Chapter 14

Bree had gone to the game with the Wootens, as had become normal for her, but this time, as in the previous week, Becca rode along with them. Bree was a little down, as was everyone in the car. The way the football season had gone, especially for the last month, had everybody on a high, and now it had fallen out from under them. “Look at it this way,” Mr. Wooten said as they headed down the road back to Spearfish Lake. “There’s only two ways a football season doesn’t end with a loss. One of them is when you win the final championship game. The other way is if a team doesn’t make the playoffs but gets lucky enough to win their last regular season game. It hurts to lose, but you have to accept it and get on with things.”

“Yeah,” Bree said. “But still.”

“It’s pretty much the same way in basketball,” Becca said. “Except there everybody makes the playoffs, so even more seasons end with losses.”

“Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?” Mr. Wooten said.

“It’s just the way things work,” Becca said philosophically. “It looks like we’re going to have a good season, even if it doesn’t look like it’s going to be quite the way it was when Mrs. Wine was coaching. Basketball isn’t my favorite sport, but I’m pretty good at it.”

“I’m probably not going to be able to make it to all your games,” Bree said. “Things are going to be a little tighter for me this year than they have in the past. But I’ll try to make it to your home games, anyway.”

“That’s fine,” Becca said. “I didn’t make it to all your cross-country meets as I had other things to do, too. You know, that’s one good thing about your running cross.”

“What’s that?” Bree replied, knowing that Becca was setting her up.

“Since there aren’t any bleachers, I can’t get splinters in my butt,” Becca laughed. “Yeah, there’s some standing around, but you know what? I like watching my little sister getting out there and competing at something, rather than just sitting around home with a book in her hand and a cat in her lap.”

“Oh, I still manage to do that some,” Bree grinned. “But not as much as I’d like to.”

“Yeah, but only because soaring is pretty well over with.”

“I know,” Bree sighed. “The weather just hasn’t been up for it very much the last month or so. I hope I can get a few more tows in this year, but I’m not expecting to be able to do very much with them.”

“Does it get cold in the sailplane in the winter?” Mrs. Wooten asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Bree said. “That’s why I don’t do it very much. And besides, when we get snow on the ground we won’t be able to use the runway. It’ll probably be April before I get to do much flying again, even in Rocinante.”

“You know, I still think that’s the most amazing thing,” Mrs. Wooten said. “You just don’t think of a kid your age actually being able to fly.”

“I guess there aren’t very many,” Bree admitted. “But I love doing it and I had it available, and I like to think I’m halfway good at it. At least good enough that Aunt Jackie and Uncle Mark trust me with it.”

“They wouldn’t let you do it if they didn’t think you could handle it,” Becca said. “You know, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it might have something to do with the fact they never had kids, so never learned to be overprotective with them. I still miss Mom, but if everything else was the same, I can’t imagine her letting you do it.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Bree said. “I miss Mom too, but Becca, we managed to get awful lucky to find such good people to take us in. They’ve been really good about letting us work out what we want to do and trying to help us, rather than being all kinds of restrictive and negative about it.”

“It’s not easy,” Mrs. Wooten said. “I suppose I’m a little overprotective of Jared, but when I consider what we had to go through up until a few years ago, I’m surprised I’m not more overprotective than I am. My brother Randy helped a lot in getting Jared’s feet back under him, not because of restrictions he put on him, but helping him to find his own direction. I’m still a little amazed at Randy over that.”

“Why’s that?” Becca asked.

“Well, when we were oh, you kids’ age, I thought Randy was mostly a little pest and a pain in my butt,” Mrs. Wooten said. “I guess he was just being a kid. You girls have never had a pesky little brother, so maybe you don’t know what I mean.”

“No, not really,” Becca said. “I mean, I’ve talked to kids who think their little sisters or brothers are pains in the neck. I’ll admit there are times Bree has just about driven me up the wall, but overall, I think she’s pretty cool. I mean, I know I’m going to do things she’ll never do, but there are plenty of things she’s going to do that I won’t.

It was a long trip back, but Bree spent not a little time reflecting that if things hadn’t worked out the way they had, she might not have been a part of it, small though it was, or even cared about it. School had been a place to go, to get good grades, and try to get through. Now, in only a few short months, it had become a place where her friends were, where she could share in their accomplishments, where she could accomplish things on her own that other people would recognize.

She’d made more friends than just Autumn, Howie, and Jared; she’d become good friends with several girls on the cross-country team, and had found a real inspiring mentor in a surprising person, a rural mailman of all things. When she stopped and thought about it, she would never have believed it two months before.

It was after dark when they finally got back to Spearfish Lake. Because the buses were slower than the cars carrying the fans, they were a little later getting back. They were met by a crowd of several hundred people, not just the parents, who wanted to let them know that they cared, and that win or lose, they had the support of the community. That may have been the biggest reward of all – nothing had happened like that for years. Bree was waiting when Jared got off the bus, and she had him in her arms in an instant. Howie was a couple people back getting off, but Autumn was waiting for him, and she had him in her arms in an instant, too.

No one noticed Misty at the edge of the crowd, looking on in fury at what she’d had and lost.

It was the middle of November by the time the football season was over with in Spearfish Lake.

Bree’s parents couldn’t be more pleased at the way things had changed for her in the last few months. Having a few friends who supported her and each other had made a huge change in the girl; it was as if she’d literally turned over a new leaf. She was no longer isolated, and she wasn’t as much of an introvert any more. They weren’t quite sure what had happened, but they were just glad it had happened at all.

As November turned to December, the Christmas season started to approach. Slowly, and then a little more quickly, Jackie started to bring more and more Christmas cards in from her daily walk out to the mailbox along the road. They got an amazing collection of them; she and Mark had friends all over the country, even some they hadn’t seen for years. Christmas cards weren’t the best way to keep up with some of them, but they beat no contact at all, she thought.

Because of the odd nature of his job, Mark didn’t work every day. Some days he spent at home, helping Jackie with her sign business, or working on other chores that needed doing; if all else failed, he had projects to work on in his own shop on the other side of the building from Jackie’s. Years ago, Mark had gotten into the hobby of running dogsleds and, along with it, building dogsleds for racers; he’d had to mostly give up dogsledding long before, when his business got too busy to sustain it. He didn’t want to get back into all the hassles of racing them again, but building dogsleds seemed to be something he could do on a time-available basis. After only a few he’d started to get the knack back. He didn’t make very many, but there were several local dogsled racers who were glad to have them.

He was lacing up a sled basket when Jackie came in with the mail. “Bills, and even more junk mail,” she reported. “But there are a couple Christmas cards.”

“Getting to be that time of year,” Mark said, his attention more on the lacing than anything else.

“Yeah,” Jackie said, and started to open the mail. “Hey,” she said, “here’s a card from E.J.”

“Is he back in the States?” Mark asked, paying attention now. E.J. was a very special old friend indeed.

“Looks like Scott Air Force Base,” she replied. “That’s down by Chicago, right?”

“Yeah, somewhere around there. I’m not sure exactly where.”

“Hey, it looks like he made full colonel, judging by his return address.”

“That’s really great,” Mark said. “Boy, you would never have thought that when we met him, would you?”

“Gee zow, no way!”

Jackie shook her head and opened the card while Mark’s mind rolled back – a long way back, in fact.

Back in the early stages of their honeymoon more than a third of a century before, they’d been forced by a storm to land Rocinante at an airstrip near a tiny Florida hamlet, not very close to much of anywhere. A tornado had swept through just about as soon as they had the Cessna tied down; it damaged the plane a little, and worse, left debris strewn all over the airstrip, meaning they were stuck there for a while.

While they’d had some memorable experiences there and met some people who had a strong impact on their lives, the one they liked to remember the most was a black preacher who went by the name of “Brother Erasmus.” While rather limited in his education and very poor, Brother Erasmus had a wisdom and a faith they found enviable, and they wound up learning a lot from him; some of it still stayed with them.

Brother Erasmus and his wife were very giving people, and they’d taken in a small orphaned black kid, a boy by the name of E.J. Seasprunk. He’d been a good kid, curious and smart, as well as being a big help in their stay there, and when he’d asked to go for an airplane ride, Mark was quick to agree. They probably flew around the area for fifteen or twenty minutes, and the boy was enthralled with the idea of flying.

Then one day, Mark and Jackie flew off to other adventures. After six months or so they had reason to stop at the town again, stayed a while, and wound up taking E.J. for another couple rides; it wasn’t the first nor the last time they’d done something like that. Finally, one day they loaded up Rocinante again and headed for Spearfish Lake to start the rest of their lives.

That was the last they’d heard of E.J. Seasprunk for over twenty years, and they had never figured on hearing from him again. Then, one day just before Mark left the telephone business, he happened to be reading Independent Telephone News and found a story about an Air Force major who’d been a top fighter pilot in the first Gulf War. He was looking for the phone repairman who had taken him on his first airplane ride and inspired him to become a pilot. Mark just about fell out of his chair when he read the name: E.J. Seasprunk!

They soon got in touch with E.J., who wound up visiting their home and getting to fly in Rocinante again after all these years. They spent a great deal of time catching up; some months later Mark and Jackie were offered, and accepted, a ride in an F-15 from E.J., returning the favor. A minor act of kindness on their part decades before had planted a seed that had grown far beyond imagination. Although Mark and Jackie didn’t talk about it much, it was something they were exceptionally proud of, proof to them they’d been doing more than just playing on their long “honeymoon” journey.

Jackie read the card, which said that E.J. was back in the States at Scott and it looked like he was going to be in the area for a while. “It’s been a long time,” he wrote, among other things, “but I sure would like to get together with you again sometime.”

“Yeah,” Mark replied slowly. “I’ve been thinking for some time that Bree is getting serious enough about this Air Force Academy business that she really needs to get the inside dope.”

“That thought has crossed my mind, too,” Jackie smiled. “Except that I’ve known E.J. was out of the country.”

“He’s not now,” Mark smiled.

Though Mark was considered to be the leading computer wizard in Spearfish Lake, he was old-fashioned in many ways. One of them was his conviction that personal messages should be personal – and handwritten, if possible. While he was quick to do business by e-mail, it was his opinion that friends deserved much less impersonal communications. While he finished up the lacing on the sled, Mark thought about what he wanted to say, then washed his hands and sat down to write a letter in his neat handwriting:

E.J., it’s good to hear from you again. Jackie and I often wonder about what you’re doing. Things are much the same for us as it was this time last year. I guess we’re getting to the age where that’s to be expected. We still have Rocinante of course; we have no plans to ever sell it.

I know it’s been a while – in fact, probably last Christmas – since I wrote to you, but I’m sure you remember that Jackie and I took in my brother’s little granddaughters after they’d been orphaned. They’re not so little anymore; Becca, the older one, is getting set to head off to college next fall, and Jackie and I are wondering how the time went by so quickly.

Our younger adopted daughter, Bree, has surprised us a little and we’re not sure how to handle it. She’s been saying for some time that she wants to try for an appointment to the Air Force Academy. We have come to believe she means it, and for that matter is pretty determined about it. From what little I know about the Academy I think that she would do well there, and she’s already becoming a competent pilot at the age of fifteen. But I have to admit that Jackie and I are operating in a fog of ignorance about what is involved, and I sure would welcome the opportunity for you to sit down with Bree sometime so you could give her the real story about what she’ll be facing.

We would of course love to see you again. It’s been too long. While Bree is an issue, just getting to see you again and keep up on what’s happening with you would be worth it in itself. We’d be glad to do it at your convenience, of course. Give us a call or drop us a line, and we can work out a time and a place to meet.

Jackie sends her best regards, of course, and says she’s looking forward to seeing you again, too.

Mark read the letter to Jackie. “It seems like it says what it needs to say,” she said. “But let’s not let Bree know about this until we’re sure it’s going to come off.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Mark said as he went looking for an envelope. “In fact, it might be fun to surprise her.”

The winter looked like it was going to be a little slower for the four friends. Although Howie, Autumn, and Bree were doing workouts, the girls at the Women’s Fitness Center downtown and Howie in the school weight room, only Jared was in competition, wrestling, and he was expected to do well. Bree had pretty well given up on getting much more flying in this fall; it was getting too cold, and any day now there would be enough snow on the runway in back of the shop that it couldn’t be used. Now they could buckle down on other things, like studying and being friends, and of course, attending some of Becca’s basketball games and as many of Jared’s wrestling matches as they could. It was considerably less odious to Bree to do it now, since she almost always had some of her friends with her when she went to one of the sports things.

By now the four of them meeting at the table in the far corner of the lunchroom at the school had become routine. Once in a while one of them might miss lunch together for one reason or another, but again the fiction – if it was that – of being boyfriends and girlfriends gave them reason to be together, rather than spending lunch hours with team friends. This was especially true of Howie and Jared; both had gotten tired of the boisterous grab ass and trash talk that often went around at the tables filled with athletes. A good, quiet talk with real friends had become more important to them. Sometimes the four might even chip away at their homework over lunch, but mostly it was just friends talking about things they had in common.

One lunch hour not long after the end of football season, Autumn had something to pass along: “Summer and Alan have still been working on their game, and they’ve gotten another couple modules completed.”

“They’re getting ready for another test run, I take it?” Howie asked. “That last one turned out to be more fun than I expected it would be.”

“Oh, they’re more than ready,” Autumn told them. “They figured that with the football season going on, you and Jared and Lyle and Ashley were going to be too busy to want to get involved. Anyway, they’re talking Saturday afternoon, and they’re talking pizza again.”

“Sure, sounds like fun,” Bree said. She glanced around the table, remembering that the last test session had been the real start of their four-cornered friendship. “Is it going to be at Alan’s again?”

“That’s the plan,” Autumn replied. “They’ve got a little more room there than we have at our house.”

“Well, if we’re going to be doing role playing in the afternoon, we probably ought to have our study group in the morning,” Jared said. “We probably ought to have it at our house sometime, but I hate to do it there, since Jimmy is always raising hell.”

“He’s a little kid,” Howie shrugged. “What do you expect? There’s no reason we can’t have it at my place again.”

“You know,” Bree said, “just to be fair we probably ought to have one out at our place sometime. I know it’s more trouble for the three of you to come out there than it is for me to come in here, but still.”

“We could do that,” Jared nodded. “We can probably get someone to take us out there together, and maybe your sister could haul us all back in for the test session.”

“If the three of you can work a ride out, we could get started about nine or nine-thirty,” Bree suggested. “Becca ought to be up by the time we need a ride back into town.”

“She sure likes that sleeping late stuff, doesn’t she?” Jared grinned.

“That also involves staying up late,” Bree shook her head. “She says sunrises are best seen from the back side. Me, I hate to waste the daylight.”

“Uh-oh,” Autumn said in a loud whisper. “Here comes trouble.”

They glanced up, to see Misty heading their way, carrying a tray. “Be nice,” Howie whispered. “You know what she’s probably up to.”

It wasn’t the first time Misty had tried an approach on Howie since their break-up, now almost two months before. So far, Howie had been able to brush her off or just ignore her, but it was clear she hadn’t given up on the idea of trying to get him back.

“Anyway,” Autumn said in an effort to make it look like they were talking about something, “Summer says they’ve added some new twists to the game, and they think they’ve gotten the balance between the sides a little better. I don’t know how they even can work out what they’re doing in the first place.”

“Well, it seems to work,” Howie said, picking up on Autumn’s direction and trying to ignore Misty’s approach. “But it’ll be fun to see what their twisted minds have come up with this time.”

Misty was standing right next to them by now. “Hi,” she said when she got a chance to get a word in edgewise. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“Might as well,” Jared said, trying to be polite. “If you can stand us talking about homework and role-playing games.”

It was clear that Misty wanted to sit next to Howie, but both Autumn and Bree could see it, too; they slid their chairs apart to make room at the table, which would put Autumn directly between Howie and Misty. Whatever she had in mind would have to go right past Autumn. “What’s this stuff about role-playing games?” she asked. “I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never seen one or anything.”

“It’s what I wanted to take you to when you decided you didn’t want to go,” Howie explained. “It’s more fun than I thought it would be. I don’t think any of us have become real nuts about it, but we’re mostly helping out Autumn’s sister and her boyfriend with developing a game.”

“Howie, I’m sorry I blew you off on that,” Misty replied apologetically. “I shouldn’t have done that, but I had other things I wanted us to do. I mean fun things.”

Howie didn’t miss the message; he’d had it back when they’d broken up by the way she had dressed. In retrospect, it probably wouldn’t have gotten much farther than they’d already been, but the promise of more had been clear whether she planned on going through with it or not, and most likely she hadn’t intended to. “I told you I made a promise and I was going to keep it,” he said. “As it worked out, it was for the best. That was sort of how Autumn and I got to going together. We’ve been doing stuff you didn’t want to do.”

Autumn picked up on the nuance in Howie’s statement right off; by now, she knew a great deal about what had gone on between Howie and Misty. “It’s been real fun, too,” she grinned, reaching out to give Howie’s hand a squeeze.

“Look, Howie,” Misty tried again, ignoring the obvious message Howie and Autumn had been sending, “I’m really sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done that. We had some good times and we could have some more.”

That was pretty pointed to slide right past Autumn, Howie thought. “No,” he said, “the time for that is past, now. I’ve been with Autumn as long as you and I were together, and while she doesn’t play Nintendo, we’ve found other things to do, haven’t we sweetie?”

“Oh, yeah,” Autumn grinned. “They’ve got to be lots more fun than Nintendo.”

“Yeah,” Howie said, trying to divert the direction of the conversation a little. He and Autumn ought to have made their point by now, after all, and there was no need to be too specific. “I even packed up my Nintendo and took it up to the attic. That’s kid stuff. I’ve got more important things to do than waste time with it.”

“We had some good times playing Nintendo,” Misty persisted, getting more direct in the process. “We could have some more of them.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Howie grinned, seeing that she was getting a little desperate. “Autumn has been keeping me pretty busy, and I have other things to do, too. Role-playing games make you think, not just exercise your thumbs. Misty, if you want to play Nintendo, I’m sure there have to be some other kids around who will give you some competition. Doesn’t Wadsworth play around with it?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “But he’s nowhere near as good at it as you are. You were something special, Howie.”

“Well,” he shrugged, “I guess I’ve moved on. You can’t stand still, Misty. You have to keep moving forward in your life.” He took Autumn’s hand again, and gave her a deep smile; if it hadn’t been for the school’s rules on personal displays of affection inside the building, he probably would have kissed her. “I know I’ve moved forward in my life, and I don’t want to go back.”

“But Howie . . . oh, hell,” she replied, picking up her tray. “You don’t even want to try to listen to me.”

“Not really,” he grinned. “Face it Misty, we had some good times, and I’ll be the first to admit it. But I’m having even better times now, and I don’t want to go back.”

“Fine,” she spat. “Be that way. But when she dumps you for someone better, don’t be expecting to be running to me.” She turned and walked away, looking for someone else to eat lunch with.

“Boy, she hasn’t given up, has she?” Jared observed.

“Nope, not in the slightest,” Howie grinned. “Autumn, you did good on that one.”

“That was pretty direct of her,” Autumn shook her head. “Especially to do it right in front of me. She did everything but pull down her pants and plop down in front of you.”

“If the four of us weren’t together in the lunchroom, I wouldn’t put it past her,” Howie said. “And that’s a damn good reason why I don’t want to be alone with her. I’m sure she’d try it. That was something like what Shay Archer said happened with Bethany, and how he got sucked into that trap.”

“You would think she’d have gotten the message by now,” Bree smiled. “But maybe she thinks she has to prove to herself that she can do it.”

“Or prove it to her mother,” Howie sighed. “Again, drawing on what Shay told me, she was the one behind all of that stuff Bethany pulled on him. Boy, am I ever glad my eyes got opened on that one.”

“You think she’ll try again?” Jared asked.

“No, I know damn well she’ll try again,” Howie said. “And if I were to fall for it, that would mean she’d win. I don’t intend to let her win, especially not on that. I mean, I just did everything I could without telling her directly to buzz off, and I’m afraid it’s going to make her try harder. I just wonder what she’s going to try next.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.