Chapter 2 — Throwing the Ball Through the Rain

On Friday, An arrived at the yard ten minutes early and found the warehouse door open. The smell of rubber, chalk dust and damp raincoats mixed together. Nhien is sitting on a box of balls, her left knee wrapped in a black bandage. She did not look up immediately but continued to write names on the board: Nhien, Mai Chi, Bap. The fourth line is blank. An stood at the door, not knowing if she should go in or not.

“If you come to watch, sit in that chair,” Nhien said, pointing to a low plastic chair. “If you come to visit, take your own shirt.”

An took a number twelve shirt. Some shirts still smell of old conditioner. Mai Chi stepped out from behind the shadow rack, her hair tied high, her hand holding a roll of bandages. She looked at An from head toe, not hiding her doubts. “You're the one who missed the deciding shot at the city tournament?”

Bap was drinking water and sprayed it straight onto the floor. “Mai Chi, are you asking directly like a job interview?”

An answered before Nhien could stop her: "Yes. I am that person." She did not add that after the failure, the coach said she needed to know her limits. She didn't even mention that the next day she took off her shoes, put the ball in the closet and went to school as if she had never dreamed about the sound of shoes on the floor.

Nhien stood up, wincing slightly as her knees took pressure. She gave each person a warm-up lesson. Bap did the wrong thing left and right, Mai Chi threw a towel at him, and An tried not to show that she remembered the movements. As they ran around the field, a puddle made Bap slip, fall into a trash can, and then stand up and declare it a new defensive play. An burst out laughing before she could stop herself.

There were only four people in the training session, so Nhien let them play three-on-three with a chair as a defender. Bap calls the chair "honorary captain". An received the ball from Mai Chi, stepped over the three-point line and then passed it back because she did not want to throw. Mai Chi caught it, scored a point and turned to ask: "Are you going to give me the ball all day?"

“You throw better.”

“That's no reason for you to hide.”

Nhien blew the whistle, telling them to change positions. An was placed as the ball carrier. She lost control of the first ball, the second hit her leg, and the third hit the right rhythm. Phong appeared on the sideline, carrying a hand pump and a box of screws. He watched An being blocked by Bap by standing still in the middle of the field, then said: "If you want to win against a chair, you have to look at the space, not at the blocker."

An heard that sentence, changed direction, and passed it over Bap's shoulder. The ball reached Mai Chi just as she jumped up. The sound of the ball hitting the net echoed in the empty field. Nhien tapped her knee and smiled at An for the first time. "Come next Friday too. The team needs someone who can see the gap."

On the way to the gate, An saw Phong sticking a piece of yellow tape on the crack in the yard. He said it was a warning sign, not a new border. An asked when the yard would be demolished. Phong looked at the plan in her hand. “If the team doesn't have enough people and enough matches, it could be right after the tournament.” An tightened the bag strap. She texted her mother that she had basketball practice next Friday.

The following Friday, An realized she had arrived before Nhien. She opened the warehouse, swept a layer of dust from the floor, and found some sixth-grade softballs. Mai Chi walked in, saw An cleaning the strategy board, and asked if she intended to be a manager or a player. An said she just didn't want to slip on the dust. Mai Chi gave her a towel and said that if she wiped it, she would wipe the other corner too, where the dust formed a line like a yard line.

Bap came last along with a bag of bread. He said the team needed energy, but each person could only get half because the fund was low. Nhien told him not to use team money to buy food without recording it. Bap took the notebook, wrote "bread: personal sponsorship", then asked who signed to confirm. Tran, a classmate next door, came to help take notes and sign right away. An found the way they turned a small thing into a rule a bit funny, but also saw that no one was put in a position of having to blindly trust it.

The training session that day was about passing under pressure. Ms. Hanh ordered a group of male students to stand outside and use their words to cause disturbance and were not allowed touch the ball. Bap was called a "logistics assistant" by them, he was about to respond but An signaled him to shut up. She practiced looking at Mai Chi's hand instead of hearing her name. The ball passed, the more the jammer shouted, the more clearly An saw the space between the two defenders.

After ten minutes, Ms. Hanh stopped the lesson and asked who was tired of talking. Vy raised her hand and said she couldn't hear the signal. Nhien suggested using hand signs. Bap immediately drew simple pictures on the board, but one symbol looked like "change person" but looked like "drink water". The team laughed, then corrected it by adding a circle. An realizes that communication is not something that is decided by the best speaker; it is about being understood by the recipient.

Phong installed a ball hanger outside the warehouse. He made everyone return the ball to the right place, otherwise it would take the last ten minutes to find it. Bap asked if that was a punishment. Phong said it was a way to give time back to the team. An helped number the balls and discovered that ball number four was leaking air. She told Phong to replace the valve and not to over-inflate it himself.

At the end of the meeting, Nhien invited An to sit on the steps. She said the girls' team used to have twelve people, then lost people one by one due to extra classes, transferring schools, injuries and an argument for which no one apologized. Nhien kept the captain's armband because she thought if she let go, the team would disband. An asked what if the team disbanded. Nhien said it's possible another team will start, but she's not ready to see that yet.

An does not advise Nhien to let go or keep. She just said that the current team is not Nhien's property. Nhien looked at her and said that was similar to what Ms. Hanh said. An replied maybe because she was studying. When leaving the field, An no longer said "I came to watch". She told Phong to remember to pump number four next week, and then found herself making that statement a part of her training schedule.

On the bus home, An opened the group calendar. Some people marked "unlikely", some left it blank, some wrote "maybe if it doesn't rain". She wanted to turn all question marks into fixed hours, but remembered Ms. Hanh's words about the right to rest. An email asking each person to update six hours before practice, no need for long explanations. Mai Chi replied with the extra class schedule, Vy wrote down the pick-up time, Bap checked a box "can bring cake".

An's mother saw her coming home with the smell of anger and asked if she was in pain. An checked her ankle and said it was just tired. Mom asked her if she knew how to warm up. An admitted that the team had just studied. Her mother gave her a cold compress and reminded her not to use it while it was swollen. An sent that reminder to the group, Nhien added the phone number of the school's medical office. They began to have a small store of knowledge built from the words of many people.

The next day, Phong called An to come see valve number four. He gave her two options: replace the valve or temporarily pump and monitor. An asked which type is safer. Phong said the valve is new, but the team needs to spend money on bandages. An suggested writing both on the cost sheet, asking everyone who wanted to prioritize. Mai Chi chose a new valve, because a damaged ball could deflect her throw and cause wrist pain. Bap agreed to reduce the cost of bread. No one is forced to sacrifice alone.

During physical education class, An's class was assigned to run endurance. The teacher asked An if she wanted to be excused for basketball practice. An refused, but asked to stop if her ankle hurt. A friend teased her about becoming a professional athlete. An said she was just learning not to run too fast. After class, the teacher asked the team if they needed to borrow the field for the class. An gave the shared calendar, the teacher wrote down the class names and pledged not to pull the basketball backboard.

In the second practice session, Nhien let An play with a pair of fogged glasses so she could understand the feeling of not being able to see the whole field clearly. An was slow, made a wrong pass, and was frustrated. Nhien stopped the lesson, not to make An weaker but to let her learn with other signals. An took off her glasses and breathed deeply. She looked at Mai Chi's hand, Vy's position and the sound of Bap's shoes. The exercise is not fun, but it helps An understand that new people or people in pain need a team that knows how to adjust.

Before leaving, Nhien wrote down the trial schedule on the board. An saw her name in the line of defenders dribbling the ball. She didn't delete it, nor did she circle it. She just added a small question mark next to it, then asked Nhien if she could leave it there. Nhien said the question mark is the part a person is choosing. An took the ball and went out to the field, deciding that she would at least come to the next session.

An walked a few steps then turned back, took the chalk and wrote under the calendar: "If it rains, move into the multi-purpose house." Nhien read and nodded. The question mark next to An's name is still there, but next to it there is a backup plan.

Phong looked at the text and said he would check the multi-purpose house. An replied that she would ask Ms. Hanh, because checking alone was not enough. He nodded, then they both wrote things down on the calendar.

An went home and opened the calendar again, seeing that next to her name there was the word "arrive on time". She didn't delete it. A small commitment is still a commitment, and she wants to see how long she can keep it.

She set her alarm ten minutes earlier.