There once was a boy named Phil. Phil lived in South Carolina. He had a close family, the kind that had dinner together every night. Phil’s father was a pastor at the community church. His mother was a school teacher at the school he attended. Phil was what one might call a “Model Student”. One that makes good grades, is involved in school clubs, and goes the extra mile to make things better than the expected standard. One day after school, while Phil was at baseball practice, his coach abruptly called an end to practice and after having a seemingly dramatic conversation with the rest of the teams’ player’s parents, he told Phil that he would be going home with him.

By now Phil was 9 years old, so he was relatively familiar with how to make it home from the town ball park. Henceforth, Phil asked, “I thought you said you were gonna take me home?” Phil’s coach paused for a moment. He took a deep breath and before he could respond, he was interrupted by a phone call. During this phone call Phil fell asleep, saving his coach from having to find out how to tell Phil the saddening news that awaited him.

About 30 minutes passed before Phil awoke and he found himself in a hospital room. He rushed up to his fathers’ bed side and exclaimed, “Papa what’s wrong?” His father replied, “I’ve become sick, more sick than normal. Phil’s mother embraced her son in a soft hug as he was informed of what exactly was happening to his dad. Phil’s father had been diagnosed with a severe case of breast cancer.

Over the next few months, the family became closer and closer than ever before. They consumed every opportunity of their lives with each other not knowing when the last time they would be together as a family would be. Five months after Phil’s father was diagnosed with cancer, he passed away. It took a more than heavy toll on the family. Not only had Phil lost his father, but his mother slowly began to slip away into an unhealthy depression. She too soon became sick, and as a result of her newly obtained depression, Phil became alone. He sensed that his mother would soon join his father in the afterlife. Phil’s mother died 2 years after his father.

Phil’s aunt took him as one of her own. He continued to be a model child and maintain all the standards he had set for himself before his parents passing. He finished elementary, middle, and high school at the top of his class. After high school, Phil decided he wanted to do something that would allow him to help people. While he was offered enough scholarship money to pay his way through medical school, he wanted to help people all around the world, and he felt the best way to do this was to enter the army.

Phil enlisted in the army and served for 14 years as a doctor. Upon returning home, he opened his own practice near where he lived as a child and became a very successful citizen. However Phil began to get lonely, and tired of the seemingly endless routine he took part in every day, so he decided it was time to begin his search for the one he would spend the rest of his life with. By now Phil was 33 and was still relatively appealing to women. He began dating and about a year after opening himself to relationships, he found himself proposing to the one who had captured his heart. Phil and his wife Anna got married and started their life together.

After 3 years of marriage, Phil and Anna were ready to have a child, so they did. Anna gave birth to wonderful child much like his mother and father. His name was Ben. When Ben reached 2 years old, his parents decided they wanted another. They tried for a year straight, often trying more than once a day and were unsuccessful. While distraught by their inability to have another child, they were determined to give Ben a sibling, so they adopted a girl the same age as Ben. Her name was Marie.

As Ben and Marie grew up together, they became close friends and inseparable. However Ben and Marie were two very different people. Marie was the very outgoing and social type, while Phil was the exact opposite. He was the quiet type, one who didn’t like crowds and found comfort in being alone and away from people he was unfamiliar with. As the two grew older into their teen years, they slowly drifted away from each other, and Ben’s parents discovered that he was very fascinated by one of the simplest things one would imagine. A ping pong ball. Not the sport of ping pong, not the paddles, or even the table, which seemed nonexistent to Ben. Something about this simple ball intrigued him.

As most teens, Ben reached a stage when he felt that his parents guidance and instruction was not the most appropriate at times. They tried grounding him, and restricting him from things like T.V. and video games when he rebelled, but nothing seemed to get through to him. Ben disregarded the rest of the world and spent his time admiring the small collection of ping pong balls he acquired since being introduced to them. By now he had around one hundred balls. An extensive amount in comparison to the normal amount a person might poses, but unpretentious when juxtaposed with the collection soon to be developed.

As Ben moved through middle and high school, when he did things considered impressive, instead of being rewarded with the presents or other things normal children might get, he was rewarded with the thing he admired most. Ping pong balls. No one was aware of what drew Ben’s desire to these balls, nor did anyone ever bother to ask. All they knew was that they were the thing he cherished most, and that nothing made him happier. Much like his father, Ben was an excellent student and as a reward, his parents and piers presented him with these tiny balls. So over time Ben’s collection became too large to occupy the small space in closet he used to store them, so he soon expanded his collection to the guest bedroom and any other free space in his home.

Ben’s successes continued throughout the early part of his life. After high school, Ben used his brains to pay his way through law school, and as his successes continued through law school, the ping pong balls continued to pile up. Ben invested in a storage unit he could use to store them in while in school. But with internships and connections being made and obtained, his successes got bigger and bigger. Henceforth, so did his collection of ping pong balls. After finishing law school, he got a job at the biggest firm in the state, so the money began rolling in, and what better way for Ben to spend his massive pay checks, than on ping pong balls.

Ben had completely filled every room in his new house except for his kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, so he asked one of his clients to build him a small warehouse. Being such a good lawyer and in showing appreciation to Ben’s efforts in his clients cases, he built Ben his building right away. Ben used this building to store his now gargantuan collection of ping pong balls. By now he had collected over 1,000,000 ping pong balls. However being around this ping pong balls slowly began to take a toll on Ben’s health.

Ben, being the progressive person that he was realized that he was not in his regular state of heath and went to see a doctor right away. The doctor ran all the tests he found necessary and after finding no answers upon the results, he ran all the tests that were unnecessary as well. The doctor was unable to find anything wrong with Ben, however his health was visibly declining at a fast pace. Every part of Ben’s body slowly stopped working as well, making everyday things almost impossible for him to complete alone.

After one year of realizing he had become ill, Ben found himself on his death bed. All of his family came to see him, bringing him gifts in large amounts, consisting of nothing but ping pong balls. Ben was very gracious of his family and friends’ support of his passion.

Ben fell into a 2 month coma. When he awoke, he saw his father sleeping at his bed side. His father leaned up to him and let out a sigh of relief and began to converse with his son. Ben’s father tried to contact his family and let them know that he was conscious and they could see him now. Ben stopped him before he got the chance. He told his father that he knew he was going to die and that it would happen soon. His father admired his courage and thanked Ben for allowing him to spend the last few moments with his son. His father finally asked the question that no one ever dared to ask. He questioned, “I want you to know I will love you no more or less based on your answer, but before we depart, I want to know why you’ve been so intrigued by ping pong balls your entire life?” Ben responded, “I thought you would never ask” and let out a chuckle. His father joined him in this brief laugh. Ben took a deep in, and slowly exhaled. Ben opened his mouth slowly to respond to his father’s question, and then, he died.
The End