One of the more unusual things about our very old house is that it’s missing a fence around the backyard.  Almost all of the other houses have fences, probably because rowhouses are not conducive to large yards and each owner wants to claim their full allotment of space.  The backyard also happens to be paved over into a parking pad.  Put these two things together in the middle of Baltimore and what’s the result?  Neighborhood basketball court, obviously!

We really love having the neighborhood kids hang out and do something constructive with their time, even though a few of the neighbors have expressed “concern” about the types of kids we’re “letting” hang around.  There are a lot of issues in Baltimore I don’t think would be prudent to bring up in an online forum where things turn ugly so quickly – let’s just say the city has a long history of oppression and it’s frustrating to see some of those attitudes linger under the surface.

There’s one boy who’s spent more time at our house than all the others.  E is the twitchiest bundle of energy I’ve ever seen.  He’ll be running in one direction, apparently for no reason, and mid-step he’ll think of something and start running in another direction, then get distracted again a few seconds later.  He’s the smallest boy in the group – I wouldn’t have guessed he was 12.  I have a lot of funny E stories already…hopefully I’ll be inspired to write them up sometime.

So last Friday I saw E back behind our house swinging a stick by himself.  He seemed down and wasn’t moving quite as fast as usual.  I called Matt over and asked him to make sure E was ok (Matt’s developed quite the rapport with the boys – I wish I could have found my camera fast enough the time he had 5 city kids staring down into our composter as he explained how it worked).

Turns out the ball had rolled into the bushes and E couldn’t get it – and none of the other boys would play with him that night.  Matt and E worked together to maneuver the ball out, and then Matt started shooting hoops with him.  This may seem like a small thing but Matt is not an organized sports kind of guy.  He’s in his element climbing or kayaking – it’s not pretty when he has a ball in his hands.  But he played with E….and kept playing.  I was trying not to be a creepy neighbor by watching out the window for too long, but I kept coming back to catch a glimpse of the biggest smile I’ve seen yet on E’s face.  When Colter came down and joined in the game, E could hardly contain himself.  I was so proud of them for taking the time to play with a kid who needed attention more than we probably realize.