Badminton

A father and his daughter playing badminton in a weedy backyard without a net. How many times can the battering back-and- forth connect to send a plastic shuttlecock flying? Stroke, that’s 70, return again on a high easy arc, 71, while Mom fixes dinner (meatloaf again, count the grocery pennies, 79 a pound, and a husband with nothing better to do after work than hit plastic birdies). But they’re actual flying birds, 81, these soaring plastic wings rallied by a father and his daughter, 82, stroke 83, never let it touch the ground or you have to start all over again counting. Yesterday they sailed to 99 before dinner which is always waiting.