Barbara L. Clanton - 2 - Tools of Ignorance - Lisa's Story

by Barbara L. Clanton

  “Okay.”

  As her family pulled away, she linked arms with Sam, and they skipped toward the bus. Coach Spears was still talking to the tournament director, so Sam didn’t have to leave right away.

  Lisa kicked at the pavement with her cleat. “I wish Marlee and I could go home with you guys.” She nodded to Marlee and Susie leaning against Susie’s car.

  “Me, too.” Sam reached for Lisa’s right wrist and held up the swollen and bruised hand. “Show your Coach this as soon as you get on the bus.”

  “Okay,” Lisa lied. She didn’t plan on showing Coach Spears for fear of getting yelled at. She didn’t want to ruin the celebration on the bus. “Hey, will I see you tomorrow?”

  Sam sighed. “I wish, but I made a deal with my parents. They said I could come here today, but I had to stay home and study for final exams all day tomorrow.”

  Lisa sighed. “Yeah, I should, too, I guess. School sucks.”

  Sam laughed. “Hey, we only have two more weeks and then the summer’s ours.”

  Lisa gazed at Sam wishing she could run her fingers through her long blond hair and then kiss her right there in front of her teammates, but she knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t quite ready to challenge the world, yet.

  “Sam, I meant what I said behind the shed.” She gestured toward the maintenance shed.

  “I know.” Sam looked up at her with soft eyes. “I did, too.”

  “Lisa. Marlee,” Coach Spears called, “we’re ready to go.”

  “Okay, Coach.” Lisa turned back to Sam. “Somewhere in here,” she lifted her softball bag off her shoulder, “I have an almost fully charged cell phone. We can text each other all the way home.”

  Sam pulled out her own cell phone. “I’m ready when you are.”

  Lisa gave Sam a quick hug, wishing it could be more, and then ran up the steps to the bus. She started a chorus of “We are the Champions” at the top of her lungs. Her teammates joined her at matched volume.

  LISA WOKE UNABLE to move. Her shoulders and legs were sore and stiff. She blinked open her eyes and stared at the white ceiling of her bedroom. She closed them again and smiled. Everything was going so right. The championship. Sam. School almost over. Even William seemed like an okay guy. She rolled over and blinked a few more times to focus on the clock. Ten thirty.

  Ten thirty? She leaped out of bed and yelled, “Mom? We’re late for church.” She hurried around her room and grabbed some things she needed to get ready. She threw her green and white print dress on her bed.

  Her mother hurried in the room. “Honey, honey, honey. Slow down.”

  “Aren’t we late?” Lisa stood with a pair of pantyhose in one hand and lace bra in the other.

  “No. Your father decreed that the Brown family is sleeping in this Sunday.”

  “Oh, we are?” Lisa put her pantyhose and bra back in the drawer. “Cool.”

  Bridget came dashing in the room and grabbed Lisa’s legs. “Mama tode me to hush up so you could sweep. Did you sweep?”

  “Yes, I slept, Sweetpea. Thank you.”

  “Yea.” Bridget jumped up and down, smashing her head into Lisa’s bad hand.

  “Yeow,” Lisa cried out and cradled her hand.

  “What happened?” Her mother came over.

  “Nothing,” Lisa said. “Just my hand from the Overton Corners’ game.”

  “Last Monday?”

  Lisa nodded.

  “Let me see.”

  Lisa held up her hand, pinky side out. The swollen black and blue skin was now tinged with green.

  “Lisa Ann Brown, why didn’t you tell me this was such a mess?” She ran her fingers gently down Lisa’s pinky and the side of her hand. “I’m taking you to the emergency room to get this looked at right after we show Coach Spears.”

  “Coach Spears?”

  “Yes. She called for a team meeting today at noon.”

  “Today?” Lisa was confused.

  “Yes, today. You were too busy talking with William yesterday to hear the announcement. Okay, swelling like this needs ice.” Her mother turned toward the bedroom door. “I’ll get you the ice, but you’d better start getting ready for your team meeting. I think Lynnie’s out of the bathroom.”

  “Okay.” Lisa scurried to the empty bathroom to get ready.

  After a shower, breakfast, and twenty minutes of fairly successful practice with geometry proofs, Lisa climbed in the minivan behind Lawrence Jr. and Bridget. “Why is everybody going, Mom?”

  Her mother opened the passenger door. “We’re going out for lunch after your meeting.”

  “That okay with you, Lisa Bear?” Her father started the engine.

  “Yeah. No church. Sunday lunch out. This is a special day.”

  Lynnie climbed in the minivan with another one of the Harry Potter books that Sam had given her three weeks before. Lisa had no idea how many of the books she had devoured already.

  Lisa slid the minivan door shut. Her father pulled onto the main road, and Lisa pulled out her phone. She and Sam had texted all the way home from Binghamton, and there was another text from Sam waiting for her that morning. “How does it feel 2 b NYS champs?”

  Lisa smiled and texted back, “Amazing! Can I c u 2day?” She hit the send button and waited. The cornfields whizzed by, but Lisa barely noticed. She hoped Coach’s team meeting would be short, and Sam could pick her up after the family lunch, and they could—.

  Her phone blipped with an incoming text.

  “Can’t. Got 2 study 2day. Remember?”

  Lisa’s shoulders drooped. “Oh, yeah. Darn. SIGH!” she texted back and then laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Her mother asked.

  “Oh, nothing.” She held up her phone. “Just Sam.”

  “That was nice of her and her friend Susie to drive all that way to the tournament yesterday.”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  “Tell Sam hello from us.” Her mother turned back to face front.

  “Okay,” Lisa said. She texted, “Parental units say hi.”

  There was no return text, but Lisa wasn’t worried. Sam always got back to her eventually. She held the phone in her lap just in case.

  Her father pulled the minivan into the parking lot of the high school, and Lisa’s jaw almost hit the floor. Over a hundred people were lined up in the parking lot. The Clarksonville High School marching band stood in formation in their royal blue and white uniforms.

  “Mom,” Lisa demanded, “what’s going on?”

  “It’s not every day Clarksonville has something to celebrate, honey.”

  “They’re having a parade for us?”

  Her father nodded.

  “Really?” Lisa knew her mouth still hung open, but she couldn’t wrap her brain around all the people.

  Her father pulled the minivan into a parking spot designated for the softball players and their families. Lisa slid open the van door. Bridget grabbed her bad hand as they got out, but Lisa barely noticed. It seemed like every single one of Clarksonville’s community groups had shown up for the parade. The Elks Club, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the American Legion, a Girl Scout troop, a Cub Scout troop, and even the Kiwanis club were there. They were all decked out and ready to march. Bridget and Lawrence Jr. were very excited, especially when they spotted the fire truck and police motorcycles.

  “Oh, look Bridget, even the Dairy Princess is here.” Lisa pointed to a young woman wearing a white sash, white gloves, and jewel-encrusted tiara.

  Bridget waved with all her might at the Diary Princess. She squealed with delight when the princess waved back.

  “I want a crown wike hers,” Bridget said without taking her eyes off the pretty young woman.

  “Sure, Sweetpea. We’ll get you one soon.”

  “’Kay.”

  “Some girls like tiaras and others like softball hats. I bet there are even a few who like both.” Lisa smirked and figured Sam was one of those.

  Her father pointed to the end of the organi
zed throng. “The softball team is lining up in the back. I think you’re the last ones because you’re the guests of honor today.”

  “Oh, geez.” Lined up at the end were five convertible sports cars. Marlee waved to her from the back seat of Jeri’s Mustang. Lisa waved back.

  They entire Brown family walked toward the Mustang. Lisa turned to her father. “Papa, did you know about this?”

  He nodded. “Coach Spears’s roommate, Anne, organized the whole thing. I don’t think Coach Spears knew about it.”

  “Oh, wow.” Lisa swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat.

  They reached the car, and Marlee jumped out of the backseat. “Did you know?”

  “No. It’s awesome, though.”

  “I know.”

  Jeri called from the driver’s seat. “You’re riding with us. You, me, Marlee, Julie, and Paula.”

  “Cool,” Lisa said.

  “Okay, honey,” Lisa’s mother said. “You’re in good hands, so we’re going to meet you after the parade at D’Amico’s for the luncheon.”

  “Oh, a luncheon,” Lisa repeated with mock aristocracy. “We’re living like the Rockefellers, eh?”

  Her mother nodded and then successfully herded the two older Brown children back to the minivan. Her father, holding Bridget’s hand, wasn’t as successful. Bridget broke free and ran back to Jeri’s Mustang. Her father scurried after his youngest.

  “Sweetpea, you can’t come with us,” Lisa said. “I’ll see you at D’Amico’s in a little while, okay?”

  Bridget stuck out her lower lip.

  “You and me’ll share a cheese pizza.”

  Bridget continued to pout, so her father squatted down and said, “C’mon, Bridget. I’ll carry you backscratcher style.”

  She didn’t answer, but climbed on his back and threw her arms around his neck. The barest of smiles started at the corners of her mouth.

  Her father hooked his arms around her legs and stood up. “C’mon, kid, start scratching.” He wiggled around as if he had an itchy back.

  Bridget giggled and scratched her father’s back with one hand while holding on with the other. The girls in the car laughed.

  Julie and Paula ran up to the Mustang. Paula carried five royal blue T-shirts. “Look what Coach’s roommate got us, you guys.” She held one of the shirts up and read the front. “Clarksonville Softball New York State Champions.” She handed each of them a shirt.

  Jeri said to Paula, “Seniors in the front. Let the children have the back.”

  “Cool,” Paula slid into the front passenger seat.

  Julie put the T-shirt on over her own shirt and hopped into the backseat with Lisa and Marlee. “This is so awesome. Did you guys know?”

  Lisa, Marlee, and Jeri shook their heads. Lisa held out her good hand and bumped fists with Julie.

  “Oh, man.” Marlee pointed to the lead car. “Is that Coach Spears with Mayor Bradley?”

  Coach Spears turned to wave at them and grinned as if wondering what she was doing in a convertible with the mayor of Clarksonville.

  Lisa texted Sam, “They r having a parade 4 us. Wish u were here.” She waited for a return text, but when she didn’t get one, she didn’t sweat it and slipped the phone in her pocket to check later. For now, it was time to celebrate. Jeri put the Mustang in drive as the parade for the Clarksonville softball team began.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Secrets

  HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE lined Main Street as the Clarksonville celebratory parade went by. Lisa saw Reverend Owens from her church in the crowd along with a few other people she recognized from Sunday services, but an hour into the parade, she was getting tired of waving, especially with her right hand. Thank goodness they only had a couple more blocks to go before D’Amico’s Restaurant. Jeri said the mayor was going to speak, and then they would have their team luncheon.

  Coach Spears’s roommate—nah, Coach Spears’s girlfriend, Lisa decided—did a lot of work putting the whole parade together. Lisa felt happy that Coach Spears had such a loving life partner. Sam would have done the exact same thing if Lisa had been the coach. Lisa was sure of it. Lisa wondered if Coach and her girlfriend were married. Maybe they’d gone to Canada or Massachusetts or even Iowa to get married. If they did, it kind of sucked that Coach never talked about it and nobody knew.

  Lisa shook the disheartening thought away and sat up taller on her high perch in Jeri’s backseat. Marlee sat on one side, Julie on the other. Lisa leaned toward Marlee. “Geez, this is madness.”

  “You ain’t kiddin’. Clarksonville loves their parades I guess.” Marlee waved to a group of little girls in softball uniforms. “Looks like we’re big role models or something.”

  “Cool.” Lisa waved to the young team as well. She turned toward Julie. “Hey, there’s Marcus.” She pointed to their blond shorts-clad classmate in the crowd.

  “I know,” Julie gushed. “Isn’t he cute?”

  “I guess.” If you like that sort of thing.

  “He’s coming over later. We’re going to study for the geometry exam together.”

  “Oh, yeah? Wish I could crash your party.” At Julie’s bugged out eyes, Lisa said, “Don’t worry. I won’t.” The look on Julie’s face told her everything. “Geez,” Lisa slowly pointed back and forth between Marcus and Julie, “you guys have hooked up already, haven’t you?”

  Julie grinned. “Well, not hooked up hooked up, but, yeah, we’re officially going out.” She hid her face behind her hands. She peeked out and said, “Let’s leave it at that, though, okay?”

  Lisa smiled knowingly. She twisted an imaginary key over her lips and tossed it behind her.

  “Promise, okay?” Julie pleaded.

  Lisa nodded.

  “We’re going out again next Friday.”

  “Oh, yeah? Another Firemen’s Brass Band concert?”

  Julie laughed. “No, he’s taking me to the last drive-in movie theater on the planet.”

  “In Southbridge?”

  Julie nodded.

  “Why are you guys going so far away?”

  They waved to a group of senior citizens. Even though it was hard to hear over the Clarksonville High School marching band, Julie leaned close and whispered in Lisa’s ear, “Same reason we went to Northwood the first time. I don’t want to hear any Clarksonville redneck jerks harassing us.” She pulled back. “I just…”

  “What?”

  “I just wish the whole world was either blind or would mind their own business.”

  Lisa laughed. “No kidding.”

  They chatted for a while about prejudice and the general stupidity of the entire human race until they were almost at the restaurant. Lisa’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Sam leaning against a streetlamp, her blond ponytail pulled back delectably to show the curve of her neck above her blue peasant blouse. Lisa almost jumped out of the moving car, but thought better of it and waved frantically. Sam’s smile lit up the whole block. Susie was there, too, and Lisa vaguely registered Marlee waving at her. Sam hadn’t told her they were coming to the parade. She obviously kept good secrets.

  “That’s your friend from East Valley, right?” Julie pointed to Sam.

  “Yeah,” Lisa said without taking her eyes off Sam. She knew her voice betrayed her, so she cleared her throat. She tried to look normal, as if the love of her life wasn’t on the sidewalk waving at her, but she knew she wasn’t pulling it off.

  Julie stared at Lisa with narrowed eyes as if trying to figure something out. Lisa felt herself turn crimson to the roots of her jet black hair under Julie’s gaze.

  Julie pointed back and forth between Sam and Lisa and raised both eyebrows in question. Lisa knew it was time to fess up. She held her breath and slowly nodded. She couldn’t help the smile sneaking out between her locked lips.

  Julie wagged her finger in Lisa’s face and said with a grin, “I guess I’m not the only one with secrets, hmmm, Brown Girl?”

  Lisa closed both eyes and opened one slowl
y. “Yeah.” She opened both. “I hope you’re okay with that. I wanted to tell you...” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “Lisa, it’s cool. It’s cool. She’s really pretty.”

  Lisa laughed and nodded in agreement.

  Julie laughed with her and leaned in to whisper, “We both like blondes, don’t we?”

  Lisa burst out laughing and pushed Julie away good naturedly with her good hand. In front of the hardware store, she saw William holding hands with a pretty brunette woman who looked to be about his age. Lisa figured the brunette must be his fiancée Evelyn. She waved at them and said, “Hey, there’s my—” She stopped herself short of saying “bio dad.” Instead she mumbled, “William.”

  Marlee and Julie waved at them, too. Marlee asked, “Who’s William? You said that was a college scout you were talking to yesterday at the fields.”

  “No,” Lisa said, “he’s an old friend of my mom’s. I just didn’t realize it.”

  “Oh, okay. That’s cool.” Marlee looked confused, but Lisa just looked away and waved to the people on the other side of the street.

  A near miss on that one, Lisa thought and was glad she didn’t have to come out twice in one parade.

  Jeri parked the car behind the brick and mortar building of her family’s restaurant. Lisa and Julie hopped out of the backseat on one side, Marlee on the other. Lisa clapped Marlee on the back. “Geez, who knew Clarksonville softball was such a big honkin’ deal.”

  “This really is crazy.”

  Jeri and Paula caught up to them. Jeri said, “My mom and dad didn’t tell me about having the team lunch here. I hope they don’t expect me to work.”

  “Really.” Paula laughed. “I can’t believe none of us knew about the parade. I don’t know how they pulled this off without any of us finding out.”

  Marlee said, “I think we were all exhausted.”

  Everybody nodded.

  Lisa grimaced. “Geez, you guys. What if they had planned all of this and we’d lost to Brookhaven yesterday?”

  “Girl,” Jeri said, “how could we lose? We had the tournament MVP on our team.” She punched Marlee playfully in the arm.