FanStory.com - Saving Mr. Calvin - Chapter 7by Jim Wile

Background
A story about the origin and the future of the game of golf

See Author Notes for the list of characters and unfamiliar terms.

Recap of Part 1: The year is 2032, and young Kevin Parsons, living in Santa Barbara, CA, has invited his two good friends, Paul Putnam and Ernie (Dumbo) Dumbrowski, for breakfast and a round of golf afterwards. Over breakfast, the three engineers lament the sorry state of golf courses in not only California but in the rest of the country, as presumably non-golfing environmentalists are destroying the game, without specifically banning it, by destroying its field of play.

They go to the golf course, which is in terrible shape due to the lack of water and other restrictions, and meet Art Calvin, a retired golf course architect who actually designed the course they are playing. He joins the boys, and they begin their round. When they reach the 7th hole, Kevin hooks his tee shot out-of-bounds. He can see it resting on the other side of an old railroad trestle. The chapter ends as he walks beneath the trestle to go retrieve his ball.

The railroad trestle is a time portal, and all of a sudden, we are in 13th-century Holland. Kilian Pauls, a 14-year-old boy, is running out of the woods and through the fields, being chased by two big boys shouting curses at him. He hears a voice calling to him and makes for it. It is a redheaded young girl who beckons him into the entrance to a cave to hide. It appears as though they have vanished, and the followers cannot find Kilian and give up the hunt. Kilian has just met a cute young girl named Arie Papin, and the two are instantly attracted to each other. She leaves for home soon after, and Kilian starts back to his hill, where he tends sheep.

Kilian devises a plan to get his scroll back from his friend Lard who stole it. He will challenge him to a new game he devised called kolf, named after the club he uses to hit black walnut husks—the green ones that are perfectly round balls. He and Lard and another friend, Rube, have been playing the new game for several weeks, aiming at various targets in the meadows and fields. Kilian proposes that the prize for winning the game will be getting his scroll back if he wins, and getting his scroll back if he loses too, but then he will also have to teach Lard to read and write, as making fun of Lard’s illiteracy the day before is what led to the chase. They play the match, but Kilian lets Lard win because he felt badly about insulting him.

The next day, Kilian moves his sheep closer to where he met Arie in hopes that he will see her again. He sits down to write her a poem on the scroll he got back from Lard. She shows up before he has quite finished, and he reads the poem to her. She is touched by it and kisses him. They begin playing together and run a footrace back to the walnut tree where his kolf is stored. He teaches her to hit a walnut ball with it, and she is instantly delighted by the new game. She is a quick study and picks up the swing very fast. At noon, Arie must return home, and Kilian runs with her. On Kilian’s return he has his first lesson with Lard, teaching him to read.

The following morning, Kilian meets Arie at the cave. She has her own kolf now, made with the help of her dad. She had been practicing with it and hits the ball well. Kilian is impressed. They then play their first hole of kolf together and begin another. They continue playing and encounter Lard and Rube also out playing. Kilian introduces Arie to them, and Rube, especially is enamored with her. They decide to play together, and Arie outhits Rube on the first shot. She then instructs him on what he should do to hit it farther, and he begins blasting it. He finally hits one so hard that it busts apart, so Kilian and Arie tell them they will come up with a new, sturdier ball. They finish playing, and Kilian walks her home.

Chapter 7

As we walked into her farmyard, hand-in-hand with our kolfs over our shoulders, I spotted Arie’s father making some sort of repair on the nearby barn. The position of the sun indicated it was the noon hour, and it was almost as if he were waiting there to see if Arie would return on time. I started to remove my hand from hers, but she maintained a tight grip on it. He was a big, burly man with a short, scraggly beard and a frown at the moment, but when he noticed us approaching, his face melted into a big grin.

“Papa!” she cried out. “This is Kilian Pauls, who wrote that lovely poem and is teaching me kolven.”

I started to blush. Apparently, she told her parents everything about me, and I felt uncomfortable, especially about the poem, which she said she wouldn’t share with anyone. Perhaps she meant anyone but her family.

“Welcome, Kilian. I am Hendrik Papin. It’s nice to meet the lad Arie has been talking non-stop about.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Dhr Papin.”

“Did you learn how to play the new game then, Arie?”

“Yes, Papa, and it is so much fun! You would like it, I’m sure.”

“You will have to teach me to play too then, Kilian.”

“Arie could even teach you, sir. She has been giving lessons to one of my friends. She is already very good at the game.”

“Yes, she is quite skilled at most everything she attempts, and lets you know about it too. She is difficult to teach anything to, though, insisting that she knows what to do already,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, Papa! I’m not that bad. Kilian was able to teach me quite easily, I think.”

“Yes,” I said. “She is a very quick student and now a teacher of the game as well.”

“I’m not surprised by that. Won’t you stay and join us for our noontime meal, Kilian?”

I looked at Arie, whose face lit up.

“That is very generous of you, sir. I would be honored to share a meal with your family.”

Once inside, Arie introduced me to her mother, her younger sister, and her two little brothers, Arie being the oldest child. We all enjoyed a meal of mutton stew and a coarse peasant bread.

During the meal, the talk mostly concerned the new game Arie had been telling them about. Her little brothers were eager to try it themselves and begged their father to make them kolfs too.

“Papa, we’ve a bit of a problem,” said Arie. “One of my new friends smashes the walnut ball so hard that it breaks apart on him and flies off in all directions. We need something sturdier that won’t break so easily. Have you any ideas?”

“Hm, you probably would want something round and hard, but not as hard as a stone, which might crack your kolf. How about a good, sturdy wooden ball?”

I thought about that for a moment. “I could see sawing off a short length of a branch, but that would be a cylinder. How would we get it rounded into a ball— whittle it?” I asked Dhr Papin.

“I’ve got several rasps of different coarseness that we could also use to round the edges. It would take a while to get it perfectly round, but it could be done. Let me work on it, and next time you come, Kilian, I will have one to show you.”

Next time I come? I liked the sound of that. Apparently, I was making a decent enough impression on Arie’s folks. I looked at Arie, and she was smiling. “That would be splendid, Dhr Papin!”

After the meal was over and the womenfolk had cleared the dishes, I thanked the Papins heartily and said that I must return to do my chores, but I hoped to see them again soon. As I started to leave, Mevr Papin took me aside. She was a small, attractive, red-haired woman whom Arie favored a great deal. She said, “That was a very sweet poem you wrote to Arie yesterday, Kilian. You made her very happy with your beautiful words.”

“Thank you, Mevr Papin. I meant every one.”

“Well, I have a good feeling about the two of you,” she said with a smile. “You’re a nice young lad.”

I blushed when she said this. “Thank you once more for the meal. I hope to see you again soon.”

Outside the house, Arie was waiting for me. “I have to begin my chores now too, Kilian, but I will walk with you as far as the cave, then I must return.”

We held hands again as we walked along leisurely. Neither of us was in a hurry to leave the other.

“I think my folks like you. What did my ma say to you when she took you aside?”

“I like them too, but what she said is between her and me. I will have to introduce you to mine one day soon,” I said, quickly changing the subject.

“That would be nice, but please tell me what she said.”

Arie was difficult to say no to. “Alright. She said she had a good feeling about us.”

She smiled at that and gave my hand a squeeze. When we arrived back at the cave, she turned to me and said, “Can we play another game of kolf tomorrow morning? I have an idea I would like to try out.”

“What might that be?”

“Never you mind. I want to surprise you with it.”

“I’m sure it will be an uitzonderlijk.”

We said goodbye until tomorrow, turned, and walked our separate ways. After about 10 steps, I looked back over my shoulder at her. She had done the same, and we waved goodbye to each other.

After I checked on my sheep, I hiked over to where I saw Lard’s flock. He and Rube were there, hitting walnut balls. Rube was covered with bits of husk—in his hair, and all over his face and arms and clothes—but he seemed to be having a wonderful time pulverizing the walnut balls.

“Are you ready for another reading lesson?” I asked Lard.

“I am, and I’ve been practicing too.”

He had the slate with him. We sat down beneath a tree, and I began the lesson.

An hour later, when he’d had enough for the afternoon, I told him about the noon meal at the Papin’s.

“Ah, it’s getting serious now, Kilian, when you meet the parents. What’s her pa like? Can you tell how he feels about you courting his daughter?”

“I think he likes me. He wants me to teach him kolf. He also said he would help fashion a wooden ball because Arie told him how Rube’s had exploded on him. Look at the big dope over there, covered with the stuff.”

“He’s been swiping at ‘em all day since you left, practicing those moves Arie taught him. He hasn’t found a ball yet he could hit without smashing it to pieces.”

I laughed and shook my head. “I better get back to my own sheep now, Lard. I’ll try to dig up those scrolls my ma made up with the easy stories on them. I’ll bring them by tomorrow if I can find them. Keep practicing, and you’ll be reading and writing in no time.”

“Thank you, Kilian. You’re a good mate.”