Tino double knotted his shoes, pulled up his white socks, and picked up a basketball. The noise from each dribble rattled the empty and worn-down bleachers. He shot from the three-point line, smiling not because the ball went in, but because no one was around to see his fantastic airball.
“Tino! Pick up that ball and sweep the floor real fast would you?” Coach Jacobs and the team burst through the door, the team laughing and roughhousing while star player Jackie Hernandez spun a ball on his finger. Tino was the team manager for the Keller High basketball team, mostly out of pity, and partly because Tino loved to sweep. Nothing could rival Keller High’s wooden floor after a Tino sweep.
“Sir, yes sir!” said Tino, always giving his best attitude in hopes one day he would get promoted to a backup position. But his dream seemed to be running out of time since tomorrow was one of their final games, the Regional Championship.
For lunch that day, Tino sought out his best friend Lupe, who sat with his food spread out on the steps to the band hall, his trumpet beside him.
“All you have to do is chant my name. Chant my name, Lupe!” Tino grabbed Lupe by the shoulders and shook.
“Why am I chanting your name?”
“Tomorrow is the Regional Championship, and it’s a no brainer we’re going to dominate.”
“That’s great. But why would I cheer for you if you're not playing? You just sweep and hand out water.”
“Not cheer, I didn’t say cheer. I said chant.” Tino spoke with a determined precision. “When a team has a huge lead like we’re gonna have tomorrow, coaches sometimes put in the second strings, so they can get some practice. You know? But, if you chant my name, and the crowd joins in, he might put me in, and I’ll finally be able to play. See?”
“So, I just chant, Tino! Tino!?” Lupe asked while manhandling a burrito. “And why would he put you in over a someone who can actually shoot?”
“Because it’s the Regional Championship! Think about the headlines! Team Manager Plays in Region Finals! It’s a Cinderella story. People live to see stuff like this. It’s a win-win. I get to play, Coach Jacobs looks like the best coach in the state for giving the team manager a shot, and we win region. A win-win-win. If Coach was interviewed he’d probably say something like, ‘Oh I always had faith in the boy, and I wanted to give him a shot because I knew he could do it,’ and he’d look like a saint.” Now the plan was clear to Lupe. And it was true, everyone waited their entire lives to see a moment where the underdog is given a chance. Everyone loves it when a nobody becomes a somebody. “Yeah, ok I get it. Alright,” said Lupe. “You’ll be a hero. Coach Jacobs will look like a saint. I might even be a hero for starting the chant!” But the chant has to be something catchy.” Lupe said with a mouth full of beans. “Something with a little umph. Like, put Tino in.”
“Yes, oh that’s good. Say that, put Tino in. You're a section leader in pep band, right? Tell all the freshmen if they don’t follow along you’ll make them run laps or something. Make everyone join in, blow your trumpet if you have to.”
“But I’m only supposed to do this if we are winning, right? Like if we are up by thirty points or something?
“Or twenty-five. Even twenty. It doesn't matter, nobody can resist a chant.”
“And what makes you so sure you’ll be up by that many points?”
“Uh, have you seen Jackie Hernandez play?”
The fourth quarter came. The home team of Keller High was leading Central by twenty-five points. Jackie Hernandez could, in fact, play. Tino tripled knotted his shoes and caught Lupe’s eyes in the packed stadium, giving him a slight nod of his head. After Jackie Hernandez sunk his tenth three-pointer, Central’s coach called a timeout, the home crowd of Keller High roared, and the team exchanged hugs and high fives to the fight song.
“Hell yeah!” Said Coach Jacobs. “Keep it up, and we’re going to state!” Coach Jacobs yelled as he slapped Jackie Hernandez’s butt.
“Don’t slap my butt,” Hernandez said.
“This has to be it,” Tino said to himself. And as the roar of the crowd settled, Tino heard Lupe’s voice.
“Put Tino in!” Lupe said in a slow rhythm. “Put Tino in!” He clapped his hands three times to the words and nodded for the rest of the trumpet section to join in. “Put Tino in!” The trumpets section started chanting in unison.
Murmurs in the crowd, “The sweeper boy? That scrawny kid with no athletic ability?”
“Put Tino in!” The rest of the band chanted. “Put Tino in!” The whole right side of the stadium chanted. “That nobody? That kid who was never even given a shot?”
“Put Tino in!” the entire crowd, even the away team, chanted. Coach Jacobs stared at the crowd and gave out a laugh, “Haha, would you look at that? Aw what the hell? Tino, get in there!” Tino shot up and held his hands over his head, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Popcorn flew in the air and the drumline played a cadence. It was as if they had already won the state title. It was as if Tino were already a hero. It was as if this was the moment everyone had been waiting for their entire lives.
Game on. Tino squatted low and spread his hands wide as Central High’s number ten dribbled up to meet him. Number ten dribbled in between his own legs and spun in an attempt to pass up Tino. The entire crowd gasped. But with quick wits, Tino reached out his arm, just barely slapping the ball the ball away, gaining possession as the crowd hollered and shook the stands.
“There you go!” called out Coach Jacobs. “You got it!”
Tino dribbled the ball three times, jumped up as high as he could, and shot. Tino watched the ball soar in slow motion, perfect. The crowd moved their heads to follow the arc, watching as the ball went into the wrong basket. Three points were added to the away team’s score.
The crowd went silent, not a single player moved, and the basketball awkwardly bounced back to Tino’s feet.
“Hey,” someone from the crowd said, his voice confused and betrayed. Hardly anyone moved a muscle. Tino turned to face the man in the crowd who went by the name Eddie. “We all chanted for you man.” Eddie shook his head, partly because he wanted to be part of a Cinderella story, partly because he placed his hope in Tino. In fact, the whole crowd wanted to be a part of something special and cool, something that could be shown on the news to cheer up people's day. Tino didn’t know every man woman and child wanted to see him succeed, as the success of a nobody is impossible not to love. And with love comes elation, and with elation, there is no room for fear. What was the crowd afraid of? Death, maybe. Becoming jaded and hopeless, probably. I personally think everyone in the gym knew they would all turn out to be nobodies, which is why even Jackie Hernandez started to tear up. They just wanted something to believe in, anything. They wanted proof of goodness and God, proof that life was, in fact, worth living, proof they were not worthless, good for nothing, powerless in the face of oppression and evil. They wanted proof that time was not void of beauty, that being a good person actually means something, that it’s not wrong to put complete faith in a person. Was it too much to ask? Apparently.
Eddie’s eyes started to water, “Take Tino out,” he said, breaking into a sob. This was the first time Eddie had left the house in over a decade, as he suffered from depression ever since the great fire station accident of 2013. He left to see this basketball game. The woman standing next to Eddie was named Shauna. When her father past away with cancer, she refused to believe in heroes, fate, and God. “Take Tino out,” she said.
“Take Tino out,” the crowd chanted. “Take Tino out.”
“Wait!” Shouted Tino, his heart beating fast under the pressure. “Don’t you guys get it?” Eddie wiped his eyes, Coach Jacobs took off his hat, and the crowd gave Tino their full attention. “We are not a single drop in the ocean,” he said. “We are the ocean in a single drop.”
Eddie said, “That’s a quote from the 13th-century Persian poet, Rumi.”
And Tino said, “So what?” His words rung throughout the gym. “So what? So what if we’re nobodies, if we’re deadbeats, has-beens, never-weres, never-will-bes, stuck in the past, forgotten, broke, ugly, stupid, poor? So what if my words were his words, if his words were their words, if I’m me and you’re you? So what if I just shot a hoop in my own basket and ruined everyone’s Cinderella moment? So what if we all die, and everyone forgets our names, if the bad guys win, if love is never enough, if it’s impossible to believe, if perfect things don’t exist. It’ll never change the fact that we shared this moment together. It’ll never change the fact that we are an ocean.”
And Eddie was no longer afraid of death.
And Shauna once again believed in heroes and fate and God.
And Jackie Hernandez went on it make it big.
And Coach Jacobs became a saint.
And Tino was never taken out.
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