Her feet smacked against the pavement like a pulse; methodical and strong. The sun had just risen moments ago and she watched as it peaked from behind the dreary winter clouds. It was cold and her breath nearly froze in the air in front of her, but she hardly noticed. She was almost dripping with sweat.

        It wasn’t very often that she went for a run, and she knew she was long past due. It felt good. Soothing and refreshing. She loved the torture in her lungs and the soreness in her muscles she knew she’d be feeling later on.

        She slowed down as she reached the park like she usually did. No one was usually here at this hour but she could hear the bouncing of a basketball in the near distance. She slowed her running to a quick jog, and eventually to a trot.

        She made her way to the basketball court and found a bench just outside of the fence to watch. The bench was ice cold, but it felt good against her perspired skin.
 
        There was only one man playing. It was hard to see through the chain link face and his back was to her.

        He dribbled and took a shot; the basketball bounced off of the rim. Dribbling again, he aimed and tried again from a different spot, hitting the backboard. He took several more shots, none of them making it in.

        After a few moments he sighed and ignored the ball as it bounced along and rolled until it hit the fence. He bent down to the ground and picked up a bottle of water to take a long drink.

        It wasn’t until then that he looked familiar. She squinted and tried to make out his face through the chain links. Unsure, she stood up and got closer.

        “Josh?”

        He stopped drinking and looked up in surprise, jumping at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t known there was anyone else around.

        “God, you nearly scared me out of my skin!” he cried when he realized who she was.

        “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

        “What are you doing here?” he asked. “Do you have any idea how early it is?”

        “As a matter of fact I do. It’s the best time to go for a run,” she replied with a smile, walking onto the court. “What brings you here so early?”

        He walked over to the basketball and picked it up. “Couldn’t sleep.”

        Josh turned back to the hoop and dribbled some more before shooting. Claudia leaned against the fence and watched him shoot and miss several times.

        “Man, my game hasn’t been this bad in years. No wonder Lance and Chris and I lost so bad to Justin and Joe yesterday.” He stopped and turned to her. “You play?”
 
        She shook her head. “Don’t think I’ve ever played in my life.”

        “What kind of person goes their entire childhood without playing basketball?” Without waiting for her to answer he bounced the ball to her. “Go ahead. Take a shot.”

        She bounced the ball back to him. “No way. I probably wouldn’t even make it on the court. I’d break someone’s window or something,” she laughed.

        Josh bounced the ball back to her. “Come on, give it a shot. You can’t be much worse than me,” he reasoned.

        “Oh alright,” she finally agreed.

        Claudia moved closer to the basket and stopped in front of it to dribble the ball awkwardly. Then she looked up and threw the ball at the hoop. She missed completely and the ball banged against the fence behind it instead.

        “See? What did I tell you?”

        Josh smiled and jogged to retrieve the ball. “Well at least you’re making me feel a little better,” he teased, tossing the ball back to her. “Try again.”

        She shook her head and sighed as she prepared to shoot. This time the ball bounced off the backboard and came flying back at Claudia’s head. She put her hands out to protect herself and ducked just in time as the ball whizzed past her.

        Josh couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow, you’re really make me feel better about my game.”

        “Shut up! I told you I’ve never played before!” she cried in defense.

        He dribbled the ball back to where she stood. “Well, first of all, you can’t just heave the ball in any direction,” he directed her. “You’ve got to spread your feet about shoulder width apart, bend your knees a little, aim, and then shoot.” He shot the basketball and it bounced off of the rim before finally falling through the net-less hoop. “Now you try.”

        Claudia did as he told her. Spread her feet, bent her knees, aimed at the basket and then took a shot. This time it flew directly at the rim and almost came flying back at her again.

        “It’s no use! I’m just not an athlete. I could have told you that.”

        “You didn’t follow through,” he explained.

        “I’m taking lessons from a guy who I’ve seen make one lousy shot?” she retorted with a cocked eyebrow.

        “I’m usually not this bad. Come on, I know what I’m talking about,” he insisted. He grabbed her hands and put them on either side of the ball. “You’ve got to hold it like this,” he showed her.

        “And here we go, seventh grade gym class all over again,” she teased, rolling her eyes.

        He stepped away from her and rested all of his weight on one foot with a hand on his hip. “Do you want me to show you or not?”

        “No, go ahead. Show me.”

        “Okay. Now when you shoot you’ve got to follow through. So when you let go of the ball, bend your wrists, like this,” he said, shooting an invisible basketball. “That way you’re throwing the ball into the hoop, not at it. The ball will go up in the air and then fall down into the hoop.”

        She tried shooting the way he told her, but it didn’t make it to the hoop. It remained airborne and then fell to the ground.

        “That was good,” he encouraged.

        “Good? It wasn’t anywhere near the basket!”

        “I know, but you followed through. If your aim was a little more accurate the ball would have gone in. Try it again.”

        Claudia dribbled the ball and shot it at the basket. It hit the edge of the backboard and bounced to the ground.

        “Keep your body facing the basket. That will help your aim.”

        She sighed. “This is complicated! So many things to remember at once! Hold it this way, stand like this, and don’t forget to do this…”

        “Aw, don’t be such a baby.”

        “I’m not a baby!”

        “Then quit your whining!”

        “Oh you think you’re tough?” she challenged raising an eyebrow.

        “Yeah. As a matter of fact I do,” he said, puffing out his chest.

        “Alright then,” she agreed, “let’s see who’s really the tough one here.”

        “You’re on. What’s the game, basketball? ‘Cause if that’s the case, I think I’ve got you beat.”

        “Nah.” She thought for a moment and looked around the park. “You see that trashcan way over there?” she asked pointing into the distance.

        “Yeah, what about it?”

        “I’ll race you. There and back.”

        “A race, huh? Sounds easy enough. What does the winner get?”

        She shrugged. “Just the satisfaction of being tougher.” Claudia rolled up the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “You ready?” she asked, bending her knees and taking position.

        “I was born ready,” he said, glaring at her in challenge.

        “GO!”

        They both began sprinting towards the gate of the court. They reached it at the same time and had to squeeze through. Claudia ran faster and harder than she had in her life, but Josh was close behind. They went around the trashcan and ran for the basketball court. As they neared the court Josh came up beside her, and nudged her with his hip, throwing her off balance before sprinting past her.

        “Hey! That’s cheating!” she cried.

        She ran even harder, but couldn’t catch up. A moment later, Josh had reached the court and was leaning against the fence, catching his breath.

        “You…suck,” Claudia said, panting.

        “Who’s the tough one now, huh?” Josh beamed with satisfaction.

        “I demand a rematch!”

        “Okay, if you say so…GO!”

        Taking her by surprise, Josh sprinted past her before she knew what was happening.

        “Wait a minute, that’s not fair!” she cried, running after him. “I wasn’t ready!”

        Knowing that he wouldn’t stop, she ran harder. He had gotten a huge head start, and she had to work double time to catch up. As they neared the basketball court, Claudia was practically on Josh’s heels. An evil grin spread across her face and she acted before she could think. She dove at him, grabbed him around the waist and tackled him to the ground. Josh let out a grunt with surprise at his landed on the grass. He looked up to find Claudia running to the finish line.

        “Ha!” she yelled. “Who’s tough now? Huh? Huh?”

        Josh sat up with his legs bent and rested his elbows on his knees. He shook his head as she began a victory dance.

        “I’ve gotta say, you certainly got me there. I wasn’t expecting that.”

        “Oh yeah! I beat you!”

        “What do you say, two outta three?”

        She shook her head as she approached him. “Fat chance, buddy.” She held out her hand and helped him up off the ground.

        “Forget basketball, I should be teaching you how to play football. That was an amazing tackle!”

        She laughed as they walked back to the court. “What can I say? I grew up with two brothers. I guess I’ve got a little athlete in me.”

        As they stepped onto the court, Claudia picked up the ball up to resume her playing. She dribbled it and took a few more shots. After four tries, she was becoming frustrated. Angrily she threw the ball at the basket and miraculously, it went in.

        “Oh my gosh!” she cried. “I made it! I finally made a basket!”

        “See, I knew you could do it.”

        She continued taking shots, making it in almost every time. “You know, you’re a pretty good runner,” Claudia noted. “You should take a jog with me sometime. I could use a running partner.”

        “Let me guess, Jacob’s not into running?”

        “Nah. And Nicole’s a wimp; she can never keep up.”

        The ball bounced off of the rim and Josh grabbed it in mid-air, tossing it into the hoop.

        “I started running a lot after---- um, after my parents’…accident.” he stuttered, speaking before he could think about the words that were coming out. “It’s a great way to relieve stress.”

        He hadn’t meant to bring up his parents’ accident. It had slipped out. Now he knew she was curious. She tried to hide it, but as soon as he said it she couldn’t make it into the basket anymore.

        “I--- I still feel guilty about it,” he continued, looking down at his feet.

        Claudia stopped dribbling to look at him. She was surprised that he was continuing. “Guilty? For what?”

        “If I just hadn't been so selfish---” he paused, then leaned against the fence with a sigh. “It was Christmas Eve two years ago. I had planned on spending Christmas with my girlfriend. We had been together for a long time and I couldn’t wait to spend the holidays with her but…she ended up breaking up with me a few weeks before Christmas. I was lonely; depressed actually. And I wanted my family to be with me.

        “I knew it was last minute but I couldn’t spend one more second in that empty place, especially not on Christmas Eve. I called my parents and begged them to fly to New York to see me. They knew I was upset, so of course they agreed. They managed to find a flight within a few hours…I can’t imagine how much it must have cost them,” he chuckled half-heartedly.

        “The weather got really bad. There was a storm on the East Coast, but their plane had already taken off. They thought they could go around it, but the blizzard just got worse and worse…and they crashed just a few miles outside of the city.”

         He was quiet for a moment. “There were no survivors. I saw it on the news and I just knew that it was them. I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there for the longest time, listening to that annoying reporter…wondering what to do. Stupidly enough, I got in my car to drive to the scene. I don’t know why…I guess I just had to know if it was them. I thought that…maybe if I went there, they would be alive and I would see them and be able to hug them…” His voice trailed off, tears were welled up in his eyes.

        Claudia didn’t know at what point they had sat down, but she found that they were both sitting cross-legged on the court, facing one another.

        Josh’s eyes were distant. He was in a completely different place, reliving the whole experience.

        “I almost killed myself on the way there. I don’t even know how fast I was driving; I don’t think I want to know. All I could see was white, but I just kept going, I didn’t care. All I could think about was getting to my parents and seeing that they were okay. I drove off the road and wrapped my car around a tree. I can still remember the force of it. All I could hear was metal scraping and glass breaking. I hit my head on the steering wheel and blacked out.”
 
        “When I woke up I was in a hospital, hooked up to tubes and in a tremendous amount of pain. I looked around and…there was no one in the room. Not even a doctor or a nurse…no one. My parents were dead, my family wasn’t in town, my girlfriend had left me, my best friends were gone…I didn’t have anybody.”

        Claudia was speechless. She had no idea that he had been hurt so badly. She couldn’t imagine the amount of pain he must have gone through.

        “Oh,” she breathed, and put a hand to her mouth. “My God…JC I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

        She had called him JC. Neither of them had noticed.

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