Team Manager 2: SPRINT!
Chapter 25
THE GIRLS were a big help in the morning when it came to cleaning out Dennis’s room. His mother wanted her own dresser moved across the hall, so they could simply sort through the drawers for things that weren’t needed and then cart them across the hall to Dennis’s new bedroom. The stack of boxes to go to Goodwill grew and eventually all the remaining things for both Dot and Dennis had been moved to their new bedrooms. The bedding had all been stripped and laundered. They kept their own pillows but the rest was sized for the bed. They sat on the edge of the bed together and looked at their handiwork.
“Should we initiate your new bed?” Natalie asked.
“I don’t know if my cock would even rise to the occasion after last night,” Dennis asked.
“My pussy is sore,” Brenda said.
“And don’t even look at my butt,” Amy said. “It will take a week to recover from that pounding you gave me.”
“Now that you mention it, I might be a little raw, too,” Natalie said. “How about we get groceries, then?”
The teens checked in with Dot, and even though they weren’t cooking or preparing all the meals, they helped plan the menu and Dot went into her bedroom to get cash from the satchel under the bed. Under Dennis’s bed in his bedroom now.
“Dennis?” she called. He ran to the room and saw the satchel. “I’m going to leave this under the bed here. There’s no reason to move it to the other room. You’ll be able to get grocery money and cash for dates out of it.”
“Mom, are you sure you want to leave that where I have access?”
“You’ve always had access. You’ve always known where the satchel was and that you could get to it. But you’ve proven yourself adult enough to respect what’s there and when it should be used. I don’t see a reason to move it. I know where it is if I need to get to it—which I will when I pay the monthly bills.”
“Yes, Mom. I’ll only use it for family expenses. I know it is never a good thing to show a lot of cash or to suddenly start spending a lot. This is something Dad left for us,” Dennis said.
“Yes. Take the usual for groceries and put the bag back under your bed. Don’t forget to mark down how much money you are taking out so we can quickly see how much is left.”
Since the shooting Friday, Dennis had only been out of the house to go with his team to the meet. Hardly anyone there knew there had been a shooting incident at Bartley. The grocery store on Sunday afternoon was a different matter. The ministers at all three churches had mentioned it in their sermons, two having specifically mentioned Dennis’s role in stopping the shooting and asking for prayers for all the people involved.
People were mostly not crass about asking Dennis what happened. The small town gossip chain had already pieced together more of the story than the police had released. Someone knew the Steinmans and affirmed Les had been ‘off his meds’ for some reason. Everyone in town knew about Will Enders and his role in the drug raids. Someone had wondered how such a little guy as Dennis could overcome the much taller Les and the story of Dennis knocking out Derek became public knowledge. So, people mostly just looked at Dennis with his three girlfriends doing the grocery shopping and gave him room, some nodding their acknowledgment to him. Others still doubted the story that this short boy with thick glasses had stopped a school shooting.
By the time they left the grocery store, Dennis was thankful that school was out. But there was still one more event he had to deal with.
“I have to go,” Brenda said. “None of the rest of you need to.”
“I wouldn’t miss my girlfriend’s graduation,” Amy declared. “There probably won’t be anyone else there anyway.”
“That could be true,” Natalie said. “So, I agree we should attend. But Dennis, I’m not sure you should. People were weird at the grocery store. They could be even weirder at commencement.”
“I’d like to be there, lover,” he said, kissing Brenda. “But I might be more of a distraction than an observer. I don’t want to do anything that would draw attention to me instead of it being on you and your classmates.”
“You deserve to be recognized, but only in a good way. We can see the Bartley rumor mill has already been hard at work. Please, stay home and watch a movie with Peg and eat some popcorn for me. Okay?” Brenda said.
“I love you, Bren. I’ll be here when you get done.”
“Mmm. I’ll text you when I can get away.”
The girls left and Dennis sat in his new room alone for a while. He really needed to pull himself together. People’s stares at the grocery store and whispered conversations as he went past had thrown him for a loop. Most of his life before this year, he had been utterly unnoticed. He was ignored and invisible. Now everyone knew who he was and whispered about him. He thought he might have preferred being unnoticed. He dozed off on his pillow, dreaming of the sexual frenzy of the previous night.
The doorbell woke him and he glanced at his phone for the time. It was time for a movie and popcorn. He walked out to the living room to find Randy and Elsa Brown along with all three of their children. Peg was instantly chattering with Nils and Sofia.
“Dennis, will you start popcorn, please?” his mother called. “We’ll need a couple of extra batches tonight for all the people.”
“Sure, Mom.” He walked into the kitchen to get the popcorn popper prepared. Lana followed him.
“How are you doing?” she asked.
“Okay. How’s your ankle?”
“Tender. Dad said to imagine that your life felt like my ankle. It doesn’t feel completely stable and it hurts a little.”
“Your dad is really smart. My dad used to be like that. A little humor with it. He told me once that he inherited his wit and diplomacy from his son,” Dennis laughed. Then he took a deep shuddering breath and focused on getting the popcorn ready.
“If it worked that way, I’d say it was obvious. I didn’t mean to bring up something painful.”
“It’s okay. If I avoided everything painful at the moment, I wouldn’t have anything. Your dad was right. I do feel like my world is unstable. It tilts back and forth under me and acts like it wants to throw me off. I feel a little surreal, I guess.”
Lana put her hand on his shoulder. It was a warm gesture of friendship. Dennis smiled a little. He grabbed a paper bag from the afternoon’s grocery shopping and poured the first batch of popcorn into it. She kept her hand on him as he started the next batch of popcorn.
“Butter or plain?” he asked.
“My family always likes melted butter on popcorn and a little salt.”
“Perfect. We’ll get along well in the great popcorn controversy.” He went about melting butter in the microwave, pouring the first bit over the popcorn in the bag, and then shaking the bag vigorously.
“You can call me or text me anytime you need someone to listen,” she whispered.
The movie of the night was a silly children’s animation but everyone enjoyed it. About halfway through, the doorbell rang and when Dennis answered, all his girlfriends came in.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Aren’t you all going to commencement? Brenda? Why are you here?”
“Shortest commencement in Bartley history,” Brenda said. “A third of the class didn’t show up. Six or ten men showed up with guns, swearing they’d heard there was going to be a shooting and they were there ‘to protect us.’ Of course, that made the job twice as difficult for the two troopers who were on duty. Mrs. Morris came into the classroom where we were gathering for the processional and asked if anyone really wanted to go out to parade around. We all said no and she brought our diplomas into the classroom, called out our names, and told us to go home. She went out to the maybe hundred people who came to commencement and announced that due to a typographical error, the time announced for the commencement was incorrect and it was already over. Parents were invited to meet their grads at home. So, here we are. Meet me!”
Dennis wrapped his arms around Brenda and hugged her. The girls went into the living room to inform Dot, Randy, and Elsa what was going on.
“What about your parents, Brenda?” Dot asked. “Don’t you need to be at home?”
“Oh, Ms. Dottie, I wish you were my mother. My parents thought it was very inconsiderate of the school district to hold commencement today when they had reservations for the weekend in Chicago,” Brenda said.
“That’s terrible!” Elsa said.
“If I ever get pregnant, I’ll need to give them the due date six months in advance to be sure they save the day. And if I don’t deliver on that day, they’ll have a lecture about how they raised such an inconsiderate daughter,” Brenda said. “Fortunately, I’ve got Ms. Dottie and our family. Hi, sister,” she said to Peg.
“Sister! All sisters. We’re watching a movie about snow. Come and watch with us.”
Dennis went to the kitchen to make more popcorn as his girlfriends settled in the living room to watch the rest of the movie.
“Mr. Brown,” Dennis said after the movie and just before the Browns left, “Mom says she can drop me off to work when she takes Peg to the Opportunity Center. If you still need help on the farm, I mean. I’m afraid the schedule might be a little difficult with my eye surgery coming up. I hope we can work around it.”
“That’s great news, Dennis. I assume you’ll be tied up this week with the track team and then your mother says the first surgery is scheduled a week from tomorrow. Why don’t we find out how soon you can work after the operation and go from there?”
“Thank you, sir. Practice isn’t until afternoon this week and then the State Finals start Thursday. I could be available in the mornings if you want.”
“That would be good. I can bring you back into town when I pick up the mail. We’ll get a routine set up for morning chores,” he said.
Dennis gave Lana a hug before she left.
“Have fun with the rest of the girlfriends,” she whispered. “I don’t think they’re leaving.” She joined her parents and Dennis was alone with his girlfriends—and his mother and sister. Lana was right. None of the girls left.
The first day on the farm was a getting acquainted session. Randy took Dennis and Nils on a tour of the planted crops and the equipment and the animals. A twelve-year-old, Nils had been working with his dad for a couple of years in addition to basic chores from as long as he’d been walking. But Randy also understood the importance of his children’s socialization and Nils was an avid Little League player, so he only worked part of the morning on the farm after school let out in the spring.
“We are farming all the tillable land in three sections,” Randy explained as the three rode in the big farm truck. “This section and the next—except the forty acres where we keep the cattle near the house—are in corn. For a while, I tried to raise both seed corn and feed corn, but it’s easier and more profitable to just plant feed corn and buy the seed. Now we’ve got 500 acres under the plow in this next section. Half is in hay and half is in wheat.”
“Are you able to get as much for hay and wheat as for corn?” Dennis asked.
“No. There isn’t enough wheat to get more than ten hopper trucks of it. That pays for the field. If everything goes well, we still get about forty bushels an acre. It takes twenty-five acres to fill a hopper truck. It goes to the elevator and straight to the mills down in Kansas. But animals need fodder and bedding. Straw sells well for bedding and in the landscaping industry. Corn is a feedlot fodder. For most of the animals being wintered, hay is the staple of their diet. It also lets us keep busy so we aren’t idle for long periods between crops. We’ll get two or three cuttings of hay this summer, which means baling and loading in the hay field while we’re cultivating corn in another. Wheat harvest precedes corn harvest. It’s all about keeping the farm productive year round.”
“Wow!” Dennis said. One thing he knew was that he’d need to do as much research for the work he was doing on the farm as he did on sports injuries, therapy, and training.
When they got back to the house, Randy took the boys to the barn. Lana and Sofia were busy tending the animals. The Browns didn’t keep a lot of cows, sheep, and chickens, but about 40 acres of the farm was devoted to the animals. Randy waved and the two girls pulled up to the fence and shut down the tractor. Lana helped her little sister down and came up to the fence. Dennis usually saw her in nice jeans or dresses at school. Or in her track suit. She looked cute in her farmer-cut jeans and short-sleeved work shirt.
“Daisy dropped a heifer,” Lana told her dad. “And there are two new lambs in the boarding field. Looks like they are all nursing and doing fine.”
“That’s good, pumpkin. I’ll wander out there and take a look this afternoon,” Randy said. Lana took note of Dennis and smiled at him. “We still have a couple of hours before you need to head to town, Dennis,” Randy continued. “I’m having you older kids move the rest of the winter hay down from the loft so the loft will be ready to stack the first cutting when it comes in.”
“I wanna help!” Sofia said.
“Sugar, there are some jobs you’re ready for and others you need to grow into. You aren’t strong enough to lift a bale yet and I don’t want you where you could get hurt. Go talk to Mama. I think she plans to have you cutting rhubarb this morning. We’re all going to the café for lunch today.”
And with that, Lana and Nils led Dennis to the barn where he saw about forty or fifty bales of hay in the loft that needed to be moved down to the main level. It had been an early spring and the remains of the winter hay would be used to supplement feed in the fields when the spring grass had withered in the heat.
Dennis found out quickly that he needed gloves, but Lana pointed him toward a supply on a work bench. He found a pair that fit fairly well and climbed to the loft.
“We’ll pull the bales over to the edge first, then we can use the hook and tackle to lower the bales one at a time to the wagon. Finally, we need to hook up the tractor and haul it to the field and unload it,” Lana said. “We aren’t going to finish in two hours.”
The work was hot and heavy as the day warmed up. Once they’d moved a dozen of the fifty-pound bales to the edge of the loft, they split up. Lana operated the pulley. Nils hooked a bale and then helped guide it over the edge as Lana lifted and then lowered it to the wagon. Dennis unhooked the bale and stacked it in an orderly fashion on the small trailer. When they had twenty bales on the wagon, Lana brought the tractor around and hooked it up. The boys rode on the hay as she drove it to the edge of the pasture where a dozen bales were already stacked.
By the time they’d finished unloading the wagon, the two hours had passed and everyone used the outdoor faucet to wash up.
The boys had not done as well in the State Qualifying meet as the girls. In fact, they’d come in twelfth of twelve in the team competition. The only boy who qualified for the State Finals was Derek Johnson. His shot put of 46' was just enough to win him an unqualified berth in the competition. Each qualifying meet advanced the top two places to the State Finals. In addition, the next top eight places statewide got an unqualified berth. Derek’s third place throw was just enough to get him the last one.
Eight women and one man lined up for warmups when Dennis got to the field.
“Wow! Looks like old times,” Dennis laughed. “We only had nine basketball Angelines. Derek, I’m glad you could join the girls.”
“Do you think they’d let me use the girls’ shot at State?” he asked. “I don’t know why I’m going, except I just graduated and it seemed like a real let-down. That and staying home means trying to catch Uncle Art’s lost hogs.”
“That sounds weird,” Brenda said.
“What’s really weird is that somebody let them out,” Derek said. “A hundred hogs were running loose just across the river from here. We’ve managed to catch seventy-three of them, at last count. The hunt will probably go on all summer.”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Debbie said.
“If you see one, be careful. There are two old boars that weigh around 250 who are mean as hell. Stay away and call Uncle Art, or about any of the farmers who know what’s going on,” Derek said.
“Well, we’ll let you ride the bus with us,” Tori said. “If you’re good, we might even talk to you on the way.”
“I promise I’ll be good. You’ll only have me Thursday anyway. Shot put is one and done Thursday morning. We each get a warmup and then two throws. Long throw wins. I barely made it for an invitation,” Derek said.
“But you’ve thrown over fifty in other competitions,” Dennis said. “Don’t consider yourself out. Focus on your ring work. Saturday you only got one throw counted because you fouled the other. I know you can make that stop without stepping out of the circle.”
“Yeah. You’re right, buddy. I’ll focus on that.”
Dennis continued to lead everyone in warmups and then the coaches called the team together.
“Nine of us,” Coach Andy said. “If we didn’t have a girls’ team, Coach Byers and Derek would be going to State Finals by themselves. Congratulations, team!”
“Angelines!” the girls responded.
“So, every elite athlete in the state is going to be at Drake Thursday to get started on the finals. The meet stretches over three days with every running event having at least twenty-four heats and sometimes thirty-six. That’s three heats each for boys and girls across four classes. Several events run preliminaries and have an additional heat for the finals. So, it could be a long day. Except, Class 2A and 3A schools run in the morning and Class 1A and 4A schools run in the afternoon. But that still means there will be a boatload of people at the competition.”
“I heard Derek tell you that shot put is one and done. His competition is at 11:30 Thursday morning. Maybe we can convince him to come and cheer the rest of you on Friday and Saturday. Don’t be too mean to him on the bus,” Coach Byers said.
“We’ll have three sprints and the 4x800 relay Thursday morning,” Ardith said. “Judith and Brenda, those are preliminary heats for the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. That means you need to place in the top eight by time in order to proceed to the finals on Saturday. Tori, the 400-meter is a timed final. Talk about one and done. Be fast, girl.”
“Oh, she is,” Natalie chimed in. The girls playfully shoved at Tori who tried to look as innocent as possible.
“The 4x800 is also a timed final. Remember, you aren’t only competing against the other runners in your heat, but the time of every team in all three heats. And Natalie, that brings me to you,” Ardith said. She looked at her clipboard for the schedule. “You’ll run your booty off Friday. You have the 100-meter hurdles preliminary at 10:00 and then you’ll join Tori, Debbie, and Laura for the 4x400 relay prelim at 1:20 in the afternoon. The Distance Medley relay is at nine, as soon as we get there. It is a timed final, so I want you to work with Dennis as soon as we reach the field to make sure you are good and warmed up. Saturday, six events have finals, that includes you in the 800, Diane, and you in the 3000, Janice.”
“Okay,” Coach Andy said. “Today, Derek, you’ll do whatever Coach Byers says, but I heard Dennis comment that you needed to focus on your footwork. I think Coach agrees on that. The rest of you, we’ll be working on starts out of the blocks and hand-offs in the relays. I’ll want everyone to run a lap with Janice and Diane so they can practice the waterfall start. Judith, Brenda, Tori, Debbie, with Coach Graves to work on the blocks. The rest of you take a half-pace four laps and we’ll start working on hand-offs,” Coach Andy said. Everyone started to move and Dennis realized he was the only manager present. He quickly ran to get four sets of starting blocks out to the track.
Practice wasn’t long or exhausting, though everyone worked hard. With fewer people working, things moved quickly. Dennis and Derek joined the girls for an easy run of four laps at the end of the practice session and everyone headed for the showers.
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