Ping Pong Summer

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An aunt's frustration with her nephew leads to love.
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komrad1156
komrad1156
3,774 Followers

*Author's Note: I saw a movie by this name several months ago and tried to watch it. I only made it about fifteen minutes before losing interest, but it gave me an idea for a story (completely unrelated to the movie.) I hope you enjoy it.

*****

"So what did you think?"

"It was okay."

"Just okay?"

"Yeah, I mean I don't really like doing the machines. They're kind of..."

Before her nephew could finish his sentence, she knew what he was going to say.

"Boring, right?"

"Well, yeah. Because just doing the machines is boring," he insisted in his typically polite way.

His Aunt Rachel had tried everything she could think of to get him interested in some kind of physical activity. She loved virtually everything from spinning to rock climbing and from pilates to swimming to resistance training. Working out was her lifeblood, and after four years of raising her now-twelve-year old nephew Tommy, she was running out of ideas.

She'd taken him with her on every kind of outing and adventure she'd done in the last year or so starting with canoeing on a very calm lake to bringing him to the gym to try using various machines—all to no avail.

Thomas, or Tommy as his aunt called him, was thin, quiet, and shy, and she knew that losing both of his parents had been devastating, so she gave him a lot of leeway. But she also knew he needed a hobby beyond video games, and her goal had been to find one that involved physical activity in the hopes of finding something he'd love and want to do the rest of his life. So far, it had been a colossal failure, but she wasn't willing to give up just yet.

She'd also lost her husband in the same accident that had claimed Tommy's parents, in which she and her then-eight-year old nephew were the only survivors in a broadside collision that took place on a dark, rainy road as they all came home from a Seattle Mariners baseball game.

Someone stoned out of his mind on legal marijuana had sailed right through a red light at 60 miles per hour. The van Rachel and her family had been riding in was virtually sheered in half with her husband, Charles, sitting on the same bench seat as his wife and their nephew but on the impact side.

Charles had been killed instantly as had her younger sister, Sarah. Her husband, Andy, who was driving, was killed when the front half of the van was rolled by the impact of the collision into oncoming traffic.

Rachel had been on the far side of the impact with Tommy in between her and her husband. The rear half of the van flipped several times then came to rest on its side leaving Rachel laying sideways while still buckled into her seat. Tommy was the only one not to suffer so much as a concussion, and he was able to unbuckle himself and his Aunt Rachel and help her to the side of the road when she, evidently in a state of shock, sat down with her head between her knees until help arrived.

She and Charles hadn't been able to have children, and Tommy was like the son they never had. When she later realized what had happened, her first thought was for the boy whom she later adopted as soon as the courts would allow.

The funerals and pretty much everything else during those first two weeks were a blur to her, much like the accident itself of which she had no memory other than going in and out of shock during the ambulance ride to the hospital.

Somehow they'd made it through not only those first few weeks, but four long years since that fateful night. Rachel had been 38, the same age her sister had been the night she was killed. At 42, she was still an very attractive woman with an amazing body kept fit though endless exercise and healthy eating. For her, exercise had been her salvation. For Tommy, it had been the bane of his existence.

"Can we stop for ice cream?" he asked after the got in the car following the failed workout attempt.

She knew she'd give in even though she wouldn't have any herself. The fact was, Tommy could still eat anything and stay rail thin, so as bad as she knew it was for him, she told him that would be fine.

"Can I have a Blizzard?" he asked hopefully.

A Blizzard was ice cream in a large cup jam-packed with things like Reese's peanut butter cups or Oreo cookies or some combination of sweet, fat-ladened candy or cookies. His Aunt Rachel gave him the look, and Tommy gave up.

"Okay, fine," he said knowing he'd be happy to settle for a small soft ice cream cone, just not one dipped in chocolate, something he'd only had once before and now wanted anytime they stopped at the local Dairy Queen.

"Tommy, Tommy, Tommy," his pretty aunt said as he happily licked the cone. "What are we gonna do with you?"

"What do you mean?" he asked without missing a lick. Literally.

"You need to do something, sweetheart. You can't just play video games all day."

"I do stuff," he countered.

"Reading comic books isn't doing something," his aunt informed him.

"Yes, it is. Reading is a verb and verbs mean action. So reading is doing something."

Tommy was polite, and he was also very smart. He had a point, and Rachel nearly laughed but managed not to.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it," she said trying to sound stern.

"Why do I have to exercise?" he asked as he removed everything left above the cone in one large, smooth swirl.

"Because it's good for you, that's why."

"But I'm not fat. Even you said so, Aunt Rachel."

She sighed then said, "Finish your cone, okay?"

Knowing he'd won another battle, Tommy also knew he didn't need to worry about exercise again until his aunt brought up her next new idea to get him interested.

That didn't happen for three whole days, and since school was out, that meant three days in which he was able to be a virtual couch potato where he went from playing video games on the TV to the desktop computer to his iPad. In between he'd go to his room and read comic books. All in all, those three wonderful, glorious days were the closest thing to heaven on earth Tommy had experienced. He'd love to try a Blizzard one day to find out if that was even better, but for now, this was pretty darned close.

He loved Batman and The X-Men, but his favorite comic book was The Avengers. He had pretty much every issue ever made and had watched all of the Captain America movies several times. Comic books let Tommy's imagination run wild, and it, in turn, took him all over the world and into the far reaches of the universe and back in the space of a few pages filled with animated action characters.

His favorites aside, Tommy would read almost anything that was illustrated and often asked for issued of Phoenix Resurrection and Deadpool or anything that looked exciting.

Rachel knew comic books had not only expanded his imagination but his vocabulary, as well. So while she'd have preferred him to prefer soccer or softball over X-Box or Batman, she knew how much her nephew loved adventure so it was something she didn't fight. But she wasn't ready to give up on finding some kind of sport or hobby that involved physical activity just yet.

It was the fourth day when Tommy's antennae went up when his aunt said, "Hey, come check this out."

"Can I keep playing? I'm almost to the end of this level," he informed her.

Rachel sighed then said, "Just pause it, okay? You can go back to it after I show you this."

Satisfied that he didn't have to put the game away, he hit pause then went over to the desk where his aunt was looking at something on the computer.

"How about this?" she asked pointing to the screen.

Tommy stood beside her, and Rachel put her arm around his waist and smiled.

"Ping pong?" he said, his voice heavy with a 'you gotta be kidding' sound.

"Yes. Ping pong. Well, it's actually called table tennis, but okay. And look."

She pointed again, and Tommy read the caption under the picture of some guy holding a ping pong paddle.

"Zach Jarvis, former US Olympic table tennis team player, will be teaching classes at the YMCA on Whispering Pines Avenue in Auburn, Washington, starting on June 14th."

There was a phone number to call, and Rachel said, "Can we give this a try?"

"Nah. I don't wanna play ping pong," he said.

She hated bringing up his late father too often, but she also wanted him to know as much about him as he could, so she said, "Your dad was a pretty good player. You played with him several times when you were little. Do you remember that?"

"Kind of," he said. "Was Dad really good?"

"Yes. He was very good. Not as good as this..."

She had to check the name again then said, "This...Zach guy, but yes, he was a very good player. He even won a local tournament once when he was in college."

"Really?" Tommy said, not having heard that before.

"Yes. Really. It's a lot of fun, and guess what? It's good exercise, and you don't have to run or lift anything. But you're moving around and doing something, and that's a whole lot better than..."

She grabbed his rib cage from both sides and tickled hard as she said, "X-Box!" as Tommy howled with laughter.

"Stop! I can't stand it!" he said within two seconds.

"Say 'yes' and I'll stop!" she said using a sinister-sounding voice.

"Okay! Okay! I'll try it!" he squealed just before she let up.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to hug him while he was still young enough to want to be hugged, Rachel pulled him close and told him how much she loved him. It didn't matter that he didn't say it back because she knew he did.

"That was easy," his aunt said. "Okay, now you can go back to your game. I'm going to call and get you into one of these classes."

The woman she spoke to at the 'Y' told him the classes were based on skill level more than age, and Rachel let her know her nephew was a beginning novice.

"Okay. So he's...12...and never really played so...let's see. Ah. Okay. Here we go. We have two openings left in a class that'll be perfect for him."

There was a moment of silence before she said, "Okay. I just need some basic information and he's all set."

Rachel answered all of her questions, then paid the enrollment fee online which went to the YMCA and not to the instructor who was evidently doing this for free to promote the sport.

The first class was set for 10am the following Tuesday morning, and Rachel put a reminder in her smart phone even though she knew she wouldn't forget it.

As she looked over at her nephew who was back on the couch making killing noises as he raised and lowered the remote controls while blowing things up on the screen, her heart went out to him as it had done so many times before. And each time it did, she couldn't help but think of her beautiful sister, Sarah, who wasn't there to see her son grow up.

And then her thoughts would inevitably turn to her husband, a man she'd so dearly loved, and who, like her sister and brother in law, had been torn from her life in an instant. There were so many wonderful, pleasant memories, and while Rachel tried not to live in the past, it was impossible not to take the occasional walk down memory lane.

As she ended her reminiscing, Rachel was as grateful as ever for all that Charles had meant to her, and for the way he'd provided for her. She'd never given a thought to having life insurance, but Charles had, and it was the money from the policy he'd taken out on himself that allowed her to stay home and raise the boy she now thought of as her son. She wasn't rich or anywhere close to it, but she could live comfortably as long as she didn't do anything rash like run out and buy a new BMW.

She'd never asked Tommy to call her 'mom' and never would, but had Tommy ever asked to do so, she'd have told him he could in a second. The closest he'd ever come to saying she was his mother was when she took him in to register for school at the start of the year just ten months earlier.

The person looking over the forms said, "Let's see here. You're Tommy Daugherty-Curtis, and Rachel Curtis is..."

"That's my mom," Rachel heard Tommy say about his aunt.

When she adopted him, she wanted him to keep his father's last name so she petitioned the court to let him hyphenate both last names. Tommy went by Curtis, her last name, but Daugherty was officially part of his last name.

She'd teared up when he said it, and the woman noticed and asked if everything was okay.

Rachel blinked several times then said, "Yes. Everything is perfect."

Now that Tommy was 12, Rachel felt reasonably comfortable leaving him at home for an hour or so while she went running. She and her nephew both had cell phones, and she'd call his number before she left and leave the phone on video chat so she could hear him nearly all of the time and see him for most of her run. It might be a little too overprotective, but Rachel felt it was prudent, and it gave her an added sense of peace that allowed her to enjoy being outside doing what she loved.

She hadn't run past the YMCA in a long time, and because she'd just signed Tommy up for a class, she switched her route and headed that way. It would add another mile to her planned four-mile run, but she enjoyed any distance from three to ten, so this was an easy change.

Even in June the morning air was crisp and even a little chilly. That was true even in August with the exception of few days every few years where it stayed warm and muggy overnight. That was extremely rare, and Rachel was loving the weather and the scenery this Thursday morning.

As she entered the city limits she began passing one small business after the other and made her way across the numerous intersecting streets while the traffic was still very light.

The 'Y' had been there for as long as she could remember, but she couldn't recall ever having been inside of it in all the time she'd lived there. She had no intention of stopping, but she did want to peek in through the windows and take a look at whatever was visible to a passerby.

She slowed her pace as she approached the large facility that had a gym, a basketball court, a swimming pool, and several rooms for things like spinning, yoga, pilates, and evidently—ping pong.

After making sure nothing was laying on the sidewalk she might trip on, she turned her head to look inside as she jogged by. At first glance it looked pretty much like she'd expected. Through the second large window she saw a desk with a young woman behind it and then she did a double take.

Not sure of what she'd just seen, she turned around and ran back the other way and looked again. This time she was pretty sure, and now that she was, the temptation to go inside was too strong to ignore. Rachel had barely broken a sweat and she knew she didn't...stink... so she stopped and walked through the door.

The young woman behind the desk was talking to a young man in front of her, the man she now recognized from the Y's website as the ping pong instructor—the former Olympic team player. And although she'd noticed on the website, she hadn't paid much attention to the fact that he was a very good looking guy.

He was tall and had very nice looking, nearly jet-black hair, and as she got closer she saw two gorgeous blue eyes, a great smile, and what appeared to be a very fit, very toned body underneath the light workout suit he was wearing.

It took the young woman at the desk a few seconds to realize anyone else was there, and that only happened because Mr. Ping Pong saw her and smiled.

"Good morning," he said cheerfully as he flashed his amazing smile her way.

"Oh, hi there," Rachel replied.

She'd already started breathing through her nose, so she wasn't gasping for air as she spoke.

"May I help you?" the girl said in order to get her attention. Or maybe to get her to stop looking at this handsome man she was obviously flirting with.

"Yes. Thank you," Rachel said as the instructor walked away.

"Excuse me!" Rachel called after him as he was the person with whom she really wanted to speak.

"He can't help with you anything. That's my job," she said rather snidely with a phony smile plastered on her face.

The man turned around, smiled, and said, "Yes?"

"Excuse me. I...are you..."

She'd forgotten his name already and it just wouldn't come to her.

"Zach?" he offered, his smile back.

"Yes. Zach. I...I signed up my nephew, Tommy, for one of your classes. I was out running, and when I saw you I thought, well, I was..."

"Zach Jarvis," he said with a smile as he walked back toward her and extended his hand.

Rachel was thankful for the 'help' and stopped talking.

"I'm Rachel. Rachel Curtis," she told him.

"So you were running by, saw me, and...?"

Rachel shook her head slightly in a kind of 'now I feel silly' way then said, "I was hoping to ask you a couple of questions."

"Sure. Ask away," he said very cheerfully as the girl behind the desk shook her head in disgust.

Rachel stood there and suddenly couldn't think of a single thing to ask.

"Maybe I really just wanted to meet you," she finally said.

"Mission accomplished," he replied with a warm smile.

"No. I mean, I think I just wanted to...check you out and..."

Rachel realized how that sounded and stopped talking.

"All right. That is not what I meant. I was only hoping to..find out...if you're a nice person, and now that I've made a complete fool out of myself, I thing I'm just going to go back outside and finish my run."

Zach tried not to laugh but couldn't help himself.

"You haven't made a fool out of yourself," he assured her. "In fact, you've made quite the impression on me."

"Ha! Yeah, I'm sure you'll never forget me. That's for sure," Rachel said, a pained expression on her face.

"If you're concerned about making your nephew feel welcome, bring him back by later on today. He and I can talk and we can even bat the ball around a little just for fun."

"Oh, I...you...I'm sure you have other things to do."

"Sure. I can always find something to do, but I'm not teaching any classes today until six this evening. But I'll be sure to be here if you give me a time."

"No. I'd just be interrupting your day. We can wait until the class starts," Rachel said.

"Okay. But I'd actually like to meet your nephew, and if he's a little shy, it might be good for him. And...I hope I'm not out of line here but...I'd like the opportunity to see you again, Rachel."

She hadn't seen him glance down to make sure there wasn't a ring on her finger but he had, and seeing none because she took it off when she went running, and finding her very attractive, he decided to ask.

"See me?" she asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yes. Is that so hard to believe?" Zach asked her, that smile still there.

"Oh, my God!" they both heard the younger woman at the desk say loudly enough to be heard.

"No, you...you don't understand," Rachel said. "I only stopped by because my nephew is taking your class. I didn't come in to...to..."

"Flirt with me?" he said with a laugh. "I didn't think you did. And I don't often flirt with anyone, but since you did stop in, and since you're going to at least be bringing your nephew to class and picking him up, I thought it might be nice to get to know you a little."

"Zach. I'm...well, I'm not exactly your age."

"I'm 28 so it seems unlikely you'd also be exactly 28, but I'd say that's at least possible."

The way he smiled at her and the playful way he was teasing made something 'flip' in her tummy.

"No, that's definitely not possible," Rachel told him. "My nephew..."

"Tommy, right?" Zach said cutting her off but not in any rude kind of way.

"Yes. Tommy. He's...he's 12, and well, let's just say I was older than you are now when he was born, so..." Rachel said, sure that would put an end to whatever this was.

"Yeah, math never was my strong suit," Zach told her pretending to be very serious. So...what time did you want to stop back by with Tommy?"

komrad1156
komrad1156
3,774 Followers