“Gary! Gary Jackson!” a voice interrupts his telling of the story to Janet. He turns toward the voice and recognizes Ron Lumberjack. He instantly stands and hugs the big man before him. They are laughing and looking at each other before Ron draws his attention to Janet.
“Hi, Janet,” he looks down at her, smiling. “Long time, no see.”
Janet extends her hand to Ron, who bends down and kisses it.
“You take us out of the neighborhood but not for long,” she said to him.
“No, you can’t. We had a good time back then, didn’t we guys?” Ron said to the both of them. “Well, Gary, I want to talk to you about the old football days, so I brought you another beer.”
“I want to talk to you, too, Ronnie but I was in the middle of something with Janet. Can I talk to you later?”
Ron looked from Gary to Janet and smiled. He handed the beer to Gary and said, “Sure. Take your time.”
Gary took the beer from him and offered the tip of it to Ron. Ron raised the beer bottle he was holding for himself and clicked the top of his to Gary’s then he left them alone once again.
“I like Ronnie,” Janet said as Gary resettled in his chair. “He was a good friend back in the day.”
“He was, is,” Gary raised the beer bottle once again to his mouth and swallowed a drink. “Where were we when we were rudely interrupted?”
Janet took the opportunity to sip from her glass, too. She set it back down on the table. “I think you were about to talk about Wednesday.”
***
Gary was sitting at the dining room table early Wednesday morning doing the homework he forgot to do the previous evening. He had finished the algebra worksheet and was opening his United States history book to the chapter he had to read when his father entered the room Gary looked up at him and saw he was carrying his shoes with a white shirt and a pair of pants folded in the bend of his arm.
“Morning, Dad,” Gary smiled at him. “I didn’t do my homework last night.”
His Dad smiled, shook his head, and continued to walk past him toward the basement stairs and the shower. He paused in the kitchen and returned to the dining room.
“Remember Gary, if you are not starting on Saturday, I will not be attending.”
***
It was Defense Day at practice. The starting defense was huddled waiting for Coach Moore who was in charge of the defensive strategy. Behind the huddle, he was talking with Coach Simon and Head Coach Stiller among the other defensive players including Gary and Jonesy. The coaches were flipping through papers and when they finally came to an agreement, Coach Moore walked toward the huddle.
“Jackson and Jonesy,” he called out. “Come with me.”
The two young men ran to join him as he entered the huddle. The huddle reshuffled as the three newcomers broke the circle and when everyone settled in, the coach began to instruct the entire defensive unit.
“As you know, the Comets have a star quarterback, Steve Parker, and he is their team.”
Gary shook his head at the start of the speech. It always started the same, every team has a star player who is their opponent’s “team”, and if they stop that person, we stop the “team”.
“Mr. Parker,” Coach Moore continued. “can pass the ball. Their offense is based on him doing that, so we are going to have to stop him from doing that. We are going to use a lot of blitzes this week, mostly up the middle and a lot more from our monster. Tim, are you ready to do that?”
“Yessir!” Tim answered enthusiastically, and Gary could tell from his quick response, he was happy to be doing that.
“And that means the rest of you have to do your job even better than you have all year. Jackson,” the coach looked at Gary directly, “You are going to be a lot busier this week than usual so pay attention.”
Gary looked at the coach and simply nodded. Coach Moore nodded back at him and continued, “The first play today will be our main blitz that we will call B1. It will be from our 52 formation and, Tim, you will line up directly in the middle of our linebackers. That means, Smitty, Andy, and Rick will go into a zone coverage across the back. Okay? Let’s try it. Smitty call it to the huddle.”
Smitty did as he was told, and the huddle clapped their hands together in unison and lined up at the line of scrimmage. Coach Moore, Jonesy, and Gary stood where they had been in the huddle and turned to watch the play develop. Head Coach Stiller walked to them and stood next to Gary.
“Jackson, we are thinking that when you go in, it will be at free safety and Rick will move to Monster to spell Tim,” Coach Still informs him, “Watch the quarterback always and, especially, his eyes. He has to look in the direction he throws the ball and what this guy is good at is throwing the ball to a space to allow his receivers to run into that space to catch it. Their receivers are fast but no faster than our guys. Anticipation is key with this guy.”
A whistle blows ending the play before the quarterback was tackled.
“Way to go Tim!” Coach Moore yelled as the defense re-huddled around him. “Okay, guys, good job. The next blitz, we will call B2. We will use the 61 formation and the DBs will line up in a normal man-to-man coverage but the cornerback away from the tight end will be the blitzer. That means the free safety will have to get over and cover the receiver that the cornerback leaves open. Do you understand Rick? You will have to do a lot of running. Are you up for it?”
Rick nodded in response and Coach Moore told Smitty to call it. The huddle broke and ran to the line of scrimmage.
“And here is the other reason, Jackson,” Coach Stiller continued to inform Gary of his new responsibilities for the game. “Rick will be needing a break because he will be doing a lot more running and we will be needing you to give him a break.”
Gary nodded as he watched the drill in front of him. The tight end had lined up to his left so that meant Andy was going to blitz from the right side of the formation. Rick was already positioned to the at side and he took a step to that side. The center snapped the ball to the quarterback and Andy ran to the inside into the open area as the wide receiver ran past him. Rick had taken one step back and was on the move, running to catch the receiver who suddenly squared off to the left. Rick had to turn on his jets to catch up with him and was narrowing the gap between them when the receiver looked back toward the quarterback. Rick instinctively turned to look back at the quarterback, too, and the whistle blew. Andy had reached the quarterback before he had a chance to throw it.
“That,” Coach Stiller spoke to Gary again. “is the play that will get us. That is the farthest run Rick, or you, will have to do, when the receiver does a down and out. We need the blitzer to get there before their quarterback can throw him the ball.”
The team huddled around Coach Moore and Coach Stiller stepped back to watch with the other defensive players lined up behind them. Smitty was told to call the next play and the team ran to the line of scrimmage. Coach Moore walked back to Gary and stood beside him.
“What do you think, Gary?” the coach folded his arms in front of him with the clipboard positioned under his arm. The offense was lining up and the defense was settling into their 52 formation.
“Sounds fun Coach,” Gary looked at him.
“Could be your big day. We are going up against a pure passer and this game will be right up your alley,” Coach Moore told him. “You love interceptions, don’t you?”
Gary returned to watch the play develop in front of him before he said, “You know I do, Coach.”
A whistle blew and the players re-gathered again in front of Coach Moore who was looking at his clipboard. He looked up at the group and said, “Jackson, let’s get you warmed up,”
***
The activity bus dropped Gary off at the front of his house because he was the last one left on it. Gary bounded the three steps of the bus, turned, and yelled up at the driver, “See you tomorrow, Mr. Bill.”
The bus driver simply waved back, closed the door, and drove up the road. It was around 6:30 and it was already dark. Gary shook his head and said to himself, “It is dark when I get on the bus in the morning and it is dark when I get home.”
He walked up the three steps of the hedge lined walkway to the front door, up the porch, opened it and walked into the house. The lights were on in the living room and his brother Chris was watching the television. His sister and parents were still sitting at the dining room table, leisurely talking among the scattered plates and platters of the completed meal.
“Hi, honey,” his Mother saw him first from the far side of the table facing the front door. “I have a plate warming in the oven. It’s meatloaf. I will get it for you.”
“It was pretty good,” Chris told him from his seat on the couch as Gary passed by him on his way to the dining room.
Gary smiled at him as he placed his gym bag on the floor next to the couch. He passed his father who is seated in the chair opposite his wife with his back to front door. Gary continued to his chair, the second on his father’s right next to his mom, his brother’s empty chair next to his father, and across from his sister, who simply watched him as he sat down.
“It was a great Defense Day,” Gary told whoever was listening. “We are going up against a passer.”
“What does that mean?” Katelyn asked, leaning back in her chair.
“It means I am going to get a lot of playing time Saturday. I will have a chance to make another interception or two.”
“What’s an interception, Gary?” she asked him, feigning interest.
“It means I get to steal the ball from the other team!” Gary said to her as their mother placed a plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans, all of it covered in brown gravy, in front of him. He picked up his fork, cut off a corner of the meatloaf, dipped it into the mashed potatoes, stabbed it into the green beans, and jammed it all into his mouth. He looked at his father who was patiently watching and waiting for him to finish his first bite of supper. Gary reached for his glass of milk that was ready in its usual placement, brought it to his mouth and gulped it. His mother had just sat again when he put the milk glass down.
“Gary are you going to start on Saturday?” his father calmly asked him.
“I am going to play a lot,” Gary started to explain.
Ronald rose from the table, collected his dishes, and carried them to the kitchen. Gary put his fork down, no longer wanting to eat his meal. His father walked behind him into the living room.
“What’s on T.V., Chris?” Ron asked the son in the living room.
Gary stared at his plate when is mother touched his arm and said, “Finish your supper. It will be okay.”
He just looked at her.
To be continued…
My First Stories 