Driving home from Mixed Doubles Night,
By now, Jasmine knows she had not
been imagining what she observed that night of Davie coaching her from the sidelines. He wasn’t watching
her only because they were about to compete in their first USTA Mixed Doubles
Tournament. His 30th birthday
sure clinched an answer to that one. Of
course, the signs had been there for a long time. From the first day they played together,
their connection has been electric. Both
married, and he the youth pastor at her church, they had to be careful. High fives and lows, smiles, eyes, teases, a
wink here, eyebrows raised there, a pat on the arm, a tap on the shoe, a
whisper in the ear, a lifted earring, a shirt tugged, and no words. Silence.
Eyes without words.
Even still, at the time of Davie’s attention to her from the
sidelines, she might not have wondered as much had they not played singles the
week before.
Glendale Racquet Club, Thursday, August 4, 2011
Fourteen players showed up to the Yoga Room, where the Mixed Doubles players
stretch before their 7 pm court time.
The “mixed” numbers were barely mixed that night with 11 men and 3
women. Traditionally, the group would
have chosen to have one court of mixed doubles, a second with three men and one
woman, and a mens’ singles court. But
that night, Davie suggested a mixed doubles court, a mens’ doubles court, and a
singles court for him and Jazzie. Since
he and Jazzie had just registered for their first USTA tournament as mixed
doubles partners, he explained, they could use the chance to drill some shots.
With Davie’s suggestion approved, Jasmine
now faced Davie as her opponent. But
not immediately. Their warm-up was longer; they rallied backcourt to backcourt,
aiming for less than a foot from the baseline; and they drilled volleys,
overheads, serves, and service returns.
Davie gave Jasmine special coaching on a specialty of his: backhand
volleys. Most players don’t do them very
well, but Davie uses a blunt angled technique that usually wins him the point–
at least until his opponents catch on to him and rush the net when they see
he’s getting a backhand volley. Now he
has another trick up his sleeve: a sturdy volley down the alley backcourt, if
he’s in the ad court, or straight down to center backcourt if he’s in the deuce
court. Davie spent considerable time
with Jazzie training her on each of these backhand volley shots, and it was one
of those that won Jazzie and Stephen their set the following week. Davie’s coaching worked.
After warm-ups and drills, the two
still had time to play a full set and then a mini-set to win four games, winning
by just one game. Not that that
mattered. Jasmine took only one game for
each to lose at 6-1, 4-1. But how proud
she was of the two games she won.
Mostly, she beamed at his attention to her.
Most sweet was her second winning
game. It was Jasmine’s serve; the score
was deuce. After putting Jasmine on the
defense with a sliced lob to her backhand at back court, Davie thought he was
well-positioned for a weak cross court shot, but Jasmine cut off the lob and
volleyed her return with a sharp fast down the line shot.
“Where did that come from?!” Davie
exclaimed, after his racquet failed to reach it.
“You surprised? You think I couldn’t do that?”
“I don’t remember a shot that
brilliant,” he teased with a smile.
“Don’t you underestimate me, David Grayson.”
Jasmine smiled, then immediately served.
While returning her serve with a
drop-shot, pulling Jasmine to the net, Davie chuckled. “My mom used to call me by my full name,
except she used my middle name too, which—” he smiled, “I won’t tell you. I knew never to underestimate her when she
did.”
“So you know not to underestimate me
either,” Jasmine smiled back, while slamming an overhead center backcourt shot
to win the next point.
Davie approached the net, where
Jasmine was still standing, victorious. “Never
Jasmine Greene, do I or will I ever underestimate you.” He looked into her eyes while his eyes danced
his promise. Jasmine smiled back. “I’m going to hold you to that.” Davie lifted his right hand in a vow, nodded
his affirmation, and they shook hands, slowly, letting their hands linger.
A song on the car radio interrupts Jasmine’s
reflection. It’s one of the 80s Classics
she hasn’t heard for many years: Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin’s “Separate
Lives.” Stephen Bishop wrote the song
after a break-up, and Jasmine has never listened to the song in any other
way. But the words mean something much
more to her now. Little had she ever
realized how much the song also applies to forbidden love.
You have no right to ask me how
I feel
You have no right to speak to me
so kind
We can’t go on just holding on
to time
Now that we’re living separate
lives
Well I held on to let you go
And if you lost your love for
me, well you never let it show
There was no way to compromise
So now we’re living
Living separate lives
Ooh, it’s so typical, love leads
to isolation
So you build that wall
And you make it stronger.
Well you have no right to ask me
how I feel
You have no right to speak to me
so kind
Some day I might find myself
looking in your eyes
But for now, we’ll go on living
separate lives
Yes for now, we’ll go living
separate lives
Separate lives
Just after she’s been cast from their church for being his
object of temptation and on his first night away from Mixed Doubles Night, could
a song capture their relationship any better?
Did Stephen Bishop consider the other ways his song could be
understood? Did he consider its
perfection for forbidden lovers? Davie
is married, so Jasmine has no right to ask him how he feels, nor does he have
that right with her, also married. They
have no right to speak to one another so kind.
They have no right. If either
lost their love, they never let it show.
There’s no way to compromise. So
they build that wall. And they’ll make
it stronger. And they’ll go on living
separate lives.
A missed night without a text. No right to speak so real. No right to speak so kind. Silence. Eyes without words.
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