Lean on Me
Copyright© 2025 by Danny January
Chapter 22
Romance Sex Story: Chapter 22 - The continuing chronicles of Jack Pierce. Autumn of 1982. The chronicles, in order are: 1. Feasting with a Silver Spoon 2. Summertime and the Livin' is Easy 3. Something Fishy Going On 4. Centerfield 5. Tourist Season 6. Lean on Me They are progressive and not meant to be stand-alone stories.
Caution: This Romance Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including mt/ft Consensual Heterosexual Fiction
Monday morning, I picked Kim up at a reasonable hour. That was a pretty nice change. Kim and I walked to the drama department, comparing papers as we walked. I got a couple of congratulations as we walked. When we got to class, Mrs. Middleton was the first to congratulate me. She knew how hard Bobby worked to win one title and had a better idea than most what went into that.
Morning announcements were a bit different that day. Normally, one of the students taking an audiovisual class makes the announcement. That Monday, Coach Miller made them. I didn’t remember any faculty doing that before. He practically gushed about how well the Porter-Gaud swimmers had done, then gave the results. Great. I had two tests that day. Should be easy to focus now, I thought. Oh, well.
I managed to make it through the morning, taking a test and turning in two papers. I still had a calculus test that afternoon. I was prepared, but knew it was still going to be a tough one. I tried to put that out of my mind. My grade in calculus was already so high, I could absorb a total disaster and still be getting an A, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Mrs. Wetzel was the first to congratulate me as I walked into the cafeteria. Lunchroom ladies get some sort of weird reputation, but she was amazing. We were her kids, and I guess she saw a lot of us grow up.
I was the last one to our table, which had become two tables, shoved together. We normally had around ten people in our little group, but there were a few who would join us from time to time. They all joined us that Monday. Mr. McClusky came over before I had a chance to start eating. He congratulated me and said he was sorry he couldn’t make it on Saturday. I suggested he congratulate Gil and especially Brian, and he nodded.
Annie sat next to Kim, across from me. She batted her eyelashes at me. I looked away and then back, and she did it again. “Shameless flirt,” Kim said, pretending to be irritated. Jay came over with most of the football team and complained.
“You’re going to suck off the talent. Perfectly good football players are going to become fish because of you. You suck,” he said, and they all grumbled in agreement, until they started laughing and congratulated me. I realized that my circle of friends had gotten ridiculously large when most of the guys on the baseball team came over.
Two years prior, I had typically sat alone for lunch and read. Now, I had friends among cheerleaders and some of their boyfriends, the swim team, baseball team, and football team, not to mention the drama geeks. How did that happen?
I was actually enjoying the attention way more than I would have imagined when Lori came over and knelt beside me. “What’s up, Lori?”
She leaned close and whispered, “Mr. Delinger passed away last night.”
“Oh, no. Is Vince home? He knows, right?”
“He should be there by now. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Thank you. Is Lani there?”
“She’s there, but not a lot of people know. I thought you might want to be there for Vince. I think he’d appreciate it.”
“Thanks, Lori.”
Well, crap. We all knew the day was coming. That didn’t make it any easier. Maybe it did. I don’t know. What I did know was that I needed to be at the Delinger house when Vince arrived or soon after. I told Kim and asked her to keep it quiet. I needed to get out of afternoon classes. That meant I needed to talk to four or five different people. Or, maybe just one.
I walked across the cafeteria to Coach Miller, knelt down, and simply said, “Vince’s dad passed away last night. I need to go to his house.” That’s it. Coach nodded and said, “Go.” That’s it.
I made the short drive to the Delinger house. The driveway was full, so I parked on the street. I had no idea what to expect. Fifteen minutes later, I stood in the backyard, quietly tossing a football back and forth with Vince. His dad had made all of the arrangements in advance. His mom was talking with friends and family. They had been ready, which seemed really sad, but it also seemed pretty consistent with what I thought about Mr. Delinger.
We tossed the ball back and forth without talking for thirty minutes or so. What would I have said? I wondered if I was standing on his dad’s spot. Maybe. Lani came out of the house and said something to Vince, and he nodded. She went back in, and he threw me the ball. We threw the ball until I started to get tired of throwing. I kept throwing.
“Did your dad swim? Ronnie, I mean. Did he swim?”
“Mom says he did, but I learned from her and never saw him in the pool. She says he swam laps.” He thought about that, nodding his head slowly. “This is a lot of football for a fish, isn’t it?”
“My arm’s about to fall off.” He held the ball and smiled. I walked over to him.
“I guess I just needed to know some things don’t change. You know, football is a constant in my life. Coach Strexel is a good man.” Coach Strexel was the coach of Coastal Carolina.
“Vince, I can’t imagine what you and your dad had.”
“Yeah, you can. You had Franklin two years ago, teaching you everything. Then, you had Timex, Coach Miller, then Coach Hamilton, and Chen. Now, you have Dane. Just slap them altogether and you’ve got it.”
“Like I said, I can’t imagine.”
“Yeah. Service is Thursday evening at Poole’s,” he said, and we turned to walk inside.
“I feel totally inadequate. If there’s anything you need.”
“See you Thursday at seven. Jack, thanks. What I needed was to throw the football around. Just that.”
“I can do that. Call me.” He nodded, gave me a hug, and I left, feeling like I hadn’t done anything, but it didn’t matter. Vince felt like I had. His mom thanked me on the way out the door, telling me she was sure my visit was cathartic for Vince. I thought she looked like she was handling it pretty well.
She must have sensed what I was thinking. “He was in almost constant pain. Now, he’s not. Vince had a career day as quarterback, and Vin listened on the radio. He loved to see his son succeed.” I nodded. She squeezed me once, and I left. I sat in my car for a while, just trying to digest. I gave up and went home.
“You’re home early,” Mom said as I walked into the kitchen.
“Yes, ma’am. I just came from Vince’s house. His dad passed away last night.”
“Oh, no. I am so sorry.”
We sat at the kitchen table and talked about Vince, his dad, football, Ronnie, Dane, and the meaning of life until Kim showed up. Then, the three of us did it. Mom called Rubio’s and ordered flowers to be sent to Poole’s for Thursday night. After that, there wasn’t much to do.
I called the number for Indiana swim coach Doc Counsilman. His secretary put me through.
“Congratulations,” he started.
“Thank you, sir.”
“You know why I called.” I waited. “I’d like you to consider coming to Indiana.”
“Sir, I appreciate that. I really do. But I plan to go to Georgia Tech.”
“Trey Johnson is a good coach. This is a really challenging time in a young man’s life. The decisions you make in the next year will affect you for the rest of your life. I have two questions for you. First, have you reached your full potential as a competitor? Second, would you like to?”
“I’ve been asking myself those same questions since Regionals, maybe since last year. I have a friend who swims at Santa Barbara, and he’s told me a bit about the environment and the competitive nature of it all. I think the answer to both of your questions is ‘no’. I haven’t checked my times against times from California or Florida, but I’d bet I wouldn’t be that competitive.”
“Son, you excelled in the environment you’re in. I’m interested in potential and desire.”
“I might have the potential. You coached Jim Montgomery. How strong was his desire to excel?”
“All-consuming”
“Mine isn’t, and I know it.”
“Jack, that’s about the most honest conversation I’ve had with a high school student in quite some time.”
“Thanks. Baseball season starts in the Spring. I’m going to Tech and get a degree in biomedical engineering.”
“I wish you the very best. Thanks for the courtesy of calling back,” he said, and we hung up.
“I heard most of that. What were the questions you said ‘no’ to?” Mom asked. I relayed the conversation to her.
“Sometimes, you’re a dufus,” Kim said. “And sometimes you’re pretty smart.”
“Happy?”
“Yes, and I don’t think it was easy for you to turn down Doc Counsilman.”
“Easier than I thought it would be, actually.”
Kim and I hugged for a while. She said she was going to the center. I said I would give it a miss unless she wanted me to go. After dinner, I sat down to watch TV. I had no idea what was on. The show MASH had been on for years, and I’d only seen two episodes. I decided to watch that.
What a mistake.
The episode was about a nurse Hawkeye was dating who died. He offered to do the eulogy and discovered he didn’t really know anything about her. It was about as sad as a comedy could get. I was certain there would be a long list of people who knew Mr. Delinger and would be glad to deliver the eulogy. I knew him better than Hawkeye knew the nurse he was dating. Who writes episodes like that? I guess there was a moral to the story.
And then something really strange happened. I realized I knew Ronnie better by talking about him and what he did than I ever had while he was alive. How mixed up was that?
I couldn’t decide if that week went by quickly or dragged. Everyone at Porter-Gaud loved Vince. He’d graduated a year and a half ago, but Lani had graduated the year before and got engaged to him on the same day. Everyone loved both of them, and you never heard anyone say anything bad about either of them. So, when they announced that Vince’s father had passed away and the memorial would be at a large church on Savannah Highway Thursday night, people took note.
Kim and I got there early. We were ushered to one of the rooms near the front of the church, where we met the family. I thought they were all in a surprisingly good mood. After talking with the family for a bit, we went out to the sanctuary and sat in the second row. I thought everyone would be wearing black, but there were a lot of flowery dresses and Hawaiian shirts. It fit with the little handout we each got. It had a picture of Mr. Delinger, with his birth and death dates, and the title, “A Celebration of a Life Well Lived.”
The pastor talked about him as though he were a good personal friend, and maybe he was. I hadn’t been to many memorial services, but I thought it might have been an even better eulogy than the one for Mrs. Diedrich, and that was pretty good. Then he asked if anyone would like to share a personal story about how he had impacted their life.
One guy stood up and told about how Mr. Delinger had coached him in Pop Warner football. He had been nine at the time, but he still remembered the lessons. It happened again and again, as different young men stood up and shared a story. Some of them were really serious, and some were pretty funny. It was actually entertaining and motivational.
There must have been close to a thousand people, and it seemed like everyone had a story. No one got tired of hearing them. The story of the night came, and the guy telling it was really good.
“I made an interception, but I got turned around in the confusion. I started running for the endzone. Everyone was trying to tackle me, and when I say everyone, I mean everyone on both sides, but I was really on. I outran everyone to score. The problem was that I went the wrong way. They called it a touchback, and we ended up giving the other team a couple of points. I was so upset with myself. I went to the sidelines, expecting Coach Delinger to really let me have it.
“He put his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Son, that’s some of the finest open field running I’ve ever seen.’ I’d made the worst mistake possible, and he found a way to find something good in it.”
That about summed it up. How can you replace that? The pastor told us. “Vin had graduated. He’s gone on ahead. But his legacy is alive, and you proved that tonight. You might have heard someone say ‘pass it forward’ before. Well, y’all can do that.” He said a few more things to wrap it up, Lani sang a song, and a lot of people joined in, and that was it.
The Delinger family went to the front so people could shake their hands and say a few words. When my turn came, all I could think to say was, “Wow,” and Vince nodded agreement and thanked us for coming, and especially for sharing a couple of games with his dad.
I stayed up until two, writing in my journal. I had a lot of amazing people in my life. I tried to think what they all had in common. The answers were pretty clear. They all wanted others to succeed, and they wanted to lift them up. People gravitated toward them. Michael, Fallon, Vince, and the rest all tried to elevate others. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s who I wanted to be.
I played around with how to frame that goal for nearly an hour. I used what I knew, primarily from Michael and Fallon, but also a couple of the books that Colonel Lovejoy had recommended. I started out with a list of twenty things, but it was too long. I whittled away until I had a succinct list.
Demonstrate excellence with integrity in all that I do.
Encourage others to do the same.
Praise others for their efforts and celebrate their success.
Maintain a positive attitude no matter what.
That was it. The first and last were about me, and they sandwiched how I would relate to others. Simple. Obviously, there were a ton of elements in each of those things, but I thought that captured the heart of it. I was pretty excited about it. I thought if I’d come up with a cure for cancer, I couldn’t be much happier. I wanted to share it with someone but it was simply too late.
I didn’t get much sleep, but I woke up refreshed and ready to go, anyway. Mom was still making protein lunches for me, and I told her she could stop. I knew that I’d been burning calories like crazy because of all the miles I’d been swimming, and that would stop. I picked up Kim a little early and rushed down to Coach Miller’s room.
“Hey, Coach.”
“Glad you came by.”
“Me too. I got to thinking last night, and I wonder what you think of this. I was up until two.” I handed him a copy of my four principles for living. He looked it over, thoughtfully.
“Inspired by Mr. Delinger’s example?” he asked.
“And yours, and Timex, and some other really good people in my life.”
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