Nov. 17 Meeting a celebrity Flashnano22022

 

This is a true story for FlashNano2022 flash fiction challenge, an encounter with a celebrity. Title: Basketball or Baseball?

 

I was a cub reporter for a daily newspaper and I was assigned to go to a country club and get a photo of Jungle Jim Luscotoff, a Boston Celtics star.  He was playing a celebrity golf match for some charity.

At 16 I looked 11 and despite my shyness, I was more afraid of my editor’s wrath if I came back without completing my assignment.

At the club, I worked my way through the people that might stop me. Having a press card helped, but being called “Little Girl” did little to boost my confidence, but each time I wanted to run back to the parking lot, I saw my editor’s face when I came back with no photo.

Jungle Jim was seated at a table with three other men. I tapped him on the shoulder and told him why I was there. My camera was not the typical reporter’s camera. At 85 pounds I didn’t have the strength to shoot a photo without motion. The newspaper and bought me an expensive, light-weight German camera. It looked like a Brownie, something for amateurs.

He smiled and stood, his six foot five dwarfing my five feet.

The lighting was dim, mainly candles on the tables.

He suggested we go into the hallway where the lighting was better. Once there he posed while I snapped several shots.

I thanked him how he spelled his name. Someone going by said, “L U S C U T O F F, he’s a Celtics’s star.

I turned around and said to the man, “I’m sorry, I don’t know much about Baseball.”

“Celtics are basketball,” the man said.

I went back to my car and cried. My editor loved the photo..