ON THE EDGE

As I sat in the waiting room at the dentist office, the big screen TV was televising the men’s volley ball game between the USA and some Slavic country which I can’ recall. The Slavs were good and giving the USA a good match, as the game went back and forth. The US had won two previous matches so I suspect they were coasting in this particular match. But the game was close and I was paying attention, trying to look casual about the whole thing in front of the other patients so as not to look too hokey. Deep down inside I was not willing to accept the USA to lose even one match, after all, my country’s pride was at stake.

Calmly I sat in the chair, a slight squirm would make itself known and I would quickly calm it down. We would take a lead, I would relax and then just as quickly lose it and I would get edgy.

Back and forth the game went, edgy and calm, my backside raw from the movement on the chair I was occupying. Time was running out and we were tied. One bad shot one way or another and we could lose the match! This was nail-biting time and I was keeping one eye on the screen and one on the door where the nurse would call me.

Suddenly, the USA sent the ball over the net, a Serb or Slav or whatever they are properly called dove for the ball: arms outstretched hands together and just manages to knock the ball straight up, a great recovery. As the ball hung momentarily in the air, I held my breath, was this it? Was this another New York Mets moment? Were my dreams going to go crashing down once again? A body jumps up to meet the ball and pounds it forward toward the Americans, my heart stops beating, as a blur of color streaks over the net in a straight line, is this doom?

Suddenly a hand reaches up, causing the ball to go side ways and down toward an empty space on the floor between the USA defenders, my stomach in my mouth. But as the ball is rapidly descending, a body in the mass slides toward the ball and just gets his arms under it as it skids sideways once again and flies upward at another USA player, who knocks it straight up and looks at it rise. Still another player flies into the picture high in the air, and slams the ball forward and it lands behind the net for the score! Just then the nurse calls my name, as I am jumping up. Fist clenched and almost shouting; “Yes”! I come down to Earth, embarrassed to look behind me at the others in the waiting room, and the nurse has a funny look in her eyes. I look back at her as she leads me into the inner room and say: “Oh!  Don’t mind me, I must have been waiting too long.”