Chapter 9: Learning Love

Although she'd never attended any other school, we gave Moira a choice of returning to the private school, or attending a public high school. Her friends were at the private school, so she said she'd prefer to remain there.

They were in for a big shock when they discovered that Moira could see. In fact, she 'played the game' for a few days, to see how long it would take for them to catch on. After three days, everyone knew, so she stopped the pretense. When she checked out regular books for her classes, the jig was up, anyway.

The boys noticed immediately that she was using makeup-a little-and taking more care with hair and color coordination of her clothing. Beautiful to begin with, now she was magnificent.

She was also intimidating.

Standing an inch over six feet, she was taller than all but three students in the school. A lot of the boys lusted after her, but most were unwilling to try their luck with a girl several inches taller.

And Moira didn't minimize her height. She didn't slouch, or wear low shoes just to look shorter. She was proud of herself, and, now that she could use a mirror, proud of how she looked. She even learned to walk in heels, and wore them often. Said she liked the way they made her butt look.

She had a terrible time in PE classes. Still lacking hand-eye coordination, she had trouble with many of the games. When she was blind, she was given special exercises and games. Thrown in with the others, she saw that she had some work to do.

It didn't take her long, though, to learn to do without the little radio when she was running. She learned to handle the lane markers just like everyone else and concentrated on getting down the track. A high school freshman, she was so large, many didn't believe she could do sprints. "How can you get legs that long to move fast enough to sprint?" many asked.

Moira's answer was, "Just like this!" as she accelerated past her opponents. Her size was an advantage, since her stride was longer. As long as she could make her feet meet the track often enough, she'd win her race.

That fall, she said she'd try cross-country. There wasn't really much for sprinters until spring track season in high school.

Hanna, wisely, had her wear elbow and knee pads, like a skateboarder, at first. It saved a lot of wear and tear on those joints, since Moira fell often, until she learned to interpret what she saw in the terrain ahead of her and coordinate it with her running feet. Moira had never had to run on an uneven surface. It was an interesting time for us all.

At Stanford, Jason was applying himself to the normal freshman classes-and learning that his 'old man' was right... There are no easy classes at Stanford. Playing football, too, made it more difficult, in a sense. On the other hand, he had the advantage of good advice from the coaching staff and tutors at need.

Jason was the number three quarterback on the depth chart. That meant that he didn't get very many snaps during practice-but he had to know the plays, since he was the guy who signaled them in from the sideline during the game. This was to his benefit, since he had the chance to learn why the offensive coordinator chose certain plays in certain situations.

Really, he was pleased. He'd thought he'd have to play on the freshman squad. With the varsity, he didn't get much playing time, but he learned at the top level.

He got to play twice, during the season. One game was a blowout and the coach emptied the bench. The other was a tighter contest, but Stanford had a lead with only a minute to go.

"Rogers!" the coach barked.

"Yessir?"

"Get in there. Run a double fade, long. Then the X-Post."

"Yessir!" Jason said, as he put on his helmet and ran onto the field. Stanford was on its own 40. Both plays were long passes-'bombs'-and Jason had the arm for them. Coach wanted to see if his arm was as strong in a game... and if he could throw accurately with opposition players trying to tear his head off.

In the huddle, Jason called his first play... and grinned at his wide-outs. "Run like hell, guys."

He overthrew the receiver on the left sideline, but Stanford managed to get a pass interference call out of it.

The X-Post, called for the wide-outs to clear the zones by crossing about 10 yards downfield. The primary receiver was the tight end, who was supposed to block for two seconds, then streak straight down the field. Either wide receiver could also be a target, if one came free.

When they ran the play, the defensive backs got confused and one was picked off, leaving a receiver free. Jason picked that up and connected fifteen yards downfield. Jason didn't get to see the reception, since he was leveled by a linebacker about a second after he made his throw.

Hearing the cheers, he knew something good had happened. It had. Stanford had a first down on the four yard line.

The starting quarterback came back into the game, giving Jason a 'high five' as he did.

On the sideline, the coach said, "Don't be discouraged. I got just what I wanted from you. A little more experience and you can finish off a drive that you salvage so spectacularly."

Jason smiled shyly, and put the headset back on.

Stanford finished with a five and five record. They did beat Cal, so the season was considered a success. But there would be no bowl games that year.

-- + + + + + --

At home, Moira missed Jason fiercely. But she had so much more work to do, to keep up her grades at the high school, that she appreciated Jason's problem and allowed him the space he required.

They both often had dates Friday evenings. Jason usually came home Saturday evening, until football was over, then mid-morning on Saturday. He and Moira would talk, with great animation, about all the events of the week. He seemed just as interested in what her friends were saying about the latest rock group as she was about his evil calculus professor.

Saturday nights, they'd fuck each other's brains out.

Sunday morning was church, then a family afternoon-except that Jason often had to beg off, needing to study.

When the tryouts for the baseball team started, Jason gave it his best shot, but just didn't have the skills. So he participated in spring football.

He hated it.

Oh, he liked football. He just felt that the spring drills were all conditioning and Mickey Mouse that would be gone by fall anyway. He hated the waste of time and energy.

Especially, the time that he could be spending better either in study or in Moira's bed.

One Sunday afternoon, he mentioned his frustration.

"Why don't you do some other sport in the spring?" I asked.

"Cause my scholarship requires me to do football, since I didn't make the baseball team."

"Have you thought about track?"

"I've never done track."

"The way you throw a football, I'll bet you'd do well in javelin," I commented.

"Just looking at javelin throws, I think it's a whole different technique."

"Naw. More similar than you think. Javelin guys practice with a football lots of the time-when they're in the field house, for example, and can't chuck their spears. Maybe it would even help your football technique... Why don't you talk with the track coach? Maybe somebody would be willing to work with you this summer-see how you do?"

"OK. I'll look into it. Thanks for the idea, dad."

I grinned at him. "I used to hate spring football, too. That's why I did track, to begin with."

Jason followed up on the conversation. After a couple of three-hour workouts with the track people, he had picked up the idea well enough that, with his superior coordination, he could throw the javelin about an average distance for the PAC-10.

The track coach was excited, and definitely wanted him the next year. He felt that, with some good coaching and work, Jason would become very competitive with the javelin.

Remembering that I had helped him recruit Jason, and that I had been an international track star, the football coach went along. As soon as football was done, Jason belonged to the track coach.

Moira, meanwhile, was 'tearing up' high school, academically. After three months in her freshman classes, she "challenged" the classes, passed the finals with solid 'A's, and was advanced to the sophomore class. She finished the year as a sophomore, but had successfully challenged two more classes, and had a quarter of her junior year completed by the end of her first year.

We knew the girl was bright. We had no idea she was that bright!

That summer was a wonderful time for all of us. We stayed in our new Oregon home, and made the process of furnishing the place and settling in an adventure for all of us.