Chapter 4: A Team of Our Own

My croquet mallet caught the back of my hiking boot.

The ball remained exactly where it had started.

Victor lowered the hand shading his eyes.

"A little less force," he advised.

"There wasn't any on the ball," I answered.

Audrey rested her own mallet on the grass.

She had changed from her tuxedo into trousers and a white shirt.

There was no bow tie.

Her shoes were still much cleaner than mine.

Caroline stood beside Victor in a pale green skirt.

They'd brought matching mallets from the club's equipment shed.

Audrey and I had borrowed two that didn't match anything.

Mine had a red stripe peeling around its wooden head.

"Again," Audrey told me.

I looked toward the older man waiting beside the nearest hoop.

"Am I allowed?" I asked him.

"We're learning," he answered.

Victor cleared his throat.

"We could swap teams," he suggested.

"I'd rather learn with Audrey," I said.

She moved behind me and pointed toward my feet.

"You could put those farther apart," she told me.

I moved one boot.

A small piece of dried mud landed beside the ball.

Caroline looked at it.

The older man nudged it out of the way with his shoe.

I hit the ball.

It rolled toward the hoop and stopped short.

Audrey clapped once before remembering she was holding a mallet.

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