Chapter 81

November 1, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

After stretching, warmups, and rondo, Coach had us meet in the locker room.

“I have a hard time thinking that Boynton will beat Petaluma on Saturday and I hope we don’t have a problem with West, so we need to come up with a game plan for Petaluma. Would anyone object if we simply put Gracey on Tanaka or do we think that they’ll come up with a counter?”

“I have a hard time thinking, given how effective Gracey has been in that role, that Petaluma won’t come up with a wrinkle, and one that we might not like,” Katie said.

Silence reigned until Meka responded, “I see Petaluma having only three options, with one being highly unlikely, given that it would require them finding a midfield of anything like their back line’s capability. The second is that they alter the plan for their back line and allow them to come forward more to support their O. The third may be almost as unlikely as the first, as it would require them to use the right side of their offense more, much more. I think it unlikely simply because their right half is the weakest of their starting midfielders, as she is not expected to support Tanaka. However, I think the third is the most likely of those options.”

Katie responded, “I agree, although I think we need to allow for them sending one of their wing backs on runs, either to open a new attack on the right side hoping that we send more resources that way or sending their left back to support Tanaka along with their left half. That back line may well be nearly as good as ours, so they could afford to send one, at least occasionally.”

Coach looked around the room.

Before I could respond, Civia said, “Those are good points, and they suggest that we hold more of our midfield back. However, to have that discussion, we first need to have the discussion about what formation we’ll play. Switching to the 3-3-1-3 yesterday did not get us that much, despite my expectations. They didn’t get another goal, but that might be chalked up mostly to Gracey’s efforts more than having three speedy attackers up front.”

“I agree,” answered Coach, giving Civia a smile. “Staying in the 3-2-3-2 may give us more flexibility, as it would be easier to hold either or both of Jess and Jules back to support the back line, although doing that can greatly restrict our options on O. Katie?”

“I was a bit skeptical about the 3-2-3-2 at first, but it certainly worked well this year and does seem to offer more flexibility with the midfield, as long as we have some way to get goals. Granted, if only one of the Js winds up staying too far back on D to support the O, we still have parity with that back line. However, if both stay back, I’m not sure that our greater speed up front will do all that much for us. I really hate PK shootouts, as they’re dicey. Oh, sorry PK, I meant penalty-kick shootouts.”

There was much laughing.

After the long discussion that finally resulted in a plan for Petaluma on Saturday, Gracey, Liya, and Civia came home with us as the whole family was going with Meka to visit her father. Carol had ordered pizza to save time, and Celeste arrived with it shortly after we girls got home.

“Hey, Celeste,” Heather said after answering the door. “Come on in.”

“Hi, Heather. I was afraid you guys didn’t like me anymore.”

Her big grin belied her words.

“Yeah, we’ve been making our own dinners for almost an entire week!”

Heather’s grin matched Celeste’s. As I took the boxes from her, Dad joined us.

“Hi, Celeste. It’s good to see you. Carol said that it’s been a whole six days since we’ve seen you, so we had to get pizza today.”

“That’s good because you guys eating pizza is good for me! I wanted to thank your family, again, for inviting me last Thursday. I enjoyed it, and so did Andressa.” She looked down, then back up at Dad and said, “It was nice to have adult conversation. While the building we live in is better than the dorms, it’s still got a lot of students ... a lot of ... young students.”

“My college days are not so far behind me that I don’t remember a lot of that. Heck, I’m a guy, and I was certainly somewhat like that in my first couple years. It will get better, as long as you can find a way to avoid the scenes that are dominated by freshman and sophomores.”

“My mom has said the same. I ... I’m pondering trying to get a few older girls together to rent a house next year. I like being near the university for some things, but I might be ready to have a commute if it’ll get me a quieter neighborhood.”

I could feel the girls around me hold their breath.

“Keep in touch, then. We might have such a house, and one of my friends is a realtor that runs a lot of rentals.”

Celeste’s eyes opened a little wider, after which she replied, “I’ll keep that in mind. Do you know if any of those sorts of places would be available for summer, too? I’m considering taking a few summer courses to lighten my load for next year so that I can have more time available to help on whatever projects Dr. Nadhi might offer up. I really feel the need to be doing some of this stuff for which I’m going to school!”

“That’s a good attitude to have, and one of the reasons that the university offers such a wide array of summer courses. It’s certainly a good way to get any requirements, particularly off-major requirements, out of the way. Please keep us apprised of your plans, as we may have an option for you, and my realtor friend almost certainly would. In that vein, we’d like to have you over again, but this month is looking a bit hectic for us, depending on how far into the state tournament the girls go. If you’re interested, we could have one of the girls call you once we get things nailed down.”

“Oh, that would be good.” She turned to me and said, “Please do call or text me with anything like that.”

“I will.”

“I usually work Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. However, with enough advance notice, I can sometimes change my schedule around.”

Sandy, just arriving, asked, “You work that many nights? I don’t know how students manage a full load and working four nights a week. I’m impressed, but I also feel sorry for you.”

“It’s just what I have to do to get to where I want to be. It’s tiring, but I’ve managed so far.”

“We hope to be able to invite you for dinner some Thursday this month. We like experimenting in the kitchen and enjoy inviting people that are adventurous in that fashion.”

“That’s me. Just coming here to school has allowed me to try a lot of things that my little hometown doesn’t have. I look forward to trying any of your culinary experiments!”

“Excellent! We’ll put more thought into it and try to put something together before the holiday.”

Celeste thanked Dad and Mom for the large tip and headed off. The ten of us wolfed down a bunch of pizza, then headed out to visit Jim. We spent a pleasant half-hour or so with him, then waited in the lobby so that Meka could have one-on-one time with him. Poor Meka. I almost came to tears a couple times while we waited for her as I found myself thinking of her situation. I do not think I could handle that as well as Meka is, and she had not been handling it all that well. We dropped Gracey, Liya, and Civia at their homes, then came home, ourselves. Meka said good night to us in the living room, then headed off to stay at her new residence at Carol’s house.

“Dad, Mom, Second Mom,” I said, “I would really appreciate not having to go through what Meka is going through before she gets out of high school. I know that everybody’s day comes, and I also know that losing anyone at any time is hard, but it’s gotta be extra hard for people who haven’t even gotten to adulthood.”

“Hear, hear,” said Rhee, at which Heather nodded emphatically.

“I understand, Honey,” Sandy replied. “It was hard enough losing both my parents in a short span, and we never had a particularly close relationship. This points out Meka’s strength, as she’s doing well in school and on the pitch, despite that she seems to have a very close relationship with her dad. I can only hope that I can do even half as well if either of my spouses pre-deceases me,” which she followed with a slow head-shaking.

“On a lighter note,” I said with a smile, “Celeste seemed most interested in, almost desperate for, another invitation to dinner. Do you think it was all because she wanted more ‘adult conversation,’ or might there have been another reason?”

“You hit that one on the head, Girl,” responded Rhee. “Andressa seemed to be a good conversationalist, so I cannot imagine that Celeste is so in need of such that she’d seem so ... desperate.”

She followed that with a big grin aimed right at Dad. His taken-aback response caused a bit of chuckling by the Moms and us girls.

Rhee got in another dig with, “I think her interest in Our Man has certainly not declined subsequent to dinner last Thursday.” Before Dad could get his act together to come back at her, she looked thoughtful, then said, “Is there any reason that she might think Dad were available? I know that we girls haven’t even hinted at that.”

“Perhaps,” Sandy replied, “she’s just very hopeful. Charlie, are you considering getting her ensconced in Car ... our second house so that she’s more available?”

When Dad sputtered, both Moms cackled.

“Okay, okay. Yes, I’ve admitted that she’s quite attractive and I meant it. But you’re all going overboard on this. I am not in need of another ... whatever. Wife. Girlfriend. Whatever.”

Heather came back with, “I noticed that you said nothing about what you might want, Our Man,” after which she grinned at him. “She’s at least as pretty as Beth and a bit curvier. I can understand how any hetero Y-chromosome person, such as yourself, would want her. Hell, I’m attracted to her!”

Dad sputtered again, so I said, “Dad, you’re usually so with it, so in control, that we girls – both wives and girlfriends – cannot help but poke fun at you when you get befuddled like this.” I let my smile fade and said in a more serious mien, “Dad, we all love you, and we all understand if you were physically attracted enough to Celeste to want her. Heather was bang on. If you say that you honestly do not want her in that way, then we’ll leave you alone ... with your self-delusion.”

“Hah! Beth’s got your number, Dear,” Carol shouted. She moderated her words and appearance, then said, “Charlie, my love, you’re allowed to want. I know that you’re somewhat afraid that if you admit your want, Sandy will somehow change the gravitational constant of the universe resulting in Celeste joining your harem. I am pretty sure that Sandy is not a member of the Q Continuum, so you probably don’t have to worry about suddenly having a third wife or something. Probably.”

Both Sandy and Carol laughed uproariously while Dad just shook his head. The three of us looked at The Moms and at Dad, wondering what that was all about. Dad’s expression changed from mild exasperation to something like love. From his position between them on the couch, he put his arms around both and pulled them to him.

“I love you two, so much. I love your senses of humor. I love that you’re both so witty.” A smile began crawling onto his face as he added, “And I love that the girls seem to have no idea why you’re laughing so much. Ah, the ignorance of youth.”

If anything, that last caused The Moms to laugh harder, although it didn’t last all that long.

“Just remember this, you young whippersnappers. The three of us have lived longer, experienced more than you have, and that will always be true, so long as we live,” Sandy said as her smile expanded into a grin.

November 3, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

After warmups and laps – but skipping rondo, practice both yesterday and today was entirely to try out and get us experience with our Petaluma plan. The plan involved something of a shell game with the Brits, Gracey, and Kim. Although we felt that Petaluma would spend much more effort bringing the ball up on the right side, we also allowed for them to put Tanaka on the right wing, or even at center forward. Coach pitted our starting front line and midfield and a variety of backup fullbacks playing our 3-2-3-2 against backup front line and midfield and starting back line in their 4-3-3. Civia played Tanaka for two days; she really enjoyed it. We worked out a lot of the initial kinks in structure, response, and incomplete understanding yesterday, while, today, we practiced a bunch of variations, figuring out what our responses would be in quick discussions after Civia had thrown yet another wrinkle at us.