Reverse World

Benjamin took a second to digest the situation. He looked at the two ladies surrounding him and then at his grandmother to answer her.

"No, I don't mind. I was surprised but I didn't hate it."

He smiled at Vera and Lauren, before returning their pecks, giving them one each on their cheek. This delighted them and Lauren commented.

"What a darling you are, Ben. Sorry if we were a bit too forceful."

Vera then added.

"We had no plans to startle you. And you, Roselyn, stop treating us as some sort of animals unable to restrain ourselves!"

Roselyn grinned, declaring.

"That's a pretty good comparison! Ben, you should consider them the same as rabbits who need a constant amount of affection, or they would die of loneliness."

Shen laughed loudly, happy with her analogy. Vera and Lauren looked at her, exasperated, before shaking their heads and sighing helplessly. Benjamin noticed that Angel was watching them from where she was sitting, looking a bit envious. He went to her and gave her her share of a peck on the cheek, making her smile in satisfaction. His grandmother obviously requested the same treatment and when he was finally done and everyone had calmed down, they started their planned activity. They walked toward the location of their first game and the four women explained the sport's principles to him.

"Each of us has two colored balls. Since we are five, we will have five different colors, one for each of us."

"Each round, the winner of the previous round starts by throwing the pallino on the ground, at a distance of their choosing. Then, from the same distance, that person will throw their first ball, trying to get it as close as possible to the pallino."

"After that, we all take a turn to throw our balls from the same distance, to get as close as possible to the pallino."

"When all the balls have been thrown, we check who is the closest to the pallino and that person becomes the winner of the round, starting the next round. Simple, isn't it?"

"Very simple. But I guess there is more to it since Grandma said it was such a fun game?"

"Correct. The fun part is that you are allowed to displace others' balls with yours. So, for example, if someone's ball is touching the pallino, you would not aim to get closer to it yourself since you would only get to tie with that person at best, and even achieving that would be hard. Instead, you would aim to dislodge their ball to make room for yours, ideally taking their position."

"And since there are a lot of balls at the end of the rounds, one good throw can hit several balls and even the pallino itself to completely change the situation."

"Another thing is that this game can be played on almost any ground surface, like soil, sand, grass, etc. Each different surface makes for a very different game since the balls would behave differently on soil compared to on sand, for example.

"I see, I understand now. It looks interesting."

"Yes, you will see when we play."

They stopped walking at a specific spot of the park where the soil path was large enough for them to play on one side without being in the way of other people passing by. After distributing the balls, Angel was chosen to start the first game and she threw the pallino six to seven meters from their position. She then focused and threw her first ball, which rolled on the ground and arrived thirty centimeters apart from the pallino. It was a relatively good result considering the distance and the others went one by one to throw their first balls. When it was Benjamin's turn, he didn't manage to get anywhere close to the objective but he got a good feeling about how to throw next to get a better result.

Lauren had managed to get close to the pallino, only a few centimeters away and it was now Angel's turn again to throw her second ball. She aimed right and hit Lauren's ball, pushing it very far from the pallino and taking her position. She cheered and everyone praised her shoot. The others threw their balls with no one hitting other balls, creating instead a big stack close to the pallino. It was Benjamin's turn and he aimed correctly, this time, sending a strong shot that went straight into the stack of balls, striking several of them, pushing them in all directions and continuing on its way, his ball hitting the pallino and taking it with it, now around nine meters far. Seeing the mess he created and his successfully snatching of the pallino, he grinned at his success and finally understood the fun of the game.

Everyone congratulated him and Lauren was to conclude the first round with her throw. She focused for a long time and threw her ball in the air, without it rolling on the ground at all. It hit true to its target, directly striking Benjamin's ball and pushing it afar. However, since she had used so much strength, her ball also continued rolling, far from the pallino. The game concluded like this, with eventually no one close to the pallino due to several throws making a mess of things. They all laughed at the result and Vera took a tape measure to find out who was closer, concluding that Roselyn unexpectedly won, with a distance of 142 centimeters from the pallino.

It was only the first round but Benjamin got a good idea of why they all decided to play this game. It wasn't anything special at first look but it had its charm and was a perfect way to have fun with friends and family. Like that, they started another round, with Benjamin's grandmother throwing first and everyone following on their turn. They continued to spend the day like this, changing their location from time to time to play on the grass or even in a specific place in the park with some sand, enjoying themselves a lot.