Volleyball People #1

I went to three volleyball classes this week. There are so many people to meet in volleyball on the beach.

Yesterday after class we went to Sangria for a pre-AVP beer party. I did not know anyone advanced at first, and the beginners were not talking yet. Someone started talking to me and I got stuck the whole evening. He told me he almost married a Chinese girl once, and with her he had the closet relationship ever. Upon inquiry, he told me more of the story. He was originally from Long Beach, studied biomedical engineering. Without a graduate degree, he went to silicon valley to work for Intel marketing. He met a Chinese girl who came to the US when she was 16, and became very accomplished in schools and job. They dated for about 6 months, then he found out that she was engaged to another man the whole time. She married the other man and had a baby boy. Then she found out that he was cheating on her the whole time. The marriage did not last long and she became a single mother. My volleyball friend talked to her after that but he could not accept her again. He moved back to LA 7 years ago and took over the family insurance company. He had been playing volleyball for 7 years. The story was too ordinary. I had no heart to listen in the noisy bar. I wanted to join my beginner volleyball classmates and find out when they would play. I looked at my partner. He was about 40, not very tall, with a shy look. He told me he planned to go to an opera the next week with a girl he was dating. He had never been to an opera, so he was excited. He had about 10 people working for him, mostly were girls, but the girls were not very educated so he had to learn their way. The more I talked to him, the more unrest I became. Why couldn't I listen? Perhaps I had detected an element of concealment from the beginning. There were always more to his stories that he would not say at first, even stories about taking volleyball classes. Subconsciously I distrust him. Someone he knew from class passed us by and he tried to induce a new conversation with the new person included. It was a well built man with a Brazil shirt on. He asked me about China because he was there the previous year for a few weeks. He was a hearty man like most of my classmates, but he left me with my insurance friend quickly. I wouldn't blame him. When I had a moment alone, I joined my own classmates for a quick exchange of names. I escaped the bar.