Winter Hearts

by A. E. Radley

  “Dallas? Austin?”

  “Mom, we’ve talked about this. I don’t want to teach fourth grade in Sweetwater forever.”

  “But what about Seth? He needs to grow up here, where his family is. He can’t do that in Dallas or in Austin. Now, if you’re in Abilene, he can…you can teach there and still live out here. What’s so bad about that?”

  Emmie, putting off for a moment answering a question she felt like she’d already answered a thousand times before, raised her hands to her head and rubbed her temples. “I know Mom, I know. I just…I just have to go where the opportunity is. What if there isn’t anything for me in Abilene? It’s not as big as Dallas or Austin.” I just have to get away from here, she thought to herself. I have to get to somewhere where I can finally be myself.

  “Think positive.”

  That’s what I’m trying to do, Emmie thought.

  “The good Lord will provide, child. He always provides.”

  And that’s what I’m afraid of.

  CHAPTER 3

  Thursday Evening, September 8th

  Emmie figured she’d be the first one in the classroom. She was mistaken. Cass was there waiting for her when she walked in.

  The brunette stood by the desk Emmie had used the first night holding out a bright red apple in one hand and the signed release form in the other one.

  “How long have you been standing there like that?”

  “Well, hello to you too.”

  Emmie didn’t respond. She put the laptop bag down on the chair and started unpacking it instead while Cass looked on, smiling.

  Unable to bear the silence after more than a minute of it, Emmie broke it. “Did you get your homework done?”

  “Of course, teach’. Wouldn’t want to come to your class unprepared now, would I?”

  “It’s not my class.”

  “You’re going for a Master’s in education though, right?”

  Emmie nodded.

  “So, you’re planning on teaching at the college level someday; am I right?”

  “Yes, but not this.”

  “Let me guess; your BA is in English Lit?”

  “No.” Emmie gave Cass a tight-lipped grin.

  “Not going to tell me, eh?”

  “It isn’t relevant.”

  “For me to know?”

  “No. It’s not relevant to my thesis. It was in early childhood education.” Her tone was brusque.

  Cass shook her head. “Look, I’m trying to extend an olive branch here. We got off on the wrong foot the other day. I don’t have a problem with your research. I…I was just curious, is all. I brought these for you.” She held out the apple and the form again.

  Emmie paused for a beat and then accepted the form. “Thanks,” she told her, “but you can keep the apple.”

  “Suit yourself,” Cass said.

  Emmie stared as the brunette polished it against her chest and then raised it for a bite and caught her looking. Embarrassed, she turned quickly away and busied herself with her computer.

  Cass grinned broadly, turned and moved just a couple of desks down in the back row. She sat down, pulled out her text book and acted as though she hadn’t noticed a thing, but she watched Emmie out of the corner of her eye as she munched on the apple and pretended to read.

  Emmie tried to look anywhere but at Cass.

  “Okay folks,” Lucius said to the class, “that’s a wrap for the first hour tonight. Take about a ten-minute break and then gather up in the hallway. I know you toured the turbine lab when you applied, but we’re going to have it to ourselves tonight and I’d like to take you over there and show you a few things you have to look forward to once we get some of the theory out of the way.”

  Emmie stood and stretched as people started filing out of the room. She planned to give them a few minutes to use the restroom or take a smoke break and then she hoped to talk with a few of them informally in the hallway. She hazarded a glance to her left. Cass hadn’t budged.

  Lucius made his way back to them. Addressing Cass first, he asked, “Don’t you want a break before we go over there?”

  “Naw. I’m good, Lucius,” she half shrugged.

  “Suit yourself but there’s no easy exit to the restroom once we start looking into the clean room.”

  Cass just nodded his way. Emmie picked her own brain during the exchange, trying to recall the clean room from her personal tour of the facility with the department chair just days before.

  “There’s a clean room for the turbine lab?” she asked him Fox when she just couldn’t picture it.

  “Uh, yeah. Well, sort of. They share one with the sciences for testing lubrication mixtures and, uh, that sort of thing.”

  Emmie wasn’t convinced that, that was the case at all, but she didn’t feel right questioning Fox.

  “Will you be going over with us…Ms. Warren?” Lucius asked her before she could frame any sort of a response at all.

  “No, I don’t think so. I’ve seen it. A tour isn’t a good time for me to be poking around for answers to my questions. I’m sure they’re going to have plenty of questions for you. I’ll probably just head on home. I have…” she glanced sideways at Cass, “some things I need to take care of for tomorrow.”

  “Oh. Okay then. I guess,” he glanced at Cass too, “I guess this is it. I’ll see you back here Tuesday, right?”

  She nodded. “Tuesday.”

  Once Lucius left the classroom, Cass rose. “I don’t care what you say. That man has a thing for you, baby girl. Too bad he’s clueless.” She headed toward the door.

  “Excuse me?”

  She stopped, and half turned. “I said clueless.”

  “I heard what you said. What did you mean by it?”

  “You know exactly what I meant.” With that, she left too.

  CHAPTER 4

  Friday Evening, September 9th

  Sweetwater Mustang Bowl

  “Finally; halftime,” Emmie groaned to her, sister, her oldest sibling. She stood up from her seat in the ancient wooden bleachers and shook out her left leg. “I think it’s asleep.”

  Her sister Cora leaned back and stretched her arms over her head. “It has been a real slow game, hasn’t it?”

  “Lord, you aren’t kidding! Lowest scoring home opener I can remember.” Emmie rubbed the back of her thigh and watched the long line of fans snaking out of the lower stands toward the concession stand and the bathrooms. “Why do we always have to sit way up here, anyway? I could really go for a Coke, but that line is going to take forever.”

  “So, we can have the rail to lean back on, silly and, besides, Tyler knows right where to find me in the crowd if he needs me.”

  “He’s the quarterback. He’s not down there lookin’ for his mama!” Emmie chided Cora.

  “Hey, you never know what’s going to happen.”

  “Shush you! Don’t even say such things! If our mama were here, she’d give you what for.”

  Cora ignored the warning. “If you really want a drink, you best be going. You might have a chance of making it through the line and back before kickoff. We start the second half with possession, remember?”

  “I’m going, I’m going. I’ll tell you this though, if that left guard doesn’t start protecting a little better, you’re going to have one banged up kid on your hands tonight.”

  Emmie joined the slow-moving line out of the stands, eventually reaching the track around the fenced in field. She shook her head in wonder as she looked down at the new cork running track. All this money on equipment and athletes, she thought, and none of it for the comfort of the fans.

  “Hey Ms. Warren,” a pre-teen boy called out from over to her right in the second row up in the last section of the stands.

  She nodded her head and sketched a wave at her former student then laughed as his buddy next to him elbowed him.

  “What are ya’ hitting me for? She was my teacher in the third grade.”

  “I thought I recognized you. You’re n
ot wearing your glasses.”

  Emmie’s head shot around to the left to find Cass walking along beside her.

  “Where did you come from?”

  “I told you; my nephew plays for the team. He sort of lives with me right now.”

  “Sort of? You live in Sweetwater?” Emmie was puzzled, and it showed in her tone.

  “No, ah, Merkle. He’s a transfer here. His parents, actually, just my sister, is in Abilene. When his dad left them a couple of years ago, he got a little hard for her to handle…got a case of the ass, I guess you’d say.”

  “Why isn’t he playing in Merkle then?”

  “Their team was set. They wouldn’t take a walk on.”

  “Oh.” Emmie continued on her way, not sure what else to say.

  Cass kept close to her as they wound through the milling crowd. “Headed to the restroom?” she asked.

  “Concession stand.”

  “Me too.”

  ‘Just great,’ Emmie thought.

  She reached the nearest stand about a half a step ahead of Cass. Taking her chances, she quickly chose a line and hoped it moved fast. She didn’t want to miss the second half kickoff. The other woman fell in behind her.

  “So, you’re a teacher?”

  “Yes,” she answered without turning. She scanned the menu board instead wondering what Cora might want since she’d forgotten to ask.

  “Third grade, I take it?”

  “Fourth grade for the last couple of years.”

  “How long have you been teaching…if you don’t mind my asking? I mean, you’re the one that ought to be asking me questions, I guess, but…anyway.”

  Emmie half turned toward Cass then, resigned to playing twenty questions with the brash and nosy woman while they waited. “I’m off the clock right now, in both cases. To answer your question, this is my eighth year.”

  “Wow, you’re kidding. I never would have guessed that. You look so…so young.”

  Emmie felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. She quickly turned to face the stand again and moved up a little as the line shifted. She drew in a breath and let it out slow and then another.

  A man left the front of the line with a box carrier holding four drinks and a large bag of popcorn. The lines were tight, and he had to fight his way through. As he jostled along past them, Cass, trying to get out of his way, bumped into Emmie.

  “Sorry. Sorry,” she said as she latched onto an arm when she reached out to steady her.

  Emmie was wearing a simple long sleeve hoodie in the relative warmth of the late summer evening. The other woman’s touch was like an electric shock running through her. She jumped, not from being jostled, but from the surprise of her own reaction.

  “Oops,” Cass said. “I’ve got you all off kilter.”

  If she only knew, Emmie thought. She shook her head to clear it. “I’m fine. Fine. Almost lost my balance is all.”

  When Cass let go, Emmie instantly missed her touch.

  “Hey Prater!” a guy addressed Cass from the line to their left.

  She looked over at him. Recognition dawned in her eyes. “Lev.”

  “That nephew of yours better settle down in there. He’s going to get our QB nailed if he doesn’t step up.”

  Emmie eyed Cass. “The left guard is your nephew?”

  “Jimmy Rogan, yep.”

  Cass switched right back to the man giving her a hard time. “He’ll be just fine Lev. You wait. He’s just getting started.”

  “I sure hope you’re right.”

  “Me too,” Emmie told her. “Tyler Haines, the Quarterback, is my nephew.”

  “What are the odds?” Cass muttered.

  It was twenty-one to seventeen, Sweetwater down, with a minute and five seconds left to play, when they received a kickoff in their own end zone to start their last series with the ball on the twenty.

  The home crowd was on its feet but subdued after the opposition touchdown and extra point conversion for them to take the lead moments before.

  “I’m so glad Mama and Daddy decided to sit this one out and keep Seth tonight,” Emmie said. “Daddy would be spitting nails right about now.”

  “You know he is, Em. He’s got it playing on the radio,” Cora reminded her.

  Emmie felt her sister tense next to her as Tyler and his teammates took the field. “I wish they’d let Fred put one of his defensive backs in at left tackle. Even his second stringers would give Ty better protection than Rogan has been tonight,” Cora said about her husband, the defensive line coach for Sweetwater.

  “You’re forgetting,” Emmie reminded her, “that it was Fred’s defense that just gave up a touchdown.”

  Cora shot her sister a sideways look but then started cheering as Tyler fell back in the slot and spiraled a nice pass toward the opposite sideline, far enough for the first down. His receiver got out of bounds to stop the clock. “Way to go Tyler! Good job boys!” she screamed.

  The stands all around them erupted in excitement. A minute and two seconds remained on the clock.

  “Plenty of time,” Emmie said.

  Tyler took the snap again. He fell back two steps then two more. He looked to the right down the field. His first look receiver was covered. He looked left. Rogan held his man as Tyler scanned for an open receiver on his weak side. The crowd started screaming and then it seemed as if time stood still when the guard on the right lost his grip on his man as he slipped and fell.

  The defensive lineman made quick work of getting over the fallen guard and hitting Tyler hard, sending him crashing to the turf. The whistle blew. The boy managed to hang onto the ball, but he lay there, writhing in pain as the crowd looked on in near silence.

  Cora scrambled past Emmie and raced down, out of the stands. Emmie followed.

  A uniformed cop stopped her at the fence to the field.

  “That’s my son!” she screamed over his shoulder.

  “I can’t let you on the field ma’am. Just calm down. The docs already out there with him.”

  Emmie took her sister’s arm then watched as the boys on both teams took a knee. She could finally see Ty again, surround by his coaches as he lay there. He was moving his legs. That was a good sign, she thought. He’s going to have to come out for a play, is all.

  CHAPTER 5

  Friday Evening, September 9th

  The hospital waiting room was crowded. Half the team had left the game as soon as it was over and shown up to support Tyler, without bothering to go to the locker room and change out of their uniforms.

  Emmie waited off in a corner by herself. Only Cora and Fred were allowed in with Ty while he was being evaluated.

  Their mother was calling her every ten minutes, asking for an update. Emmie didn’t have anything to tell her other than that they were waiting for the x-rays.

  She couldn’t sit any longer. She got up out of her chair and wandered down the hallway toward the vending machines. As she stood there staring but not really seeing the contents the double doors next to the vending room opened. Cass wandered through them from the main part of the hospital.

  “What…what are you doing here?”

  “The team is mostly here, I take it?”

  Emmie nodded.

  “Jimmy wanted to come but he, ah, he has a curfew he has to keep…judge’s orders.” She turned her head away but continued talking. “Anyway, I ran him home and then I came in his place.”

  “You didn’t have to. Tyler’s going to be fine. He’s complaining that his side hurts. He got out of the ambulance and walked in here on his own. He seems to be coherent.”

  Cass let out a breath she’d been holding. “Well, that’s a relief.”

  Emmie nodded but stopped when the doors from the ER, back in the other direction swung open. She looked toward them and then started moving quickly that way when Fred stepped out and looked around. Three quarters of the people in the room looked at him expectantly.

  He looked for Emmie then dipped his head slightly to acknowledge he�
�d seen her. He cleared his throat and addressed the whole room. “Thanks, everyone for coming. Tyler really appreciates it. Unfortunately, you can’t all go back there to see him. You can’t because he’s just got a couple of cracked ribs and a pretty nasty bruise that will be with him for a while. They’re taping him up right now and then they’ll be letting him out of here.”

  A cheer went up. When the boys settled down again, one asked, “Will he be able to play next week, coach?”

  The head coach jumped in then. “One day at a time fellas’. One day at a time. He needs to heal.”

  “I’m so sorry Coach Haines,” a uniformed player called out.

  Emmie looked at Cass and whispered, “That’s the right guard.”

  “Not your fault, son,” Fred Haines told the boy.

  “Yeah it is Coach. I didn’t plant my feet right.”

  “Tell you what,” Fred said to him, “How about you and Coach Leeds work that out between you? I’m not laying blame son. We’ve all lost our footing playing this game. We’ve all been banged up playing it too. Ty’s going to be just fine…good as new in a couple of weeks or so.”

  The boys started picking up their gear and moving outside. Fred made his way over to Emmie.

  “We, ah, have a little bit of a situation,” he began.

  “What’s up?”

  “I rode over here in the ambulance with Ty. My car’s back at the field. He’s going to have to lay flat in the back of Cora’s car and she’s going to have to drop me off over there to pick up mine. Can you call your dad to come down here and get you?

  “Yeah, sure…” Emmie started to say.

  Cass interrupted. “Don’t do that. I can run you home.”

  “No, no. I couldn’t put you out like that. You’re going completely the opposite way.”

  “You’re not putting me out and, besides, you can use the opportunity to play twenty questions with me.”

  At Fred’s expression, Emmie explained, “Cass is Jimmy Rogan’s, um, aunt. She’s also in the wind energy program I’m auditing as part of my master’s thesis research.”