What if I ain't no violinist?

9. Twoset Football Talent II

It was another beautiful summer day in Brisbane.

The sun was up but Australia was having a rather cool summer this year for a change, unlike what it's been like for the last few years. Brett much preferred this cooler weather.

He was on his way to a local park to check out Belle's baby brother, the so-called "new talent" according to his sister.

"He's dying to train in a team. C'mon Brett, can't you make it happen for him?"

I'm just here as a favour for Belle.  Just to have a quick look, then I'll tell her later that he doesn't quite have what it takes.

Brett parked his car next to the tiny park and stepped out with his bubble tea. He bought one on his way to the park as he felt like he needed the sugar boost to get himself through another painful experience.

It was just before Christmas, about 3 weeks ago, when Brett received a phone call from two footballers. One was British and the other Spanish and they had just arrived in Australia and completed their two weeks quarantine period. Brett had gone to see them with high expectations after the two men contacted Brett to ask him to be their agent.

It turned out to be a major disappointment. Both men were so out of shape, they couldn't run, let alone sprint adequately – and Brett would not have accepted "adequate" anyway. The men argued that they were in 2 weeks quarantine and therefore out of practice and begged Brett to represent them but Brett did not tolerate excuses. After their so-called "practice" session, which Brett thought was a complete joke, both men were completely out of breath.  Neither of them came prepared with their gear either, apart from their boots. They forgot to bring their shin guards, towel, even clothes to change into afterwards. When one of them lifted up their shirt to wipe their sweat off their face, Brett witnessed a tummy that was way too pudgy for a professional athlete and he turned away in disgust.

This Eddy kid, he's probably gonna be either too small, or too skinny, or too unfit. Or he'll just suck, period.  Or he'll lack enthusiasm. Or he'll just be a little prick of a brat.

Then he remembered this was Belle's little brother he was thinking about.

Okay, so I suppose Belle's pretty chill, I hope her brother is at least a nice little guy.

He opened the gate to enter the small playground and walked right across to its back gate. He saw through the bushes some young children and heard their voices, little squeals of joy. Brett stepped through the back gate onto a very small patch of grass, too modest to even call it a small oval and there he saw a tall young man surrounded by a bunch of pre-schoolers. The young man's face resembled that of Belle's and Brett was certain that it was Eddy Chen.

Hmm, not bad.

He looked pretty tall for an Asian guy. Not quite 6' but pretty close. He was also pretty well built with long limbs.

"At least he doesn't look like he's been gorging on Christmas pudding and beer like those other two I saw the other day."

Brett grinned as he observed what appeared as a "warm up" – Eddy and the children started running around the little field. Whenever a child was falling behind from the crowd, Eddy would pick them up and shout out "BOOOST !!" and run with the child in his arms and place the child at the front of the group. The children squealed with delight. Some of them would run slowly on purpose so that they'd be picked up. Brett noticed that it appeared as Eddy kept tabs on who he'd picked up and ran with and after 10 minutes or so everyone must have had a turn and they finally stopped running. The children were all huffing and puffing, not realising how much exercise they had just done because they were having so much fun.