Last Chance Hero

by Cathleen Armstrong

  “Oh, we haven’t begun to think about that. Sometime this spring, I imagine.” Kaitlyn smiled up from the shelter of Steven’s arm.

  “Well, hey, that’s great. Congratulations again.”

  Andy had clearly run out of things to say and looked as uncomfortable as Jess felt.

  “That was a great game, Andy, although that turnover on our own twenty-three with 1:03 left in the fourth could have been bad.” There was no point in Jess pretending she didn’t see Andy, and if she sat there without saying anything at all, someone was bound to notice.

  He stared at her. “Say what?”

  Jess tried to look interested yet nonchalant. “I sat next to Sarah during the second half. She’s a treasure trove of information.”

  “Sarah’s what?” Sarah came in carrying plates of applesauce cake, followed by Lainie carrying more. “Oh, hi, Andy. Want some cake?”

  “A treasure trove of football knowledge. I was telling Andy how much I learned sitting next to you.”

  “Well, if Sarah thought we were in danger of giving up an eighteen-point lead with a minute and three seconds left in the game, I think there are a few rocks in her trove.” Andy accepted the plate Sarah offered him. “Thanks.”

  “What are you talking about? I never said that.” Sarah handed a plate to Elizabeth.

  “That was me, I’m afraid.” Jess felt her cheeks reddening. Nice try. Next time, don’t. “I was trying to sound like I knew something by stringing together a bunch of words I heard you say. I don’t think Andy’s all that impressed.”

  “Oh, I was impressed, all right.” Andy straddled the piano bench and forked in a bite of cake.

  “Well, I know now that you had at least an eighteen-point lead.” Elizabeth scooted over to make room for Olivia, who was trying to climb in the chair with her. “So what was the final score? And who did you play? Tell me all about it.”

  Andy had already taken off his sports coat, but he loosened his tie and leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees, clasping his hands between them. As he told Elizabeth all about the game, with Ray and Steven chiming in every now and then, Jess could tell by her rapt expression that Elizabeth saw it all unfold before her. How many games, Jess wondered, had Elizabeth seen while sitting in the bleachers of Last Chance High? Her sons had played, and her grandsons, and for all Jess knew, she had gone to games before that. Certainly her interest in the game was real and her knowledge was phenomenal. If Sarah could write a book, Jess had no doubt that Elizabeth could write an encyclopedia.

  “That’s pretty much it,” Andy finished up. “There was that turnover with a minute left in the fourth, but despite what you may have been led to believe, it didn’t pose that much of a threat.”

  “And on that note, I should go.” Kaitlyn got to her feet. “Livvy’s squashing you flat, Elizabeth, and I need to get her home to bed.”

  Olivia had almost immediately fallen asleep and was indeed sprawled all over Elizabeth and snoring gently. Steven carefully removed her and draped her over his shoulder. “I’ll be back later, if that’s okay. I haven’t figured out where I’m going to stay yet, but Lainie said she thought it would be okay if I slept in your sewing room for a while. Sorry I didn’t ask you, but you didn’t know I was in town yet.”

  “Of course it’s okay. I’ll put the bedding out and leave a light on if I decide to go on to bed. Congratulations again, my very dear ones. I am as happy and as at peace as I’ve been in a long, long time. And I do hope you can call me Gran, Kaitlyn. I feel like you’re one of my own, even if you weren’t marrying my grandson.”

  “I’ll try.” Kaitlyn threw a kiss Elizabeth’s way and opened the door for Steven and Olivia.

  “I’ll walk out with you. I need to get home too.” Sarah got to her feet. “Good night, all.”

  When the door closed behind the four of them. Elizabeth sighed. “You know, when Steven scooped that sweet child off my lap and carried her out over his shoulder, I thought I had received every blessing that the Lord might ever have had for me—my grandchildren all walking with the Lord and starting families of their own. But then I looked over at you, Lainie, and thought of that little one you’re carrying, and I realize there is just no end to God’s blessings. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, why, he just shows you some more.”

  “Mmmhmm.” Lainie’s eyes drooped and she stifled a yawn. “We are blessed, all right.”

  Ray stood up and pulled her to her feet. “You need to go to bed. Chris is not the only one who needs to be at that diner in the morning.”

  Andy and Jess took Ray’s comment as a cue and began to gather their things, but Ray turned to them and waved them back in their seats. “No, don’t go, you guys. Gran’s a real night owl, and she’s really been looking forward to having company this evening. Please stay.”

  “Yes. Please stay.” Elizabeth chimed in. “We always send Lainie to bed early since she insists on working, but it’s still early. Don’t go.”

  Jess glanced at her watch. Maybe 11:20 wasn’t late for Elizabeth, but Jess had been up since 6:00, and it seemed awfully late to her. She stood up.

  “Elizabeth, I am sorry, but I do need to get home. It has been so nice to see you, and I’d love to come back real soon and have a good long visit. Maybe some evening when Ray and Lainie go out?” Jess looked up at Ray. “Not that I don’t enjoy you two, of course.”

  “Yeah, Gran’s always been the popular one. It doesn’t hurt my feelings anymore. Much.”

  “Oh, you.” Elizabeth took a swat at Ray and missed him by two feet.

  “I should get home too. My dad’s there and I need to make sure he’s okay.” Andy jingled his keys in his pocket.

  “Your dad! So that was him at the game tonight. Steven thought it might be your dad, but I thought he looked too . . .” Ray’s voice trailed away.

  “Old? Beat up? Yeah, you’d be right on both counts. He’s had a rough life, not that he didn’t choose it.”

  “How is Tim doing, Andy?” Elizabeth’s voice was rich with compassion.

  “Oh, fine, I guess. He says he’s not drinking now. Says it’s been three or four years, and from everything I’ve seen, he’s telling the truth, but it’s probably too late to do him any good.”

  “Give him my best, will you? And bring him to visit me. I’d love to see Tim again.”

  “I’ll do that, Miss Elizabeth. I’m sure it will mean a lot to him.” Andy took her hand and bent down to kiss her cheek.

  Jess kissed Elizabeth’s cheek too, and turned to Ray with a little smile. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask for a ride home, Ray. You picked me up, remember?”

  “I’ll drop you off.” Andy picked up his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. “You’re right on the way.”

  Jess looked at Ray, hoping he would say it was no trouble at all, but he actually seemed to think Andy’s suggestion was a good one.

  “Okay, then. Thanks.” Jess passed through the door Andy held open for her, trying to think of something, anything she could say that didn’t involve football. Every time she tried to meet Andy on his own ground, it seemed to wind up in humiliation. “It sounds like Elizabeth really would like to see your dad. Were they friends back in the day?”

  “The Cooleys and the Ryans go way back.” Andy opened the door of his pickup for Jess, then walked around to the driver’s side and got in. “My great-grandfather was Elizabeth’s husband’s father’s foreman. With me so far?”

  Jess nodded. “I think so.”

  “Okay. Well, the story goes that one day, Elizabeth’s husband’s father, who went by the name of Johnny, by the way, turned up missing, and my great-grandfather, whose name was Seamus, went looking for him.” From the sound of it, Andy was searching for something to fill the silence of the ride home as well. “After about three days, he found Johnny nearly dead under his horse that’d been spooked by something or other and jumped off into an arroyo. So Seamus used his rope to get Johnny’s horse off him and then somehow
got old Johnny up on his own horse and walked them home again, where they fixed Johnny up, except that he always limped after that. Well, it’s too late to make this long story short, but in gratitude, Johnny gave Seamus a little chunk of his ranch so he could start his own herd. And that’s the story of the Cooleys and the Ryans.” Andy stopped his truck in front of Jess’s house. “Aren’t you glad you asked?”

  “I am, actually. Last Chance is my home now. I love hearing its stories.” Jess reached for her door handle. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “No problem.” Just as Jess was about to shut the door, he spoke again. “Surprised to see you at Miss Elizabeth’s after the game. Did Gabe talk you into going?”

  “No.” Jess paused with her hand on the door. “Sarah asked if I had plans for tonight, and before I knew she was talking about going to the game, I said no. I was kind of stuck after that.”

  “Ah.” Andy shifted from Park to Drive. “Well, glad we could win it for you.”

  “Thanks again for the ride.” Jess shut the door of Andy’s truck and walked to her front door. Not till she unlocked and opened it did Andy lift his hand in a wave and pull away from her curb. She stood in her doorway and watched until a dust cloud dimming his taillights indicated he had reached the dirt road at the end of her street. Why couldn’t she tell him how much she had enjoyed the game?

  20

  Jess was reminded again that things between Andy and her had changed when she drove herself to church Sunday morning. Except for that first Sunday when she drove Elizabeth and last Sunday, Andy had always come by to pick her up. But he hadn’t offered, and of course she’d never ask. She found herself driving to a different spot in the parking lot from where Andy usually parked, although she could see that his truck was not in its usual place. Actually, her attempt to avoid running into him made her feel kind of silly. If he were there, she would see him. The church was just too small not to.

  “Where’s Andy?” Sarah leaned over and whispered as Jess slid in next to her.

  Jess shrugged, feeling somewhat annoyed. Sarah had asked the same question last week, and received the same shrug. How was Jess supposed to know where Andy was? Okay, since he had brought her every Sunday, perhaps it did seem likely that she would, but still . . . She picked up a hymnal and faced forward as the choir filed in.

  By the time the service was over, that troubling, unsettled feeling that had bothered her since she got up had completely dissipated. Brother Parker had preached on a peace that passes understanding, and for once she completely got it. She felt completely at peace, and she didn’t know why. Certainly nothing about her circumstances had changed since she sat down.

  “Come have lunch with us.” Elizabeth took her hand as they filed out of her pew into the aisle. “There’s always room for one more, and we’d love to have you.”

  “Do come.” Lainie chimed in. “We’re having a little family celebration in honor of Kaitlyn and Steven’s engagement. It would be so nice if you’d join us.”

  Jess hesitated. Lunch with the Cooleys did sound tempting, but she had made other plans. “Thank you so much, but not today. I need to get on home. I’ll send my congratulations home with you, though.” She blew a kiss toward Steven and Kaitlyn and headed for her own car. Andy’s pickup was still missing from the parking lot.

  The rich aroma of the soup she had made yesterday enveloped her when she walked in her front door. It really was too bad that no one was here to join her for lunch. Chicken noodle soup may have been one of the only things she knew how to make, but when you could make a soup like this, you just didn’t need a backup plan.

  Filling a bowl and putting it on the table next to her spot on the sofa, Jess got ready to watch the Colts play the Panthers. She had a strategy. She got a pen, a legal pad, and her copy of Football for the Clueless and set them next to her on the sofa. She would pay particular attention to the broadcasters and try to match their comments with the plays on the field, take notes, and look up things she didn’t understand in her book during halftime. Jess was all too aware of what a geeky thing this was to do, but then, she was an unredeemable geek, and always had been.

  The second half had just started and Jess was looking up “touchback” when her phone rang. She frowned a little at the screen when she picked it up. Why would Andy be calling? She decided to play it light.

  “Hey! Are you watching the game too? I find that I’m rooting for the Panthers. Any reason I should be for the Colts?”

  “Jess, I hate to ask it of you, but I’m worried about Dad. Could you possibly come over and look at him to see if I should take him to the emergency room? He keeps saying he’s fine, but I don’t like the way he looks.”

  “Sure, I’ll come. Is this something that just came up, or has this been going on awhile?”

  “Since this morning, anyway. He went back to bed after breakfast saying he didn’t feel good, but he got up a little while ago and got dressed. It’s just . . . Dad? Dad! Jess, he collapsed.”

  Jess jumped up and ran to find the shoes she had kicked off when she walked through the door. “Is he breathing?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell. I can’t hear anything.”

  “Do you know CPR?”

  “Yeah. I’m certified.”

  “Then lay him out straight on the floor, open his shirt, make sure nothing is obstructing his breathing, and start CPR now. I’ll call 9-1-1 and be right there.”

  Jess called 9-1-1 as she ran for her car. By the time she reached Andy’s house, the dispatcher had assured her the EMTs were on the way, even if the best address she could give was “drive past 225 Mescalero to the dirt road at the end of the street and continue a quarter mile or so. It’s the only house on the road.”

  She took her medical bag from where she kept it in the trunk of her car and was pulling a defibrillator from it as she came in the door. Andy was kneeling on the floor next to his dad applying CPR. He didn’t look up.

  “They’re on their way.” She knelt on the other side of Tim and placed her fingers on his neck, searching for a pulse. “Any change at all?”

  Andy shook his head and kept on.

  “Then move back. We need to do this now.” She ripped open Tim’s shirt and positioned the electropads on his chest. Motioning Andy back even further, she sent the charge through the old man’s heart and resumed the CPR. After a few minutes, she sat back on her heels and, as the sound of a siren began in the distance, sent a second shock coursing through Tim’s body.

  It did not take long for the EMTs to check the old man out, take over the CPR, and put Tim in the ambulance for his trip to San Ramon.

  Andy had moved to the sofa, and Jess sat next to him.

  “Would you like me to drive you to the hospital?” She lightly rubbed his back between his shoulders.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Okay, Andy. Here are some things you should know. First, I’m so sorry to have to tell you, but I didn’t find any pulse or heartbeat. They’ll make the assessment in the ER, of course, but I think you need to prepare yourself for the probability that your dad is gone.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  “And secondly, as his next of kin, there are some documents you need to sign and some decisions you have to make, so we really do have to go to the hospital.”

  He didn’t move but just stared at the floor where his father had been.

  Jess stood and took his hand. “Come on. I’ll drive. You be thinking about what kind of arrangements you want to make. I know it seems harsh to talk about this right now, but these are questions they’re going to ask you.”

  Andy folded himself into the front seat of Jess’s little car. He shifted to find some room. “How does anyone fit in this thing? And how do you keep from getting crushed on the highway? I’d feel safer in a kiddie car.”

  “It works.” Jess turned the key in the ignition and just let him talk, or not, as he chose. Not everyone who knew her would believe it, but sometimes she knew w
hen to just listen without words.

  Hours later, well after dark, she drove Andy back to his front door. Tim Ryan had indeed passed away that afternoon due to a massive heart attack, and from all appearances, he was probably gone before Andy and Jess ended their phone call.

  Andy sat a moment without making a move to get out. “Can you come in?”

  “Sure. I need to get my things anyway. I’ll stay as long as you like.”

  Andy managed to get himself unfolded from the front seat of Jess’s car and headed up the front steps with Jess behind him. He stood in the middle of the living room with his hands in his pockets, watching Jess pack her medical bag.

  “So doctors still carry black bags? I thought that was just something you saw in old movies.”

  “This doctor does.” She smiled up at him. “When you live someplace where you might be miles from the nearest medical facility, it seems like a good idea.”

  “Makes sense.” He rocked on his heels and checked his watch. “What time is it in Oklahoma?”

  “It’s an hour later, isn’t it?” Jess stood up and put her bag by the door.

  “Yeah, of course. Man, I just can’t seem to concentrate. Think it’s too late to call? I really should tell my mom, even though she hasn’t seen him in over ten years.”

  “That would be a considerate thing to do. I’m sure she’d want to know, if only for your sake.”

  Andy took his phone out and looked at it like he was trying to remember how it worked.

  Jess put her hand on his. “Look, don’t call her tonight. There will be time enough tomorrow. Come sit here on the sofa. I’m going to go put on a pot of coffee, and then I’d like you to tell me about your dad. I know he let you down in some major ways, and if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen. But I’ll bet you have some good memories, if only a few, maybe from way back when you were little? I’d like to hear about them too—that is, if you’d like to talk about them.”

  When Jess came back with a couple mugs of coffee, Andy was going through a scrapbook. “My mom put these together. When she left, she said she couldn’t look at them anymore, so they’ve spent all this time in a bottom drawer in the back bedroom. Look at this. They look so young.”