The first sport she didn’t like was “Kick the Can.” The way it worked was a big teacher kicked the can into a crowd of children and then everybody scrambled to kick the can, where? She didn’t know, but there were no fouls. Just a bunch of competitive maniacs butting in on each other trying to kick this can, somewhere. The one rule she knew, she had learned at home, was not to ask questions and reveal her vulnerability. And the teacher who liked this game so much, wasn’t explaining it.
Then there was another game in first grade. It was called “Capture the Flag”. In this case someone had bothered to explain it. There was a designated space, and a line. The line divided one team’s territory from the other team’s. Then there were two goals, one at the far end of each team’s territory. The idea was to steal the flag from the opposite team’s goal and get it safely to one’s own goal. But only very tricky fast runners could do this, she concluded, so this game wasn’t really participatory for her. She, like several other girls would stay near the boundary between ‘their team’ and ‘our team’ and stick her toe over the line and pull it back before she got tagged. If a player got tagged by the other team that player would be put in the other team’s jail, and could only be freed by being tagged by a member of his or her own team. She didn’t want to get put in jail, but at least one time she was.
The teacher who organized this game once told her he’s like to, “sock you in the kisser.” She didn’t know for sure what this meant. Did it mean he wanted to kiss her? Or hit her in the mouth?