Before I stepped out of the car and went to knock on Sharon's door, I removed a pair of Ray-Bans from the glove compartment so that I could protect my eyes from the glare of the sun. I began shifting my weight from one foot to the other while simultaneously casting a gaze at the ground below the porch. The second container of mums that I had left for her was ultimately planted in those flowerbeds. As Sheriff Brown answered the door, I flashed him a grin and pondered whether or not I ought to say anything about them.Not what I had anticipated at all."Oh...um...hi," I mumbled incoherently. "I'm here to pick up Sharon," the speaker said."Yeah, I've heard," he muttered under his breath. He gave me an elaborate welcome by throwing his arm out and opening the door all the way for me. As soon as I stepped into the little foyer, I could hear Sharon's footsteps coming up the stairs. "Just so we're clear, I think your little 'plan' is a little bit insane," I said. "For the record."He employ
As soon as I noticed that she had found a seat near the back of the room, I began making my way toward my Shakespeare class. I hadn't gone very far when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, and as I turned around, I saw Holder Jerry's face."Phanuel!" he said with a grin on his face."Wassup, Holder?" He remarked to me as he leaned in toward me like a conspirator, "I was going to ask you the same thing, man!" "I was going to ask you the same thing, man!" It was impossible for anything to remain covert while he was talking at such volume.My response was, "Don't know what you're talking about," and I emphasized that point. As I pushed his hand off my shoulder, I increased my speed a little bit.He cried, "You and the Brown girl!" at the two of them. As if I had no idea what he was getting at. He picked up the tempo of his walk in order to keep up with me. I was under the impression that you had already hit on that whore! When did you start coming back for more seconds on pussy?I be
I reassured myself, "It's okay," as I worked to maintain control of my breathing. "It's really not that bad...it's just that there's a certain spot where I have to hit it, you know?""I don't know," Maxwell stated his uncertainty. "No one has ever broken any of my ribs," she said."Rib," I was the one to correct him. The answer is "only one."“Whatever.” He gave me a moment of his undivided attention as he dusted off the ball and then re-deposited it on the ground. I positioned myself so that I was directly in the middle of the goal and squatted down, observing the tension in his legs and hips and trying to figure out which direction he would move in and which way he would kick the ball."All right, guys—let's get some practice in!" The voice of Coach Wagner could be heard calling out from the sidelines. When I looked over to the stands, I saw Sharon walking up and standing close to the fence beside the bleachers. At that moment, everyone began to line up in the center of the arena.M
I yelled, "Hey, Crystal!" at her. She was accompanied by Braden and Riana as they made their way back toward the school. Tripp and Maxwell remained close to the stands, watching as the audience members departed. "Get over here!"She cocked her head to the side to look at the other females, who laughed, before tossing her hair over her shoulder and walking up to where I was standing."Ready to see some reason, Williams?" she asked with a mischievous grin on her face. "Ready to see some reason, Williams?"My response, which was tinged with sarcasm, was, "Funny," and I added that "I was going to ask you the same thing."It is not my responsibility if she is unable to cope with the facts. The nasty little whore glared at me with her eyebrows arched in a defiant manner as she bobbed her head at me.She was going to be very sorry about all of this in the future.I whispered, "Come over here," as I took her arm and walked her around to the side of the building, where she would be hidden from
My sketchbook was gone.I closed my eyes and focused on maintaining a slow and regular breathing pattern as I did so. However, it was not successful. I was aware of the strain that was building up in my muscles as well as the acceleration of my heart rate throughout my entire body. Because of the trembling in my fingers, I had no choice but to set the magazines down on the floor. However, I could not allow for it to continue, so I quickly reorganized the items and placed them back on the shelf of the nightstand.Perhaps all he did was shift it.I quickly scanned the area, looking for any other differences that may have occurred. It was getting increasingly difficult to take a full breath, and my chest pained whenever I did so.The shelf for the books—The six books that were no longer parallel to one another were brought into order by me.Two of the soccer trophies that were displayed on my dresser were tilted at an angle relative to the others.The leather sofa that was pushed up agai
I ran the tip of my tongue over the bottom of my lip as I concentrated entirely on the flavor that she was going to have. As I brought her closer to me, I made my grip on her side a tad firmer and gave her a very slight tug. Sharon's hand sneaked up behind my back and behind my head.As I got closer, I could feel her breath brushing up against the corner of my mouth. I was even able to taste it. As I closed my eyes and took a deep breath through my nose, I inhaled her aroma and let it wash over me. In doing so, I was able to close the last, tiniest gap that existed between us.My lips met hers.This is the softest.My thoughts were going in circles inside my head. My skin began to crawl with goose bumps, and everything else around us seemed to slip away and vanish from my senses. Aside from the faint brushing of our lips against one another, there was no sound, no sight, and no other feeling.Warm.Heavenly was the only word that sprang to mind when I tasted her.I gently nudged her l
I couldn't help but think of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when I heard those words: "He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." Sheriff Brown managed to terrify me, despite the fact that he had never previously had such an effect on me before Sharon came around.Now, what was it that he desired?When I entered Sharon's house with her father, I made a conscious effort not to give off the impression that I was as terrified as I actually was. When I was in her room with her just ourselves, it did not have the same ambiance as the rest of the house. Sheriff Brown entered the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and then removed a can of beer from the back of the shelf."Williams, please take a seat." While Sheriff Brown sat back in a recliner, I sat on the edge of the couch cushion and pondered whether or not it was possible for my balls to find their way back into my body after I had finished going through puberty. They damn well gave the impression that they were attempting to. bit Sherif
Page following:I responded with "Okay," thanks. What else could I possibly say? I mean, really. I made an effort to concentrate and get my mind in the right place. I even tried not to think about what I was going to do if he flat-out prohibited me from being in her room or whatever, but that was an even harder scenario to fathom than the one I was trying to avoid thinking about."When Sharon first told me about you coming over last night and ending up in her bed, my initial thought was that you belonged on the blasted couch. She told me that you ended up in her bed. If you find yourself in need of a place to stay, I won't refuse you shelter under any circumstances, but the bed in my daughter's room is not an option.When I tried to picture myself sleeping on their couch in the basement while Sharon was upstairs in her room, my eyes rolled down to my feet, and I took a deep breath as I did so. I didn't care for it very much, but at least he didn't keep me in the dark for an excessivel
EPILOGUE "Oh, come on! You can do it! You can do it!I did a half-jog down the side of the field while yelling at the seven first graders who were running up and down the pitch in a tiny clustered shape. It looked like the ball was the queen bee, and the kids were the worker bees. It made no difference which position they were meant to be in because in the end, they were all within three feet of each other."Spread yourselves out!""Stay on your side!" is a command.“Jonathan! You're on defense! Get back!"Jonathan Walsh did not stop chasing after the ball until he noticed his mother standing on the sidelines with his younger sister and a pouch of Capri Sun. Jonathan was surprised to see his mother in that position. He came to a stop directly in front of her."Do you have any juices available?"Maria greeted the youngster with the words, "Here you go, sweetie," as she passed the child a bag containing sugar water. While he was there, the opposing team went right past him and scored a
That evening, I sketched a drawing of Sharon's hand, depicting the ring that she was wearing on her ring finger. She admitted that the tears she shed were happy tears, but it was still enough to make her cry. I was the one who held her, and we both came to the conclusion that we would wait until after we had graduated before we actually did the deed.Words from Shakespeare that I had never pondered before found their way into my head: "When this ring parts from this finger, then parts life from hence." [Shakespeare] "When this ring parts from this finger, then parts life from hence." Simply having the awareness that it was present made a world of a difference to me.At this point, I am willing to hold off."Are you okay?""No," I answered. I laughed, but it sounded more apprehensive than happy and there wasn't much delight in the sound. "Is it absolutely necessary for me to be here?"Gardner nodded his head in agreement as he stated, "It's rather customary." They aren't just going to
Once more, he turned his eyes to look at me, and the space between his thick, dark brows was tightly knit together."I already missed so much of your life," he whispered to her. "I'm sorry." "I don't want to miss out on anything else."I was completely at a loss for words regarding my response. When I was trying to think of something that my dad, Lou, had ever done that was even remotely comparable to this, thoughts of him kept popping into my head. Despite the fact that he had repeatedly brought to my attention the extent of the things he had given up for me, nothing could even come close to competing with what he had done.I gave in and said, "That's not something you have to do."His response was, "I know I don't have to," and he was right. When he saw that I was sitting on the opposite side of the bed, he got up and walked around to that side. Before continuing, he sat down next to me and resumed his conversation. "Williams, I am interested in doing this. I long to be in physical
I responded with, "Bullshit," "I'm going to walk again—Danielle even predicted I would. Even though it will probably be another few weeks until I walk, I will walk. I won't be able to play again... at least not to the same level as before. I am aware of that. I have come to terms with it.""I know you say that," she remarked as she walked back over to the bed and clasped my hand in hers. "but I also know that it still has to get you down."I shrugged."Occasionally," I was honest enough to say. "However, I am also aware that despite what my father has always said, it is not the entirety of my existence. I really hope that I'll be able to...I don't know, at the very least I should run around and kick a ball again at some point in the future, but if I don't, I'll just have to learn to live with it. Perhaps I'll try my hand at coaching or something. You wouldn't be in my life if I weren't the way that I am. When compared to that, losing at soccer is a pretty fucking tiny setback.Sharon
"This is complete and utter hogwash!"When I was in that situation, I would have given almost anything to be able to get out of my chair and punch a hole in the wall that separated me from Justin's office in the rehabilitation center where we were both working. I did nothing but sit there with my hands clenched into fists and pressed on my eyes instead.My resentment for Lou, my father, surfaced from deep within me, as it had been doing so frequently in recent days, and poured out in the form of tears.It was the worst thing ever.I looked over at Justin, who was seated in the chair directly across from me. He had leaned back in the chair, which caused the front legs of the chair to raise up off the floor a little bit. When we chatted, he never had a notebook, a clipboard, or anything else with him, so I always wondered a little bit if he just recalled everything or if he wrote it down afterward. He never had anything with him when we talked.There were times when I, too, despised him
“Yeah.” When I looked up at him, I noticed that he was smiling for the very first time since I had met him for lunch."Thanks, Williams," was the response he gave.My response was, "You're welcome," and I meant it. “So, um, what should I call you?”His forehead wrinkled up in concentration."Um, what do you want to call me?" "Whatever you want.""I don't know," I confessed to myself. "I have always referred to Lou as Dad. I really don't want to refer to anyone else by that name.""I'm not so sure I'd be completely comfortable with that, either," he said. "I'm not so sure I'd be completely comfortable with that."I remarked to him, "I've just been calling you Gardner in my head," and he laughed.He let out a laugh."Since I've been playing in the band, I can't say that anyone has really called me that, but if they did, I wouldn't mind.""Cool," I said. I extended my hand and we exchanged handshakes. "Gardner it is."Soon after that, I had pretty well had it with sitting in the fucking
I did nothing but sit there as a busboy cleaned up the shattered glass and a server attempted to remove all of the water that had accumulated on the table. I didn't know what to make of the situation, and it made me anxious. The toes on my right foot continued to twitch, as they had previously done on occasion. Danielle explained to me that it was only a habitual response. In spite of the fact that she claimed it to be a positive omen, the event drove me completely insane. It was impossible for me to make it stop.My…father…Dad…Williams…I was at a loss as to how to properly address him or even think about him. Within my head, I had recently begun referring to him as Gardner. That appeared to be working about as well as anything else could have. Gardner was also just sitting there, but he had his hands balled up into fists, and he had hardly no food left on his sandwich. He was completely silent up until the moment the server walked away.“How?” When he spoke, though, it was in a raspy
"No," he responded. "I don't believe that to be the case, at least. She stated that it was imperative that she do it once more. I simply could not...fuck...I had such a hard time recalling her name that it was embarrassing! However, there she was, insisting that I was the only one for her, and...and...shit!I was startled when he slapped his hand down on the table with such force. He leaned in close to himself and rubbed the backs of his hands in front of his eyes."You have my utmost respect. She shared with me how much she admired my work and that she had seen each and every one of my Hamlet performances when I was playing the title role. Even though she thought the band's music was terrible, all she cared about was seeing me. I was completely at a loss for what to do. She had traveled all the way from the western shore just to discover that she had no method of getting home. I invited her to remain with me, but she was only here for a few weeks. I should have known things wouldn't
"You want me to come in?" I asked. When Sharon inquired. "I can just wait in the lobby or something," she said. "I have no problem with that.""It shouldn't take long," I remarked to myself. I think it would be easier for me if you could simply, I don't know...hang out here for a while? I could give you a call if it appears that the process is going to take longer than expected.As she examined me, Sharon's eyes become somewhat constricted at one point."All right," she murmured in response. "You can find me in the car.""Thanks," I said. I made an effort to grin at her, but I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm for it. I had to roll quite a distance away from the entrance on one side in order to access the wheelchair ramp, and then I had to push myself quite hard in order to make the angle. I had not yet gotten acclimated to climbing steep slopes, therefore doing so was not simple for me. When I arrived to the door, there was one of those buttons that you could push to make the door