free hit counters
Chapter 78
It was noisy in the locker room. Everybody was up, in high spirits. Josh peeled out of the muddy uniform and threw it in the laundry bin, then sat down on the bench in front of his locker and slowly took off the pads, savoring the moment.
There was a crush of activity in the locker room, as guys got out of football gear, headed for the shower, and got dressed. Many of the guys had dates waiting outside the locker room, and the pizza joint would be full.
Josh knew that nobody was waiting for him. He'd already seen his folks, and they had told him that they'd meet him at home. So, he mostly sat in front of the locker, enjoying the memory, as a lot of the other guys hurried to get cleaned up.
"Hey, Stud," he heard Danny say. "You're looking like you've got your belly dragging, and if anyone ought to be walking on air, you ought to be."
"Man, I don't believe it," Josh said. "I mean, I know it happened, but I just don't believe it."
The Spearfish Lake Marlins had a five-year losing streak in the season opener with the Coldwater Icebergs. Once upon a time, when the schools were in the same league, the game had come later in the season, and it had been the grudge match of the season.
Then, Coldwater had merged with a small school district, and it booted them into the next sports class. Since it was now a bigger school, the game had been moved up to become the traditional season opener. Coldwater was enough bigger, now, that the Marlins usually had a
tough time handling them, unless they had a really hot team.
Both teams had been pretty much unable to move the ball against a tough defense, and at the end of the third, the score was six to three, with the Marlins on the short end. The Marlin's only score had come on a field goal that wasn't intended to be a field goal, just a
punt, but somehow, the punter had gotten a really good kick off, and it went farther and straighter than he'd expected.
Most of the game had been buck it into the line three times and kick, buck it into the line three times and kick, for both teams, and by the time the third quarter was winding down, both teams were getting a little tired when the kicking teams had gone out again. The
Coldwater kicker got a really good kick off; it bounced near the ten yard line, right in front of Josh, but died out.
It was clear to Josh that it wasn't going into the end zone, so rather than to have to start from the two, he picked the ball up and and tried to run it out. There was an Iceberg blocker right at hand, but somehow, Josh was able to get around him. He cut to the left, still
behind the ten, found the field filled with white, and cut back to the right, where things seemed a little more open. Somehow, he evaded another tackle, and one of the guys threw a block on another potential tackler -- and all of a sudden the field was open, there was running room,
and Josh had his throttle in Run-8, heading for the far goal line, the field strung out with blue and gold and white behind him, the Spearfish Lake crowd on their feet, yelling "Go! Go!".
There was only one potential problem left, right on Josh's heels, but somehow, Danny managed to come out of nowhere to get throw a tremendous block. There was no white within ten yards when Josh crossed the goal line.
It was the first touchdown Josh had scored since seventh grade football, despite running into the line an awful lot over the last few years.
The extra point was good, but the game wasn't really over until the end of the fourth, when a big Marlin defense managed to hold the line on fourth and goal, with four seconds to go. The quarterback took the snap and went down with the ball, and heart rates in the
Spearfish Lake stands started to get back toward normal.
There were a lot of high fives, and a lot of congratulations from the crowd, before the team was able to get back to the relative quiet of the locker room for a few minutes, before what would obviously be a night of celebration.
"Who knows," Danny said. "You might even get to start next week."
"That'd be nice," Josh said.
"Hey guy," Danny said. "You sure don't seem like the football hero, the guy that saved the day. What the hell is the matter."
"Nothing's the matter," Josh said. "I guess I just wish Amy had been here to see that. There's going to be a lot of fun tonight, and it sure would be nice for you and me to take Amy and Marsha, and go out and party."
"Well, it's not going to happen," Danny said. "You got to make the best of it."
"Yeah," Josh said, "But it would still be nice."
"Don't lose any sleep over it," Danny said. "That's the thing about a summer love -- it's in the summer. Make the best of it. Josh, it's not summer any more, and you can't get it on with your squeeze if she's not here."
"You can say that," Josh said. "You were the one that was getting it on with Marsha." The subject was out now, and he might as well talk about it. "I don't know what else you did, when I wasn't around, but Amy and I never thought you were going to get out of the
back seat. You two got out of the car with such big shit-eating grins that we both know you two were on the scoreboard."
"Hell," Danny said. "When you two peeled out of that front seat, we could tell you two were the ones heading for the scoreboard. At least you guys got on it. Marsha and I never did."
"What do you mean you never did?" Josh accused. "That's a crock of shit! What the hell else could you have been doing in there all that time."
"Waiting on you two to do your thing," Danny said. "Marsha was pissed with me, pissed with you, but she was really pissed at Amy, but she sort of figured that since you two were doing it, she'd better not get in the way. We waited, and waited, and figured you two
had to really be getting it on to take that long."
"We never did a thing," Josh said. "We talked about it, and decided we'd better go swimming instead. We stayed in the water until we got cold, and then we stayed on the beach, waiting for you two to finish up."
"Hold it," Danny said. "Are you telling me that you two never did, either?"
"We could have," Josh admitted. "But, we didn't."
"Boy," Danny laughed. "Ain't we a pair of sorry sons of bitches. A couple of times, Marsha and I got to talking that since you two were doing it, we might as well, but somehow we never did."
Now it was Josh's turn to laugh. "I wonder if they've told each other yet?"
"They hadn't when they left to go home," Danny reported. "It makes sense now. They were both of them mad at the other for what they thought had happened."
"Well," Josh replied, "I guess I was a little mad at you, too."
"Me, too," Danny admitted. "Well, jealous, I guess."
"Hell, you made me jealous, the way you two were hanging onto each other all last month. I thought you didn't like Marsha."
"We'd never gotten along very well before this summer," Danny said. "But when we compared you and Amy, we kind of got to seeing that we had a lot in common. Well, maybe next summer, we can pick up where we left off."
"That's what Amy said. Maybe next summer."
"Marsha said it, too. Hell, it might even happen. It might get real interesting if we both go to Athens next fall."
"You want to do that?"
"I don't know," Danny said. "Let's face it, if I got to Athens, and she's there, well, a lot could happen. Let's not think about it, now. We'll play next summer however it comes, if it comes. In the meantime, let's go get a hamburger, and see if we can find some Spearfish
Lake girls that are ready for a good time."
"Yeah, at least we won't have to go to Albany River for a burger," Josh laughed. "The hell with them. If next summer comes, it comes."
