Ell Donsaii 12: Impact! by Laurence E Dahners

expected her to tee up at the ladies tee. So much for “ladies first.”
    Her swing was beautiful.
    The “craack” sound her club made hitting the ball sounded like someone fired a pistol!
    Her ball sailed over his—still in the air!
     
    Pete walked up to young Tommy Wilson after they’d finished their round. “Holy shit Tommy! I saw Donsaii’s drive on the first hole! How’d she play the rest of the round?”
    Tommy looked a little glassy eyed. “She’s the best goddamned golfer I’ve ever seen,” he said in a flat tone, as if watching her play had drained all the amazement out of him. He turned to focus on Pete, “Do you know, she doesn’t even have a handicap?” He shook his head, “I spent the entire back nine trying to talk her into establishing a handicap and trying to qualify for the U.S. Open.”
    Pete narrowed his eyes, “What did she shoot?”
    “Sixty-four.”
    Pete’s eyes widened, “That’s three below the course record!”
    “The first goddamned time she’s ever played this course,” Tommy breathed, an expression of awe on his face.
    “If she plays like that it shouldn’t be hard to establish a handicap that would get her into the women’s Open.”
    “I was talking about the men’s! Women can play in it you know, it’s the ‘Open.’ But, she doesn’t think she ‘wants to play enough to establish a handicap.’”
    “What?! Why not?”
    “‘Doesn’t have time for it,’” Tommy said disgustedly. “Which is just so much bullshit! She played one hell of a lot to get this good, she could play a little bit more!”
     
    ***
     
    Warren Dawson sat nervously, waiting to meet with Drs. Keller and Jenner. To his astonishment, he heard Stell Simsworth’s voice, “Hi Warren, how’re you doing?”
    “St-Stell?” he asked. Like many blind people he was very good at recognizing voices, but it just seemed too much to believe that Stell Simsworth would be here at the same time as his doctor’s appointment!
    “Yep!” she said. “I was due to have my eyes checked and when Dr. Keller said you had an appointment today, I thought I’d better reschedule mine for the same day. I figured I needed to be here to make sure you weren’t rude to my favorite doctors.”
    Warren could tell from her tone that she was just teasing him. He fired back, “Boy, a poor blind man is a little overly sensitive one time and…”
    “Oh, you’re a ‘man’ already?”
    Warren let out a long suffering sigh, “I’m thinking back on how I used to really like you when I’d only heard you singing…”
    Stell snorted, “You’d better be glad I don’t hit blind people!”
    Warren cleared his throat, then sang a paraphrase of a couple lines from her most famous song,
    But then you’d come to me
    Asking for forgiveness
    Stell laughed and slapped him lightly on the shoulder. “Oh that was a low blow. But now I have hit you on the shoulder, and I’m not planning to ask for forgiveness anytime soon.” She paused, then said, ponderingly “Besides, you have a really nice voice. I can’t be nice to you, you might go into my business and steal all my fans.”
    The nurse called Warren’s name. Suddenly nervous, he said, “Can you go back to see the doctors with me?”
    “Sure, I’ll just tell the nurse where I’ll be. You should know though, that Dr. Keller’s been standing here beside you just waiting for you to shut up long enough for him to get a word in edge wise.”
    A small hand took his and put it on her arm so she could lead him. As they started off Warren said, “Hello Dr. Keller. I hope you’re not thinking too badly of Stell for the way she’s been treating me?”
    Warren heard a man snort. He sounded much younger than Warren had expected. The man said, “I had been thinking you two were here for doctors’ appointments. I hadn’t realized it was actually a date until I heard all the flirting.”
    Warren felt mortified. Flirting? He’d thought he was teasing Stell. Are flirting and