Jack Balas, 2019; FIRST DRAFT (#1707); watercolor, acrylic , and India ink on paper, 22" X 30"

TEXT:
Those new houses by the bike path, the highschool quarterback moved into one and as I rode past every day I began to notice him standing at an upstairs window. He would appear shirtless, and not long after that he started to appear naked, holding a football in front of himself. I found more and more reasons to ride past the house and to take my time about it. At one point he started to toss the football up as I passed, but he never had to look up to catch it. Rather, he kept his eyes on me as I slowed to a crawl. One day he came out on a balcony to toss the football up, and then the day he tossed it to me, that was the day I decided to take that second class in fiction-writing after all.