How did I ever fade into this life?
Who: Jason and Bobby
When: Afternoon after Jason talks with Watson
Where: The fitness room
What: Jason seeks comfort in the familiar layout of a basketball court and finds Bobby in the process.
It seems like with every day he spends here, Jason becomes more and more detached and confused. Sometimes it feels like he's walking in a fog, that everyone's talking and thinking in some other language that he's forgotten -- or perhaps never known.
He doesn't know where he fits in or how he's supposed to conform himself to this situation that seemingly has no rules. There's no future to aspire to, nowhere he has to go, so what... is he supposed to do? Nothing makes sense compared to what Jason's known life to be like before now; it's too free and easy. He needs to find a world where he knows his place.
Maybe the hotel is giving him a break for once, but Jason stumbles fairly quickly on the fitness room. Excited -- or maybe compelled is a better word -- he investigates the rooms branching off the main room until he finds what he had been looking for: a basketball court.
The familiarity of the lines on the floor is already enough to ease his mind, even if he hadn't always been particularly excited about playing basketball. Still -- basketball had been a rebellion, in one way or another. His dad wanted him to play softball, hired a trainer, fed softball to him for years, but Jason hated it. He quit the team sophomore year -- apparently still on a role from his rebellious streak starting in freshmen year.
Clenching his jaw, he picks up a basketball and runs his hands over it, feeling the familiar bumps and grooves; he traces his finger over a black line, then another, and starts to dribble, slowly, deliberately. The echo of the ball against the floor is soothing, calming; it sounds like control. He starts dribbling the ball more seriously and jogs toward the hoop, hopping up to make a perfect basket. The swish of the hoop is satisfying, and he watches the ball roll away from him for a moment.
It's the most powerful, most comforted, Jason's felt since he arrived.
When: Afternoon after Jason talks with Watson
Where: The fitness room
What: Jason seeks comfort in the familiar layout of a basketball court and finds Bobby in the process.
It seems like with every day he spends here, Jason becomes more and more detached and confused. Sometimes it feels like he's walking in a fog, that everyone's talking and thinking in some other language that he's forgotten -- or perhaps never known.
He doesn't know where he fits in or how he's supposed to conform himself to this situation that seemingly has no rules. There's no future to aspire to, nowhere he has to go, so what... is he supposed to do? Nothing makes sense compared to what Jason's known life to be like before now; it's too free and easy. He needs to find a world where he knows his place.
Maybe the hotel is giving him a break for once, but Jason stumbles fairly quickly on the fitness room. Excited -- or maybe compelled is a better word -- he investigates the rooms branching off the main room until he finds what he had been looking for: a basketball court.
The familiarity of the lines on the floor is already enough to ease his mind, even if he hadn't always been particularly excited about playing basketball. Still -- basketball had been a rebellion, in one way or another. His dad wanted him to play softball, hired a trainer, fed softball to him for years, but Jason hated it. He quit the team sophomore year -- apparently still on a role from his rebellious streak starting in freshmen year.
Clenching his jaw, he picks up a basketball and runs his hands over it, feeling the familiar bumps and grooves; he traces his finger over a black line, then another, and starts to dribble, slowly, deliberately. The echo of the ball against the floor is soothing, calming; it sounds like control. He starts dribbling the ball more seriously and jogs toward the hoop, hopping up to make a perfect basket. The swish of the hoop is satisfying, and he watches the ball roll away from him for a moment.
It's the most powerful, most comforted, Jason's felt since he arrived.