The football dreams of Dex Martin, perhaps the most gifted athlete to ever come out of River City, Tennessee, ended that afternoon. Gone were the dreams of instant riches from an NFL contract.
When everyone else left the room, Dex and Marie stared at each other for a long time before he finally spoke. “Well, I guess I have to start planning my life all over again. Playing professional football is the only thing I’ve thought about for years, but now that’s out the window. Marie, I’m going to graduate from college in about six months, and I don’t have a clue what I’ll do with the rest of my life.”
Dex was somehow maintaining his composure, but Marie wanted to cry because she knew how disappointed he was. Instead, she smiled, held his hand, and said, “Dex, you’ve always been a fighter. I don’t know what you’ll decide to do, but you don’t need football to be a success. You can’t be as close to someone as we were as kids without knowing what they are made of. You’ll be successful no matter what you do; you just need to decide what you want to do and start working toward that goal.”
In the past when people talked about Dex and success, it was always linked to athletics. His worth as an individual had always been related to his ability to throw a football, and until now it never occurred to him that this was a rather shallow way for an individual to be defined. Marie had just told him that she was confident he could be successful in something other than athletics; her belief and support couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
Dex’s career-ending injury proved to be an epiphany in his life. Whatever he might ultimately decide to do, providence had just forced an irreversible detour that completely changed his focus. He had to concentrate on academics, as he should have at the beginning of his college career. Unfortunately, he now only had about six months to prepare for whatever goal he was going to pursue. He had a 2.5 grade-point average, but ever since he had been in elementary school, his teachers had said that his scholastic ability far exceeded his actual achievement in the classroom. That had to change immediately, and he vowed while still in the hospital that he would start applying himself in ways he had never done before.
The physical rehabilitation from his injury and increased emphasis on academics occupied most of Dex’s time in the next few months. The developing relationship with Marie was a major motivating factor to work hard on his rehab and academics. They talked by phone at least twice a week, but when the screws and external fixator were finally removed and he could once again drive, he made the trip to Atlanta every Friday after his last class. He spent Friday and Saturday nights on the sofa in her one-bedroom apartment. The sofa was definitely not his idea.
Chapter 7
Dex and Marie spent so much time together that friends started posing questions like, “What’s really going on between you two?”
Their typical response was to just laugh and say, “Oh, we’re just good friends.”
But they weren’t fooling themselves or anyone else; they were rushing headlong into something a lot more intimate than mere friendship. Dex had never been particularly timid or reticent around other girls, but so far he was with Marie. The baggage of their childhood friendship presented a barricade that he had not yet figured out how to breech. He even wondered if it would feel incestuous to kiss his former buddy. They enjoyed and treasured every minute they could spend together, but so far they both shied away from talking about the changing nature of their relationship.
To further complicate the situation, Dex was intimidated because Marie was already a successful entrepreneur running a profitable business. He was embarrassed by his financial situation. Instead of wine and dinner in nice restaurants, they drank beer and ate pizza and take-out Chinese in her apartment.
One night after eating another cardboard-tasting pizza, Dex finally spoke up. “Marie, I know before I started dominating your weekends that you dated some doctors who took you to fine restaurants, and I’m embarrassed that I can’t afford to entertain you that way.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Dex. I know you’re still in school, but if you really want to go somewhere, I’ll be happy to pay for it.”
“That isn’t going to happen. You may think I’m chauvinistic, but I’m not going to start letting you pick up the tabs.”
“Well, your birthday is in two weeks, so at least let me take you to dinner to celebrate that.”
Dex didn’t even like that idea, but he reluctantly agreed, and Marie made a reservation at Southern Nights, one of Atlanta’s new upscale restaurants. When they left the apartment the night of the date, Dex was wearing the only suit he owned and the new tie Marie had bought him for his birthday. Marie was stunning in a simple, black, off-the-shoulder dress, adorned only with the pearl earrings and necklace she had borrowed from her mother for the evening.
At the restaurant, heads turned as the couple was led to their table. Dex was accustomed to being recognized, even to being hounded for his autograph, but this was entirely different. The people weren’t watching him; all eyes, including his, were on Marie. She ignored the stares with the grace of a woman who knows she’s attractive but is not very impressed with it. It occurred to Dex for the first time that few things were more appealing than a lovely woman who doesn’t define herself by her appearance.
If Dex had ever had any doubt about his feelings for Marie, they disappeared when she smiled at him across the candlelit table. He had fallen completely in love with her. He still had no idea how to broach the relationship subject with her, but he vowed to himself that before the night was over he would finally muster the courage to tell her how he felt.
As the elevator descended from the rooftop restaurant after dinner, Marie said, “Do you realize that we have never danced together? There’s a little jazz club near the apartment, and I think we should drop by there tonight.”
“You do remember that you’re talking to the guy with a gimpy leg, right?”
“Oh, come on, you’re not going to use that as an excuse. Your limp is almost completely gone.”
Dex soon forgot about the lingering twinge in his leg as he held her close, shuffled his feet, and slowly moved on the dance floor. After the first few minutes, Marie abandoned the traditional waltz hold and locked her hands behind his neck. He followed her lead, putting both arms around her slim waist and pulling her closer.
Marie whispered, “The music has stopped.”
Dex continued to sway with the music in his head and asked, “What music? I kind of like this.” He thought to himself, or maybe he even whispered in her ear, “I’d be happy if we could dance like this all night.”
They were both silent in the drive back to her apartment. Dex was thinking about how to broach the subject that he had vowed to himself he would address tonight, but he had no idea what she might be thinking. He could tell that she was worried about something because worry always put a deep crease in her otherwise flawless forehead, and one had been there since they left the club.
When they walked into the apartment, Marie led Dex directly to the sofa and asked him to sit down. She backed off a few feet and said, “Dex, just sit there for a minute. Something has been bothering me for weeks and I need to talk about it, so please let me finish before you say anything. If I don’t get this out now, I may never again have the courage. It’s embarrassing, but I’d rather talk about it now than try to explain it if things get more complicated.”
She closed her eyes and paused for a moment before saying, “I’m falling in love with you. Maybe I’ve always been in love with you and was just too pigheaded or afraid to admit it, even to myself. I don’t know how you feel about me, or if you have ever even thought about how you feel.”
She paused again, but when he didn’t say anything, she continued. “No matter what you think, you damn well better not laugh at what I’m about to tell you. The point is I’m twenty-two years old, I have very little experience dealing with r
elationships, and I’m a complete sexual neophyte.”
Dex smiled and started to get up, but she wasn’t through pouring out her heart.
“Look Dex, don’t start getting any ideas; I’m not ready to jump into bed with you. I don’t even know where we’re headed, but wherever it is, I know I’ve never been there before. I’m confused, and I’m unsure about how you feel about our relationship, or whatever you call what we have going here.”
Dex started to respond, but she held up her hand and stopped him.
“Dex, if the time ever comes when I’m ready to make the commitment, which I’ve never made before, I don’t want the decision to be made in the heat of passion. I want it to be made because I love and trust you, and because I think we have a future together.”
She stopped abruptly, but when he still didn’t say anything, she continued. “Okay, I’m through embarrassing myself. Now you can laugh, leave, or do whatever you think is appropriate, because this may be completely one-sided and never have crossed your mind.”
When Dex stood, Marie melted into his arms as he whispered, “Marie, I’ve been in love with you for a long time, and yeah, consummating that love has crossed my mind every minute for the past three hours.”
Dex was a little surprised that kissing his “buddy” didn’t feel weird, but he wasn’t surprised that he once again found himself sleeping on the sofa. It would take more than a declaration of love to overcome that barrier. He was at least glad that she had mustered the courage to say what he had wanted to say. They had finally defined their relationship, and he no longer had to conceal his true feelings for her.
Chapter 8
The following Saturday night Dex and Marie returned from a movie and parked on the street in front of her apartment. They were laughing and talking as they got out of the car, but Marie suddenly stopped laughing, and Dex saw that she was staring at a man walking toward them from the other side of the street.
“What’s going on, Marie?”
“Let’s get inside, Dex; you don’t want to talk to this guy.”
“Who is this? Do you know him?”
She didn’t answer, but the man said, “Well, Marie, you sure don’t waste any time.”
“Bill, what are you doing here? I told you to stay away from me. If you start any trouble, I’m going to call the police.” She took the cell phone out of her purse and dialed the first two digits of a 9-1-1 call.
Dex was looking back and forth between the two of them. It was obvious that they knew each other and that Marie was very upset, but he had no idea what it was all about.
“Why shouldn’t I start trouble? Are you afraid junior here will find out what kind of harlot he’s going out with?”
At that point Dex had heard enough. He grabbed the arm of the man she had called Bill and said, “I don’t know who you are, but you better back off before you get your butt kicked back across the street.”
Bill turned and took a round-house swing at Dex, who easily deflected it with his left shoulder. Dex’s uppercut started somewhere near his waist and snapped Bill’s head back when it connected with his chin. He went down like a bowling pin and didn’t make a move to get back on his feet. Marie was pulling on Dex’s arm, and when he turned toward her, the man managed to get up on his knees and lunged at him. His shoulder hit the injured leg, and Dex cried out in pain, stumbled backward, lost his balance, and fell on his back. Bill scrambled up on top of him, grasped Dex’s head in his hands, and was trying to smash it against the pavement. Even though his leg was throbbing with pain, Dex managed to flip Bill over on his back and ended up sitting astride him. He pulverized his face and head with both fists until the man stopped trying to fight back and was just trying to cover up.
Dex’s rage replaced all reason. Marie was screaming for him to stop, but he continued to viciously batter Bill’s face until she finally grabbed his arm. Bill was bleeding profusely from his nose and had two ugly facial lacerations. One was a three-inch-long gash under his chin that was a result of the initial uppercut. Marie knew it was going to require a number of sutures.
When she helped Dex to his feet, his leg was in so much pain that he was only able to hobble to the apartment steps before he had to sit down.
“Who is this jerk, Marie?”
“His name is Bill Bishop. He’s a doctor that I worked with and dated a few times, but he’s also an obsessive lunatic. I told him a long time ago to stay away from me, but he can’t seem to understand that I don’t want to have anything to do with him. I’ll fill you in later, but I’m going to call an ambulance now.”
Bishop had partially regained his senses and was trying to sit up. Blood was streaming down the front of his sports jacket and white dress shirt. “I don’t need a damn ambulance, but you better tell your lover that he has just made a serious mistake. He’s going to regret getting involved in this.”
Dex tried to get up off the steps, but the intense pain in his leg forced him to sit down again. Bishop took the opportunity to get to his feet and make it across the street to his car. Before speeding away he yelled, “You haven’t heard the last of this, you bitch, and your lover is never going to see me coming when I pay him back.”
After she helped Dex upstairs, Marie told him the story about how Bishop’s bizarre behavior led to his dismissal from the hospital staff and how he blamed her for his problems and threatened to kill her during his session with the staff psychiatrist.
“Why haven’t you reported this to the police? The guy threatened to kill you?”
“I don’t want to go through that whole process of going to court and testifying. He’s working in Birmingham now, and after the beating you just gave him, I doubt if he will ever come around again.”
Chapter 9
Dex graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He still hadn’t even had a job interview. The only prospect he had was from a small high school outside Savannah that was interested in hiring him as a head coach. The school hadn’t had a winning season in years, and he didn’t want to coach anyway, so he simply told them he wasn’t interested.
Gigi’s house in River City was in a declining neighborhood and needed a lot of repairs that she couldn’t afford. Dex had not told her, but he had planned to buy her a new house with the signing bonus he expected to get from the NFL. Now that wasn’t going to happen, and he felt that he had to move back to River City to take care of her. Gigi was still in pretty good health, but she was getting to the age where health would become more of a concern, and he was her only living relative.
Fate had slapped Dex in the face and now he had to swallow his pride, forget what might have been, and move back in with his grandmother. On his first night back in River City, he climbed into the same bed he had slept in most of his life, and he knew that this time it wasn’t just for summer vacation. He had come full circle. He was twenty-two years old and once again dependent on Gigi for room and board, just as he had been when he was a five-year-old orphan. He thought that when he graduated their roles would be reversed, but until he got a job, he couldn’t even support himself.
Dex stayed awake for hours staring at the plaques and trophies on the bookshelf in his old bedroom. He remembered how proud he was when he received each one, but he now realized how meaningless this entire childhood memorabilia was to an adult. If he had not known that Gigi treasured all of his awards, he probably would have thrown them all away.
If Dex had any marketable skills, he wasn’t aware of them. He didn’t have any idea what he might be qualified to do. His prior job experience consisted of being a paperboy, lifeguard, and laborer. There was nothing there to enhance a résumé, and the ability to hit a receiver on a deep fly pattern wouldn’t impress many personnel managers. Of course, he did have a degree in business administration, but without some practical experience, his degree wouldn’t differentiate him from al
l the other business graduates who would be applying for the same jobs. Dex had always had an unpretentious self-confidence, but now he was anything but confident about his future.
As he lay in bed that night, Dex thought back over the few meaningless jobs he had had. He enjoyed his paper route, and the lifeguard job was fun for a couple of summers. The worst job he ever had was working at a factory loading twenty-five-pound boxes of bottles in a boxcar. At the beginning of each shift, the boxes were pretty light, but eight hours later each box felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. The only pleasant memories he had about that summer job was the time he spent with Doris Jean Lewis. She worked inside the factory packing the boxes that Dex later stacked. She was far too intelligent to be spending her life at the end of a conveyor belt, but Doris Jean, who he quickly nicknamed DJ, had been infected at birth with what Eugene O’Neill called “the most deadly and prevalent of all diseases.” But if poverty was her diagnosis then hope was her elixir.
DJ’s father deserted the family, and she had to drop out of high school in her senior year to help support them. The factory was the only job she could get, but she had hoped that it would be for only a short time. She had dreams back then of getting her GED and going on to college.
Intelligence is a God-given gift for most people, but in her case it was a curse. She was smart enough to understood her dilemma but unable to do anything to change it. Even though she was attractive, bright, energetic, and personable, poverty had crushed her dreams, and she had finally accepted her fate.
DJ was nineteen when she met Dex and was already three years into the mind-numbing job of packing bottles in cardboard boxes. Before she met him, she rarely dated and actually preferred to spend her free time in the public library. Her library card was a passport to a world she would not otherwise have known. The literary giants of past generations were her best friends.
Appalachian Intrigue Page 5
