Chapter 111

Wednesday, Aug .8

I got up a little before 7 a.m., dressed for a workout and swung by the house to see if I could scrounge a little breakfast. The scene was as chaotic as I could have expected with the relatives getting in one last meal.

The big news was I could have my room back tonight! Enough furniture and furnishings had been put in place that they would be moving in tonight. Grandma would oversee the installation of appliances like washer and dryer today, while Aunt Patty made a grocery run. The girls would accompany Kacie to band practice, then the pool to spend the afternoon with the Gang of Eight.

As I suspected, my cousins had quickly been adopted by my sister’s friends and were basking in the attention of high school girls.

I informed Aunt Karen of Arlene’s lunch invitation and hoped the universe wouldn’t collapse in on itself from such celestial bodies getting too close to each other. If Jan Metzger happened to be in the area, it would pretty much be guaranteed.

I handed my aunt my keys, told her to avoid overzealous state troopers and hoofed it to the driving range. It was a somber mood among the players as we prepared for our workout. It seemed the ones dating cheerleaders had heard the news on Sherry Parker from their girlfriends. Ways to honor and show support for the girl were being discussed. A helmet sticker or jersey patch seemed to have the most backing, but would have to be approved by Coach Tucker and the principal.

Gassers, snaps and huddle went to plan. Jeremy Porter again tried to burn my hands off as we recovered before taking snaps. It again made Jed’s offerings look like puffy marshmallows by comparison. If I could just get the offense to tell me a couple of minutes before they scored touchdowns, we could do this on the sidelines during games and never have a problem.

After showering and dressing, the four of us on cabana duty stepped out into what felt like a ghost town. There were still swimming lessons being conducted, but with virtually no school-age children.

“It gets like this when the moms haul their kids off for back-to school shopping,” Mr. Alvarez said. “This week will seem slow, but the three weeks heading into Labor Day will be even slower. The weekends will still be busy until football games start, then you might as well drain the pool.”

Which was pretty much what would happen. The first high school games would be played Aug. 30, a Thursday. Labor Day was on Sept. 3 and the pool would shut down after that. Anyone wishing to take a dip before next Memorial Day weekend would be directed to the indoor pool.

We got the delivery sorted, the few cabana orders filled and had plenty of time to get a bite from Tia Connie, who would apparently move to Familia Benavidez to oversee the breakfast shift there. Arturo had told me mornings at the restaurant were still busy enough to make opening at 6 a.m. worth the effort.

One of the regulars still hanging around was Molly Harris, but she gave me the bad news that she was going to have to break up with me because they were doing their school shopping in the next couple of days and she didn’t want to leave me hanging going into the weekend. Her mother was able to keep from bursting out laughing as the 5-year-old tried to let me down easy by giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Why do I get the feeling I’m not the last boy who’ll hear that speech from her?” I asked Ellen as Molly went inside their cabana to get a juice box.

Arlene showed up a little after 11 o’clock and was joined by Jan and Bethany Metzger, Morgan, Callie, Keri and both Erins. Kacie, Kinsey, Kirsten and Aunt Karen would also be in attendance by lunchtime.

Lloyd had the pleasure of serving No. 16 during the early part of the day. I told him if he could survive that, there was no way a rush end should ever give him any problems.

I kept myself busy throughout the rest of the morning. I could tell my relatives had arrived by the way my ears suddenly started burning.

Amazingly, the universe did not collapse in upon itself as Arlene, Jan and Karen converged. The only explanation I could think of was that, somewhere on the opposite side of the globe, three of the ugliest guys you could imagine were congregating and thus offsetting the effect.

I still avoided looking directly at the three of them when they grouped together. I was afraid I’d burn out my retinas before I could turn away.

Aunt Karen tossed me my keys when I had a moment to check in. She told me she would hitch a ride with her nieces, who were still using Dad’s Buick.

Morgan told me I would be permitted to take her for ice cream and give her a footrub after I got off work. She felt she should at least put in an appearance for our group date at the teen lounge since this was to be the last one, but let me know she’d probably cut out before it got very late.

The morning crew clocked out as soon as all the afternoon guys were ready to take over and went to get our lifting done. I think I expended more energy during the workout than I had during the entire shift.

After a cool shower, I told Morgan to let me know when she was ready for ice cream. She beat me to the car. Why couldn’t she move like that when I was waiting to pick her up for a date?

It took us just a few minutes to reach the nearest Dairy Queen and get inside the air conditioning. Morgan got her usual Heath Blizzard and I tried a Cotton Candy one just to do something different. We found an empty table — it wasn’t that difficult in the middle of the afternoon — when Morgan hit me with a surprise.

“I’m going to do football with you!” she chirped.

I just looked at her for a minute. I thought maybe she’d spent a little too much time baking in the sun since her return from Wisconsin. Heat stroke must be the reason for her to make such a statement.

“Get outta here,” I said dismissively.

“No, really,” she insisted. “All of the head coaches get an office aide to help with all the paperwork they have to do. Fourth period supplies all the boys coaches. I volunteered for football rather than wait to be assigned a coach. It’ll be more fun than just picking up attendance slips.”

“Doesn’t Coach Tucker already have a fulltime secretary?” I asked.

“Yes,” Morgan said, “Mrs. Morrison. But there’ll be plenty to do for an hour. I’m supposed to meet with her and Coach Tucker tomorrow to kind of get a rundown on the operation.

“This’ll be fun. You’ll see. We’ll get to see each other every day. I may even get to help on the sidelines on Friday nights!”

“Doing what?” I asked. “They’ve already got people to draw up crazy plays.”

That earned me a swat on the arm.

“You goof,” she chided me. “There’s all kinds of stuff to keep track of. I’ll find out more tomorrow.”

“What are you going to do about academic decathlon?” I asked. “Football’s going to cut into the time you have for that.”

“It won’t hurt to give it up for a semester,” she said. “I’ve already got it on my list of extracurriculars. This will better diversify my résumé for college applications. I can put down that I was a student assistant.”

Just great, I thought. My girlfriend, the football coach. That would go nicely with my girlfriend, the cheerleader. With Kacie in band, maybe Bethany could join the chain gang or something. That’d cover just about everything.

We finished our ice cream and I got the burgeoning Amy Alonza Stagg home before 4 p.m. She decided to forego the footrub until we could be alone, told me to pick her up at 6:45 and sent me on my way.

I walked into an empty house and immediately went to my room and fell into my bed for the first time in nearly two weeks. It smelled of my sister’s soap and baby powder. I figured I could put up with that.

I roused myself and checked my clothes hamper. It looked like Grandma had made sure all my laundry here was done. I’d need to get caught up on what I had at the apartment, but first I’d have to get Arlene’s permission to use her laundry room. It was either that or bring a duffle bag full of smelly clothes home in my car.

Kacie came in a around 5 o’clock to begin getting ready for our group date. I resisted the urge to join her in the shower even though we hadn’t been together since her birthday. Once she was done in the bathroom, I wiped down with a wet washcloth and dressed in Bermuda shorts and a polo to be allowed into the teen lounge.