Chapter 13

Mom and Dane were in the kitchen with a bunch of brochures and stuff spread out over the table. They seemed focused. Mom looked up and said, “Call Sally.”

I called. It was busy and I said so. “Keep trying. She said her phone was ringing off the hook but she wanted you to keep trying and if you can’t get through, she’ll call back later.”

“Any ideas?” I asked but Mom shook her head. I kept trying and Kim sat down at the table. I tried ten or twelve times before I finally got through. “Hey,” I said.

“Guess what?” she asked breathlessly.

“No idea. Is everything okay?”

“More than okay. You remember when Dolly Parton was at Merrill’s Ranch while I was playing and she talked to me?”

“Of course. Wait. Did she come in again?” I asked.

“No, well, maybe, but not while I was here. I didn’t realize how popular Merrill’s Ranch is with a lot of musicians. I guess I knew but I didn’t realize it was that popular. I should have guessed because there are so many pictures on the wall of really famous musicians with Merrill and...”

“Sally. You’re going ninety miles an hour. Slow down and tell me why,” I said.

“Okay, okay,” she said and caught her breath. “Okay, this was a bigger deal.”

“Bigger than talking with Dolly Parton? That seemed like a pretty big deal.”

“It was, it was. But, wait, do you know who Tanya Tucker is?”

I covered the mouthpiece and looked at Kim. “Is Tanya Tucker someone I should know about?”

“You’ve heard the album Dreamlovers about a hundred times. Yes.”

“Yeah,” I said to Sally. “We listened to Dreamlovers a bunch of times.”

“Good. Well, she was at Merrill’s Ranch today for lunch. I didn’t know it. Anyway, I was playing a bunch of different stuff and I played Can I See You Tonight. It’s a guitar song. There’s no piano in it and I didn’t even think anyone would even recognize it. Sometimes people tip me, especially if I play a song they like so I’ve been learning a bunch of popular songs but they aren’t all great on piano, but...”

“Sally,” I said.

She took a breath. “Anyway, I was playing Can I See You Tonight, and it’s a really popular song and someone came up beside me and I thought she was going to tip me but she didn’t. Jack, it was Tanya Tucker. It was no-shit Tanya Tucker.”

“No shit?” I said, and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me. “I’m going to put you on speaker. Okay. Mom, Dane, and Kim are here. Tell us what happened.”

“Hi, everybody,” she said over the little speaker and they all hollered back at her. “So, it was late for lunch and I was just playing whatever unless someone made a request. A lot of the time, I can’t do their song because I don’t know it yet but I’m learning. No one had requested anything for a while so I played Can I See You Tonight, which is getting a lot of airplay. That’s what they call it when it’s on the radio all the time. So, I had played most of it when Tanya Tucker came over to the piano and she had a friend with her but I never did find out who he was.

“She asked if she could join me. What was I going to say, no? So, she sat down and she asked me if I knew the words and I said I did, and she said, ‘why don’t you start over and I’ll sing it with you?’ How crazy is that? She would join me? Seriously. I can sing but not like that. So, she said, ‘go ahead and let’s try it’ and I went back to the beginning. I was so nervous. And I started singing really soft and I don’t think anyone could hear me but her. Then she asked if she could join in and I nodded like a stupid bobblehead doll and she did.

“Jack, she just belted it out, and her friend sort of started playing the drums on the side of the piano. She nudged me to sing and I did but not very loud because who would want to hear me sing? Nobody, that’s who. But they all wanted to hear her. Anyway, we finished the song and it’s not very long, but we finished, and she said, ‘You have a nice voice. Can you play guitar?”

“I said, ‘not really. I want to learn.’ She said, ‘That’s good. Piano is fine but guitar is better if you want to break through. Any instrument you can play is good but it’s your voice that will make you a star. Plus, you’re cute and that helps. I had fun. Thank you,’ and she hugged me and asked my name and someone took our picture together at the piano and she promised she’d send me a copy in a couple of days, and that was it.”

“That’s amazing. Not much chance of that happening in Charleston,” I said.

“No. Not much. Anyway, I couldn’t play after that. My fingers wouldn’t work and Merrill came over. He put his big old arm around me and walked me over to the wall of pictures and said mine would be up there next week, and that’s how it happens. He was really nice but you know what the best part was?”

“Holy crap, Sally. What could be better than all that?”

“Mom and Dad were there. They didn’t know who Tanya Tucker was but they were probably the only ones there that didn’t. It didn’t matter. They knew it was a big deal and were super proud. Someone’s at the door. Jack, word got out so fast. This is crazy. I want to go practice playing a lot more songs and I can’t wait to go to work again but I’m not scheduled until Tuesday. Argh. So much, you know?”

“I know. I know. Take a big deep breath.” I heard her do that. “Are you still working on Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata?”

“Who? Beethoven? The dead guy?” she said, laughing. “I have to go. There’s a bunch of my friends in the living room.”

“Okay. Go play for them and have a sing-along or something. I’m proud of you,” I said.

“We all are,” Mom hollered and Dane and Kim joined in, and we hung up.

“Wow,” Kim said.

“No kidding. I’m going to go get the tape,” I said and went out to the truck.

I put it on in the rec room when I got back. Dane said he’d heard the name but had never heard her before. “Country,” he said, and we all laughed.

“Who’s the dufus now?” I asked. As the album played, I looked at the little picture of her on the cassette case. “She’s pretty. And she looks like she’s about twenty.” I passed the cassette case to Mom because Kim had already seen it a bunch of times and Dane was a dufus.

“She is young. It says she recorded her first album when she was fourteen. Sally needs to get busy.”

We talked about Sally and Tanya Tucker for a while then switched to other musicians. Kim lamented that neither of us could sing. Mom reminded her of my serenade when we were in Puerto Rico.

“Exactly. Neither one of us can sing,” Kim said and we all laughed.

“At least I can paint,” I replied.

“Yes. There’s that,” Kim added. We had both been just as miserable with finger painting, which was just about our level. Kindergarten. I noticed that Kim seemed to be legitimately happy for Sally and that was far more important to me than I would have ever guessed.

We left them to their planning and went to the library to work on Kim’s Spanish for a while. “What if we have boys and they want to play basketball?” Kim asked.

“Fine with me.”

“Where would they practice?”

I thought about that for a minute and realized that it would be helpful to have a concrete driveway and a place for a hoop. “We have a lot of things to think about, don’t we?” I asked, and she nodded. Sheesh.

She went home because we both had papers to write. I spent the evening and all day Sunday on homework and Kim did the same. We’d slacked off some and needed to catch up. By Sunday evening, I was ready to go back to school. Too much schoolwork at home.

Normally, football was a big part of conversations at that time of year. But with Jay out for the season and the offense crippled by yet another injury, we didn’t hold out much hope of a successful season. Personally, I thought they had done pretty well, given the circumstances but they don’t give out cigars for doing pretty well.

The cheerleaders were back at full strength and getting ready for their competition. Their goal was to win the Independent School, Small Squad State Championship. Kim told me about their progress and said they were all trying pretty hard. She wasn’t sure if they had the talent necessary to win it all. Apparently, some of the cheerleaders from other schools also competed in gymnastics. Ours didn’t. We didn’t have a gymnastics team. I knew there were a couple of girls at Porter-Gaud who were members of a local gymnastics club. They had a first-class coach and competed not only around the state, but around the southeast. It was a very expensive proposition.

I hung back to talk with Mrs. Middleton about Sally. Since she was in charge of drama, I thought she would know as well as anyone else. I told her the abbreviated version and asked if she knew who might be interested. She told me she’d find me at lunch.

Kim and the rest of the squad were in deep conversation and didn’t even notice me heading to my old table. I had just reached it when Mrs. Middleton hollered to me, then motioned for me to go with her. It looked like a bunch of kids from band or orchestra and some from drama, as well as a couple of teachers. She introduced me and I told them all about Sally moving to Nashville, getting a job playing piano at Merrill’s Ranch. I told them she met Dolly Parton a few weeks back and ended up playing and singing a duet with Tanya Tucker.

As soon as I finished there were a bunch of questions. It was kind of funny because they raised their hands to ask. This was definitely not my normal crowd. They asked what song she played and if she got her autograph and more. I answered the best I could. They all seemed pretty happy for her. And envious. A couple of them wrote their phone numbers down and asked me to give them to Sally. I had wanted to brag about her and this was definitely the right crowd for that. I felt pretty good about it. I knew Sally would be glad I had done that and happy to hear from old friends. Win, win.

That afternoon, Coach challenged me to help Allen take some time off his fly. If I wanted to swim my choice of events, rather than the relays, we needed people strong enough to fill all the spots and that included butterfly.

“Three seconds, Pierce. Conrad needs to drop three seconds. You’ve got two days. Make it happen.”

It seemed impossible but I figured that even if we couldn’t do it in two days, maybe we could do it before our second meet. I watched him swim a lap and stopped him. “You’re coming up too high. Stay lower in the water.”

“How do you have time to get air?”

“Gasp,” I said and was only half joking. “Your kick needs work but your mechanics are pretty sound. If you use too much effort getting high out of the water, it’s energy that’s not moving you forward. It’s not just the time to breathe, it’s the direction of your movement. By the way, do you know what a nickname for the butterfly is?” He shook his head. “Eating water.”

“That’s exactly what it feels like,” he laughed.

He went at it again and was a little better. I told him those two things worked together. Improve your breathing and reduce the time you’re above the waterline. He got it but it’s hard work. I had him swim six strokes without coming up for air and he said he felt a lot faster. “I need a snorkel,” he said and that was good for a laugh.

On the other side of the pool, Bobby was working with a couple of guys on their backstroke. Coach paced the sidelines, chipping in his tips while we worked. We finished the workout by practicing our starts. I had the best start on the team and Coach still told me I needed to improve. “You’ve got chicken legs, Pierce. Work on your legs. If you could get a decent jump off the blocks, you just might have a decent start.” I wanted to remind him that I had the best start on the team and that I’d been to regionals as a freshman but he wouldn’t have cared. Besides, I knew he was right.

The period was over but I wasn’t done. I asked Gil if he’d find Kim and let her know and he agreed. Everyone left but Pendleton, Bobby, Coach, and me. Coach gave each of them a couple of things to work on and they got busy. I expected him to tell me how to improve my backstroke but he didn’t. He gave me tips on fly, free, and breaststrokes. I tried what he gave me for six or eight laps each and told him I could feel the difference and felt more efficient. Then I asked him about backstroke.

“You don’t need me to tell you what to do to improve your backstroke, Pierce. Claire has already done that. You do what he says and you’ll knock two seconds off your hundred.”

“Two seconds?” I knew backstroke was my worst stroke but a two-second improvement was enormous.

“Maybe three. I’ll give you one tip. Get your head aligned properly.”

“Yes, sir. That’s what Bobby said.”

“Work on it. I’ll be right back with the camera.” He came back with the video camera and asked me to swim a lap of backstroke. I did and then followed him into his office where he put it in the player. I watched it and then he put in a tape of Bobby. After it played for a minute, he put the first tape in and said, “Watch yourself again.”

When Coach was right, he was right. The problem was, I didn’t remember him being wrong. I went back out and worked on getting my head alignment correct. By five, I was done. Our first meet was Wednesday and I didn’t want to overdo it. I knew Tuesday would be an easy workout and I’d have the time to relax a little.

I called home from Coach’s office and left a message and set out walking. I turned left instead of right on Folly Road and walked to the Wappoo Cut. I hadn’t been fishing or sailing or even just to The Cut in weeks and had to watch for a while just to see that the tide was going out. Boats were coming in at pretty good intervals. The tide was going out, fishing wouldn’t be as good, and it was nearing supper time. It was the end of the season and most of the boaters knew what they were doing. No one needed my help and that was fine with me.

I thought about Sally and was really proud of her. I was definitely happy about her seemingly new relationship with her dad. She hadn’t mentioned her boyfriend in a while. Jeff. That was it. I missed her. She had told me all about meeting and singing with Tanya Tucker but it had been forever since we’d talked about a book we were both reading.

I helped a couple by catching their lines and holding their boats when they went for their trucks. I thought back to when I did that for Dane that first time. Who would have ever guessed what that had led to? I wondered if someone else would come into my life simply because I’d helped them land their boat. It didn’t seem likely but you never know.

I helped one guy who been out by himself. He ran for his truck and backed it down the ramp, then hopped back on his boat. He hadn’t been the greatest at backing his trailer down the ramp but he’d gotten it lined up eventually. He wasn’t having the same kind of success with his boat. With the tide really starting to move, he wasn’t accounting for the drift properly and kept overshooting, having to back out and try again. After a couple of tries I hollered and asked him if he wanted help. I knew he didn’t want to ask.

He pulled up to the dock and I jumped on then he took it back out to the middle of the cut. He was about Franklin’s age, maybe twenty-five or so. He had a seventeen-foot Bayliner so it was definitely maneuverable enough. He tried to line it up and I told him to go further upstream before he started. Then, I told him to crab into the current and ease toward the dock. When he was almost to it, I told him to give it a bit of gas. It seemed too early for him because the dock was right in front but he hadn’t been accounting for lag time. He did what I said and put his boat right between the guides and onto his trailer.

“Son of a gun,” he said. “Thanks.”

“It’s easier when the tide is coming in. It sort of pushes you toward your trailer and it’s not scary. This way, it seems like you’re going to jam into the dock.”

We kept talking. He asked if I had a boat and how I learned and I told him. When he found out I was walking, he offered me a ride and I decided to take it. He thanked me again and dropped me off at Yeamans Road. That way, he wouldn’t have to make any tight turns or have to back up. It seemed like the thing to do. I could smell dinner before I got to the house. Curry something.

“It’s ready when you are,” Mom hollered.

“Ten minutes,” I hollered back and went to the library. I called Sally. I had a hunch she’d been on the phone a lot.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself. I hope you don’t mind. I told about you singing a duet with Tanya Tucker to a bunch of friends Mrs. Middleton rounded up at lunchtime today.”

“Oh, that’s so nice. Merrill invited me to work more. He said I should take it while people are buzzing. Not everyone is buzzing. For a lot of people, that’s really normal but I know he’s just looking out for me.”

“Nice to have a boss like that.”

“Definitely. I’ve made almost three hundred dollars in tips. That’s a lot.”

“What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

“I think I might take some voice lessons.”

“You may as well. Do you even have a guitar? You can’t get any cuter so that’s the only other thing.”

“Funny guy. It made sense, though and Merrill agreed.”

“How are you and Jeff doing?” I asked.

“Me and Jeff aren’t doing,” she said but she didn’t sound sad.

“No?”

“No. We broke up. It was actually a lot easier than I thought. I still like him a lot and I know he likes me. I asked him if he could imagine spending the rest of his life together with me and he got really quiet. Then I said, ‘me neither’ and we both kind of laughed. That was two weeks ago.”

“I bet you’ve had lots of guys ask you out since then.”

“I can’t even believe it. I don’t even know how to pick. It’s crazy. And I feel like I’m just getting to know this town and this school and stuff and, and, and, maybe that’s part of it. I don’t know. It’s kind of fun, though. After Jeff and I broke up, I realized I don’t have to get it right the first time or anything.”

“Are you happy?” I asked.

“More than I ever would have guessed, that’s for sure. My grades are good, I love playing at The Ranch, and my dad and I are getting along better than ever. I’m not sure if a husband, house with a white picket fence, and a dog named Spot are in my future, though.”

“The idea of making it big got you?”

“I guess it has a little. Okay, maybe more than a little. So much has changed in the last ten months. I don’t know.”

“It’s okay not to, you know?”

“Yeah. Lots of time, right?”

We talked for another hour about all kinds of things. She had been reading Agatha Christie novels while I was reading Sherlock Holmes. That was interesting. She was taking the easy route on math and science and I was piling it on. Mom stuck her head into the library a couple of times but she knew this was important and left me alone.

I wanted to tell her that if she found the right guy, all her priorities might change, but I didn’t. Maybe all of his would change. After all, there was no way I’d guess I would be planning a ranch with room for horses.

Dane was home and they had waited to start dinner until I finished talking to Sally. I shared my day, from talking to a bunch of kids about Sally, to watching home movies of my crappy backstroke. Dane said that he had performed an esophagectomy and placed a jejunostomy tube to help with healing. We told him, “That’s interesting, but it’s also all we need to know.” He pretended to grumble.

I was caught up with homework so I searched the library for something by Agatha Christie and found Murder on the Orient Express. It had been a long time since I’d read what Sally was reading and if I’d found this lone Christie novel on our shelves, there was a good chance she’d already read it. I liked it from the first page.

The next afternoon the swim team was quiet on the bus ride out to Walterboro. I’d been reading maps a lot more carefully, knowing that I’d be driving soon. We took Highway 17 to Jacksonboro then up the 64 to Colleton County High School. When we turned onto the 64, Coach Miller took the microphone and announced who would swim in which event. He hadn’t told us until then. I’d be swimming the first three events and the last.

The last time we’d faced Colleton was after a freak cold snap that left us with a pissed-off coach and only four swimmers. They’d won but not without a fight. It was the meet that gave Pendleton his first chance to compete and sent me to regionals. This time, we had our full team swimming and we wanted to win. No one needed to say it.

Coach talked to us in the bleachers before we got in the water to warm up. “I don’t need to tell you gentlemen that this is not a conference meet. It doesn’t mean anything.” He waited. “Anyone here believe that?”

“No, sir!” Gil said for all of us. “They need to see what we can do when it’s all of us.”

“That’s right. But there’s something else. Today, right now, no one has any times for other swimmers to shoot for. After today, there will be a fastest time in the conference and in the state for each event. Last year, Claire and Pierce went to regionals and Claire went on to State. They have bullseyes on their backs. Every event they’re in, someone will be trying to beat them. Having a bullseye on your back can be a bad thing, or it can be a good thing. It depends on who’s wearing the bullseye and how they handle that pressure. Anyone want to wear a bullseye?”

I wanted four of them. You could only swim in four events per meet. I wanted four bullseyes. Two of those events were relays but the first swimmer in each relay could use their time to qualify for regionals. We all got in the water to warm up.

Some guys warm up the exact same way, every time. It’s like a ritual. Baseball players are the worst when it comes to superstition but swimmers probably aren’t far behind. I liked to practice turns at each end, familiarizing myself with what I’d see on the side of the pool as I approached the turn. Every pool was made of gunite with a plaster coating, but they each had a slightly different feel to it. I wanted to know what that plaster coating would feel like beneath my feet when I turned.

Pools have different types of gutter systems and some pools have more than eight lanes. Wider pools allow surface chop to dissipate more. You might hear someone talk about a fast pool. Pools aren’t fast or slow but a pool with unused lanes on either side or wide gutters sure helped you swim faster, especially if you were in the one or eight lane. I’d never heard anyone say anything about the feel of a pool’s sides before. Maybe I was the only one who cared. If I knew what it felt like, it was mine. It was my home pool advantage. Maybe that was my own superstition but it didn’t seem that way.

We lined up for the medley relay. We each had two teams. I knew our first team was fast. Our second team would get some practice but they would be hard pressed to come in second or third. Bobby was in the water, waiting for the call to marks. The Colleton swimmers looked at Bobby like he had a bullseye on his back. Good.

“Swimmers, take your mark.” Bobby took hold, then coiled. When they were all coiled, the horn sounded and the beginning of the 1981 swim season was officially underway. Bobby took off at a blistering pace and by the turn, he had a solid lead. Gil dove in with a two-length lead. Gil’s breaststroke wasn’t as good as Birch’s but it was better than mine and mine was pretty good. He extended our lead. I hit the water with a three-length lead and was determined to increase it. When I touched the wall, Aaron had more than a four-length lead.

Instead of increasing the lead, Aaron swam almost leisurely. There was no chance Colleton would catch him but you didn’t ease up like that. If you were swimming solo, you might ease up at the end of a preliminary heat to save yourself for the finals but that’s not what this was. I could see Coach Miller trying to keep his cool but it wasn’t working. He was steamed.

We took first by two lengths and our second team took third. We were ahead ten to four. The next event was two hundred free. That was supposed to be Aaron and me but Coach was busy having words with Aaron. Man, he was steamed. If Coach Miller was going to chew you out, he did it privately. He pulled Aaron to the side but we could all hear most of what he said.

“I don’t know what you were thinking. The team didn’t fight for a lead so you could enjoy a leisurely swim. You not only insulted them; you diminished the importance of the first race of the year and you insulted Colleton.” He turned from Aaron, and hollered out, “Bobby, report to the scorer’s table. You’re up.”

He had just pulled Aaron from the two hundred free and put Bobby in, instead. Good. I looked at Bobby and he nodded back. We jumped in to warm up. I turned to him and said, “Race ya.” He grinned and “Loser mows the winner’s yard.” We looked over and Coach was still giving Aaron an earful. Aaron was trying to disappear. It wasn’t working.

I had the four lane and Bobby had the six. That meant I’d see him on my right on the second and last length. I’d experimented with bilateral breathing but decided that it was more advantageous to simply swim as fast as I could, and that meant breathing to my right. If I was going to swim the five hundred, I’d probably do some bilateral.

I curled my toes over the edge of the block and looked at the far end of the pool. I had experimented with pacing and settled on swimming a smooth and steady first half, then churning water hard for the second half. I thought if I was even at the half, the race was mine. Time slowed for me as the starter called us to our marks. I bent low and grabbed the platform. The horn sounded and I was airborne.

I had a great start and quickly settled into my smooth stroke. I was a length ahead of the Colleton swimmer in lane three by the end of the first length. He was going to need a hell of a second half to catch me. After the turn, I was even with the Colleton swimmer in five, and Bobby in six. Bobby knew I had a strong second half and I thought he was trying to force me to sprint early. We were even at the halfway point and I started to kick it in. Swimming blind for the third length, I simply tried to race the clock. When I came up from the final turn, I had a solid lead, the Colleton swimmer had faded and Bobby was trying hard to catch me. When I reached the backstroke flags, I buried my head and swam the last sixteen feet as if sharks were chasing me.

I came up, knowing I had won. What was my time? Coach Miller knew what I wanted. “One five-five” he hollered at me. That would get me to regionals. My first meet of the year and I had crushed it. I was ready to do a happy dance. I didn’t have much time to celebrate. The next event was the two hundred medley. This was the event I wanted to win. This was the event I wanted to crush. I wanted to not only get to regionals but to state. I wanted to win state. I wanted to be the best high school swimmer in South Carolina.

I climbed out and walked the deck, windmilling my arms to keep them loose. Bobby and I would both be swimming the medley. He walked over to me and said, “Double or nothing?”

“Does that mean you’re going to edge it, too? You know Hector does our yard, right?”

“Banana split, then?”

“Deal,” I said and he laughed.

Coach walked over and asked if we were ready for the back-to-back swim and we said we were. He was still pissed at Aaron but had calmed down. He was about to turn back when he looked at us with a very serious face and said, “No bullshit,” meaning he did want us screwing around like Aaron had.

“No sir,” I said. “There’s ice cream on the line.” He laughed a little and that was probably a good sign for Aaron. Maybe he’d get a chance to redeem himself in the freestyle relay.

A break between events is a weird thing. If the break is too short, you don’t have time for your heart to drop back to normal levels. Too long and you can get stiff. You had to keep moving. I did some squats and kept windmilling my arms until we were called to the blocks.

The sequence of strokes is different for individual medley than it is for relay medley. Because of the order of events, I thought Bobby and I would trade being in front but I didn’t know how Gil would do. He’d improved but I didn’t know how much. Colleton had a swimmer who had done well already but he hadn’t done well enough. Maybe this was his event. He was tall. He was real tall and I figured he was six-four or five. He also looked pretty buff. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything but I’d rather be buff than soft.

We had six swimmers lined up, with Colleton in the even lanes and Porter-Gaud in the odd. On the starting block, I willed myself to calm down and focus. All I had to do was swim a combination of four strokes faster than five other guys. “Take your mark.” I crouched down to get a good grip on the block, hooking my toes over the edge. Coiled spring. Coiled spring. Coiled spring. I was ready.

The horn sounded and I was airborne once again. Butterfly was mine. It had to be. I pushed it, taking a breath on every other stroke. Swimming hard to the turn, I pushed off, kicked twice, and came up for air, quickly checking my position. The tall Colleton kid was in front of me and Bobby was behind. I hit the wall and switched to backstroke. This was Bobby’s lap and I didn’t worry about it. I just focused on keeping my head straight and churning water with my feet.