Chapter 4

Ted thought that his being married to Marcia now for four years was the best years of his life. Things were going good and he appreciated that Marcia was a joy to be with in more ways than one. Besides being a good lover who had an ever-increasing appetite to make love, she also had a great personality and was equally concerned about Ted’s happiness.

Their wedding was small and was limited to relatives and a few friends. Ted was a little concerned about how Parker, Marcia’s son would react to Ted marrying his mother. He wondered if Parker would hold a grudge since he had only been a bench warmer on the basketball team and thought he should be a starter. It turned out that while Parker was a little reserved toward Ted so long that his mother was happy Parker would accept Ted’s marriage to her.

The school’s basketball team did have some success with Ted’s coaching. One year they finally won the Super-Sectional title and advanced to the Elite Eight. This success only lasted till the first game where they lost by two points. This gave Ted some satisfaction because when Don Carlson was coaching the team it had never gone that far in the State tournament.

Two summers ago Ted received a phone call from Don. Don said he was in the area because he needed to sign some papers to finalize the sale of his house along with picking up some items from there to take with him since he was going to be a permanent resident of Florida. He asked and Ted agreed to meet him for lunch.

The lunch started out with each of them congratulating the other on what success they had achieved in coaching basketball. Ted told Don that winning the Super-Sectional paled in comparison to Don winning the Florida State basketball championship and having a team that was undefeated and rated in the final poll as number three in the nation.

“Ted, I have learned and I am sure you know that you can only do so much in being a coach. The most important thing in being successful is that you have the talent. I was blessed because of a father’s reassignment to the area and a mother’s concern about her son being injured in playing football that resulted in giving me the most talented group of players I have ever coached.”

“I should also say that finding and marrying Diane who is the school’s Principal has given me more joy in my life than winning the State title. She is something and somebody I have been looking for all my life.”

“Let me just say I understand what you are saying and I have the same feelings for Marcia. Our relationship started out a little rocky but in a short time, I knew she was the woman for me. She is smart and an attorney who keeps me satisfied in more ways than one if you know what I mean.”

Don nodded his head in agreement.

Most of the remaining conversation centered on coaching basketball.

Don said, “It has taken me some time to accept that you don’t need two separate offensive schemes which depend on if the opponents are playing a man-to-man or a zone defense. By them changing defenses they dictate what offense you need to change to. I say nuts to doing that, I want to be able to say what offense my team is using. We continue to use my motion offense no matter what defense they employ. Doing that works for me and it really confuses the other team. They seem to think we will just pass the ball around the perimeter and either take a shot or go one on one when they do a zone defense. We don’t do that they don’t know what to do.”

Ted thanked Don for the advice.

A short time later they shook hands and said their goodbyes. Each of them told the other if they were ever in each other’s area to give a call and they would do lunch again.

Marcia continued to be successful with her law practice and in the courtroom. Sharon Mathews had accepted Marcia’s offer to join her law firm. It turned out that what Sharon had said about her relatives referring their injured insureds to the law firm was proven to be true. One year later Sharon was made a partner in the firm. The business of the firm had increased to the point that Marcia needed to hire two additional attorneys and was presently considering hiring one more.

Marcia was still the lead attorney for the firm in the courtroom and had much success. Two of the verdicts she received were in the seven-number areas. Ted took the time to go to the courtroom and watched her do her thing. Her technique in how she conducted herself in the courtroom Ted thought was different than what he would see in watching a television show. For sure she was all business but her questioning or cross-examining a person in the witness box was different than what he had seen on TV. About one-half of the time that Marcia spent asking questions of the witness, her eyes were on various women jurors and she was not looking at the witness. He asked her later why she does that.

“I don’t mean to sound conceited but I don’t worry about the men on the jury because I think my looks have them on my side. It’s the women who are the wild cards on the jury and by me making eye contact with them I try to bond with them. When I see them nodding their head on the questions that I am asking I feel they are now on my side.”

He knew that Marcia was on trial today and when she came home that evening he asked her how she thought the trial was going.

“We settled when the trial was adjourned for the day today. They agreed to meet the demand I had previously made but I told them because I now had two days invested in doing this trial that I wanted twenty-five percent more. They met this new demand and we settled.”

He could see that Marcia was relaxed as she was sitting on the couch with her suit jacket off and her skirt up to her mid-thighs. Her shoes were off and she was resting her feet on the cocktail table. She was sipping on a drink.

“Have you come down yet the high you get when you settle a case especially when you are on trial?”

Marcia turning toward Ted said, “It has been a good day today but it could get even better if you would say those two magic words to me that I like hearing you say.’

Ted was initially a little puzzled by her request but then a little smile came to his face as he said, “You mean “Let’s fuck?”

She put her glass down and standing up from the couch she smilingly said, “Those are the words.”

Ted put his glass down and he followed her to the bedroom. Later just before he fell asleep he had to agree with her that it was another great day.

He thought the time was going by pretty quick and in one more week school for the summer would be over. It had been a good year with his basketball team winning the conference title. They bowed out early in the State tournament but the conference title was a nice feather in his cap. Ted was thinking that life was pretty good for him and that it couldn’t get much better. It turned out he was right because in the next twenty-four hours it didn’t get any better. As it turned out it became downright shitty. Saying that he thought that was a gross understatement because it couldn’t get any worse than it did.

It started when the Athletic Director informed him that due to a complaint filed by the second-place team in conference play an investigation was launched regarding the age of Darius Walker a good shooting guard on the team. It was discovered that Darius or someone on his behalf had submitted a phony birth certificate which indicated that Darius was nineteen years of age. Investigation showed that Darius actually turned twenty years of age the day before conference play started. Darius because of his true age was ineligible to play which resulted in the school forfeiting all of their wins and the conference title.

The next day Kyle Reynolds an excellent shooting power forward who would probably be the star on next year’s team came up to Ted and broke the news that he wouldn’t be returning to this school for his senior year. Kyle’s father who worked for a large insurance company had been promoted and the family was relocating to Bloomington, IL. They both shook hands and wished each other luck. The loss of Kyle who Ted was counting on would probably translate to next year’s team having at best a five hundred record next year in conference play.