Day Three Hundred and Sixteen: Mystery Boy

When I was six years old I played basketball in the St. John's Elementary School gym with a bunch of friends.

Then I moved across town (taking me to a different school), then to a different state, graduated college, found a job, and 25 years later here I am, back playing basketball in the St. John's Elementary School gym with a bunch of friends.

Of course, the gym's a lot smaller now that I'm all grown up - the basketball games are limited to 4-on-4 as the court - whose half-court line doubles as the 3-point line - becomes more congested than rush hour traffic on 23rd Street if you put any more than eight adults on it at one time.

Nonetheless the games are fun, competitive, and a good source of exercise. About the only difference between the games now and when I was six is that now all the teammates go out for beer afterward at the Yacht Club sports bar. (When I was six we preferred to do all our beer drinking at Louise's downtown...)

I don't know when the chalk outlines made their way onto the walls of the St. John's gym, but this boy has been there as long as I can remember:


I'm not sure what purpose he serves - he is the only human-shaped outline in the gym.

I assume he's running, although he could be getting ready to kick a soccer ball or, as today's picture suggests, he could be tripping over a basketball.

What the chalk outline usually reminds me of is a police-inspected crime scene, which leads me to wonder what happened to this boy?

Was he flattened against the wall by a barrage of enemy dodge balls?

Was he the victim of an all-out full-body check in a vicious game of floor hockey?

Or maybe that is just the most common place for people to hit the wall, since there is only about 2 feet of space between it and the out-of-bounds line - I know I've probably crashed into that spot a few times trying to save a rogue basketball.

Well, whatever his purpose, chalk-outline boy adds to the cozy and unique nature of the gym.

And 25 years from now, after life has taken me wherever it has planned, perhaps I'll end up back in this gym some time with chalk-outline boy...playing basketball...with a bunch of friends.