For Bobby: The Last Tennis Game

This year marks 4 years that my best friend and brother (from another mother), Bobby passed away. I miss the kid a lot. There’s a ton of things that remind me of him. One of my fondest memories involved our last tennis game. Bobby was a natural talent and he was on the tennis team for the better part of high school. He and I would play all the time and I used to think he would take it easy on me. He had a very erratic style of playing and I was just not very good. But he was always my favorite person to play against, because it would be more about having fun than competition.

It was a hot weekday afternoon, about 5 years ago. I had to work at Starbucks that night and close and wanted to spend the day with some friends. Bobby called me up and asked me if I was free and we decided to play tennis. My blue, carbon fiber racket was scratched up but still shone in the sunlight. We named it the “Hammer”! Bobby’s racket was Black and White I think. It was classic look to it. The whole game was just about to have fun and get active in the lazy heat of the day. Bobby would spin the ball a whole lot, which mean that the ball would hit the ground and change direction. I played defensively for the most part just running around and diving. From time to time I’d make him dive for it, or launch the ball high enough to throw his perception. We would scream names of “attacks” or fake japanese as we would hit the ball.

It was the most fun I ever had playing a sport. Bobby always made me feel okay about my lack of skill. After the game we just relaxed for a bit and got some water and made jokes about random things we saw around Scott Park.

Little did I know that park would be the place he would pass away. I haven’t seen the “Hammer” since that day or held any racket in my hand since that day, but I sure hope he picked up a racket.

I miss you Bobby.