Chapter 18

As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end."

For me the end came at the hands of the returning softball players who had been cleared to play ball again. At first, having one or two returning players on the team did not cause an issue, because at first the returning players tended to replace the JV players that had passed on the agreement that Julie and the rest made. With only two weeks left in the season and the conference already won, the varsity coach decided that it was not right for the players injured on the bus not to get their positions back. That of course moved half of my harem down leaving Julie, Stacy, and Aimee the only three junior varsity players on varsity. The other three did not like the idea of them being moved down while three continued playing varsity.

Within a week of their demotion to JV, a rumor was being spread that certain girls on the team were receiving some type of enhancement. That of course to anyone not in the know thought it was steroids or some other type of performance enhancing drug. Unlike the previous investigation, this one brought in the state's athletic organization, and instead of just focusing on the girls' softball team, the investigation expanded and drug tests were ordered for all the sports teams.

Then while everyone was waiting for the results to come back interviews were given and for my part I simply stated that as a player and a trainer I had never seen or heard of any players using any performance enhancing drugs. That the investigators did not ask the correct questions was not my problem, even then if I had a desire to tell them what I could do who would believe me.

That was the way it went and I will say that I had no idea who it had been that started this but at the end of the investigation none of the girls who had been with me had said a word. The only students that ended up being busted turned out to be from the football team. The few that were juniors were notified that they would have extra time for their summer vacations, as they would not be considered for the team in the fall.

While the investigation was ongoing, the reformed girls' team did make the state playoffs but lost in the second round as the entire team was there minus Rosemarie who was still out with pins throughout her feet, which were crushed in the accident. That of course left Julie as the sole JV player on the field. In the end Julie did what she could, hitting three homers plus a double but the girls fell eight to five to the team that would become the state champions.

The rest of my social life was not a lot better as Faith decided that she was pissed at me after all, due to my time with Sierra. Then after Sierra returned to her boyfriend, and my fight, she was happy visiting several times when my sisters were not around as they had decided that living in town was more their style; living with our mother and Francis. When word got out that I had six girlfriends, Faith went from being pissed to actually despising me, refusing to say hello when Brodie and I were invited to Easter dinner.

Barbara on the other hand kept her word and every month she would stop by with her gym bag in hand, full of cash. Cash, that contrary to the fifty thousand that I was required to pay taxes on, the monthly ten thousand went into the hidey-hole in my closet I discovered, left behind by my father. The reason the money went there was that the fifty thousand Brodie deposited for me ended up being reported to the IRS, which made me eligible to pay taxes. Paying my taxes after the first of the year, I discovered that the government was screwing me. That was because I was single and without any deductions, that of course meant I had to pay full price. For the fifty thousand I received I ended up paying twenty five percent and received nothing. After that, I decided that if my money was untraceable, then it would remain untraceable and for the next five months the money disappeared never to be seen again.

That changed in May when Barbara rode over on her horse saying that there was a problem as her father had received orders to North Carolina. The problem was that they could not afford to have two homes so they were selling the ranch and moving the entire family to North Carolina. We talked about what we could do about the rest of the money I was owed. She was willing to send cash but that would be too easy to divert so that was out and I did not like the idea of her sending me checks or money orders as those could be traced.

In her frustration, Barbara posed our problem as a hypothetical question to her parents, which they saw right through putting the entire situation together along with the monthly ten thousand dollar cash withdrawals. With what they figured out Barbara and I decided that a couple more people in the know would not be so bad. What would be worse would be if they tried interfering and that would cause delays until Barbara was twenty-one then she would have control of her trust fund. So, Barbara and I took turns telling both of them what the agreement was and how much she agreed to pay me if I could get her walking again.

Of course, they balked at the amount Barbara offered. She reasoned with them saying if she had not been hurt then there would be no money. Therefore, if she could use the money to restore what the money was for then she considered it a good trade. At the time, her dad still had sticker shock but after a couple of minutes, accepted his daughters' reasoning. His acceptance in turn brought us to the problem as to how to transfer the rest of the money in the time they had left. In the end, we all agreed that there was nothing that could be done directly and I would have to pay taxes on everything. Brodie pointed out that since I had most of the year still ahead of me, a good accountant and attorney could lessen the amount I was going to have to pay. I did not like it but with so many people involved, and automatic reporting by the banks there was nothing anyone could do.

A week later with school out for the summer I found myself with a certified check sitting in front of Brodie's accountant, tax lawyer, and financial planner, listening to their comments about what had happened to my first paycheck, each of them nodding in understanding at what had happened, The accountant mentioned that if I had opened an account after the first of the year they would have had an entire year to get things in order. After they explained Brodie's and my error the three of them got together stating that would not happen a second time.

By the time Brodie and I left the meeting, I was feeling better, because not only did the three of them state that there were ways to reduce my taxes, but by the end of the year, I should have more money in the account than I started with. Overall, in all I thought the meeting went well.

The rest of the week, I spent working on the farm with Brodie taking care of the odd chore or working on the various tools that the two men he hired did not have time to take care of. Three days later Brodie finally declared that he would just hire an extra man, since he did not have the energy to pick up the slack any more.

Hiring someone to pick up what he could not do worried me because from the time my mother and I first arrived at the ranch he had always worked. Saying that he would hire someone to do what he always had done concerned me and during lunch on Friday, I mentioned my concern. All I got back was a grim expression and a thank you for my concern but that if it was his time to go then he was ready. Of course, I offered to use my ability to see if there was a problem and possibly fix it, but he rebuffed me again saying that he was old and if it was his time, there was nothing that I could do.

All of this was done at lunch on Friday as Brodie stated that he wanted to take me out to eat before my coach picked me up to take me to the first of the football camps he had scheduled for me. There were three camps he wanted me to attend, the first two being, receiver and defensive back camps followed by the linebacker camp. After that, I had two weeks off around the fourth of July, then two more camps with another running back camp then finally an offense/ defense camp.

Of course, I did not want to go, but Brodie insisted saying that he would still be here when I returned. He was even standing on the porch with me when Coach Vanderbilt, or Coach Van to his players, showed up ready for the long drive to Portland. I was not the only player he was driving, as there were four other players plus his young son who was too young for the camp but got to attend anyways with his father.

The drive itself proved interesting when we finished driving through the mountains and started driving along the Columbia River. For me, the river was interesting, as I had never seen that much water outside of the ocean and thinking that it was all in one place blew my mind. After that, the gorge was entertaining and Coach Van was not averse to stopping allowing us to get out and walk to several of the falls to stretch our legs.

Once we arrived at the college that was sponsoring the camp, we spent some time getting our room assignments and meeting our new roommates, since none of us had requested to be roomed together. The three other guys I had for roommates were nice enough, but talking to them as we put our clothes away I discovered that two of them liked to brag. Both of them were from different cities but their stories were the same in that scouts had spoken to them the previous year and they were there now to make sure that they were good enough to play in college. The third kid in the room with us was simply there because his dad wanted him to follow in his footsteps playing in college ball at a division three school and this was his attempt to get away from his father for a week.