The floodlight

Source: an original fiction extract.

“The floodlight above court two failed just as the evening practice began. Coach Patel sent the younger players indoors, but the older team waited beside the fence. Their first tournament was on Saturday. Rafi had missed the previous two sessions because his bus had been cancelled, and he could feel the practice slipping away before he had touched a ball. On the next court, a different club continued under a bright white lamp.

Half their court lay in darkness, the painted lines fading into the wet surface. Beyond the fence, the other team's ball travelled in clean, visible arcs. Their shoes squealed; their coach's whistle cut confidently through the air. On Rafi's side, a loose net tapped the post again and again. The failed lamp hung overhead like a closed eye, refusing to witness anything they might attempt.

One player suggested going home. Another began kicking at the fence. Rafi asked whether they could share the neighbouring court, but nobody moved. The clubs had argued about bookings all summer. Their coach said she would speak to the caretaker. Rafi watched the other team retrieve a ball that had rolled through the gap in the fence. The player who collected it was a boy he knew from the bus stop.

He called the boy's name. The boy came over, carrying the ball against his hip. Rafi explained, then offered to help run a passing drill in return for half an hour at one end of the court. The boy went back to ask his coach. While they waited, someone behind Rafi muttered that he was making them look desperate. Rafi kept his hand on the cold wire. At last the other coach waved them through the gate.

They trained in pairs, one player from each club. It was awkward at first: too much force in the passes, too little warning before a run. Then the drill began to work. Coach Patel returned with the caretaker and stood watching. Nobody asked her to stop it. At the end, Rafi's bus-stop acquaintance asked whether they could do it again next week. The broken lamp remained dark above the empty court, but Rafi had stopped looking at it.”

Refer only to the second paragraph. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the contrast between the two courts. Support your ideas with quotations from that paragraph. You could consider words and phrases, language features and techniques, and sentence forms.