Amish -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Space colonies -- Fiction
Aaron commenced to explain the game. To say that the object of _Mosch
Balle_ is for a member of the outer, offensive, team to strike an inner,
defensive man with the ball is inadequate; such an explanation is as
lacking as to explain baseball as the pitcher's effort to throw a ball
so well that it's hittable, and so very well that it yet goes unhit.
Both games have their finer points.
"Now," Aaron told his guests on the field, "we four on the corners will
toss the ball back and forth amongst ourselves, shouting _Hah_,_Oh_,_Tay_,
with each pitch. Whoever has the ball on _Tay_ has to fling it at one of
the two men inside the square. If he misses, he's Out; and one of the
other men on our team takes his place. If he hits his target-man, the
target's Out, and will be replaced by another man from the Sarki's team.
The team with the last man left on the straw wins the first half. _Des
iss der Weeg wie mir's diehne_, O.K.?"
"_Afuwo!_" the Sarki yelled, a woman's call, grinning, crouched to
spring aside. "Hah!" Aaron shouted, and tossed the ball to Waziri's
older brother, Dauda. "Oh!" Dauda yelled, and threw the ball to the
shoemaker. "Tay!" the cobbler exulted, and slammed the ball at the
lower-ranking of the two men within the square, the village banker. The
shoemaker missed, and was retired.
The Daturans were soon stripped down to trousers and boots, their black
torsos steaming in the cold air. Aaron removed his shirt--but not his
hat--and so far forgot his Hausa in the excitement that he not only
rooted for his teammates in _Pennsylfawnisch Deitsch_, but even
punctuated several clumsy plays with raw _Fadomm_'s.
Aaron's skill won the first half for his team. Blooded, the Chamber of
Commerce Eight fought through to win the second half. A tie. The
play-off saw the Working-Man's League pummeled to a standstill by the
C-of-C, who took the laurels with a final slam that knocked Waziri into
the straw, protesting that it was an accident.
Sweating, laughing, social status for the moment forgotten, the teams
and their mobs of fans surged into the farmhouse to demand of Martha
wedges of raisin pie and big cups of strong coffee. As the guests put
their rigas and their white caps back on, and assumed therewith their
game-discarded rank of class, they assured Aaron that the afternoon at
the ball game had been a large success.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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