sounds good,” I said after taking another swallow of water.

“Start like you’re in our D-5, Little. Then, after turning him a time or two, allow your guy to dribble right into Big’s or Jon’s trap,” Matt added, which made great sense.

“Yeah, we’ll be ready to rotate up or back, when we see you slack off your guy,” Andrew said and slapped Jon on his thigh.

Our second unit expanded our lead by two points, to an 18 to 5 margin when we got up to reenter the game. Wayne scored three points on a top of the key jumper and a free throw when he was hammered going in for a lay-up. Gary added a short, put-back jump hook for those five Cowboy points.

Our disguised jump-trap worked like a charm as the Viking point guard though he had me beat when Big put a quick halt to his progress. When 14 tried to pass to his center at the top of the key, Jon’s rotation allowed for an easy interception. Big and I both immediately broke for the Vikings’ basket and Jon threw a baseball pass up to me. When 14 moved to stop my drive, I flipped a soft, over my head pass to Big who laid the rock against the backboard for an easy deuce.

At the end of the first quarter, we held a 22-7 lead. Coach put Wayne’s unit back into the game, and had them continue with their 1-2-1-1 full court press. The Godrich Vikings seemed to settle down some against our less frantic press, but Andy and Smytty both picked off passes, which were turned into easy layups. With our guys in a tight 2-3 zone if our press was broken, the Viking sharp shooters got a few open jumpers to narrow the score, 29-16, with just over four minutes left in the second quarter.

“Big, Little! Let’s go,” Coach called out after Gary fumbled an entry pass from Andy. The five of us hustled to the scorer’s table and got the horn sounded before the ref handed the ball for the inbounds pass.

“No more open jumpers! Got that!” Coach shouted to us as we moved to our defensive man.

That thirteen point margin was the closest the Vikings got to us in this game. Our man-unit upped our lead to 21 points right before half time. When the Vikings’ center mugged Andrew in the post, he earned a technical foul for arguing with the referee, to go with his reaching foul, Andrew nailed all four free throws to give us a 25 point half time lead, 44-19.

Coach had us employ our 4-C offense from the get-go of the second half. Unless we had an open layup or short jumper, we were to pull the ball back out, and have the Vikings chase us or let us run time off the clock. At half-time, he said this would help keep us fresher for the championship game.

While it was pretty boring for the first two minutes of the half as Big and I played catch, it was definitely easier on our bodies than going full bore on offense and defense. When the Vikings finally decided to challenge us, Big passed me the ball in the center circle. With 14 creeping up on me, I did a few jab steps to my right to see his reaction to them. With him taking my ‘right side’ away, I easily drove past him with my preferred left handed dribble. Jon’s man quickly jumped to block my path, so I jump-stopped and tossed a pass to my open teammate.

After making a ‘V’ cut to shake 14, I took Jon’s return pass near the center circle. I did this dribble-drive-dish cycle three times with either Jon or Big-Mike. ‘14’ finally tired and grabbed my arm as I drove by him. That reaching foul was the first stoppage of the clock in the nearly four minutes of game ‘action’. After the ensuing inbounds pass, Big made a ‘V’ cut to get open. I passed to him and did my own sharp cut to run a ‘Give & Go’ down the middle of the lane. After taking that return pass, I was surprised no Viking moved to stop me, so I exploded up and threw down a two-handed tomahawk dunk for the first two points of the second half.

“D-2! D-2!” Coach yelled and then we moved back to just across the mid-court line to pick up our defensive pressure.

During their third offensive series, the Vikings solidly built center manhandled Andrew’s relatively slender body for his second easy layup or chippy jumper. As I dribbled the ball upcourt, Coach yelled, “Little, Jon, Andrew switch men! Little take ‘44’”

With Jon on the 14, and Andrew now guarding their shooting guard, I relished the chance to get down and dirty in the paint with this big, banger. While he had two inches on me, I was more than 44’s equal in the strength department and I definitely had him in leaping ability.

After dropping off a pass to Matt for an open three foot jumper in our 4-C offense, I fronted 44 the first time guarding him on the low blocks. When 14 tried to lob the ball over the top to him, I leapt up and tipped that pass to Matt, who fired a long outlet pass to a streaky Big for another easy layup. The next defensive possession, I started fronting him again, but switched behind him when he pushed off without getting called for it. Luckily, Jon upped his pressure and didn’t allow 14 the time to make that lob-entry pass.

With each of us grunting and banging hips and torsos, trying to gain or hold valuable low post real estate, I stepped back from the center when their small forward dropped a bounce pass into 44. That loss of physical contact with me caused him to stubble and the ref blew his whistle for a traveling violation. The Vikings’ center turned and cussed at me, saying I pulled him off balance.

I had to laugh when the lead referee chuckled, “Sweet move, ‘20’,” as Matt moved to inbounds the ball to me.

“What did you do, Cuda?” Jon asked as we walked slowly up court with me dribbling the ball.

“Tell you when we’re out of here,” I laughed at my friend.

“Air it out, Cowboys!” Lynette yelled and stomped her feet as I dribbled unchallenged in the center circle. The Vikings knew they were toast and allowed me to run out the remaining twenty-four seconds of the third quarter.

Our man unit was parked for the rest of this game with us leading 52-23. Jon-Jon finished the game with a game high 16 points on mostly mid- to long-range jumpers. When my friend had has his stroke going, Jon has/had often topped 30 points in my past-future games. Big-Mike and I both scored 11 points, but we both led our team in steals or turnovers created with seven apiece. Many of those were teamwork oriented steals, which lead to numerous easy transitional dunks, layups or baby jumpers. Andrew and I both had a team high six rebounds, which Gary equalled on the second unit, snagging two late boards to claim part of that three-person team lead.

Geoff took Dennis’ place with that second unit to start the fourth quarter, as the Goderich coach pulled his starters to give his backups early season playing time. I was happy to see that Coach was able to put in Mike Morelli and Desi Kilkenny for the final five minutes of the game. With the game all but over, Coach allowed Wayne to run our regular offense with those three ‘JVers’ in the game to give them experience with our basic offense. The final score was 63-35.

We would soon learn that our opponent in the Parkhill Classic Championship would be Mitchell District Secondary. They played in the game right after ours, and jumped all over the host team, North Middlesex District HS. Lead by All-Ontario ‘A’ guard, Dane Dickey’s 33 points, the Blue Devils defeated the Mauraders by 16 points, 74-58.

I loved that we were going to play Mitchell in the championship game for two reasons. First, my Uncle Eddie taught Physics and Math at this school. Second, I knew Dane and a few other Mitchell players from playing fast-pitch softball with or against them while working on my uncle’s farm in my past-future summers. While I knew Dane was a good player after he led Mitchell to a bronze medal at last year’s Ontario ‘A’ Championships, I saw all I needed to know by half time to realize that Wayne, Jon-Jon or me were going to have our hands full containing him in the North Middlesex Classic Championship.

We all left for lunch at halftime, and headed for a diner that Coach Feelt said served great sandwiches and had awesome site made ice cream. Even though it was just a tad above freezing, good ice cream is good ice cream regardless of the weather. At least that was the prevailing sentiment of my teammates, our girlfriends and a good number of parents and family members. We quickly agreed to meet at this ‘Mom & Pop’ diner about three-quarters of a mile from the school on Elginfield Road.

Because my breakfast was ‘relatively’ small and lacking in calories, I ordered a grilled cheese & bacon, a BLT, and a turkey club sandwich, plus a large fries at Harry-Etta’s Diner & Creamery. My girls all had some type of sandwich and fries or onion rings after Cano and Lisa shamed Tempe away from having a simple ‘rabbit-food’ house salad. They told our petite gymnast that she still needed to get some ‘real’ food to stay strong and maintain her massive one-oh-five pound body. I also chided both Shannon and Zupena that kisses weren’t gonna happen after they ordered those onion rings. My comment immediately earned me a series of playful punches to both of my upper arms from all five of my girls, plus Ms. Dillon and little Jessie.

As we ate in relative silence, Coach Feelt told us the owners’ names were Harry and Harrietta Paulsen, thus the play on names in the diner’s name. ‘Stretch’ taught at North Middlesex for two years prior to coming to Medway. He also suggested we hit the bowling alley after lunch. It was in the other direction from the NMDHS.

Most of us felt like taking a nap after chowing down on those killer sandwiches and topping lunch off with a scoop or three of pure heaven ... Harrietta’s ice cream. Once we got out in the chilly December air, we perked back up and our competitive juices were rekindled by the braggidocio going on between most of the guys and their girlfriends over their bowling prowess. My five girls knew better than to get involved in that type of trash talk after our bowling event down in Strathroy, although Tempe and Lisa were trying to start something with me over Zupena being a serious challenger to my bowling ability.

“I only bowl once, so no chance I give Mikhail game at alley,” Zupena laughed and put both of those two girls in a playful head-lock for trying to be ‘shit-disturbers’.

“I’ll challenge you, Mike,” little Jessie confidently said from between her mom and dad.

“Jess-Jess, we’re gonna go to the last day of Parkhill’s flea market,” Ms. Dillon said to her twelve-year-old daughter.

“But I don’t wanna go buy fleas!” Jessie whined and pulled her hand from her mothers.

“She can come with us, Ms. D,” Lisa quickly said, coming to Jessie’s rescue.

“We don’t want her to be a ‘P’ in your ‘A’,” Gary Robertson said as he lightly patted Jessie’s tail for whining and yanking her hand away from her mom’s hand.

“She won’t be a pain...” I replied with a smile at Lynette’s little sister.

“In our A’s,” Tempe quickly added and moved to take Jessie’s hand from her dad.

“Here, Lynette, this should cover yours and squirt’s bowling,” Ms. Dillon said after she rummaged through her handbag for a twenty.

“We’ve got it, Ms. D,” I said was I waved for her to put her twenty back in her bag.

“We can’t let you...” Mr. R said.

“Mr. Labatt gave us lunch and entertainment money, last night, so we’re good,” I interjected on Lynette’s dad’s words.

“Alright, just make sure you tell Sammy’s folks thanks from us, the next time you see them, Lynette,” Ms. Dillon said as she stuffed that twenty back in her bag.

“I will, Momma,” Lynette said and stepped up to give both of her parents a peck on the cheek.

“See you around five-thirty,” Mr. R said as they walked over to join Mr. and Mrs. Lunby, and Mr. and Mrs. Smythe. Those six adults, plus Jessie rode together in the Symthe’s large Stationwagon to the diner.

A second Medway invasion took place at the Parkhill Bowl as our crew claimed all nine vacant alleys; six-ten pin lanes and their three-five pin lanes. The three couples at the other three-ten pin lanes agreed to move to the end lanes at the conclusion of their current games to allow our noisy crowd to bowl on those nine ‘connected’ lanes. The older players and their girlfriends, plus the adults in our crowd, bowled on the ten-pin lanes. My crew of seven, counting Jessie, plus Jon and Andi, Andrew and Heidi, Andy and Jennifer, and Geoff and Tammi decided to claim the five-pin alleys. Lynette and Shannon bowled with Jon and Andi, while the other three couples played a six-person match.

Zupena’s scored a 231 on her second game, which came relatively close to my first game’s 248 score. I was on fire in the second game and bowled my highest five-pin score ever, with a 332 game. Coach Feelt was a league bowler, and he said my five-pin score was only 6 points off his highest five-pin score, so I was pretty pumped about that tid-bit of news.