The Alley Way chapt 1

The Alley Way
by Wendy Olson





AN-DREW


"Almost got it." a voice mumbled as he released the black with red glitter bowling ball down the lane.  It hit with a clack where the ball touched the shinny lane.  The ball spun in place before it rolled towards the ten pins standing at the end like a bulls-eye.  The tall thin man placed his one gloved hand on his mouth as he watched his ball.  It soon reached it's goal and hit the pins with a loud thundering noise as all ten went tumbling down.

The tall man began to jump up and down and even did a cartwheel.  His cartwheel was very unstable as his owned red and black blowing shoes slipped on the ally floor.  Once he was back up again the man sat down to see his score.  A flashing 300 lit up the screen above him.  It was in fact a prefect score.

A boy walked by and shook his head.  "It doesn't count if the bummers are up, Andy."

The man used his non gloved hand to remove his black rimmed glasses and rubbed the dirt off of them onto his black and red bowling shirt that matched his ball, glove and shoes.  He tried to ignore the boy, but it wasn't easy.  After he placed the glasses back on his bigger, but not too big nose and in front of his pale blue eyes he said, "But they never hit the bumpers!  And it's AN-DREW!"  He then shook his sandy blonde hair.  The boy chuckled and walked off towards the arcade.

It was true Andrew never was able to play the game with out the bumpers up.  He didn't know why as he never hit them, but if the bumpers were down he would always get gutter balls.  It was the same every time, but Andrew knew that one day he would get his confidence to play without the bumpers and get his 300 the right way.

The manager then walked over to Andrew with a shake of his head.  "The Spare Tires are coming in."  With that Andrew got his ball and put it in it's black bag.  The two then put the bumpers down and Andrew walked towards the bar.

As Andrew walked to the bar he watched as the Spare Tires came in.  They consisted of the lawyers and partners of Carey, Carell, Chase and Stewart: Daniel "Dan" Chase, William "Will" Stewart, William "Bill" Carey and Robin Carell. They wore blue and gold bowling shirts with black pants and looked very professional.  Their bowling balls came in bags that looked like briefcases.  Everyone knew that you didn't mess with the four in court or on the lanes.

Along with the four came a girl.  She had long blonde hair that flowed like gold to her waist with a black bow on the side holding up the hair out of her face.  The girl had on gold rimmed glasses over her green eyes.  She also had on a plaid skirt and a sweater that had a fox wearing glasses on it.  When she came into view Andrew stopped for a moment.  He watched as the girl sat down behind the men and it was clear that she was Daniel's daughter Melody Chase.

"She is so far out of your league, AN-DY." the boy came back by and said before disappearing into the bathroom.

"What, why?  It's AN-DREW!  What am I the kid from 'Toy Story'?"

Andrew had been practicing his game ever since he started working at the law firm.  He wasn't a lawyer or even an intern, no he was the mail boy in the mail room.  One day he had deviled the mail to Melody, who was an intern and everyone knew would one day be a partner an add another "Chase" to the firm's list of names.  Andrew was at once smitten and he knew that the way to win her was to win her father.  Andrew also knew he could not win Mr. Chase with his job so he heard the next best thing was bowling.  Andrew came every day and played but always made sure he was done with the bumpers when the partners were coming and so was Miss Melody.

After a moment of watching the girl Andrew went into the bar and sat down.  The manager, who was also the bar tender, passed him a chocolate milkshake which was Andrew's usual.

The manager went to speak but stopped himself.  His greasy hair flopped out of an old beat up trucker hat that read, "Dark Alley" which was the name of the establishment he ran.  He also wore a blowing shirt of black and green that also had the name of the alley and a logo of devilish pins with a ghost ball hitting them.  His name tag read "Big Jim" and his clothes were covered in beer, grease both from bowling and from food, one could assume he very rarely or never washed the shirt but wore it always.

"I know, I know you were going to agree with the kid."

"The kid's not wrong Andrew.  I mean, you are only a mail boy and she's going to be a lawyer and then a partner.  She's so far out of your league you aren't even in the same zip code."

Andrew took a big swig of his milkshake with a nod.  This became an instant mistake as his head began to pound with the feeling of an ice cream headache.  He placed the milkshake down and grabbed his head for a moment hoping it would pass.

"And with bowling you have got to stop using the bumpers.  I've never seen anything like you.  A perfect score without hitting the bumpers, but they have to be up or all gutters and score of zero without them.  It's crazy or you are."  Big Jim then took down some glasses to clean as he had seen it in a movie that it's what you did when you were giving sage advise in a bar.

Andrew shook his sandy blonde head with agreement.  "I guess it's that or get a new job."  He chuckled before paying for his milkshake and heading out of the alley.  He never stayed long after the Spare Tires got there, he was too afraid of running into Melody and explaining what he was doing or worse yet explaining who he was if she couldn't place him from work.

The young man got into his small blue old compact car and headed home to sleep and then back to work the next day.  It had been an okay day but Andrew did dream of something better.  Something more or just someone who would love him back.