Pride and Premises

Luke and his brothers couldn’t be separated after school. You’d always find them together. Luke was the oldest, then it was the twins Lukas and Luther. Then there was the youngest, Lutz. He was only eight years old but wanted to do everything his older brothers did, so they often took him along with them.

They were known in the neighborhood as good kids. They never got up to no good. “Their mama raised them right,” neighbors would say. They never strayed too far either. Next to their house was a skateboard park, a basketball court, and a field. The boys spent hours there. They were allowed to do this after school, just so long as they obeyed the two rules their mom had given them. The first was to make sure they came home in time to finish their homework and their chores. The second was to steer clear of the Franciscan Monastery, the building where the local monks lived that stood beyond the field area. Its grounds were sealed from the play area by a tall iron fence that seemed to stretch for miles.

One evening their mom came into the bedroom the boys shared and told them that she had to work late tomorrow. Their cousin, Mitsy, was going to come and watch them after school.

“We don’t need Mitsy,” Luke replied. “We’re old enough to watch ourselves.”

“Yeah, right,” his mom said.

So Mitsy came over the following evening, and did what Mitsy usually does — she spent the whole evening on her phone, airpods in, either listening to music on Spotify, talking on the phone with her friends, or watching videos on Tik-Tok. She ignored the boys, and when they were hungry she pointed to a cupboard where the instant noodles were stacked. Luke made his brothers some PB&J sandwiches instead. But because Mitsy made the boys do their homework first and then their chores, the sun was already going down by the time they were ready to go outside and play.

“It’s late,” Lukas said, “the courts will be taken.”

“That’s fine,” Luke replied. He knew the lights from the monastery cast a glow over the field beside it. So maybe, he thought, they would have half an hour or so before it got too dark to stay out. “We’ll throw the football around.”

“We don’t have a ball,” Luther said. “We lost it over the summer.”

Luke looked over to the cabinet where, behind the glass window, a football stood on a stand. “We could use Dad’s.”

“I don’t think that’s to be played with,” Lukas said.

“What football do you know that’s not supposed to be played with?”

Luke walked over to the cabinet and slid the glass window open. He looked over at Mitsy, who sat on the sofa with her feet up on the coffee table, airpods in, looking down at the phone. He lifted the ball off the stand. They all knew the history of this ball. Their father had proudly spoken about it so many times. It had been signed by the former NFL player, Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl. It was a prized possession.

“I don’t know…” Lukas said.

“What’s there to know? We are only going to use it for a little while,” Luke said. “What’s going to happen?”

So they went outside and began to throw the football to each other, the twins on one side and Luke and Lutz on the other. But Luke must’ve forgotten that the older boys tended to come out when it was late too, and were out in the skate park with some of the older girls, hanging around and talking smack to one another. They began to watch the boys, and sling comments at them.

“Put some spin on the ball.”

“Can’t catch to save your life.”

Eventually, a few of them came over. They were led by Marcel, who was tall and stocky and liked to throw his weight around. “Let me see that ball,” he said.

Luke’s heart sank. He already knew what Marcel was going to do. “We’re about to head home,” Luke said.

“Let me see that ball, shorty,” Marcel said again. “I won’t keep you from curfew.”

Lutz was holding the ball. Luke gave him a soft shake of the head.

No one moved.

“I said, let me see that ball.” He marched over to Lutz and snatched it from him.

The boys that were with him laughed.

“Want to see me put some spin on it?” Luke didn’t say anything. “How far do you think I can throw it? I’m telling you, I’ve got an arm like Mahomes. How far do you think I can throw it?”

“Far,” Luke said, and on that note, Marcel wheeled back, cocked his arm and threw the ball over the fence into the monastery grounds.

The way that the ball disappeared into the dark…Luke had to quietly admit to himself, Marcel did have a big arm.

The older boys laughed, before they turned back and headed to the skate park.

“Let’s go,” Lukas said, but Luke was still steaming at the sound of Marcel’s laughter.

“Come on,” Luther said, when he saw that Luke was just standing there, fists clenched.

“No,” Luke said. “I need to go and get the ball first. Dad’ll kill me if I don’t get it back.”

“You know we’re not allowed in there.”

The monastery was a grand building with sand-colored bricks. It had a dome and a small tower on its roof. People would visit the monastery gardens during the daytime, because of its fountains and ponds, the many colorful flowers and well-kept bushes and trees. But after dark, the monastery took on a scary feel. It was pitch black between the trees and there was a creepy quiet about the place. There were huge NO TRESPASSING signs marked in different areas along the fence. Workers from the monastery had put them up there after it was discovered that a lot of plants and flowers were being damaged. There was a rumor also that some of the meaner, older boys had vandalized a statue.

“No trespassing,” Lutz said.

“It isn’t trespassing,” Luke said, “if I am going in there to get what belongs to me.”

“Why don’t we just go and knock on the door?” Luther asked.

“For us to walk all the way around? Why bother with that? Besides, they’ll probably just tell us to get lost.”

“They’re monks,” Lukas said. “They’re not monsters.”

Luther shook his head. “I heard they have a security guard now, who is really mean and calls the police on whoever he catches in there.”

“Whatever,” Luke replied.

“How would you even get in?” Luther asked. “You can’t climb over.”

“But I can crawl under,” Luke replied and pointed to the foot of the fencing, where there was a gap between the ground and the fence.

“It’s not a good idea, Luke,” Lukas said.

“I’m getting that ball, before Dad notices it has gone missing.” Luke replied. “Wait here.”

“I’m gonna tell Mitsy,” Lutz said and then sped off towards the house.

Luke crawled beneath the fence, muddying his clothes a little. He stood up and brushed them off once he was on the other side. By now it was dark, and although the monastery was well lit, Luke couldn’t immediately see his ball. He began to walk around looking for it, but couldn’t help but to take in the wonder of the gardens around him. The tall plants, the flowers, the hedges, and the fountains. There were actual gardens too! Soil patches where it looked like they were growing food, radishes maybe, or even peas. He wasn’t sure, so he went to take a closer look and began to dig his fingers into one of the plants — you know, just to see the top of the vegetable, to see what it was they were growing here.

“Hey!” he heard a cry, and then saw a security guard running towards him. “You there!”

Luke leapt to his feet and started to run.

“Stop!”

He had never run so fast before, his heart thumping his chest, so fast that he lost one of his Nikes in the shrubs. He knew if he tried to run for the fence, by the time he crawled underneath the guard would be on top of him, snatching up his legs as he tried to wiggle through. So instead he headed towards the trees, where there was no lighting, where he could hide for a little while and shake off the security guard.

And he was running through the trees when he felt the ground disappear from beneath him. A ditch!

He tumbled as he fell to the bottom of the ditch. Now he was covered in dirt. He wanted to cry out, but knew this would alert the security guard. So he lay there, scared, wondering if he would make it home any time soon, and if he would ever recover his sneaker again. He wasn’t even thinking about the ball anymore.

He kept himself from sobbing, which was fortunate because at that moment he began to hear the heavy panting of the security guard. He heard him come to a stop by the ditch, out of breath. Then the security guard began to mutter to himself. “Come out,” he began to shout. “Make this easy on yourself. You boys have caused enough trouble around here.” The wand of light from the guard's flashlight fell into the ditch. Luke crawled away from it, and curled himself into a ball by the ditch wall. He covered his mouth. The light drew closer and closer. And then it stopped, just before it fell on Luke. He heard the security guard draw away.

He thought of his mother. She’d usually arrive home in the evenings with food, the likes of vegan lasagna, and vegan mac and cheese, greens and spicy kale — on Fridays it was Chinese food — and the boys would be so happy to see her and to smell the aroma of the food as it drifted into the house. But before any of them could eat, she’d ask them about their day, about school and what they got up to at home. And, as always, she’d remind them with a warning: I hope you did not go into the monastery gardens. There were rumors, you see, that some of the older boys had recently been caught by groundsmen who had them arrested for trespassing.

He sat in the ditch for a little while until he caught his breath. Then he climbed up and out the ditch. It was pitch black in this area of the gardens. He could hardly see the trees in front of him. He looked up to try and find the moon, but it was hiding behind the treetops. He began to walk between the trees until the forest ended and he came out onto a field again. There was a shed. He could hide there, he thought. Maybe until the morning, when he could explain himself to one of the monks. They would understand. He was not a vandal. He just wanted his ball.

He knew the thought was silly. He couldn’t stay until the morning. His mom would be so worried about him. She’d call the police and everything. He’d be in even more trouble than what he knew he was already in.

He kept walking, he had no idea what direction the fence was in, but he knew he had been walking the wrong way when he came to the monastery building. There was a side door. He could find a monk, he thought, and tell them about his ball and shoe.

He tried the door. It was locked. That figures, he thought. There must be a main door. So he began to walk around to the front. There was a fountain, and he could see a boy was sitting on its edge. The boy must’ve been just a little younger than Luke was.

The boy jumped at the sound of Luke treading across the gravel, but then sat back down and didn’t seem very surprised he was there.

Luke was surprised to see another boy there. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“What are you doing here?” the boy asked.

“I asked first,” Luke said.

“My dad works here,” he replied.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down beside the boy. “Oh man, you got to help me.” He explained that he had lost his ball and now, also, his shoe.

“I was thinking,” Luke said, “If I could just speak to one of the monks and explain it to them. Can you help me do that?”

The boy shook his head. “I don’t know any of the monks. I’ve never met them.”

“I thought you said your dad works in the monastery.”

“Monks can’t have children,” the boy replied.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment.

And then: footsteps.

“DAD,” the boy suddenly blared. “HE’S OVER HERE!”

Luke jumped up and took off again, just in time to see the security guard running down the main steps. But what he noticed this time was just how out of breath the guard was, and since he was now back under the lights, he could see the fencing. The guard would never catch him in time. It meant no shoe, no ball, but maybe making it home would mean less trouble for him than if his mom had to pick him up from the police station for trespassing. He decided he had caused enough trouble for one night and bolted for the fencing. He slipped to the ground and crawled under it, the security guard shouting warnings that if he should ever come back again…

Luke never stopped running or looked behind him until he got home. He was so tired that he flopped down on the sofa. His brothers heard him enter and came running into the den.

“What happened?” Lukas asked.

Luke mumbled a reply.

But then his mother came into the room and asked him what he had done with his clothes and where his other shoe was.

Luke was shivering cold and tired and didn’t have the heart for anything but the truth. He told her what happened.

“Yes,” she replied. “Mitsy told me before she left. Your brothers told me about the ball. I was starting to get worried. I warned you not to go in there.”

Luke explained that he didn’t want Dad to get mad at him when he came home from work. He knew now that playing with a signed ball had been a silly idea. Besides, after Marcel laughed at them, he thought that getting the ball back would show Marcel and the others that they weren’t going to get the best of him.

“You don’t have anything to prove to boys like that,” his mom replied. “Remember that next time. Don’t go chasing after trouble, not even when it arrives on your doorstep. You hear me?”

“Yes, mom,” Luke replied.

“Now go take the clothes off, take a shower and go to bed. Tomorrow, we’ll head over to the monastery and explain, and hopefully get your shoe and the ball back.”

Luke rose from the sofa and began to make his way to the door.

“What about dad?” Luke asked.

His mom winked. “Please! Your dad comes home, eats at the kitchen counter and heads right on to bed. I think that will at least buy us a day to get the ball back to where it belongs.”

Luke smiled.

“Luke,” his mom said just before he left the room. “All we ever have to do in life is knock on the front door. If you’d done that, you’d at least still have your shoe.”

Luke looked down at his feet, his sock was dirty and wet. He looked up at his brothers and then at his mom again. “And my pride, Mom. I’d still have my pride too.”