Week 3 Story: The Magic Shoes

It was a Friday night and all of Lakewood Highschool was gearing up for the homecoming basketball match up against their hated rivals Mulberry High. Lakewood had high hopes for a state championship this year with Manny Rodriguez leading the way. These aspirations from the preseason, however, had not quite lived up to their hype. Manny had been in a shooting slump and seemed to average almost double-digit turnovers a game. This was a basketball school though and none of the students or faculty was going to give up on this team. Manny on the other hand was having a tough time wondering what was going on with his abilities. He kind of moped around school that day not really getting into the homecoming spirt. Instead, at lunch time Manny went downtown to walk around by himself. He had hoped that maybe it would get his mind right and clear his head for the game that evening. While he was walking by a shop he happened to look through the window and see a pair of vintage Larry Bird shoes. They looked like they had never been out of the box and were like nothing Manny had ever seen in his life. He loved the way they looked and figured he could use some new kicks for homecoming, so he went in and bought them.

                That night Manny was putting on his jersey and getting ready for the game. The five

A Larry Bird Converse magic shoes from pristine.com.

starters from Mulberry bust into the locker room and began to talk trash to the Lakewood players, and rightfully so. Lakewood like I said had been on a losing skid as of lake while Mulberry on the other hand had been winning handily against their opponents. Finally, the coaches were able to restore the peace to the locker room and the team finished getting ready. Manny, taking a last look at his knew shoes before slipping them on his feet, seemed to hear whispers coming in the shoes direction. He held them up to his ear and sure enough he could hear them saying, “If your open, shoot it all night”. He thought that he had gone crazy but went on preparing for the game. The coach walked out of his office and into the locker room. The team went over their match ups and the coach gave his final inspiratory speech. Manny could hear the buzzer of the scoreboard sound, signaling that the girls game was over, and it was time for the boys to warm up. The two foes rushed onto the court and began warming up.

                The starters were called out one by one and finally it was time for tip off. Lakewood got the tip and threw the ball to Manny who immediately shot a deep three ball from the corner of the court. Swish! Right through the basket. This seemed to set the pace for the night as Manny went on to have a career high of 42 points with 27 of them coming from three. All he could think of after the game was how the shoes seemed to talk to him, telling him where and when to shoot. Manny would keep these shoes only wore them on game days. They were his secret weapon. Any team that stood in Lakewood’s way the rest of the year was defeated by at least double digits. Winning the state tournament, Manny had become a legendary player at Lakewood that would be remembered forever.

 Authors Notes

I used the story "Thataka" as my old story that I changed up. If you read the story "Thataka" It is about how Rama first did battle with a demon. He slayed the demon fairly easily and after wards was rewarded weapons that he could later use against other beasts. I modified the story by changing the scene, characters and flipping the story around a little. Instead of Manny receiving something after the game I made it to where he received his "weapon" if you will of the shoes before the game. Manny still did battle with a hated foe and won handily just like Rama. 

Bibliography

 Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).