by Gregg Stutts
CHAPTER 98
By the next day, all the national networks and ESPN had picked up the story. For the most part, they were getting the story straight, which looked bad for just about everyone involved. Some speculated about Max’s involvement—what he knew and when he knew it—but generally speaking, he was portrayed as the courageous whistle blower.
As expected, there’d been major fallout for those involved. The state police were handling the investigation. Donnie, Alex and Mike had already been arrested in connection with the deaths of Dante Jones and Jack Murphy. Terry Cook, the chief of police, and several of his officers were arrested on corruption charges. And the state attorney general was assuming control of the Lakeside Police Department.
Within twenty-four hours of the Touchdown Club meeting, the NCAA had announced an investigation into the football program at Northern Arkansas State. While it appeared to Max that Joe Patterson had no prior knowledge of Donnie Black’s activities at the Pioneers Foundation, he was in a no-win situation. An hour after the NCAA investigation was made public, Coach Patterson called a press conference and announced he’d just met with the university president who’d accepted his resignation after thirty-seven years as head coach.
Max was sorry for the way he’d made the charges public and had caught Coach Patterson off guard, but he had no other choice. As much as he respected Joe Patterson, his and Michelle’s safety were more important.
The Lakeside Board of Education held a special meeting on Thursday night and terminated Bill Jackson’s employment. Criminal charges against him were pending. Max couldn’t help thinking it would have gone much better for him had he only cooperated when Max had given him the chance. The board voted to keep Max on as football coach pending the outcome of the state police investigation.
CHAPTER 99
Max opened the newspaper on Friday morning. The lead headline was Coach Henry Keeps Job at Lakeside. Max skimmed the article. No real surprises, which was nice. The biggest question was whether or not the university would receive the death penalty—the complete shut down of the football program. That wouldn’t be known for some time.
Since the issues surrounding the program seemed to be confined to the foundation and not the actual athletic department, the death penalty seemed unlikely. Still though, it would take years for the football program to recover. What Joe Patterson had spent almost four decades building was being torn down in a matter of days.
It was 8:00 a.m. when Max finished reading the paper. Kick-off against Ft. Smith Northside was in eleven hours. Max took a sip of coffee and was grateful to still have his job, unlike Donnie Black who would probably spend the rest of his life in prison.
Dave Turner had coached the team all week in preparation for Northside. Max had a meeting with him at 9:00 to be brought up to speed on the game plan and how the week of practices had gone. If Lakeside was going to finish above .500 and make the playoffs, tonight’s game was a must-win.
After the last five weeks though, the term “must-win” had a different meaning to Max. Donnie Black and Jack Murphy had gotten carried away by a must-win mentality and it had cost people their lives.
If there was a must-win for Max, it was with Michelle. He’d lost all sight of that, but didn’t plan to make that mistake again. He was looking forward to Michelle meeting with Willy and Rose. If they needed more help, then Max was ready to see a counselor also. He vowed to never again let anything come between Michelle and him.
And he couldn’t imagine anything that would.
CHAPTER 100
Three weeks later…
Max called timeout with :03 remaining in the game. Lakeside had moved the ball to the Van Buren 27 yard line. Van Buren led 21-20. They’d had a chance to tie the game late in the 3rd quarter after a touchdown, but the extra point was wide right. Now Max needed the same kicker who missed the extra point to hit a game-winning field goal from 44 yards.
Max took his kicker aside to try and calm him down. The kid already felt terrible for missing the extra point. He knew how important it was to win the game. For most of the 4th quarter, he’d assumed he’d cost the team the game and the season, but a fumble by Van Buren with just three minutes left had given Lakeside new life.
Max looked at Tommy Edwards, whose helmet seemed a size too big. “How ya feelin’, Tommy?” Max said.
“Okay, coach,” Tommy said in a garbled voice while nervously chewing on his mouthpiece.
“Your mom and dad here tonight?” Max said.
Tommy nodded yes.
“It’s fun playing on Halloween, huh?” Max said. “I’ve seen some crazy costumes tonight.”
Tommy nodded again. His eyes were as wide as saucers.
“I’ve seen you hit from 44 yards in practice,” Max said. “You’ve got this.”
Tommy kept nodding.
“Can I tell you something?” Max said. “Football is a great game, but it’s just a game. I forgot that and almost lost my marriage. Others forgot it and it cost them their careers and reputations.” Max paused. “It’s just a game. And games should be fun. So have fun with this, Tommy.”
The official blew the whistle and called both teams onto the field. They lined up and the official started the play clock. Van Buren players were moving around trying to create confusion for Lakeside. It looked like they were going to get a push right up the middle where they had some of their biggest players.
Lakeside’s center snapped the ball. And Van Buren got a great push right over the center. The snap was slightly high, but Lakeside’s holder reached up and pulled it down. Tommy was stepping toward the ball just as the holder got the ball in place.
The Van Buren players jumped and extended as much as they could. Tommy’s foot connected with the ball, which just cleared the outstretched hands of two defenders. Tommy hit it well, so it would have the distance. The ball was starting to hook and there was just enough of a breeze that it was pushing the ball left. Tommy had been afraid to miss it to the right again and had overcompensated.
The ball sailed into the bleachers beyond the end zone where the Lakeside band sat. And then the Lakeside band threw their hands in the air and screamed. The officials positioned underneath the goal posts looked at each other, took a couple steps forward and put their hands up indicating the kick was good. From Max’s angle, the kick had looked wide left, but Tommy had just snuck it inside the goal post. The Lakeside players ran onto the field to celebrate.
It was a great moment, but Max had a new perspective. He believed what he’d told Tommy. Football was a great game, but only a game.
While the team celebrated on the field, Max turned to find Michelle in her usual spot in the stands at the 50 yard line two rows under the press box.
But she wasn’t there.
CHAPTER 101
Max was up early on Saturday morning feeling good about the win the night before. Their record now stood at 5-4 with just one game remaining against Bentonville. A win meant a definite playoff berth. A loss wouldn’t automatically knock them out, but they’d be depending on someone else to lose also.
With everything that had gone on in the past couple of months, Max was very pleased to be in a situation where the playoffs were still on the table.
Max made coffee, poured a mug for himself and one for Michelle and brought hers to the bedroom. He set it on her nightstand. She rolled over, looked at it and said, “I don’t think I can do coffee this morning. Still feeling a little sick.” She hadn’t felt good the previous night and had left the game early.
“Do you think you’ll be well enough to meet with Willy and Rose?” Max asked.
“I think so,” Michelle said. “Let me see how I feel when I get up.”
Max had wanted to introduce Michelle to Willy and Rose sooner, but October had flown by. Willy and Rose had traveled to visit some of their children and grandchildren. Then between football and Michelle’s schedule at school, there just hadn’t been time. It was hard to believe it was already November 1s
t.
Michelle was feeling better by the time they had to leave, so they were able to keep their appointment at 9:00. Willy opened the door and led them inside to the kitchen. The mornings were cooler now, so Rose had set the breakfast table inside.
Over the next hour, they ate breakfast while Willy and Rose asked Michelle about her family, her job, her dreams and then her feelings about how she and Max were doing. He’d really been working on being a better husband. Fortunately, he didn’t hear Michelle share anything that surprised him.
Eventually, the conversation shifted to everything that had happened a month ago, starting with Willy covering Max’s flight to New Jersey.
“I don’t know how I could ever thank you both for all you did. If Max hadn’t come to New Jersey, I’m not sure where we’d be today,” Michelle said.
Max then walked them through the time in New Jersey, the drive home and being chased by the two guys from the Pioneers Foundation.
Michelle then shared more of her feelings that had led her to leave Lakeside and go to New Jersey in the first place. As she shared about the time she spent in Seaside Park, Max was hearing a few things for the first time, especially a few things about Chris. She didn’t go into great detail, so Max’s imagination began to fill in the blanks.
After Michelle finished her story, Willy and Rose opened up about some of their struggles earlier in their marriage. They assured Max and Michelle that greater joys and deeper intimacy awaited them, if they were willing to persevere through the valleys.
They all agreed to meet again the next Saturday.
At home, Max prepared to watch film from the Van Buren game. Michelle still wasn’t feeling well, so he wanted to be close by in case she needed him.
Michelle went to the bedroom to lie down while Max got settled at the table with his laptop and yellow legal pad. As he was pulling up the Van Buren video, something Willy once said suddenly popped into his head…
“Don’t be surprised by trials and difficulties. They’ll come when you least expect them.”
CHAPTER 102
On his drive home Monday evening, Max found himself thinking about the breakfast with Willy and Rose on Saturday and how it was becoming harder to not ask for more details about Michelle’s time with Chris.
He had been trying not to press too hard about it. He wanted to give her room to share things when she was ready. It wasn’t easy though.
For the first week after they’d left New Jersey, Chris had called or texted her constantly. At first, Michelle had ignored him. When that didn’t stop him, she finally answered one of his calls and made it clear it was over; she was sorry for hurting him and didn’t want to hear from him again.
That worked for a couple days until he started calling and texting again. That was when Max answered one of the calls and told him he wanted the harassment to stop. It turned into a shouting match before Max finally hung up. Fortunately, it worked. Michelle said she hadn’t had any contact from Chris in almost two weeks.
Max got home just after 6:00 p.m. and found Michelle in the kitchen. “Hey, Shelle, something smells good.”
“Oh hey, I didn’t hear you come in. It’s almost ready.”
“Can I give you a hand?”
“Nah, I think I’m okay. Go ahead and relax.”
“I really don’t mind helping. How about I do the salad?”
Michelle didn’t respond, so Max got to work on slicing the tomato and red onion. He couldn’t help noticing Michelle was unusually quiet. He tried to think of anything he may have done to upset her, but nothing came to mind. Finally, he said, “Shelle, have I done something?”
Michelle stopped what she was doing and turned around. She looked at Max and he could see she’d been crying. “Max, we need to talk.”
He immediately felt a wave of panic run through him.
Michelle took his hands in hers, but only stared at the floor.
“Shelle, are you okay?” he asked. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
After a moment, she looked at him and said, “I’m pregnant.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
I want to thank you again for purchasing this book! If you liked it, I hope you’ll leave a review on Amazon. That would be a great help and very much appreciated.
I’m currently (as of mid-March 2015) working on the sequel and plan to release it in May 2015. In it, we’ll discover Max and Michelle aren’t out of the woods yet as they face additional trials and dangers. If you’d like to read some of it before it’s released and help me choose a cover, then sign up for my weekly newsletter by clicking here.
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Gregg Stutts
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