Chapter 37

I watched Sara until she disappeared around the corner. Maybe I was starting to understand a little about women. At least now I realized something was a little wacky with her. A few weeks ago I would have gone along with her and thought nothing more about it.

She was around the rest of the day but we didn't talk much other than surface stuff. "I couldn't stay awake", "Too much homework", stuff like that.

After fourth period I headed over to the locker room, got my gym bag and went out to the bus. We were playing Santa Maria, which was almost 45 minutes away, so we were excused from fifth period.

I remember taking rides in the car when Mary was 1 or 2 with my folks. Sparky was always there in the back seat behind Dad, his head out the half opened window, his tongue hanging out about a foot or so. The glass would be covered in spit by the time we got home. Back then it seemed like Santa Maria was at the end of the universe.

Well, population pressure has no boundaries. Now Santa Maria was where the rising young executives lived. We passed billboards advertising housing tracts with "Country Living", "Gated Communities" and prices from "the low $1,200,000's." Although what's low about one point two million is beyond me.

Santa Maria High School had been open just over two years. Their pool was in great shape. They had a fifty meter pool instead of the twenty five meter all the other schools in the district used. Row upon row of individual red plastic seats instead of the benches found in so many schools. Their tennis courts, football field and baseball diamond were similarly luxurious. As was the basketball court. We used the same field for football and baseball, depending on the season. Not Santa Maria. Their golf team got to practice and hold their events on a championship golf course at the Santa Maria Country Club.

The junior and senior classes had been bussed to Sol Vista prior to the opening of Santa Maria. But there was no lack of team spirit. This was their school and they were proud of it. Sol Vista was something they had to put up with a couple of years while the real school was being built.

I was matched up against a senior for all three of my events. Tyrone Willis. He'd finished fourth in State to my third last year. And he'd won every match this year. I had two losses. He wasn't above trash talk.

Tyrone was the only black kid on the team and one of only three or four in the district. I'm talking about swimming. In some schools over 50% of the football team was black.

While he would never make the cut for linebacker on the varsity team, he did have muscles where I had nothing. With those shoulders, he could probably tie a rope around his neck and drag a tugboat through the water.

I believed him when he told me he could mop the floor with me. But I've never been affected by that kind of talk. I used to laugh at the kids on the other team in little league when they'd all try that "Hey batter" stuff on me. Maybe that's what it was for. One time I was laughing so hard I couldn't swing the bat.

Anyway, Tyrone was gracious and shook my hand after I'd won all three events. I was worried I might never be able to use it for a second or two but he smiled and lightened up after he'd made his point.

Coach sat down by me after we got on the bus. "Isn't this better than flipping burgers?" He didn't wait for an answer, he clapped me on the shoulder and headed up to his normal seat next to the driver.

It was 7 by the time I got home. I noticed Barney's old bowls out on the patio. One had water in it and the other had a couple of tablespoons of puppy chow, obviously left over from the puppy's last meal. I don't know which was worse - calling them Barney's bowls or the puppy's.

Mom wasn't home yet. Today was one of her 11 to 8 days. I saw some wrappers in the trash for the frozen burritos Mary liked to throw in the microwave so I figured she'd had something to eat.

I walked down to my room and tapped on her door as I passed by. "I'm home."

The team had made a group decision back at the beginning of the season to skip showers when we had away meets. We figured we could live with a little chlorine on our bodies until we got home to our own showers. Since we just had to towel off and throw some clothes on, we were able to head back to school about 45 minutes earlier than if we'd used the showers.

There were rumors that Santa Maria had big oak tubs filled with hot water and Japanese women standing around the edges with long brushes to wash the bathers' backs. I think a few of us wanted to find out if it was true or not but we had to make our bus.

I took a shower, did what little homework I had and went into the kitchen. Mom would be home in about ten minutes. I checked the freezer and there was a box with six stuffed chicken breasts. Cranberry and Mandarin orange. It's the kind of thing Mom wouldn't have bought if she wasn't interested in trying it so I checked out the directions. Simple. In the microwave, heat for three minutes, turn them over, heat another two and a half, wait a minute, heat another two minutes. I could start them when Mom got home and by the time she'd gotten out of her uniform and changed her shoes, they'd be ready to eat.

I put a scoop of coffee in the Mr Coffee and enough water to make 6 cups.

Next was some water on for noodles and tomatoes. Ever since I was a kid, one of my favorite side dishes was noodles and tomatoes. I remember Mom making egg noodles, draining them, then putting them back in the pot on the stove. No heat. She'd have a good amount of noodles and would open two large cans of canned tomatoes. She would grab some tomato and break it apart in her fingers. She'd go through both cans like that, finally pouring the juice in as well. Stir it up, put a lid on the pot, put the gas on so you could hardly see the flame and stir every few minutes till the whole thing was warm and all mixed together. We had a few huge Tupperware containers, large enough for one and a half 3 pound coffee cans. There was always one of those with egg noodles in the cupboard next to the stove. These days we used the canned tomatoes that were already diced. I always thought we lost something by not breaking them with our fingers. Sort of like running grapes through rollers to make wine, instead of rolling up your pants legs and squishing them with your bare feet.