Kevin and the Marble

Kevin was bored. It was late summer, but school wouldn’t start for another two weeks. He and his dad had moved to this house last month but the only other boys in the neighborhood that he’d met did not have similar interests to him. The Smith twins down the block to the right were both athletically minded and were at baseball practice or games nearly every day. Because Kevin had grown up in the city that was not something he’d gotten used to.

In the other direction he’d met three kids around his age. Marcia seemed like a nice girl, but she had some sort of muscle disability and was confined to a wheelchair, so board games were her primary outlet. Tim would have been fun to play with, but he was totally consumed with video games and Kevin’s dad had a firm stance on how much of that Kevin was allowed. And the only other kid that Kevin had met, William, was three years younger and didn’t share any interests with Kevin. While it would probably be better when school started, for now there was not much to do.

Kevin’s mom had passed away about a year ago. She had been ill for several years so while it was good that she was no longer suffering, that didn’t mean that Kevin did not miss her. Kevin’s dad had stayed with his job in the city so that Kevin could finish the school year there, but at the beginning of the summer he had changed jobs and the two of them had moved here where they could live in a house with a yard instead of in the high-rise apartment building that they’d had in the city. Kevin liked this new house and the large park across the street. But being able to go there and run around and enjoy the fresh air was getting old. Kevin really wanted to have friends.

Not being into athletic games and with his dad’s restrictions on the amount of video games he could play was not a problem in the city. There were a number of boys in Kevin’s building who had begun a marbles club. They could play either in the dusty empty lot next door, or, if they were not too loud, in the recreation room of the building during the day when the adults were at work. The rec room had worn low-pile carpets instead of hard linoleum floors, so the marbles did not go sailing off when they were hit. Kevin had a small bag of marbles, and his friend Jimmy would loan him a shooter when they played. Kevin’s dad seemed to recognize this attraction and had bought him another bag of new marbles as a reward for helping get everything packed for their move. But they were all small marbles and Kevin didn’t have a shooter – his dad did not seem to realize that significance.

[Marble pictures]

Thus it was that on this sunny Saturday Kevin found himself wandering around the park for the fourth time this week. His dad was home but, having begun a new job, was working a few extra hours this morning getting familiar with all that his job entailed. Kevin was over on the far side of the park near the creek that ran through it when a glint of something shiny in the weeds caught his eye. Focusing on where he saw that glint, he knelt down and pushed the weeds to the side.

There it was – a marble! And not just any marble, but one unlike any that Kevin had seen before. Most standard glass marbles have a colored swirl running through them to make them look like a cat’s eye. The swirl can be one of several colors – red, orange, yellow, green, and blue being the most common. And there are some more expensive marbles that have two or three colors running through them. But this marble that Kevin had plucked from among the weeds had FIVE colors. The primary swirls were orange, green, and blue, but the edges of the swirls were enhanced with red and yellow – almost like the swirl edges were on fire! This was NOT a standard marble – someone had spent a lot of time putting all those colors in and it was likely a pretty expensive marble.

But more significant to Kevin – this was not the average size marble either. It was a large marble – a shooter! And a shooter that put to shame all the ones that his friends back in the city had in their collections. And one that certainly was several rungs above the old worn shooter that Jimmy loaned him. Kevin was ecstatic!

 

Running home, Kevin burst into the den where his dad was poring over a pile of papers from his employer. Holding up the marble so that it caught the light streaming in the window, Kevin exclaimed, “Dad, look at this marble I found in the park! It’s a shooter! And it has five colors!” His dad began to reply, “That’s a really nice marble, Kevin. But I think you should know …” But Kevin didn’t hear this last part. He was already running out of the room as he shouted, “I’m going to go downstairs and practice marbles in the family room.”

Kevin first went to his bedroom to get his two sacks of marbles – both the small bag with the worn ones and the new bag that his dad had gotten him. He then bounded down the stairs to the family room. Like the community rec room back in the city, the family room had some low-pile carpet on the floor that made it acceptable for playing marbles. Kevin moved aside the items in the middle of the room, marked a rough circle using his older marbles, put the newer marbles in the center and then knelt down with his newly-found shooter.

Holding the shooter in the crook of his first finger and using his thumb to launch it, he first tried a few low-speed shots just to get the feel of it. It didn’t take long until he had gotten back his form and could reliably hit one of the smaller marbles and knock it out of the ring. Now it was time to try some combination shots and see if he could knock out several smaller marbles at once. Aiming at a cluster of three marbles in the center of the ring, Kevin let loose his shooter with as much force as he could muster. His aim was true and the shooter hit the cluster with a loud C-R-A-C-K!

 

It seemed like time had stopped. While two of the three marbles in the cluster had gone sailing out of the ring, sitting in their place were the shattered pieces of Kevin’s prized shooter! There were three larger chunks, a few razor-edged shards, and the glints of a number of smaller pieces that were now dotting the rug. The five colors from inside the shooter were now reduced to just some dull colors among the multiple pieces of glass. Kevin felt like his heart was also shattered like the shooter and he stood there in shock.

It was then that he became aware that his father had come into the room. He wrapped his arms around Kevin’s shoulders and gently held him. Kevin turned into his dad’s embrace as he haltingly sobbed, “It … it broke. I’ve only had it for … for an hour, and … and, it’s broken!” Kevin’s dad held him even closer.

“That’s what I tried to tell you earlier, Kevin,” his dad said. “Because of the time it takes to make these fancy marbles, the cooling process of the glass takes longer and sometimes makes them more brittle. I lost my favorite shooter when I was about your age because of the same problem.”

“You used to play marbles, too, Dad?” asked Kevin. “I never knew that.”

“Yes,” said his dad. “I’ve seen you get interested in them the last few years, but I’ve been so involved in taking care of your mom that I never got around to sharing that with you. I think it’s about time to rectify that situation. Let’s get out the vacuum and clean up this broken glass before it gets imbedded in the carpet. Then I have a few places that I’ve noticed on my drive to work the last few weeks that I’d like to show you.”

Kevin’s dad was true to his word. After they’d done the vacuuming and collected the marbles from under the sofa and around the room, they spent the rest of the day together. Their first stop was at a fast-food place for lunch - one that had been Kevin’s favorite back in the city. Then they went to a large toy store. But instead of Kevin’s dad picking anything out, he let Kevin choose a couple of marble shooters – so he’d have a spare if needed. And he even let Kevin pick out a new video game. His dad had veto authority over the one that Kevin chose as there were still limits on the level of violence or other unacceptable behavior in the video, but that was fine with Kevin.

Finally, they stopped at a YMCA in the same part of town where they lived. It was close enough that Kevin’s dad said that he would be allowed to ride his bicycle there on Saturdays as long as he paid attention to the traffic and rode safely. There were a number of group activities that Kevin could participate in. They didn’t have a marbles club, but the person at the front desk said that if Kevin could get at least three other people interested, that he could start a club and they could use one of the rooms for their club meetings. Kevin felt that he was up to that challenge.

 

When they got home later that afternoon, Kevin turned admiringly to his dad. “Thanks, dad,” he said. “I didn’t think you understood, but I’ve underestimated you. Thanks for being my dad!”

Kevin’s dad smiled back. “And I appreciate you for the attitude you’ve displayed through all of this. Now, do you think you’d be willing to play a game of marbles with me? I’m pretty rusty, but if you’re patient, I might be able to become a worthy opponent.”