A Shot at Gold

by Nicole Pyland

  “Whatever you say, Coach.”

  CHAPTER 8

  “You don’t have to attend all of the USOPC sponsored events or even major tournaments to make an Olympic team. What you do need is the drive to get in the practice time and train as hard as you can. Then, attend the Olympic trials and give it your all. You can show up one day and beat out the competition at the trials. The key isn’t in the tournaments; it’s in the practice.”

  “Well, I’m here,” Madison said.

  “Let’s talk about your release. I’ve watched your shots, and I think it can use a little work. The ideal release is relaxed and repeatable. Relaxed shots are much easier to replicate than shots requiring exact amounts of unnatural tension. You are tense, which is why you’re going from a seven to an eight to a nine and then hitting a six. You need to start with good alignment and as little tension as possible all the way through to the wrist. Try to align your wrist directly behind the arrow after hooking your fingers onto the bowstring.” Elodie stood in front of Madison and watched as she tried to do as Elodie told her. “Keep your wrist relaxed during the process. That allows you to properly use your back through the shot. It also minimizes the tendency to squeeze through the clicker with your fingers or flex your hand inward from the wrist.”

  “Like this?”

  “It’s a start.”

  “Well, we’re ten meters from the target. I think I’d hit it with no technique.”

  “Shooting closer helps you hone that technique, smart-ass. We both know you’re good; you hired me to make you great.” Elodie pointed at her. “The deep hook is less work for your main knuckle, so it’s less effort to hold the string.”

  “But won’t more of my finger need to clear the string when I release?”

  “Yes, but your hook will be more relaxed, so your fingers will be more relaxed and more easily pushed away when you release the string.” Elodie paused as she watched Madison try the movement. “We’re going to try to just get the motion down today through repetition, but we’ll use low-poundage stretch band exercise tomorrow. That will help you master it before you move back to the low-poundage bow.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “After that, we’ll get you back on the full-poundage bow, but I’ll want to see you perfect this first. I’m talking at least a hundred repetitions now at ten meters. Then, low-poundage band. After that, we’ll see.”

  “That’ll take all day even if I run to the target to get my arrows.”

  “Oh, yeah… Don’t do that. I saw you doing that at the range that day. That’s just an easy way to hurt yourself. I’d rather you walk to get them. With each step – stop, repeat the motion you’re practicing that day, and fire as if you were shooting for real. It’s an easy way to get in more repetition.”

  “Okay.”

  They had only been out for about an hour, but so far, Elodie thought they were working well together. Madison did want it bad. Elodie could see that easily. She’d put the time in already and was just trying to improve her skills. Madison’s form wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t what it needed to be. She could definitely win some college tournaments with it, but she wouldn’t make the Olympic team.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Elodie asked after Madison had completed a few shots.

  “Sure.”

  “Are you doing this for her or for yourself?”

  Madison stopped and lowered her bow.

  “What?”

  “Are you pushing yourself this hard because you’re trying to do something for her, or because you really want this for yourself? I’d understand if it’s for her.”

  “Maybe it was in the beginning,” Madison replied as she stared at the ground. “But it’s for me now. Wiley didn’t want to be an Olympian. At first, she liked shooting because her dad enjoyed it. Then, she liked it because I did. I don’t think it was something she would have done beyond high school.”

  “What did she want to do?” Elodie asked, passing Madison a bottle of water. “Hydrate. It’s hot today.”

  Madison placed her bow down, grabbed the bottle, and took a drink.

  “She didn’t know. She got sick before she could figure it out.”

  “If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?”

  “I don’t know,” Madison said after thinking for a minute.

  “Nothing?”

  “I’ve put all my time and energy into this since I was sixteen. Outside of being a wife one day and maybe having kids, I never really thought of anything else for myself.”

  “You’re twenty-two.” Elodie laughed.

  “So?”

  “So, you’ve thought about being a wife and having kids?”

  “First of all, I’m almost twenty-three. Second of all, when you’re in love, you talk about those things. When your girlfriend is dying, you talk about them a lot because you know you’re never going to have them. It’s the only way you’ll ever think about or talk about kids you’ll never name or watch grow up. It’s the only way you can get through the awful treatments and terrible side-effects. You talk about the wedding you’d have, picturing saying, ‘I do,’ and you fantasize about the honeymoon where the only thing you’d worry about is which drink to order on the beach or about the fact that you need to leave the room and take some pictures so that people don’t think you just had sex the whole time.” Madison paused. “So, yeah, I’ve thought about that stuff.”

  “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about it like that.”

  “You’ve never lost a girlfriend.”

  “No, I’ve lost a lot of people, but never a girlfriend. Well, not like that, anyway.”

  “Had your heart broken?” Madison asked, picking up her bow again.

  “Once or twice.”

  “Been married, engaged?”

  “God, no.” Elodie chuckled. “I’ve had a couple of serious relationships, but that’s about it. How did we even get on this topic?”

  “You asked what I’d be doing if I wasn’t doing this.”

  “Oh, right.”

  “The truth is – I don’t have a backup plan, Elodie. I just want this. I’m only thinking about now. I’ll worry about the rest later.”

  “El,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You can call me El. Elodie is kind of a mouthful.”

  “Are you going to call me Fletch?” Madison asked.

  “No. I’ll call you a pain in my ass. How about that? Now, give me a hundred, and do them all right, or you’ll do a hundred more.” She pointed at the target.

  ◆◆◆

  “Is it true?” Marshall asked.

  “Hello to you, too, Marshall,” Elodie replied, moving the phone to her other ear as she cooked herself some dinner.

  “Did you poach Madison Fletcher from us?”

  “What? No.”

  “Elodie, I’m serious. I knew she was leaving. She wanted you to be her coach.”

  “I am her coach, but I didn’t poach her. She came to me.”

  “You didn’t have time for us, but you have time for her?”

  “Marshall, it’s complicated,” she replied, stirring the pot and moving to sit down at her table.

  “You had a case.”

  “I still do. She found me here, at my office. She asked me to coach her, and I said no. Then, we ran into each other at–” She stopped, not wanting to out Madison. “Out and about, and she pitched me again. We talked the next day, and she’s working around my schedule. I couldn’t do that at the academy. I would have needed to be there more. With Madison, I can just work an hour or two a day with her, and sometimes, she’s out there on her own.”

  “So, if I would have been more flexible, you would have agreed to stay on?”

  “No,” she answered honestly.

  “So, it’s not really the time thing, is it?”

  “No,” she repeated.

  “Rod?”

  Elodie sighed and said, “I’m barely ready to work with her for a couple of hours a day. It
’s hard. It’s the first time I’ve been around a bow in years.”

  “Have you picked one up yourself yet?”

  “No, I’ve been standing a few feet away.”

  “You do know that won’t work for long, right? Eventually, you’ll have to show her how something’s done.”

  “I know I’m delaying the inevitable.”

  “Does she know?”

  “She has an idea. She knows enough about the sport and about me to know that I lost Rod after the Olympics.”

  “You haven’t shared anything else?”

  “No, it’s hard enough just being around the game again. I haven’t told her why I left.”

  “Why her?” he asked. “You could coach anyone. You could come here tomorrow and take your pick of the other nineteen.”

  “There’s just something about her. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first, but we talked, and now I get it. I won’t give you any of the details, because they’re hers to share if she chooses to do so. Besides, you said she’s the best.”

  “She is. She’s a natural. She has some work to do to get Olympics-ready, but she’s only been really into the sport for a fraction of the time most of them have, and she could probably beat every last one of the ones I have here now any day of the week.”

  “Marshall, I’m sorry I couldn’t come back. I told you I could, and then I backed out.”

  “I wish you would have backed out a little bit earlier so I could have found your replacement, but you’ll always be a friend of this place.”

  “Friend enough to let us use your equipment sometime?”

  “You wish.” He laughed. “You’re the competition now. Will we see your girl at the invitational?”

  “She’ll be there.”

  “Will you be?” he asked.

  Elodie reached for the wine bottle on the table, refilled her glass, and took a long drink from it. She hadn’t been at a tournament since the Olympics. She’d left there a gold medalist, and she had planned to continue to dominate and return to as many Olympic events as possible until she would eventually retire from the sport as a legend. That hadn’t happened. Instead, her coach had died. It had torn her to pieces, and she hadn’t touched a bow since.

  CHAPTER 9

  “Sorry, I didn’t think you’d still be here,” Madison said as she walked into the house.

  “I had a late client meeting,” Elodie replied.

  She was sitting at Matt’s desk, searching for something.

  “Everything okay?” Madison asked, removing the earbuds from her ears.

  “I was just looking for something. Matt is usually the organized one around here, but he has a new boyfriend, and I’ve noticed him slipping.” She held up a file. “Found it.” Then, she looked at Madison for the first time. “Where were you?”

  “I went for a quick run. I had some extra energy I wanted to burn off.”

  Elodie looked out the front window and said, “It’s dark, Madison. You shouldn’t be running out there at night.”

  “I didn’t feel like going to the gym. It was only a mile. I just wanted to burn off some steam and listen to music.”

  “What Jonas Brothers’ song were you listening to?” Elodie asked as she placed the file on top of a stack on Nancy’s desk.

  “You think I listen to the Jonas Brothers?” Madison asked, moving into the room.

  “I don’t know. Who’s popular these days? What boy band is–”

  “Okay. I know I’m younger than you, but you know ten years isn’t really that big of a deal, right?”

  “Eleven.”

  “No, ten. You just turned thirty-three. I’m about to turn twenty-three. It’s in two weeks, actually, so we’re ten years apart. And I don’t listen to boy bands.”

  “The Spice Girls?” Elodie asked.

  “I wouldn’t even listen to the Spice Girls, ironically,” Madison said, laughing. “I’m into old stuff.”

  “Be careful what you define as old; it might be contemporary to me.” Elodie signed something in a file, folded it, and placed it on the same stack.

  “I listen to the Beatles, Queen, Bowie, and sometimes, Springsteen.”

  “You listen to The Boss?” Elodie asked with a lifted eyebrow.

  “I do.”

  “I’m from Jersey originally.” The woman pointed to her chest.

  “I know that.” Madison smiled at Elodie, who looked kind of adorable right now.

  “Well, you’re a constant surprise, aren’t you?”

  “I guess so,” Madison said. “I’m going to hop in the shower. Will you be gone when I get out?”

  “Probably. I’ve got to eat something. I skipped lunch. Have you eaten?”

  “Not yet. I’ll make a tasteless piece of grilled chicken with some lame-ass vegetables, though. Don’t worry.”

  “How is it working out here?” Elodie asked her.

  Madison stopped walking toward the bedroom and turned back around.

  “It’s good.” She looked at Elodie. “It’s good, right? I’m not in your way, am I? I’m trying to keep the place spotless and–”

  “Madison, it’s fine. I hardly notice you’re here. I just wanted to make sure it’s working out okay for you.”

  “Yeah, it’s great. I’ve never had my training ground right behind where I was living before, so that’s helpful; and I basically have the place to myself when you guys aren’t here, so that’s good. I’ve never had a place to myself like this before.”

  “Not even growing up?”

  “Oh, you don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?” Elodie leaned on Nancy’s desk.

  “I have two siblings. I have a twin brother and an older sister. She’s two years older. He’s four minutes older.”

  “You have a twin?”

  “Yeah. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. My dad started his business right after we were born. It took a while to take off. It’s only been the past few years that we’ve had money. Maybe right before I went to school is when it really started doing well. I shared a room with my sister for the first sixteen years of my life. Thankfully, she went to college right when Wiley and I started dating.” Madison wiggled her eyebrows. “Our parents didn’t know at first, so she got to stay over.”

  Elodie laughed and said, “I do not need the details.”

  “Good. You’re not getting them.” She winked at her. “Well, I’ll leave you alone. I–”

  “Do you want to come over for dinner?” Elodie interrupted her.

  “You’ve got to be sick of me by now.”

  “I don’t know. It would just be nice not to eat alone.” Elodie shrugged.

  “Give me a few minutes to shower and change, and I’ll be there,” Madison replied.

  Not wanting to leave Elodie waiting long, she showered quickly. If the woman had skipped lunch, she had to be starving by now. Madison decided to blow-dry her hair. Then, she threw on a pair of well-worn jeans and a purple, blue, and white plaid shirt. She left it unbuttoned in the front, showing the white V-neck under it.

  “You look like a lesbian,” she said to herself, looking in the mirror.

  Then, she threw on some nice black boots, locked the door behind herself, and made her way to Elodie’s house, which was conveniently located right next door. She rang the bell.

  “Come in!” Elodie yelled from the kitchen.

  Madison walked in, closing the door behind herself.

  “You didn’t have to ring the bell. I knew you were coming,” Elodie said.

  Then, she stopped when she saw Madison. There was a moment where Madison wasn’t sure if she should say something back or just keep standing there.

  “Hi,” Elodie said eventually.

  “Hi. Can I help with something?”

  “No, I’ve got it.”

  “I know I’m not a chef yet, but I can watch stuff if you want to get out of your work clothes,” she said, pointing at Elodie’s pantsuit.

  Elodie glared at her and sa
id, “This pot should start boiling soon. Just don’t let it boil over. Turn down the temperature or move the pot if you have to, but I’ll be right back.”

  Madison laughed and said, “I won’t ruin whatever it is.”

  “You better not. I’m not cooking two meals tonight.”

  Elodie disappeared down a hallway. Madison hadn’t gotten the tour the last time she had been here a few days ago, and she wasn’t going to ask for one tonight. She figured Elodie was a pretty private person. If she wanted Madison to see the rest of the house, she’d offer. In the meantime, Madison looked around the space she could see. What was interesting to her was that the space wasn’t exactly well put-together. The sofa looked tattered as did the chair next to it. The coffee table looked old and didn’t really match the rest of the furniture. There was also an empty bottle of wine on it next to an equally empty glass. On the shelves behind the TV, there were no trophies or medals of any kind, and Elodie had a bunch of those. There were a few books and some knick-knacks, but that was about it outside of a framed photo of Elodie and her former coach, Rod.

  Madison knew that Rod Hanson had been the most sought-after coach in the world of archery. It had made sense when he and Elodie paired up to work together. He’d died of a heart attack only three days after the Olympics. Madison turned around when she heard the boiling begin. She was determined not to ruin this food Elodie was cooking for them. As she stared into the pan, she decided it was okay. Then, she looked up when Elodie walked back into the room. The woman was wearing an old pair of sweats and an old concert t-shirt that made Madison laugh.

  “Did you wear that for me?”

  “I wear it at least once a week. It just seemed appropriate tonight.”

  “So, you like The Boss, too?” Madison asked as Elodie moved to stand next to her to monitor the food.

  “I do. I saw him in concert about a decade ago.”

  Elodie smelled good. She smelled freshly showered, when Madison knew that couldn’t be the case. She hadn’t been away for more than four minutes. Her hair was down and a little wavy. Her eyes were staring intensely into the pan.