the shift

A soccer match where I am playing all my elementary school friends all grown up. They are razzing my team before hand but I am tough and confrontational and tell them where im coming from – challenge them to fight.
In the game we score the first goal off a penalty kick when someone is unapologetically pulling my arm down while I have the ball within the 18yard line. Someone else takes the kick before I know whats going on. The second is another direct kick from farther out, when a girl I used to be friends with falls on me and then when I get up, deliberately falls on me again. The ref has been watching these things, I am controlling the game. I take the shot from the right side of the field and it curves into the left corner. No one applauds, we just run back to our positions. I drop back to stopper, I had been playing striker and instruct my team to play defensively. Our left wing is from the other side and she has her bags with her on the field, having to leave early. We put her there because that is where she can do the least damage.

Suddenly the field changes and in order to score a goal, we have to kick it into a large fish tank at the bottom of a hill. One of my teammates goes to the bottom, right by the tank and bounces the ball up to me against the glass. I am at the top of the hill and can barely see where I’m shooting for since theres a wall between me and the goal. It is like a game of tennis where all I can do is return the ball and hope for the best. On the fourth try I get it in and the game is over.
The field is set up between city blocks and there are no spectators, just buildings. I have to ride in a canoe with one of my opponents, a good looking man who I knew as a boy but do not remember. He is rowing and congratulating me. We are talking about music and I invite him to jam later, because this version of me plays guitar.

There is a bus ride home where we drive through my old neighborhood. Everyone behind me talks about the changes to the streets. I have my headphones on and am actively not participating in the conversation, but no one seems to mind.