Unwanted child - стр. 22

The children began to yawn, rising lazily to their feet. After a few seconds, the playpens of the cots began to slowly open, pushing aside like a folding accordion. The way was open. Not fully understanding why they had been awakened, the half-asleep kids headed towards the teacher who was waiting for them near the exit. Having organised the group into one slender line of two, the woman opened the door and led her pupils to the sports classes.

      The gym was located on the ground floor. It had an elongated rectangular shape with a marked area in the middle. The sports ground was outlined with a white line. At the ends stood children's small football goals, and in the centre was a giant red circle for martial arts. That is, the hall was simultaneously designed to teach all the available sports that existed in the world. The floor of the hall was covered with soft rubber to prevent injuries during sports. Along the walls were large gymnastic balls, jump ropes, cones and other ancillary equipment.

Mrs Donova's group entered the gym. The assistants, who were already waiting for them inside, began to undress the kids so that they would not get their shoes dirty on the clean pavement. The boys, who saw the mountain of footballs, immediately rushed to them. Most of the girls stood around wondering what all the boys were so excited about, and what could possibly be so interesting about this room. No wonder! It was often rare for girls to become athletes. The adult women's football league was small, consisting of only ten teams. And the fairer half of the sex went into battle even less often, for obvious reasons.

Of course, the children's physical education classes at the Children's Centre were of a general nature only, without any specialisation, and consisted mainly in maintaining a healthy lifestyle among children. If it was necessary to correct posture with specific exercises, an orthopaedist from the local rural hospital was invited. The children were taught sports by a children's coach, while the tutor kept order in the gym and, if necessary, helped to organise the children.

While most of the kids scattered around the room to study the sports equipment, Theodore began to look at the gym in detail. The door through which they had entered was at his back. He stood on the white marked line separating the playground from the rest of the space. The far side of the room had large rectangular windows upstairs through which sunlight streamed in, supplemented by interior light fixtures. In front of the boy were small white plastic football goals that were about 30 centimetres taller than he was. A white net was attached to the back of them. Opposite them, at the far end of the pitch stood exactly the same goal. Ted crouched down on the floor and with interest began pulling at the strings that made up the gate set. Woven together, they formed a diamond-shaped pattern that stretched from bottom to top, flowing from one quadrangular shape to another.