Chapter 64: The Way the Ball Bounces

Friday, December 16, 1983

We arrived at school at the leisurely time of nine forty-five in the morning, with our suitcases in the trunk, and headed straight to Meg’s room. She checked attendance at ten, but kept adding people to the list as they filtered in.

We had no agenda at all. We tried bugging Steffie for her thoughts on casting, but she wasn’t telling us a thing. Some of us took a shot at weeding the Extemp files, but that didn’t take enough time to be interesting.

I wound up heading down to Mr. Hannity’s on a lark, with Jas following along, and spent an hour making the computer do silly stuff, like playing annoyingly high-pitched tones or filling the screen with garbage. I think he was happy seeing me there, though I also think I might have gotten him thinking about the state tournament, which I was not doing.

We finally took off at one, as did about half of the school, I think. The buses weren’t going up to Irving until tomorrow, of course, but we weren’t the only ones leaving early, and most of the kids just wanted to start their vacation.

We decided to just grab tacos at Rico’s and eat on the road. It didn’t take long at all to get tacos, and most of that was saying hi to Rico, who was happy to see us. After that, it was just a long drive with one bathroom stop halfway. We’d decided to stay at a Hilton not far from the stadium. It made sense to try to build up points in Hilton’s frequent guest program instead of staying somewhere else.

Angie won the argument about what to eat by declaring that, since we were fairly close to Fort Worth, we had to go to a steakhouse. Most of the best ones were already crowded when we called, but we found a fairly nice (and fairly reasonably priced) place and headed over.

Aside from the temptation to order wine (which was hitting all of us by now), it was a very pleasant dinner. It was a place that Mom and Dad would’ve loved: dark decor, big steaks, potatoes, beans, and just a bit of vegetables, plus endless bread. Jas got mushrooms on hers, and I decided that was good, too. Paige teased everyone by saying she was going to order the chicken. In the end, though, she went with a petite filet, just as Angie did.

I have no idea how the other customers took us, but no one seemed bothered. I think a few of them were surprised that a group of teenagers were here in the first place, and further surprised by how we handled ourselves, but that might have just been me.

This time, there was no waiting for dessert when we got to the hotel. Jas and I hit the bed about a minute after we got into our room and didn’t come up for air for about an hour. Time in bed was never the reason for us to go on a trip, but it was certainly a benefit, and we’d built up a bit of energy after the busy week.

When we’d finished, and were snuggling, Jas gave me a grin.

“So,” she said, “how’s the game turn out tomorrow?”

“Hell if I know,” I said.

She giggled. “You told me that Memorial didn’t make it this far in your first life.”

I shook my head as I said, “They didn’t. I mean, I don’t know how far they did make it, but I’m certain there were no buses of kids going anywhere. I’d have noticed that.”

“Angie said the same thing. Not that your two first lives were the same, but there’s not necessarily any reason why they’d differ, and it seems like they didn’t.”

“Yeah. I think we changed things, both with Cal and Andy — I mean, imagine this team without them! — and also when Jess involved herself in making sure the players behaved themselves last year.”

She nodded. “Both very good causes.”

“Very.”

“So ... gut feeling?”

I shrugged. “My gut tells me that we win, but my brain says that’s just because I’m a fan, and it’s probably right. I very much want us to win, but by this point, it’s just about the glory. I imagine that, short of a serious injury or a huge mistake, Cal and Andy are set. They’ll get the offers they get, and they’ll take the one they take. Same with Graham and the rest. It’s hard for a game like this to move the needle. That said, I’d love them to have some big moments.”

“Me, too. I really like Cal and Andy a lot. It’ll be cool if we wind up at the same place.”

“They’re both playing it very close to the vest, but I know A&M is after both of them. They’d get more playing time there, and faster. The question for both of them is whether Jackie Sherrill is the real deal. He’s only been the coach for two years, and they did much better this year than last year.”

“So ... is he?”

I grinned. “I both know and don’t know.”

“How’s that?” she said, shifting.

“In my first life, they kinda sucked next year. There’s a huge asterisk on that, though. They had a bad year and finished near the bottom of the conference, but then they kicked Texas’s ass in their last game, which no one expected, and after that they won the conference three years in a row. After that, Sherrill got them in trouble with the NCAA and split. If that pattern follows, Cal and Andy will be on really good teams three of their four years and a mediocre team as freshmen.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“Cal and Andy themselves change things. What two players do they displace? Were those the right two to pass up? Do they miss out on future stars because of Cal and Andy? Do both of them develop to their potential? And, perhaps worst, do they get outed?”

She bit her lip, then nodded. “Another unknowable.”

“It’s more than that. Even if they suck, we don’t know that it’s because Cal and Andy went there and didn’t develop or displaced someone. All of the Texas schools will recruit a slightly different set of players with Memorial winning games they didn’t before. That’s not a huge number of players, but it could still be enough.”

“If you were counseling them?”

“I’d tell them to go to A&M. I have no idea if it’ll live up to my first life, but it’s their best bet. Anything else would be sending them to someplace I expect to do worse.”

“Not out of state?”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t a big football fan. The only reason I know about A&M is that they kicked Texas’s ass all four years I was there, which sucked as a Texas fan. I don’t know who won the national championship or anything like that. They’ll see who they have offers from and pick the best one, and that makes sense to me.”

“Well,” she said, shifting a bit, “I hope we see them win tomorrow.”

“Me, too!”

“Right now ... shower?”

“Makes sense to me!”

We managed to not get into too much trouble in the shower, and also had put the wet spot where neither of us had to sleep in it. Both good things!

We snuggled up, kissed, and then went right to sleep. Within the next six months, I expected this to become a nearly nightly thing. I couldn’t wait, and I was certain Jasmine was even more impatient than I was.

Saturday, December 17, 1983

We met Angie and Paige for breakfast at ten fifteen. It had been supposed to be ten, but something had them running late. And blushing. And giggling. I can’t imagine what might have caused that. Judging from her grins and giggles, Jas was having just as much trouble as I was at figuring it out.

“You suck!” Paige said as we got into the elevator. Fortunately, no other guests were around.

“Thank goodness!” Jas said, then mimed sucking on something. “If you didn’t, that’d ... suck!”

Angie groaned. “I’d tell you to whap her, big brother, but you shouldn’t whap girls.”

“Whap her yourself?” I said.

Angie and Paige exchanged a glance.

“Too tempting!” Paige said, grinning. “One day, but not yet.”

That got Jasmine blushing, but also giggling. “Can’t wait!”

By the time we got downstairs, we were in pretty high spirits. We toned down the risqué comments once we were around other people, but the joking and fun continued through our breakfast.

Instead of our former jokes, we went over our sightseeing options. It was colder than any of us had hoped, and Texas Stadium is effectively outdoors. We didn’t want to get frozen before the game and then freeze during the game, too.

Museums made sense, but we wouldn’t have all that much time at one. Once museums came up, though, that was pretty much it for anything else.

We quickly settled on the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth. It had a great reputation, and none of us had ever been there (including me in my first life, and I’d have strongly guessed that Ang hadn’t been there either).

It was about half an hour’s drive from the hotel, and we wound up being a bit quicker seeing things than any of us would have wanted. That said, it was very nice, and I got the feeling we’d be back.

The best part of it probably was rediscovering how much we had in common. It’s not that we didn’t know, so much as that I was pretty sure this was something the four of us might do decades from now. No one was showing subtle (or not-so-subtle) signs of wishing we’d gone somewhere else.

I was certain that we’d find things only some of us liked. That was inevitable. Even then, I suspected the innate curiosity we all shared could make an outing to do nearly anything interesting long enough to keep everyone happy. But we had enough in common that we’d always be able to find things to do together.

Of course, we’d do plenty of things as couples. That was both inevitable and necessary. But we might be family soon, the four of us, and we’d be a good family, connected by two marriages, each one to one of two people who were themselves connected by two adoptions.

Factor in that both Angie and I had taken two tries to get here, and the odds against our little double date were truly astronomical. Yet, here we were, enjoying ourselves immensely. If the Universe had interfered, well ... thank you, Universe. Don’t make a habit of it, but a bit of nudging here and there is welcome.

We left the Kimball in time to make it to the game. Kickoff had been scheduled for three in the afternoon, and we were in the parking lot by two-thirty. There were dozens of buses. I recognized the ones that Memorial usually used and guessed that the others were mostly from Midland.

The stadium had more people in it than I expected, but it was still most likely no more than a third full and maybe well under that. The Texas High School 5A State Championship Game is a big deal, but it’s not on the scale of an NFL game, and the crowd size matched.