The Marble Craze
For a short while the kids at Rodney's school made marble playing their pastime, an old-fashioned thing inspired by something someone saw on television. The craze lasted about three weeks. About two weeks into the fad, Rodney got his bag of marbles to play with. His mom presented him two plastic bags of sparkling glass marbles and a pigskin carrying bag after dinner one night. He spread the marbles out on the living room rug. He ran his hands over them like they were precious jewels. He inspected them for color and design. He held them up to the 1ight to look more closely at the swirls of color running through them. He separated the cat's eyes from the clearies, and the shooters from the boulders. He could not wait to challenge his classmates.
The next morning he left for school with his pigskin bag and a mind full of ideas about the challenge of marble shooting.
Rodney met two kids on the walk to school, Marcus and his twin brother Aaron. Identical except Aaron was a bit thinner in build, and Marcus, the larger, was a bit more timid in personality.
"Hey you guys," Rodney yelled.
"What?" Aaron said.
"How about a game?" Rodney said, rattling the pigskin bag.
"Sure," Marcus said, "Whatcha got?"
Rodney pulled out a blue cleary that sparkled in the morning sun. Aaron's eyes gleamed and he pulled a marble of his own out of his hip pocket. It was a chipped up red thing, not nearly as nice as Rodney's blue cleary. "You challenged," he said. "You go first."
The rules of the game they played were simple. The challenger would throw out his marble onto a grassy area, and then the challenged person would try to hit the challenger's marble with his. From then on they took turns trying to hit each others marble. The first person to hit the other persons marble won. The games could last several minutes or be quite quick.
Rodney's first game was quite quick. In fact he didn't even get to shoot. Rodney threw out his new blue marble onto a nearby lawn. From there Aaron took a quick aim and lobbed his marble at Rodney's. They all heard an unmistakable click when the two marbles collided.
"Want to play again?" Aaron said.
"All right," Rodney replied, trying not to show too much shock at the sudden loss of his blue cleary.
The next game lasted one shot longer. Rodney got to shoot first and missed. His marble came to rest so close to Aaron's it was easy for Aaron to finish the game with his next shot.
"Want to play him Marcus?" Aaron said, looking at Rodney's fat bag of marbles.
"Sure," Marcus said. "Come on Rodney, let's play." Marcus played Rodney one time and took one of Rodney's jumbo cat's eyes.
"I better get to school," Rodney said as he watched Marcus stuff his new marble into his pants pocket. "I'm going to be late," he said, turning away quickly.
"Sure," the twins said together. "Anytime you want to play," Aaron yelled out to Rodney.
"Yeah, anytime," Marcus said.
Rodney walked down the street with the loss of his three new marbles stinging badly. The loss did hurt, but he also felt something else. The thrill of competition had left him dizzy. Rodney wanted to play again. He wanted to play, and he wanted to win. He thought if he just tried a little harder he could win, if he just concentrated a little more, if he just played a little better, if he just had a little more practice.
At morning recess Rodney was really ready to jump right in and do some marble shooting. He challenged the first person he saw when he walked out onto the playground. It was a guy named Bill. Bill's quiet shyness made him appear kind of stupid. And he might have been, but he might have been really smart, too. He was just too quiet to know.
"Bill," Rodney said when he spied the tall boy leaning against a brick wall with his hands in his pockets. "How about a game?" shaking his new pigskin bag.
"Oh, all right," Bill said sleepily. He reached in his pocket and pulled out an orange cat's eye. "How's this Rodney?" Bill asked, holding the marble out in the palm of his hand.
Rodney looked at the marble closely because that's the way the other kids did it. They always made sure they were playing for a good marble. In reality, Rodney would have played for a piece of used gum. He just wanted to play. "Looks good," Rodney said.
"What do you have?" Bill replied.
Rodney dug in his bag and pulled out a sparkling red cleary.
Bill gave it a lazy glance and then said, "All right."
Rodney threw his marble out onto a patch of dirt blotched with dead grass and gravel. He was confident about his chances against Bill. Rodney played cautiously until he thought he had a good shot. He took careful aim and shot. His red marble was right on the mark, heading right for Bill's marble. It rolled and bumped and rolled on right toward its target. Rodney smiled as the marble was rolling, rolling right up to Bill's marble. And then it stopped. The marble stopped just inches from its mark. Rodney stared. Bill took a quick short shot, and the game was over. "Another game?" Bill said blinking sleepily.
"Yeah," Rodney replied. But this time his voice twinged with uncertainty.
"How long you been playing this game?" Bill asked.
"Long enough," Rodney said. He had watched so many games before he felt sure he could play well enough to win. "Let's go," he said.
Rodney had come so close to winning last time he thought he just had to win the next time. Bill played Rodney with his orange cat's eye again, not the newly acquired red cleary. Rodney lost again, and then again. He lost his best looking boulder, and several cat's eyes. Rodney kept right on playing, though, and he lost many more times. By the time recess was over his leather pouch flopped lightly in his hand.
Rodney the fledgling marble player slunk back to class. He sat at his desk dazed and beaten while the teacher talked on. He thought about the ways the other players outplayed him and came up with some ideas of his own. He thought maybe he could stalk his opponent like a tiger stalks its prey, following in the weeds, quietly waiting for the victim to leave an opening, and then strike with speed and accuracy. He thought he could be a tiger of a marble player. Or maybe a scorpion, waiting quietly until the victim strayed too close, then pouncing without mercy, stinging with a lash of its tail. Rodney could be a great scorpion of a marble player. Or maybe a snake of a marble player, luring the unwary with silky smooth moves, slowly tightening his grasp until there was no room for escape. He liked his strategies.
Rodney had to run home to get the rest of the marbles at lunch time. He didn't tell his mom he was taking them. He left his house with all the rest of his new marbles jammed into the pigskin bag. It was time to try out his new ideas. He found Bill leaning up against the same wall he was leaning against during recess.
"Want to play," Rodney said, flashing a good looking cat's eye
under Bill's nose.
"Oh sure," Bill said.
Rodney felt lucky, revived. He wanted to get his marbles back. He was going to play like a tiger. He was going to stalk and attack his victim
He tried out his new plan against Bill. In fact he tried it three times before deciding he wasn't a tiger. Rodney went on to change his tactics to that of a scorpion and lost three more times. And then he lost two final times as a snake. Bill's pockets bulged.
Rodney was upset. He wanted to win and decided to find somebody he could beat. He went around to every kid he could find who played marbles and he challenged them. And each time he lost he went on to someone else, and he kept losing.
Rodney didn't understand that all the past weeks when he was thinking and wishing he were playing marbles, all the other kids were doing it and getting very good at it. But he could only see how badly he wanted to win. He wanted to win so badly he couldn't see when to quit.
Rodney was upset sitting in class that afternoon. He held his nearly empty marble bag under his desk, rocking it back and forth in his hands. Just a few marbles clinked around in the bottom of it. Rodney decided while sitting in class that afternoon that he would keep on playing no matter what. He wouldn't quit. He still wanted to win, and unfortunately he didn't want to wait for another day when he had more practice and experience.
Word spread that Rodney was a really inexperienced player, and when school was over that day he had no problem finding people to play against. Rodney played and played and played, and lost and lost and lost. In the course of twenty minutes he lost every marble he had. He stood alone on the playground holding his empty pigskin bag, dreading having to go home and tell his mom why the marbles were all gone. He felt like a fool. The madness to win was wearing off. He couldn't believe what he had just done, that he had been so stupid.
I should have learned the game slowly, he thought, why did I have to try and learn the game in one day? The excitement of the moment was gone now. The excitement that had clouded his judgment was gone. And now he just felt dumb.
He walked home slowly with his face turned toward the ground. He didn't see the small boy walking toward him.
"Hey guy," the boy said. Rodney looked up. It was a boy Rodney didn't know. He wore glasses and an innocent smile. "Wanna play marbles," the kid continued, "Wanna play, huh?" He held up a yellowish looking boulder.
"I don't have any marbles," Rodney said.
"You got a bag," The kid said.
"It's empty," Rodney replied, giving the bag a shake.
"Well I'll play you for the bag." The kid said. "I'll give you a marble to use and if I win I keep the bag. If you win you keep the marble."
Rodney looked down at the little boy. He was short and weak looking, only about six years old. The kids glasses had thick lenses. He's blind, Rodney thought, I'd have a great chance of winning, and he's so young, how could he be any good? It's my big chance to start winning.
"Well guy, do you want to play?" the small boy said.
"No kid," Rodney said. "I'm done for today."
