Brian
by Mal

Brian Belden tensed slightly as John pressed the play button and moved out of the way. Count how many times the white shirts passed the ball. He could do that. No problem. He could work all sorts of equations in his head, and track Mart, Trixie, and Bobby in the house at the same time, while monitoring Trixie and Mart’s argument.

This was going to be a piece of cake. He fixed his dark eyes on the screen.

Hang on now, the black shirted team was passing it too. That was seriously distracting, he thought, keeping his eyes focused on the orange ball. One…two…was that pass from someone in a black shirt? Maybe it was, he could take off one at the end. Was Dan staring at the screen with a smile? Focus! Four went over someone’s head…Five was kind of low……. Six,oops, no, seven. Shoot, that guy in the black shirt just got in his way. How on earth had let himself get talked into this? That John guy had been persuasive, and explained it was a psychology experiment for his class. Brian, always one to help further medical studies had been the most eager.

Brian’s heart started pounding and he felt the blood rushing to his ears. Eight passes, maybe nine? Definitely nine, oops, ten, that one went kind of high. That person should be more careful he could have hurt someone. There went another person in black moving in the way. Eleven, twelve, black shirt moving around too much, thirteen….Fourteen.

Brian felt the sweat beads popping on his forehead as he stared hard at the screen. This was planned, he reminded himself. There would be distractions. He had to keep up. He could keep up.

Up to sixteen now, maybe-wait, yes that was a white shirt pass. Seventeen. Or was it eighteen?

The video was turned off and Brian stared at his form.

1. How many passes were made by the white shirt team?

2. Did you find yourself counting the passes from the black shirt team together?

3. How hard was it for to separate the passes from the two colors?

4. Did you notice the color of the curtain at the start?

5. Did you notice the color of the curtain at the end?

6. Did you notice anyone leave the group?

7. Did you notice how many girls were on the video?

8. Did you notice how many boys were in the video?

Brian thought hard. He tried to recall the video. Would it be against the rules to ask to see it again? Probably.

Very annoying, he thought.

Dan might have noticed the girls, he thought with a silent snort to himself. That’s probably why he had been smiling.

Sigh. One of the girls might have.

Brian wondered how his friends and siblings had done as he turned in his paper.

This was interesting, he thought with a smile.

His smile vanished when a few moments later, John asked, "Now, who saw the gorilla walk through the group?"

Gorilla? What gorilla? There was no gorilla! Brian's heart began to pound as his looked around the room wildly. Dan had a smirk, Trixie looked surprised but pleased, Mart was beaming, Di looked bored, and Jim looked furious. The reactions around the room were mixed, with a lot of surprised faces. So he wasn't the only one who hadn't seen it. That was little comfort.

He watched as the class milled around, John spoke to Trixie, then Jim. Brian had to see the replay of the video for himself. He just shook his head as he and Jim watched it.

Of course, he thought. Observation. But I only observed what I was told to. Dear God, what kind of doctor will I be? I can't just base a diagnosis off of what a patient says, I have to look for more. Run tests, ask follow up questions. Way to go, Belden, you blew this one! he thought disparingly. Lesson learned, he thought. Pay attention to the bigger picture!

A lesson well worth remembering, he thought ruefully.