Fan

I was out on the tennis courts.  Hitting balls against the old cracked green backboard in the mid afternoon hours of a muggy heartland afternoon.

Seeking a rhythm of forehand, backhand, forehand….I felt my weight shifting back and forth, my left foot a pivotal point and then it happened!

The first ball went over the top of the fence and into the trees and meadow beyond.  Not so bad I thought quietly going out the gate and into the shade of the fragrant pines.  My eyes searched for that familiar little green orb with no success and that was when I first noticed him.

I discovered my ball about three feet way from where he stood and he never took his eyes off of me. 

“Well, hi there!”  I smiled at him and headed back onto the courts.  He followed and stood just outside the fence, watching as I returned to my practice.

The next time I turned around he was on the court with me!  I’ll admit I was rather tickled at his attention, but he seemed less interested in my hitting the ball than he did by its landing.  Each time a ball hit the ground he immediately ran over to it.

Then, I swear, he looked a little disappointed, or maybe confused and I recognized a fellow intuitive.  Like me he did things because they felt right and they worked.  When I see a tennis ball coming I somehow just know where it will be.  When he sees something fall out of the sky he just knows it must be edible!

We spent quit a bit of time together, that squirrel and I.  He seemed to have no fear of me and except that I was afraid he might bite my hand when I reached out to take my ball from under his nose I loved having him there.