She forced a smile at his introduction. At most meet and greets, she melted into the background, allowing the players to shine. She was used to it. She was happy with it. But Silas must have felt she was somehow slighted because he started talking about how important a community outreach manager was to the team.
“I get to play soccer for my job. That sounds like a lot of fun, right?”
The kids all cheered.
“Well, that job wouldn’t even be possible without Miriam. She’s the one who goes out into the community, to places like your school, and tells people about the Storm. She’s got one of the most important jobs on the whole team because she’s the one who makes sure that the fans are in the stands.”
A boy in the back raised his hand.
Silas pointed at him. “Yes?”
“But nobody wants to go if there aren’t players to watch.”
Miriam felt the corners of her mouth lift into a small smile. Silas thought he was going to go into a classroom of seven- and eight-year-olds and teach them about the nuances of being part of a professional sports organization, and this little boy was schooling him. She watched Silas eagerly to see his response.
Silas didn’t miss a beat. “You’re right. But you need both.” He paused and pressed his lip to his fingers. “Have you ever played on a see-saw?”
Most of the kids answered that they had.
“It’s like that. You can’t play by yourself. You need two people to balance it out. It’s the same with the Storm. You need the players and you need the office staff. When they come together, it makes for something really amazing.”
A girl in the front spoke without raising her hand. “Until one stops playing and gets off. Then you fall hard on your butt, and it really hurts.”
“You’re right,” Miriam said to the girl before turning her gaze to Silas. “It really hurts when someone leaves without giving you a chance to brace yourself. Then it’s really hard to trust that person not to do it again.”
Even little girls knew how painful it was to have someone drop you without warning, and she hoped that the girl in the front row with the bright, rosy cheeks never knew a heartache like Miriam.
An uncomfortable silence that even the kids picked up on filled the room. The class stared at Silas and Miriam waiting for them to say something else—to do something else.
Silas quickly held up the stack of books that he’d brought in. “Here, why don’t we start reading.”
Miriam walked over to the side of the class and leaned against the wall as Silas sat down in a small chair in front of the children. He didn’t ask if she wanted to read with him, somehow knowing that she wouldn’t be able to after the turn that the conversation had taken.
Silas set all the books but one beside him and lifted the first one. “This story is about a girl who wants to be an astronaut.”
“Girls can’t be astronauts,” a boy in the back said.
Silas laughed. “Of course they can. Girls can do anything. Besides, we already have female astronauts in space. This girl dreams of being just like them.”
He opened the book and used a high-pitch voice for the main character causing a bunch of the kids to giggle. When Silas finished reading the first page, he stopped and made sure to let every kid look at the illustrations.
The kids are leaned forward eager to hear more as Silas flipped the book so it faced him once more and started reading the next page. He continued to use the same voice for the little girl throughout and added different voices with every new character that was introduced in the story.
Sure, Miriam had seen him talk to kids after games on multiple occasions, but he was in his element when he was talking about soccer. She’d never thought anything of it. Seeing him now, she realized he was a natural. The thought of Silas being great with children did weird things to her stomach.
She smiled as he finished the first book and grabbed another. The kids were equally engaged as he read through it and then two more after.
When he was done, he looked over to Miriam.
That was her cue. She walked over to the carpet and stood in front of the kids. “Who loved listening to Mr. Silas read today?”
All their hands went straight up. “Me!”
“And who would like to see him play with the Storm for free?”
Miriam could see the eyes of those children in the front go wide. She started passing out cards with a link that would give all the kids in the class a free ticket to the game with the purchase of an adult ticket.
After every child got one, Miriam let the teacher know they were done. Silas and Miriam gave the class a final goodbye and walked out into the hall. Miriam was ready to go, but Silas grabbed her arm and stopped her in the empty hall.
