Chapter 9

Over the next several days, both Kyle and Emma pretty much laid low, staying around the house, swimming, and once the cartons of his things arrived, organizing them and just helping him to settle in. From time to time, one of Emma's friends would drop by with nothing special in mind but meeting exclusively younger girls made Kyle realize that he needed to meet with Coach Saunders and talk about the coming year. He learned through Emma and Marcie that he could always be found around his office on summer mornings, and Kyle decided to try to see him the next day.

Promptly at nine the next morning, Kyle entered the athletic wing of the high school, and after a minute, recalled the location of his office. "Good morning, Coach, do you have a minute that we could talk together?"

"Sure Kyle, come in and sit down. Close the door if you like. I've missed seeing you and your squadron of cheerleaders on the field of late."

"Yes, sir, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't know if you heard, or how much, but that call from my Aunt Jill that I took last week..." he paused for a minute, "my mom had been scheduled to have surgery that day but something went wrong and she died before they could operate."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Kyle. You have my most sincere condolences."

"Thank you. So, it was my mother's wish that I come to live with Aunt Jill until I am an adult, so I have to get enrolled in school here. This will be my senior year and I wanted to find out my options for playing sports."

Coach Saunders, after referring to a guide book that he kept in his desk, went over all the requirements that would allow Kyle to be eligible to participate in the sports program, and no obstacles were indicated. "I think that you told me that you played wide receiver, and I know that you can kick field goals. Do you have a preference for positions?"

"I'll play wherever I can contribute, sir. I don't want to knock some other guy out of a chance to play, especially because I'm the new guy and don't know any one anyway. I like to play wide out, yes, because I can usually out run any defender if I can get behind them. It never did much good back home, because we never had a quarterback that could throw it as far as I ran."

With a smile that nearly went from ear to ear, Coach Saunders replied, "Well, Kyle, I don't think you will have that problem here on this team, at least not this year. We have two young men that can pass accurately about forty yards. I don't know what they did to develop their arm strength, but I have seen them each do it repeatedly. We've just never had anyone that we could count on to catch what they threw. As far as kicking goes, you are a blessing in disguise. It's too early to have any scheduled practices yet, but I could have my daughter make a few phone calls and see if we couldn't round up some of the fellas tomorrow morning, just so that you could meet them. Of course, if you brought along your footballs and they just showed up, I can't be there you understand..."

"You can count on me sir. I'll be at the track before nine and kicking shortly after that. Thank you."

When he returned to the house, Jill said that she would like to have a little time to talk to him privately. Emma was on the pool deck so Jill and Kyle went into what Kyle discovered was Jill's home office.

"I just wanted to go over a few ground rules with you. You have a cell phone that has my number and Emma's number already in its memory. Please, please call one of us immediately if you ever need help with anything, or just feel strange or lost or alone or anything like that. I would also like you to maintain reasonable hours, especially on school nights. I don't know what hours you kept before, but I don't think it is unreasonable to ask that you be home by ten on school nights, and on date nights, don't know. I do realize that it is different for a guy than it is for a girl. Emma isn't even allowed to date yet, but I'd let her if she'd ask me -- she just never has. And I don't care who you date or where you go. I am not here to be the cold water on your senior year social activities. I just ask that you be respectful of everyone. I am also not stupid or blind. I can see that you are a very handsome young man, and from what I've heard about your abilities on the football field, you will be a popular guy too. At your age, I know that your hormones are running full blast. I'd be really surprised if you hadn't already slept with several girls. I know that kids do that today; kids did it when I was in high school, only our moms pretended that we didn't. All I ask is that you don't force any girl to do anything that she does not want to do. Are you okay with these requests?"

"Yes, ma'am. They aren't much different than before, except the part about having sex. Mom was always kind of naïve about that."

"Oh, one other thing. About the car, I know that driving a SUV is not the kind of car that most young men want to be driving. Is there another car that you would rather have? I'll be happy to trade that in for whatever you'd like."

"That car is just fine. It will hold all my stuff for football and a bunch of friends as well. And Emma likes to ride in it too, so, how can I go wrong?"

"I think Emma is waiting for you to swim. Why don't you go ahead and join her." Kyle went immediately to his room to get his suit but Jill remained behind, thinking about Kyle's last comment. "Strange," she thought to herself," that he is concerned about whether Emma is comfortable riding in his car. Is he that sensitive to the feelings of others?"

"S'pose that's him?" Jason and Mike were approaching the track from the west side and the sun was shining directly at them.

"Who's he running with?"" Mike replied.

"I think it's Billy Pinehurst, the Sheriff's deputy."

"Yeah, you're right, it is Billy. He was always a pretty fast runner."

"They are really smoking it now. Look at them go!"

Billy had accepted Kyle's offer to help him become a better runner, and they were in a partial sprint lap. It was definitely faster than Billy had ever run before, but Kyle didn't seem to be even breathing hard. Billy broke away soon after and Kyle ran one more lap before stopping and walking for a cool down. He noticed the two boys standing talking and Marcie approaching from some distance away. He stopped and walked toward them. Marcie closed on the group just in time to make the introductions. After a brief history, Marcie said, "My dad said that Kyle would like to get in some workout time catching passes from you guys. He said ... well, just throw some passes to him will you. Oh, and Billy, sir, Dad said that you should play defense."

They started on the twenty yard line, just because that's where Kyle had dumped his bag before running. Kyle ran a half dozen simple wide outs with Billy doing his best to defend. Finally Kyle suggested that they turn around and run the other way. Kyle had a way of sometimes saying things that would have been better phrased another way. "Billy, I'm going to run straight down the field. Jason is going to thrown the ball as far as he can, and I'm going to catch it. Ok? Just wanted to tell you what the play was in advance."