Jasper Zammit Soccer Legend 1

by Deborah Abela

  ‘You’re sitting out for the first part of the game on Saturday, which will give you enough time to talk to my dad and work your magic. Gotta go.’ She turned off to go to her school. ‘You’ll be great!’

  Lil walked away, full of confidence in Jasper’s skills of diplomacy and firmly placing the future of his family squarely on his shoulders.

  The same shoulders that felt as if they were going to buckle at the idea of it.

  Jasper was good at soccer, helping his mum around the house, as long as it wasn’t cooking, and, well, soccer but he wasn’t sure how good he’d be at helping someone get their job back.

  He heard the distant echo of his school bell and hurried the rest of the way there. Saturday was going to be a big day, and if he wasn’t going to stuff it up, he’d need all the time he could to make sure he got it right.

  JOHNNY SAYS:

  Just like a good referee, a good player can’t let themselves be intimidated by other players. The best referees are decisive, clear and in control. They set the theme of the game early by taking no nonsense right from the start, and treating everyone fairly … no matter who they’re giving a red card to.

  The way Lil’s dad had dressed for the game made her worry. He wore a suit and tie and looked like he was ready for another quick exit if work needed him.

  He walked through the bustling Saturday soccer crowd looking nervous and out of place. His normally confident business manner was lost in the chaos of shirts, players, picnic chairs and tubs of oranges.

  ‘It’s all right, Dad.’ Lil tugged on his arm. ‘You can relax now.’

  ‘I am relaxed, honey,’ he replied in a slightly tense voice.

  Lil smiled and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I’ve got to go and warm up.’

  But as she was about to move off, his phone started ringing.

  His hand sprang to his pocket and lifted the phone towards his ear but, seeing Lil’s face fall, he slowly held it before him and switched it off. ‘Won’t be needing that today, will I?’

  Lil’s face filled with a proud smile. Her dad was great at lots of things, like building treehouses and wrestling on the lounge room floor after he came home from work, but when it came to relaxing, he needed lots of practice.

  ‘Have fun out there, chicken. I’ll be watching every minute.’

  Lil threw herself at her dad in a hug that almost winded him before running off to join the Rovers warm-up.

  ‘How do you feel?’ she whispered to Jasper.

  ‘Like I’m about to jump out of a plane without a parachute.’

  ‘My dad’s not that scary or that far from the ground.’ Lil laughed, but Jasper just kept looking frightened. ‘You’ll be fine. I know you will.’

  Coach Wallace finished the warm-ups and called out the positions for the game. As planned, Jasper was to sit out the first part of the game.

  He watched as the Rovers took their places on the field. Lil gave him a wink and a smile that was full of confidence.

  Jasper sighed. If only he had the same confidence in himself.

  He looked over at his mum and dad waving at him from the cake stall. And there it was, his dad’s usual you-can-do-anything smile. Jasper felt taller just seeing it.

  He took a deep breath and walked over to Lil’s dad.

  ‘Mr Spinelli? Hi, I’m Jasper. I’m a friend of Lil’s.’

  Mr Spinelli looked away and for a second Jasper thought he was going to make a run for it. ‘Um, hi.’

  Okay, Jasper told himself. That’s the easy part, now I just have to get Dad his job back. ‘It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.’

  ‘It is?’ Lil’s dad stared at Jasper as if he had no idea why he was talking to him.

  ‘Yeah. Lil raves about you all the time.’

  ‘She does?’ Mr Spinelli was softening already, while out on the field the ref had blown the whistle and started the game.

  ‘Oh, she hardly ever stops. She says you’re funny, generous, hard working. She’s more proud of you than anyone.’

  ‘Is she?’ Mr Spinelli looked towards Lil, who’d managed to gain possession of the ball and booted a quick pass to Tricky. He chipped it over his opponent’s head to Nutmeg, who nudged it to an advancing Josie.

  The other parents around him cheered and whistled as if they were kids. Mr Spinelli clapped quietly, like someone at an opera might have done.

  ‘The way she talks about you, you should be Father of the Year.’

  Mr Spinelli straightened his tie and was starting to look more comfortable.

  ‘Maybe that’s going a bit too far.’ But it was obvious from Mr Spinelli’s satisfied smile that he didn’t think so.

  Jasper was starting to feel more confident. Maybe he was good at this after all.

  ‘My dad’s pretty good too.’

  ‘Is he?’ Mr Spinelli looked warmly at Jasper. ‘And tell me what’s great about your dad?’

  ‘He’s loyal, he’s got the biggest heart of anyone I know, he makes Mum laugh and he’s always helping other people.’

  ‘He does sound pretty good.’ Mr Spinelli’s smile widened across his face but a sudden gasp from the crowd made him return his attention to the field. Nippy had fallen heavily after a sliding tackle that had come dangerously close to being a trip.

  Mugger helped her up and she signalled to the ref that she was okay.

  ‘Is the game always this rough?’

  ‘No. Hardly ever.’

  The Reds were known for their rough play, but Jasper didn’t want Lil’s dad to start worrying, as it might ruin their plan.

  ‘Come on, Rovers!’ Lil let loose her usual cry at full Lil volume.

  Jasper tried to get Mr Spinelli’s attention back. ‘Anyway, Dad’s the best.’

  ‘Is he here today?’

  Jasper paused. This was the point where their plan would hopefully come together. ‘He’s over there.’ He pointed through the crowd.

  Mr Spinelli’s face collapsed into a state of shock. ‘That’s your dad?’

  Here goes, thought Jasper. The big finish!

  ‘Mr Spinelli, my dad’s good at his job, he really is, and not only that, he loves it. Everyone says he works hard and I know he does at home. He’s a good man who’s honest, reliable and loves his family and I guarantee you’ll never find a better employee than him.’

  He took a deep breath.

  Lil’s dad said nothing. Maybe it hadn’t worked.

  ‘Please, Mr Spinelli,’ Jasper added softly. ‘Please give my dad his job back.’

  It took a few seconds for a crooked smile to creep onto Mr Spinelli’s lips.

  ‘This whole chat was for your dad?’

  ‘No … Yes, but all the stuff I said about you is true too.’

  Mr Spinelli laughed. ‘What you say about your dad must be true. He’s done a good job with you.’

  Jasper beamed. He’d done it! In a few seconds their plan would be complete and Jasper would have saved his family from a life of financial ruin and despair.

  Mr Spinelli looked back to the game, where Lil was dribbling the ball with expert control and speed. Noggin had broken away from his marker, found some free space and was ready to receive a pass.

  The team were set up for a perfect goal.

  As Lil was about to make a short sidestep pass to Noggin, the opposition sweeper lunged to tackle, but it was ill-timed and his foot slammed into the side of Lil’s ankles. Her feet were kicked out from under her and she fell backwards, crashing to the ground headfirst in a painful thud.

  ‘Lil?’ Mr Spinelli said quietly.

  Lil didn’t get up.

  The ref blew his whistle and held up a yellow card.

  There was a strange silence that wafted for seconds around the field, while nobody moved, including Lil. Coach Wallace ran over, followed by the ref and some of the other parents.

  The coach knelt beside Lil, checking her over as Jasper and Mr Spinelli hurried to her side. They got there just in time to hear the coach say, ‘Call an ambul
ance.’

  Jasper’s throat seized up in fear. He stood and watched as Lil lay on the ground, her eyes closed and her body still. Mr Spinelli gulped back a gasp of air.

  As the whorl of fussing parents and officials gathered around him, Jasper felt time had stopped, or at least stopped making sense. One minute Lil was about to deliver a deadly pass, the next she was being lifted onto a stretcher and carried to an ambulance.

  Mr Spinelli climbed in after his daughter. He sat down beside her, his face full of dread, his hand holding hers. The doors were slammed shut.

  Jasper stood there, his mum and dad’s hands on his shoulders, and watched the white lumbering vehicle roll away over the grass and onto the dusty drive. The siren slowly whirred to life and blasted into his ears.

  JOHNNY SAYS:

  Whether you’re in top form or you’ve just had an injury, your health should always be your number one priority. When I was twenty-eight, my right knee collapsed during a game. After surgery I spent ten weeks on crutches, with a full-length plaster on my leg – and I couldn’t play for fifteen months. I was devastated! But I focused on my goal of getting back to full fitness so I could make a comeback, and having that goal really helped me through some tough times.

  ‘Can’t you make her go any faster?’

  Jasper sat in the back seat of Bessie, willing the car to tear through the streets like a Ferrari.

  ‘If you want to go faster we’d better get out and run,’ his dad tried to joke, but Jasper couldn’t smile. Not with Lil injured.

  ‘We’ll be there in a few minutes,’ his mum said softly.

  When they arrived at the hospital emergency department, Lil was nowhere to be seen. Jasper ran past a line of sniffling, bandaged and doubled-over patients to the nurses’ station.

  Phones were ringing and several blue-and-white-uniformed staff were shuffling through papers, organising charts and trying to calm upset relatives. When he was finally seen to, Jasper was told Lil had been taken into an observation room and was being checked over by a doctor.

  ‘Can I see her?’

  The nurse shuffled some more papers and turned to nod to someone behind her.

  ‘I’m afraid you can’t see her yet, but she’s in good hands.’

  Jasper’s mum and dad stood behind him. They watched as the nurse answered the phone and spoke in a calm voice that Jasper knew was only just hiding a sense of being harassed.

  ‘Is she okay?’ He didn’t know what he’d do if she said no, but he had to find out.

  The nurse offered her caller a polite goodbye and put down the phone.

  ‘Please,’ Jasper’s dad said. ‘They’re best friends. Can you tell us anything?’

  The nurse’s face wilted in sympathy. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t, but I’ll ask the doctor to see you as soon as she can.’

  The nurse turned back to her ringing phones, papers and stream of questions.

  Jasper’s hands became sweaty. He rubbed them on his shorts and followed his mum and dad to some spare seats to wait.

  His mum held Jasper’s hand. ‘Don’t worry. She’ll be fine.’

  ‘Will she?’ Jasper looked into her eyes and realised he wanted it to be true more than anything he’d ever wanted.

  ‘Of course she will,’ his dad said confidently before changing the subject. ‘So, Lil is Leo Spinelli’s daughter?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Jasper had forgotten this was news to his dad. ‘But she’s really nice.’

  His dad smiled. ‘I know she is.’

  The next two hours saw a bustling line of doctors and nurses hurry into the waiting area from what Jasper assumed were the observation rooms. He looked up at each one as they approached the nurses’ station, spoke in hurried whispers, grabbed another chart and dashed back to where they’d come from.

  Finally, a doctor wearing a pair of jeans and T-shirt under a white coat walked briskly to the nurses’ station, where she was pointed towards Jasper and his mum and dad.

  The doctor walked calmly across and smiled. ‘I’m sorry for the wait. You can see her now.’

  Jasper jumped up from his seat. ‘Is she okay?’ The question had been going around in his head for so long it was starting to hurt.

  ‘You’ll find out in a few seconds. But I’m afraid there’s only room for two.’

  ‘I’ll wait here.’ Jasper’s mum gave him a hug and waved them off before Jasper and his dad followed the doctor down a corridor filled with the muffled sounds of people behind drawn white curtains.

  They stopped when they heard a bubbly laugh. It had to be Lil.

  The doctor drew back the curtain to reveal Lil propped up in bed. Apart from the bandage around her head, she looked like an ad for perfect health.

  ‘It’s about time you turned up,’ Lil smiled. ‘Here am I on my deathbed and you were nowhere in sight.’

  ‘Lil,’ her mother scolded. ‘No one’s on any deathbed.’

  ‘That’s right. Least of all you,’ the doctor added. ‘You can see her for about ten minutes then we’re going to take her to a ward to rest.’

  Jasper edged his way closer to the bed. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘The doctor says I’m fine, but it was a pretty good bump so they want me to stay overnight to keep an eye on me. I’ve been trying to tell them I’m okay.’

  ‘And when you have your doctor’s degree I’m sure they’ll listen to you,’ Lil’s dad said sternly before kissing her on the forehead. ‘For now, you’re doing what you’re told.’

  Jasper smiled. He knew Lil hated sitting still for too long.

  There was an awkward pause. Lil gave her dad a pointed stare, as if there was something she wanted him to say.

  ‘You’re Jasper’s dad,’ he muttered quietly.

  ‘Yep, he’s mine.’

  ‘He’s a very fine boy.’

  Jasper’s dad put his hands on his son’s shoulders. ‘Yes, he is.’

  There was another long pause. Jasper’s dad made a move to leave.

  ‘We better go. I’m glad you’ll be okay, Lil. You had us worried for a minute there.’

  Jasper wasn’t used to his dad looking so awkward.

  ‘Dad,’ Lil urged. ‘Don’t you have something you want to say?’

  Mr Spinelli’s face turned brighter than steamed beetroot.

  ‘Ah, I do actually. I … you see … I had a chat to Jasper today. At the game. He seems to think you’re a pretty wonderful dad and, well, a great worker.’

  Now it was Jasper’s dad’s turn to go red.

  ‘Oh, well, he would say that, he’s my son. But don’t you –’

  ‘I’d like you to come back to work. If you want to, of course.’

  ‘And?’ Lil nudged her dad in the stomach.

  ‘Oh yeah.’ He rubbed his hands together nervously. ‘No more weekend work or late finishes. It was a mistake to let you go.’

  Jasper’s dad stared. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘I think this is the part where you say “yes”,’ Jasper whispered.

  His dad smiled. ‘I guess it’s a yes, then.’

  Mr Spinelli got all teary and lunged at Jasper’s dad to give him a hug.

  Jasper’s dad wasn’t sure what to do. His hands hovered in the air for a while, before he hugged Mr Spinelli right back. And then he nearly cried.

  Lil let out a loud cheer which brought a panicked nurse rushing through the curtain. ‘What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?’

  When she realised everything was okay, she gave Lil an annoyed scowl.

  ‘Visiting time is over.’ She held the curtain for Jasper and his dad to leave.

  ‘It was a pleasure doing business with you,’ Mr Spinelli told Jasper.

  ‘You too.’ Then it was his turn for a hug.

  Jasper struggled for breath. Lil laughed and gave him a wink. Her laugh filled the room like happy gas and made him feel light-headed. After weeks of everything feeling wrong, it was now starting to feel right.

  Well, almost everything.

 
; JOHNNY SAYS:

  It’s an oldie but a goodie that a champion team will always defeat a team of champions. Look at Greece in the 2004 European Cup – nobody thought they had a chance, and they have very few star players, but they played brilliant team football.

  ‘My dog had concussion once.’

  Noggin sat on the hard wooden benches of the visitors’ changing sheds getting ready for the Rovers’ next game.

  ‘Dogs can’t get concussion,’ Diego shot back.

  ‘Well, my dog did. He was out for three days. Just as the vet was ready to put him down, he woke up like nothing had happened. Except he was really hungry. Went through three cans of dog food before he even took a breath.’

  ‘Sometimes I think you’ve headed the ball one time too many, Noggin.’ Diego threw a towel at him.

  ‘But it’s true.’ Noggin took the towel off his head and threw it back at Diego.

  The room fell into silence.

  It was good that Lil was over her concussion, but it didn’t feel right that she wasn’t with them. They’d gotten used to her cry of ‘Go the Rovers!’ and the way she always stayed positive and never let a setback interfere with her game, no matter how bad.

  ‘I miss her.’

  Jasper turned to face Mugger.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘I miss Lil.’

  Jasper stared with his mouth open. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard Mugger speak.

  ‘We didn’t talk much but I really like her. She makes me feel happy.’

  Mugger went back to pulling his socks over his shin pads with the usual miserable look he always wore on his face, except today he looked even sadder.

  ‘Yeah,’ Jasper said. ‘Me too.’

  ‘Okay team.’ Coach Wallace clapped his hands. ‘Let’s get ready to go out there.’

  No one said anything.

  He tried to buoy them out of their low mood. ‘How about, “Yes, Coach. No problem, Coach. We’re ready to give it our best, Coach.”’

  ‘Sure, Coach,’ Nippy muttered.

  ‘Nice try, Nippy, but it wasn’t quite the rousing reply I was hoping for.’

  Coach Wallace sat down on the benches beside his team.