you are all star

Chapter 4 No Touching the Ball
When Neil returned home with the basketball in his arms, his thumb was swollen and his whole finger was bruised, and the pain was extremely severe.

Because of the excruciating pain, he rubbed his thumb vigorously with the other hand, making a sound of "嗤嗤..." from time to time, and the words that the old neighbors told him came to his mind.

He sat on the sofa for a while, and the pain was severe. Seeing that his parents hadn't come back, he had to rummage through boxes and cabinets to find medicine. He couldn't read yet, but he was smart enough to know that what he was looking for was something like hand cream. The same thing, instead of granule medicine, oral medicine, so he, who could not read, was suffering from burning pain in his thumb. In desperation, he found a box of Fengyoujing to rub, and then fetched a basin of water. Soak the thumb in the water, so that the hot thumb slightly relieved his torment.

He looked at the clock on the wall, and it was only after three o'clock in the afternoon. His parents left early and returned late. It was impossible to come back at this time, and his stomach was growling. Enduring the pain, he took his fingers out of the water basin, and then went to open the refrigerator to find some fruit or other leftovers to eat.

He opened the refrigerator, and there happened to be a banana and an apple. He took them out and put them on the coffee table, and then turned on the TV. When the TV turned on, a sports news was broadcast on the screen, about basketball, and he was immediately caught by the screen. The basketball superstar is attracted, the thumb doesn't seem to hurt, and the stomach doesn't seem to be hungry anymore. I stare at the fadeaways, throws, turnaround jumpers, breakthrough dunks, and three-pointers against the defense. He led the team to victory without difficulty and became the best player of the game. When this basketball superstar wearing the No. 23 jersey flashed on the silver screen again and again, Neil couldn't help but stand still. I must become People like this basketball superstar slapped Peel, Porter and Anda in the face, and let the basketball myth come to Alexandria. I will make a lot of money and be sought after by many people, and my parents will no longer have to live in shabby Dirty slums, bullied by white people...

He just stared at the screen and thought about it for nearly 5 minutes. This short sports basketball news was over. He thought it was an automatic channel change, so he quickly picked up the remote control and changed the channel forward and backward, but it still didn’t work. , he realized that today was gone, and it was over, so he switched back, wrote down the screen number, then tuned up a special one for playing cartoons, threw the remote control on the coffee table, and held the apple in his uninjured hand. After eating with bananas, the injured thumb was still swollen and painful, and the whole thumb was completely black. He was suddenly worried that it would be useless because of this. Nervous and frightened, Neil hurriedly soaked his thumb in water , and then staring at the funny "Tom and Jerry" on TV, I forgot the pain from time to time and couldn't help laughing.

Looking at it, his eyes were a little tired, and he fell asleep on the sofa until he heard someone calling his name and someone playing with his injured hand. In an instant, he woke up from his dream and opened his hazy eyes With both eyes, I saw that Nuana and Luis had returned, and his mother was still holding his injured hand to see.

Neil withdrew it abruptly, hid it behind him, and deliberately pretended not to know anything and asked, "Mom, what are you looking at?"

Nuana didn't directly answer his pretending to be calm question, but pointed to the basin of water and essential oil on the coffee table.

Neil endured the pain in his fingers, pretended nothing happened, and said with a smile, "It's a prop I found for playing games when I was bored at home alone."

"Okay, mom, let's not worry about this issue for now, then you can tell me first, what's going on in this messy room, the medicine in the medicine cabinet has been turned upside down?" After tidying up the room, he stared into Neil's eyes and said.

Neil hurriedly avoided his mother's eyes, as if he could no longer hide it any longer. It seemed that his mother knew what happened, so he hurriedly lowered his head. He still didn't want to say it to make his parents sad, but just moved his body in a daze. Sitting cross-legged.

Suddenly, my mother was angry at his behavior, and she had difficulty breathing and coughed a few times. Neil was frightened by his mother's cough, and his heart beat faster and faster. He was afraid that something was wrong with her, and he wondered whether to tell his parents or not. I will be beaten by my strict father. After all, the main reason for my injury this time was because I wanted to show off in front of my friends that I had an NBA logo basketball.

Seeing that Neil still refused to tell the truth, Nuana recovered from her cough, then stared at Neil and said, "Baby, in fact, Mom already knew that you were injured, but can you tell Mom how did you put your thumb on the ground?" hurt like this?"

Neil still held back his anger and refused to say that he went out with a basketball to show off and was bullied in the end.

Seeing that Nuana, who has always been gentle, virtuous and kind, could not deal with Neil at all, he cleaned up the messy room at the side, glanced at Neil, and yelled at him to remind him: "Boy, your mother asked you something, are you Didn't hear you? You wait, I will come to you to settle accounts after I have cleaned up everything you have done."

Neil shivered, then looked at his mother tremblingly, as if he was frightened by his father's targeted reminder, and knew that if he didn't tell the truth, he would be beaten. In desperation, he stretched out his injured hand hand, and lowered his head to apologize: "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry!"

Nuana took his injured little hand, stared at the swollen and bruised thumb and said, "Baby, it's okay, does it still hurt? Take your time."

"Mom, Dad, it's Neil who is not good. Neil is not good today. After you left, I went out with the basketball in my arms and showed it off in front of my friends. As a result, Peel insulted me, beat me, and laughed at me, so I Throwing the basketball hard at Peel, hitting him on the head, he picked it up, but Porter and Anda were there, and Peel asked them to lock my hands and hit me on the head with the basketball , but after he smashed it, I asked him to return the ball, and he wanted me to fight the bull with him, and he would give me the ball only after winning, so I agreed, and he asked Porter and Anda to let go of my hand, and he would The basketball was thrown at me so viciously that I missed the catch and hurt my thumb, and then I came back with the injury and said the basketball won and made the first shot of my life."

After hearing this, his mother's eyes were already wet and blurred. She was really proud of Neil, who was not yet four years old, for turning the tide like this. Then she smiled at him, hugged him and said, "Good job, kid!"

After hearing this, his father Louis stopped cleaning up, stood up, stared at Neil with wide eyes and said, "Boy, you know? Your thumb was hurt at a young age, and there will be sequelae in the future, no matter you I won’t pursue the reason why I took the basketball out to the market today, but from now on, you are forbidden to touch that basketball again, you have to concentrate on studying, and then walk out of the slums, and you are not allowed to talk to Peel, Bo Te and Anda are fooling around on the street, if you don't listen, I won't beat you."

Hearing his father issue such an arrest warrant, Neil immediately thought that he was going to forcibly deprive me of something I like, so he hurriedly asked Nuana for help: "Mom, look at Dad, there is no such thing as him. I like basketball, he bought it for me, but now he is forced to confiscate it, and I am not allowed to touch it, is this unreasonable?"

Nuana looked at Louis, then patted Neil on the shoulder and said, "Father is not afraid that you will get hurt, or that you will fail in your studies. Don't you want to go to Alexandria to study?"

Neil replied to his mother without thinking: "Of course I want to!"

"That's right, think about it again, if you want to play, what kind of rebounds and courts are you comfortable playing?"

Neil, who was not yet four years old, shook his head.

"Of course it's solid wood flooring, and then there's the high-end rebounding. Don't talk about it, you don't understand it. Anyway, it's better than all the rebounds and courts in the slums." Nuana continued.

"Then mom, I'm going to play on that kind of court in the future." Neil smiled and sat on the sofa, responding to Nuana with a friendly tone.

Nuana sighed, then bowed her head in silence for a while, bit her lips, and said with a smile, "Son, there will be such a day!"

Louis saw that Nuana was giving his son the correct way of education, and Neil was listening intently, so he didn't bother the mother and son, and went to the kitchen to cook after cleaning up.

(End of this chapter)