(This message was edited by legerdemain on 06-09-12 @ 11:02 am EDT)

Edited by Legerdemain for content rating.

June 8-Play

“Now that’s something I love to see.” Sebastian said handing a beer to Kai as they sat on the tailgate of Kai’s truck overlooking a small inlet on Lake Taylor.
“What?”
The doctor glared at the other man and furrowed his brow, popped open his beer and replied.
“That, kids playing. Kids playing with such intensity and still having fun.”
“Yea I suppose, playing for fun.”
“Look at the little bastards Kai. They’re going after that ball like their lives depend on it, and not getting a penny for it. It’s just fun. Didn’t you ever play for the sheer fun of it? We did and I’ll tell you what; of all the things I miss with getting older I think I miss that ability to ‘play for fun’ the most.”
“Never played much. Damn sure wouldn’t have caught me dead playing in the water like that.”
“Didn’t play? You played baseball. That’s playing, wasn’t it fun?”
Kai shrugged sipped his beer and watched as the kids launched after the tossed ball fingers splayed, muscles taught, legs intertwined and eyes locked on tan flying target.
“Played, nope Bastian can’t say I ever played much. Not like that. Baseball’s different. Baseball I had responsibility. Wasn’t a game to me ever really. Besides how the f*** was I supposed to play? None of the kids wanted to play with me. Pretty damned hard to play like that by yourself. Look at that kid there, he always gets the ball. He’s damned quick. I was quick like that.”
Sebastian watched the action in the muddy inlet. The boy’s play had churned the typically clear water into a hot cocoa colored brown murk. Murk, that is how he had to describe Kai’s life. Moments like watching the simple act of childhood fun would churn up the troubled man’s memory and then slowly the cloudy recollections would clear and Sebastian would add another bit of glass to the mosaic that was Kai.
“Why, well how come they wouldn’t play with you?”
Kai shrugged and held his hand out for another beer.
“Don’t know Bastian. Kids you know they’re like dogs, they can sense when something’s not right about you. Guess they just knew I was f***ed up. Guess the just didn’t see much point in wasting time with me so I just always stayed to myself. No big deal really I turned out alright, right?”
He elbowed Sebastian and gave the other man was passed as his smile. Sebastian smiled back the rare bit of sarcasm on Kai’s part not lost to him, before turning his attention back to the kids in the lake.
“Yea sure buddy you turned out alright.” He wrapped his arm around Kai’s shoulders and squeezed the man tightly “You turned out alright. But you know maybe I should teach you a bit about playing, really playing; that way we’d both get a bit of our childhoods back. What do you say buddy at least we could give it a try, no?”
Kai sighed and shuddered a bit, Sebastian frightened him sometimes when he tried to fix all the wrong that had gone on in his life. He trusted the other man though and lord knows he owed Sebastian his life so learning to play would have to come next on his list of things to fix.
“Sure Bastian sure, no problem; just not in the water. I hate the water and hey, thanks.”