the Hill (1995)

by Scott, Leonard B

  Jason broke from his reverie as the varsity offense lined up on the ball. The quarterback barked out the signals and was snapped the ball. Both lines clashed in an explosion of pads, forearms, and grunts as the quarterback faked a handoff to the plunging fullback and quickly pitched to the halfback Simmons.

  Jason was hit by the right end but spun off the block and ran laterally along the line for the halfback. Seeing a hole, Simmons cut back inside, but the hole closed a split second later as Jason filled the gap and lowered his shoulder for the impact. Simmons didn’t have time to react and was hit in full stride. The blow caught him in the stomach and he fell backward, only to be hit again by Chuck Halloway, whose blow caught him across the helmet.

  Jason jumped to his feet and embraced Chuck. The two began to beat each other’s helmets when Coach Duggin grabbed Jason and shoved him back, screaming, “You stupid fool! You hurt him! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Jason looked at Simmons, who was slowly getting up with the assistance of the trainer, then back to the red-faced coach. His eyes turned cold but he spoke evenly, trying not to show his disdain. “I’m giving you one hundred percent.”

  Duggin’s face contorted in rage, and he began to shake as if he were about to explode. The trainer’s squeaky voice broke the silence. “He’s just stunned, Coach.”

  Duggin pointed his finger at Jason’s face. “Smart-ass, you’re lucky you didn’t hurt him.”

  Jason held his ground without blinking and spoke with the same level tone. “It wasn’t nothin’ personal.”

  Duggin glared at Jason with a loathing stare for several seconds, then spun around and blew his whistle. “That’s it for the day. Varsity, hit the showers, then report to the team room for reviewing Angelo’s films.” He turned around and stabbed a finger toward Jason. “YOU, smart-ass, run ten laps.”

  Coach Stewart waited until Duggin turned his back and walked over to Jason. “Don’t worry about it, Johnson. Duggin is stretched pretty thin right now. He wants to win the conference. It was a hell’va tackle. Good job.”

  Jason nodded in silence and jogged to the cinder track as the team walked toward the locker room. Chuck walked along with the others but suddenly stopped and turned around. He saw Jason in the distance and began to run toward him.

  Jason ran slowly to conserve his energy and heard footsteps behind him. He turned and broke into a grin. Chuck was coming up behind him and, farther back, more of the meat squad were coming to join him. Jason lifted his arms skyward. “YOU GOTTA LOVE IT, CRAZIES!”

  Mea handed Duane a glass of lemonade and sat down beside him to watch the evening news. Walter Cronkite’s reassuring voice filled the room.

  “… and today the Selective Service announced a call-up of forty-five thousand men for the month of December. This is the largest draft since the Korean War. A White House spokesman said the call-up was necessary to meet the Communist buildup and escalation of insurgency in South Vietnam. To date, eight hundred and ten Americans have died in the conflict and …”

  Mea’s eyes watered and she lowered her head to hide the tears. The news was like that of fifteen years before, news that had ultimately taken her husband. She hadn’t even known where Korea was, and yet Americans like John had gone because their country had called. He had died so young and she still didn’t know why. And now, after all these years, the country was calling for more young men, men like her son.

  Duane didn’t notice his wife’s distress and spoke as he kept his eyes glued to the television, “Ty will probably get drafted after school. It’d be good for him … maybe he’d learn a little responsibility.”

  Mea looked at her husband with tears streaming down her face. “How can you say that? There’s a war going on!”

  Duane looked at her with shock. Never once had she yelled at him. He knew immediately he’d made a mistake, forgetting that her former husband had been drafted. He rose from his chair and stepped toward her. “I’m sorry, honey, it was a stupid thing to say. Of course I don’t want him drafted.”

  Mea stood and backed up, not wanting him to touch her, but his large arms encircled her. “I’m truly sorry; I didn’t mean it, Mea.”

  She looked up into his eyes. “He can’t go, Duane … he just can’t.”

  Duane hugged her tightly and spoke softly to soothe her. “Don’t worry, honey, he has his hill and we can get him a farmer’s deferment. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything, sweetheart, everything.”

  Jason was about to go to bed when his door flew open and Chuck staggered in. The big tackle flopped down on the empty bed across from Jason and lifted a Budweiser to his mouth.

  Jason quickly got up and checked the halls before shutting the door. Drinking was forbidden in the dorm, and if Chuck was caught he’d be suspended. “Damn, Chuck, if Duggin finds out he’ll can you.”

  Chuck smiled cruelly. “Fuck him! Fuck him and the horse he rode in on. I needed a few beers and I’m drinkin’ a few beers.”

  Jason sighed and sat down on his bed. “Sleep it off, buddy. You can sleep here tonight so nobody sees you.”

  Chuck sat up with a strange look. “What’d you call me?”

  Jason had to think what he had said and shrugged his shoulders. “I said, ‘buddy.’ ”

  Chuck grinned and lifted his beer can. “To us buddies. WE’RE BAAAD!”

  Jason couldn’t help but return his smile and lift an imaginary can. Chuck guzzled the last of the beer and crushed the can in his hands before tossing it to the floor. He looked back at Jason and became somber. “Ya know we’re on Duggin’s hit list, don’t ya? He’ll never give you a chance to play, no matter what you do.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much,” Jason said. “But I gotta hang in and hold on to the scholarship, no matter what he does.”

  Chuck leaned back against the wall. “Ya ain’t got no money to finish up yourself, huh?”

  Jason shook his head. “How about you? You gotta hold on, too?

  Chuck burped and scratched his crotch. “Naw, Uncle Sam is footing the bill. The GI Bill keeps me in school and beer.”

  “Why do you knock your brains out then? Hell, he’s after you, too.”

  Chuck’s eyes shifted to Jason and lit up. “ ’Cause it makes me feel good. I like it. I like kickin’ ass and takin’ names. There’s nothin’ else that gives me that feeling.” The light went out and his eyes softened. “It’s all I got.”

  Jason felt worry for the big man and changed the subject. “Why’d you join the Army?”

  Chuck’s eyes rekindled. “I was like you are right now, but it wasn’t a fucked-up coach that screwed up my scholarship. I flunked out. I didn’t have the bucks to try again, and I couldn’t go home, so I joined up. I figured I’d spend my two years, then come back with Sam paying the bills.”

  “How come you couldn’t go home?” Jason asked.

  Chuck lay down and looked up at the ceiling. “Pride, I guess. Everybody expected me to make the big time. I couldn’t face ’em. Ya probably wouldn’t understand, but I just couldn’t go back and see their faces, all pitying me and really thinking the big ox couldn’t hack it. Well, FUCK ’EM, I made it. I’m gonna play until I can’t play no more and get me a degree and wave it in their faces.”

  Jason did understand and felt the same way about going home if he didn’t make it. He lay there several minutes in silence thinking about his future and raised up to ask Chuck more questions about the GI Bill. The effort was wasted. Chuck was asleep, snoring.

  Ty sat at the counter of the Coffee Cup Cafe looking up into the tired face of Ptomaine Toni. Toni Watkins was a hard-looking, bony woman who appeared ten years older than her thirty-eight years. Her hair was dyed jet black and contrasted horribly with her ghost-white skin and bright red smeared lipstick. She usually looked as bad as her food, but Ty thought she was a genuine sweetheart of a lady.

  “Toni, let me have the special, but hash browns instead of grits.”

  Toni leaned over the co
unter with a mischievous glint and took the grease-stained, one-page menu from his hands. “You up kinda early, ain’t ya, or you just gettin’ in from a hot date?”

  Ty grinned at the owner, waitress, and part-time cook of Meyers’s only cafe. Toni knew everybody and everything that happened in town, and what she didn’t know she made up with her vivid imagination. “I’m up early ’cause I’ve got work to do on the hill.

  Toni seemed disappointed at his answer and turned toward the grill, speaking loudly to her husband, who was frying eggs. “Need a special, hold the mush, and throw on spuds!” She looked back at Ty with a raised penciled eyebrow. “You gonna work on the new shack, huh?”

  Ty’s eyes widened, surprised that she knew of his secret project. He couldn’t help but be impressed by her ability to pick up information. The bandages had been removed from his hands the week before and he had immediately begun work building a new cabin to replace his granddad’s shack. Despite the initial pain of using his hands again, the cabin had to be rebuilt. It was his way of making the Hill like it had been.

  He forced a smile, “Yeah, I am, but it’s a secret for the time being. I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it just between us, okay?”

  Toni drew her thin fingers across her lips as if zipping them closed. “My lips are sealed.”

  6

  Jason felt bad that he hadn’t told the truth, but it was just too complicated to explain. He sat in the front seat of the Olds as his father drove through Meyers. Duane had picked him up two hours before from school and was taking him home for the day. His dad didn’t understand the complexities of college football and assumed that if he was still on the team he was going to one day play on varsity. Jason didn’t explain that he was only a glorified tackling dummy going nowhere. It would serve no purpose and spoil the beautiful Sunday. He had given his dad nothing but positive reports about school and his “advancement” to the red team.

  Duane pulled into the long driveway leading to the house and honked the horn. Mea and Ty came out the kitchen door all smiles, making Jason’s heart sink. He knew it would be difficult to keep up the show for the rest of the family and even more difficult when he went to see Becky.

  Mea hugged him as he got out of the car and patted his back with concern. “Aren’t they feeding you, honey? You’re skin and bones!”

  Jason was about to answer but was saved by Ty, who held out his hand with a smile. “Aw, Mom, he’s workin’ his butt off in practice.… Good to see ya, Jay. You look lean and mean to me.”

  The family moved into the living room. Duane and Mea brought Jason up to date on the goings-on in Meyers and asked what seemed like a hundred questions about school and the football team. Jason noticed that Ty seemed interested but was silent during their conversation. He could tell Ty was reading between the lines of his evasive answers to when he’d be playing on varsity. Ty saved him again by getting up and saying he was going to Red Hill, asking if Jason wanted to go along.

  Ty and Jason climbed into Duane’s pickup and drove the mile up Highway 81 to the dirt side road that led to the hill. Ty pulled in beside the gate. “Whadya think?”

  Jason was taken aback by the sight before him. He got out of the pickup and followed Ty up a short flight of steps. Flooring was nailed down, and the two-by-four frame of one wall was up.

  Ty brushed a nail off the floor with his foot. “I started Monday, just after I got the last bandages off. My hands are stiff as hell, but it’s good to be working again. I come up and work on it after school.”

  Jason looked at Ty’s handiwork and sat down on the new front steps. “When you gonna tell ’em?”

  Ty lifted a two-by-four and tossed it up to the flooring. “They’ll find out soon enough … like they’ll find out about you.”

  Jason looked at Ty as if he’d been caught stealing. He lowered his head, knowing Ty had seen through him. “Is it that obvious?”

  Ty put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go to the top. I wanna show you something.”

  Jason wanted an answer but stood up and followed Ty as he walked the worn path through the trees. Jason slowed in awe as he stepped into the cool, shaded darkness under the huge trees. He felt like he had entered another world. The old monarch’s gnarled and twisted limbs reached skyward, displaying brilliant autumn leaves of yellow and amber, forming a canopy of gold. Overcome by the majesty of the place, Jason found himself stepping lightly so as not to disturb the silence and serenity. Ty turned around to see what was holding him up.

  “It’s like being in a cathedral,” Jason whispered.

  Ty looked up at the small funnels of light that broke through the canopy and spoke softly. “Granddaddy called this place his heaven on earth.” He held his hand out to one of the shafts of sunlight and let the brilliance fall into his open hand. “And this was his riches.”

  Jason smiled in understanding.

  Ty walked slowly to let his brother enjoy the hill and felt closer to him than he ever had before. He now understood why his grandfather told him beauty was best when shared.

  The two strolled into the clearing. Ty stopped by the log bench and pointed ahead. “Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”

  Jason continued walking and halted just short of the new white picket fence surrounding the small cemetery, but his attention was focused on the wooden flagpole centered behind the markers. He looked up at the American flag fluttering in the light wind and stepped closer. The replanted grass looked like a golf course putting green. Not a single blade was higher than the rest. He turned around to tell Ty it was beautiful, but his brother was seated on the bench looking at the view below him. Jason joined him on the bench and patted his leg affectionately. “It’s something very special, Ty. You did a great job.”

  Ty seemed embarrassed. “I had to do something. I rented the land last week for grazing to make some money and needed to do something to keep the cattle from stomping over the headstones. I got carried away, I guess, but … well, I figured they deserved it.”

  Jason lowered his eyes in reflection. “I wished I’d spent more time with George. I feel like I missed something very special.”

  “No use in lookin’ back,” Ty said, sitting up. “Now tell me what’s really happenin’ at school.”

  Jason had prepared himself during the walk up the hill and told Ty about his trouble with the head coach. When he had finished, he leaned back and shut his eyes. “So that’s it. I’m never going to play as long as Duggin is there. The man tried to make me quit and I wouldn’t. It’s become a test of wills with him.”

  Ty stood and looked at their house far below. “Have you told Becky?”

  “No, she’s like Dad and wouldn’t understand. I’ll let them both figure it out next year when I’m still not playing varsity.”

  Ty turned around with a look of shock. “You’re not going to keep playing?”

  “I’m sure as hell not quitting! As long as I make all the practices and don’t get hurt I hold on to the scholarship. Duggin is just going to have to get used to me.”

  Ty could see the determination in his eyes and tried to erase his worried expression with a smile. “Come on, hard-head. It’s time I shared something with you that’s very special to me.”

  * * *

  Ty pushed back the boughs of a nearby cedar and walked down some natural steps made by time in the red sandstone. This side of the hill was his favorite. He could have followed the twisting trail blindfolded. He knew every bend, switchback fold, and rock. South of the hilltop the land gradually sloped down to where the cabin and dirt road were located. But just across the road, past a stand of tall cedars, the gradual slope abruptly stopped, dropping off into a wide ravine. Countless years of rain and wind had created a natural wonder. It was a miniature Grand Canyon, but with trees, special evergreens that clung to the craggy red rock walls with thick twisting tentacle roots. The trees were stunted, and with their twisted branches and sparse foliage looked like Japanese bonsais, adding yet another d
imension to the surreal beauty of the hidden canyon.

  Ty and Jason made their way down into the bottom of the ravine, which was scattered with barren dogwoods and red oaks. They followed a trail running by the side of a creek that fed from a natural spring at the head of the draw. Ty couldn’t help but remember how years ago he had imagined the ravine as the pass in Korea where his father had died. He had fought alongside his dad a hundred times, trying to save him from the attacking Chinese. He’d charged down the trail, stabbing and slashing, but had always been felled by a Chinese bullet. He had always died after reaching out and grabbing his father’s hand.

  Ty continued walking for a hundred yards before slowing and holding up his hand. Ahead was Crystal Pond. The water’s surface was partially covered with wild ducks. Jason knew the pond. It was where he and Ty had caught their first fish, gigged their first frogs, shot their first ducks, and learned to swim. The pond backed up against a sandstone bluff covered in cedar and oak trees.

  They followed a snaking trail around the pond up to the bluff that overlooked the water. Ty strode past a large oak before halting. Twenty yards ahead, the bluff ledge met the ravine rock wall that rose straight up for almost forty feet. He motioned Jason forward. “Clear your thoughts. We’re about to enter.”

  “Enter what?”

  Ty motioned toward a huge sandstone rock in front of the ravine wall. He closed his eyes and stood motionless.

  Seconds passed before Jason noticed a sound—the wind in the rocks sounded like a soft moan. Ty led him forward and they walked around the huge reddish-brown rock. Jason’s eyes opened wide in astonishment. Behind the rock was a gap in the cliff wall. The gap was ten feet wide at the mouth and went back another ten feet before quickly tapering to only a few inches. Carved in the far rock wall within the gap was a shallow cave. The entire floor of the gap was carpeted in rich green moss.