Last Chance Hero

by Cathleen Armstrong

  Marta returned after seeing Eva out. “Is there anything more?”

  “No, go on home, and I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, wait, you’ll need a key.” Jess opened her desk drawer, and there in the corner, just where she’d left it, was the plain white envelope with the list of child psychologists she had prepared for Sue Anderson. She handed Marta the key and held up the envelope. “Do you know Sue Anderson?”

  “Of course. My Marie plays with her Emma sometimes.”

  “Well, someday she might come in and ask for an envelope I have for her. She hasn’t yet, but you never know, someday she might. This is the envelope. As you can see, there’s nothing written on it and I keep it right here.” Jess tapped the spot in her top drawer where the envelope rested. “If I’m not here, would you give to her?”

  “Certainly. So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?

  “Tomorrow. I’ll bring something for lunch so we can say good-bye properly. Eva was absolutely right that you can manage just fine without her, but I couldn’t just let her waltz away without a proper sendoff. Even if it does mean she has to spend an extra morning in Last Chance.”

  “Well, good night, then.” Marta picked up her coat as she headed down the hall to the front office, turning out lights as she went.

  “So, where are we going?” Ray glanced over at Andy before pulling out of the parking lot of Last Chance High.

  “Think you could pick something? I’m not sure I could come up with my name if someone asked real fast.” Andy felt the knot between his shoulders ease a bit. Calling Ray had been a good choice.

  “Well, it’s the Dip ’n’ Dine or San Ramon, unless you want to go way out of town.”

  “Not the Dip ’n’ Dine, that’s for sure. I’m looking for someplace I can just be.”

  “What about El Guapo in San Ramon? The food’s good, and there shouldn’t be much of a crowd on a Monday night.”

  “Perfect.”

  As Ray headed north and Main Street became the Last Chance Highway at the edge of town, a heavy sadness settled on Andy’s shoulders and crushed the air from his lungs.

  “Man, that was a big sigh. You okay?”

  Andy was silent for a long moment before he spoke. “I was remembering yesterday when I drove up this highway to the hospital and back home again. It just hit me all of a sudden, the way I felt, I mean. You know, I’ve driven this road must be a thousand times or more, and I wonder if from now on, all I’ll remember when I’m on this road is driving to the hospital where I knew they were going to tell me that my dad had died.”

  Ray didn’t say anything for a long while. “So what did you used to think about when you drove up this way?”

  “Oh, a bunch of different things—riding a school bus with you and the rest of the team on our way to a game when we were in high school, heading out with my truck all packed to take the I-10 into Tucson for college, things like that.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean. Me too. We wore a track in this highway, all right.”

  “Yeah, those were good days. There was that sense of freedom that you feel when you hit the open road. I’d hate to think that was gone for good.”

  “No, those memories are still yours. As you said, you’ve been up this road a thousand times. Yesterday was just one of them. It’s gonna take some time, but one day it’ll be a memory with all the others. Trust me. When my dad was in that nursing home after his stroke, I drove up to see him every morning. And this road still triggers memories, but now they’re memories of him, not his stroke. It’ll be the same for you.” Ray looked over at Andy. “And I’ll bet you’ll be surprised at how many of those memories are good.”

  Andy nodded, although Ray had returned his attention to the road ahead. “I hope you’re right.”

  “I’m right. You’ll see.” Ray leaned over and turned up the radio.

  As the soft crooning of an old Eddy Arnold song filled the cab, Andy felt a wave of peace wash over him. Ray was a good man and a good friend, and Andy was glad he had called him. But all things considered, he still wished he hadn’t messed things up with Jess. He would have liked to be with her tonight.

  22

  All of Last Chance seemed to be humming with anticipation as homecoming weekend approached. Black and gold was everywhere. Rita had officially proclaimed the Saturday of the game “Puma Pride Saturday,” although how exactly that was to be realized was still unclear. Two pretty girls in black-and-gold cheerleader uniforms had even appeared in Jess’s office soliciting her support for the big day. For a sum, she could have a congratulatory message printed in the program, and her choice of “Go Pumas,” “Get ’em, Pumas,” or “Pumas Forever” stenciled on her front window. They even promised to come back and wash the window by Monday afternoon. What could she say? She chose “Get ’em, Pumas,” even springing for the optional snarling puma face stenciled under the slogan. The only person she hadn’t seen was Andy.

  She had seen him a time or two in the last two weeks, but it was only briefly and in passing. Perhaps he was completely occupied with his team, or maybe he was feeling his father’s loss more than he thought he would. Or, though she hated to consider this possibility, maybe the things she had said about football had just cut too deep and caused too much damage. At any rate, taking her to any homecoming event had not been mentioned again. Lainie and Ray had invited her to go to the bonfire with them, but even though she was beginning to realize how much she had been looking forward to going with Andy, tagging along like a third wheel with Lainie and Ray was decidedly not an option.

  Friday evening, when she would have been getting ready for the bonfire, Jess was padding barefooted around her kitchen in yoga pants and her Beat Stanford T-shirt, looking for something to eat and feeling very sorry for herself. Heading back to her living room with a bowl of cold pasta, Jess stopped as she passed the front window. That was Andy’s truck, and it was pulling up to her curb, and while she was considering whether to run for her room to clean up some, or stash her pasta back in the kitchen, or just stand there wondering what was going on, he got out and walked to her front door holding a large plastic box at his side the way he’d carry a football.

  “What are you doing here?” Jess opened the door before he could knock. She couldn’t help admiring the effect Andy presented standing on her porch in dark jeans and a white shirt with its collar peeking from a black sweatshirt adorned with a gold snarling puma and the words “LCHS Football” embroidered over the heart. Even if it did make her feel even sloppier than she did before.

  “I’m here to pick you up. The bonfire starts when it gets dark, remember?”

  “The bonfire? But we broke that off, don’t you remember?”

  He considered. “Nope. Can’t say I do. All I remember is you saying you’d go to all the homecoming events with me, and so I’ve come to fetch you to the bonfire.”

  Jess stared at him. Was he serious? He could say the most outrageous things with an absolutely straight face. But turning up to take her on a date she had very clearly broken was a stretch, even for him. Finally, he broke the silence.

  “Look. I know we got off to a bad start.” He stopped and blew out a sigh before starting over. “No, actually, we got off to a really good start. Things just got bad in the middle there, and I take all the blame. You are an amazing, caring, wonderful woman, and I’m so glad you came to Last Chance. And despite everything I claimed, I guess I was kind of bugged that you weren’t impressed by me. And that’s really hard for me to admit. So can we go back to the beginning? Would you be my homecoming date?”

  She just looked up at him for a moment before her smile broke through. “I’d love to go to homecoming with you.”

  “Then here.” He handed her a clear plastic corsage box in which a gold chrysanthemum nestled in a mass of curling black ribbon. It had a black “LC” made of pipe cleaner in the center, and it had to have been the size of a salad plate.

  “What’s this?” She carefully opened the shell and sniffed at the
flower.

  “It’s a corsage, of course, and a staple of homecomings everywhere. I brought it to you tonight because tomorrow I won’t see you until after the game.”

  “Pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?”

  “What can I say? I had to be confident. If you didn’t say yes, I was going to look like the biggest fool in Last Chance, getting all dressed up and turning up with my flower.” He grinned. “You want me to help you pin it on? With that gold Beat Stanford on your shirt, it ought to go pretty good.”

  “I’m not wearing this shirt anywhere.” Jess backed away. “What are you thinking?”

  “No? Well, you’d better go change then. We want to get there well before it gets dark.”

  Jess hesitated. She had agreed to go to the bonfire, yes, but that didn’t mean she was going to jump through hoops to do it. If he could turn up at the last minute that sure that she’d go with him, he could just cool his heels until she was good and ready to go. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but for once an impulsive side she didn’t even know she had told the do-it-my-way side to sit down and shut up. She handed the corsage back to Andy.

  “Give me five minutes. I’ll be right back.”

  Andy was waiting where she left him when she came back.

  “Is this okay?” Jess was wearing black flats, black slacks, and a soft, black V-necked sweater. “I’ve never been to a bonfire.”

  He stood back for a better look and smiled as he handed her the corsage again. “You look amazing. I’ll be the most envied guy there.”

  “I wear this? Like on my coat or something?”

  “That’s the idea. Except at the dance. There you wear it on your dress, of course.”

  “Oh, the dance. I forgot about the dance. So I wear it on my dress too? Well, thank you.” Jess tried to sound enthusiastic. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a corsage quite this big.”

  “Oh, this one is small, comparatively speaking. There are places where, what with streamers and other stuff, the corsage pretty much takes over the whole girl. They look like walking Rose Bowl Parade floats.”

  Jess laughed out loud. “I love it. Who knew so much was going on outside the lab? So I wear it tonight?”

  “No, just at the game and the dance. I was just kidding about pinning it to your T-shirt.”

  “Okay, then I’ll go put this in the refrigerator so it stays fresh. Gotta say, though, you sure seem to know a whole lot about this process.”

  “This isn’t my first homecoming, you know.” Andy followed her into the kitchen. “I’ve bought my share of mums.”

  “I’ll just bet you have.” Jess had to move some things around in her refrigerator to make room for the enormous box.

  “I was even homecoming king.”

  “Wow!”

  “Twice.”

  “Do they even do that? I mean, let you run for king after you’ve already won once?” Jess picked up a gold cashmere scarf she had brought with her from her bedroom and knotted it around her throat.

  “I didn’t run. They wrote me in. It was the first time it had ever happened, and they changed the rules after that: no write-in vote for a former homecoming king or queen will be counted.”

  “And you caused the rule change? There is just no end to your accomplishments, is there?”

  “I’m telling you, you don’t even know the half of it.”

  Jess laughed again and took a black pea coat from her closet. “I think we should go now. If your head gets any bigger, it’s not going to fit through the door.”

  Andy took the coat from her and held it while she slipped her arms into the sleeves, and when she turned around and smiled up at him, the bantering tone completely disappeared from his voice. “You do look amazing.” His hand barely brushed against her face as he touched her hair. “You will be, hands down, the most beautiful woman at the bonfire. You’d be the most beautiful woman anywhere we went.” He bent down and brushed her lips with a light kiss.

  “Okay, be honest.” Jess looked up at him, wondering that she felt so unsettled by so gentle a kiss. “What were you thinking when you came by tonight? Did you really forget? Were you winging it? What?”

  He opened the door and she walked out before him. “Not really winging it. Just hoping a bluff would work. I remembered on some level that you said you weren’t going to come with me, but it wasn’t till today that I realized I had never straightened things out with you, so I just decided to proceed as if I had. And just so you’ll feel better? I did not know until you told me whether my bluff had a chance.”

  “Well, now you know.” She locked her door and took his arm as they walked to his truck at the curb. “And that was even before I knew you were the only two-term homecoming king in the history of Last Chance High.”

  The first thing Jess noticed when she got out of the truck Andy parked in a vacant field behind the high school was the aroma of frying onions. The second was all the people. She had thought this a high school event, but clearly it was much more. It was truly Last Chance coming home. Young couples pushing strollers, older folks holding hands as they strolled through the early evening, families more or less keeping track of their kids as they stopped to talk to friends, knowing that wherever their kids wound up and whatever they did, they were in sight of someone who knew them well. And everywhere she looked were the letterman’s jackets. The oldest one she saw had a ’57 on the sleeve and was worn by a wiry man with a shock of white hair munching on a cupcake, and the newest, with shiny, unscuffed leather sleeves, were on members of this year’s team.

  “Where’s your jacket?” Jess cocked her head and looked up at him. “I think you’re about the only guy here without one.”

  “At home. I don’t wear it much anymore, I guess.” Andy shrugged. “I played on some great teams here at Last Chance, but it’s the playing I like to think about, and the guys who played with me. I don’t need to wear the trophy.”

  Jess looked around. “I think you’re a minority of one.”

  “Maybe.” Andy slipped an arm around her shoulders as they made their way through the crowd. “And if I hadn’t had the opportunity to play beyond high school, I’d probably never take the jacket off. When they talk about the Glory Days, it’s a lot more than winning all those games. It’s a time in your life when you’re young and the world is in your hand. Putting that jacket on gives you back a little of that feeling, even if it’s only for a night.”

  “Don’t you think that’s a little sad? Living in the past like that?”

  “Nah. They’re not living in the past. Look at them.” He pointed to a couple men who, judging from the numbers on their sleeves, were probably in their mid-thirties, laughing and talking. One rested his hand on the shoulder of a boy leaning against him. “They’ve got families, jobs, lives to live. They might not even live in Last Chance anymore. But at homecoming, they’re here remembering. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “I guess not. It’s just a different way of looking at things than I’m used to. I’ve always had to make sure I was ready for what came next. I can’t think of one thing in my past that I wish I could go relive. It was hard to get here, and I’m just glad I made it.”

  “You have every right to be, but you know, that’s what makes me sad. Thinking of all you’ve missed working toward your future. This is your very first homecoming, for crying out loud. And you just watched your first football game. That’s just depressing.”

  Jess knew Andy was teasing her—sort of—but his comment put her a little out of sorts anyway. Truth be told, she was much more accustomed to being admired for her life choices than pitied. She walked in silence next to Andy until he gave her shoulders a little shake.

  “Come on. I know how hard you’ve worked, and the sacrifices you had to make to get where you are, but admit it. Isn’t your life a little richer now that you’ve enlarged it? Look around! These folks are having a great time, and be honest, aren’t you having a great time too?”

&nb
sp; Jess did look around, and to be honest, she was having a great time, but she didn’t particularly feel like telling Andy he was right, so she shrugged. “Maybe.”

  He laughed. “You are something else, you know that? But I know what will fix you right up.”

  “Oh, what’s that?”

  “A foot-long hot dog.”

  “A what?” That was the last thing Jess expected to hear. “Why would I want that?”

  “Because they’re great, that’s why, and because the Boosters sell them to support the team, and because that’s what you eat at the bonfire. Doesn’t the smell of those onions just make your mouth water?”

  “Um, not so much.”

  “Well, come on anyway. There’s a whole row of food booths out behind the school, and every club and organization in the whole school has one going, except those running the bouncy house or the pony rides. We’re bound to find something you like, and besides, it’s your civic duty to support your high school. This is everyone’s big fund-raiser of the year.”

  “Since you put it that way, maybe I should see what they’ve got. What about salads? Do you think I might find a nice fresh salad?”

  “Probably not, but I bet I could score you a funnel cake.”

  “Practically the same thing.”

  The walk they took across campus was slow and interrupted often by people who had seen Andy play at Last Chance High years ago and wanted to shake his hand, or who had seen him coach and had observations or even advice that they wanted to share. Andy stopped to speak to each as if they were the one person he had hoped to run into, always drawing Jess into the conversation and introducing her to whoever had stopped them. And when they parted, it was always in the same manner: a handshake, a slap on the shoulder, and a question. “So, are we gonna take ’em tomorrow, Coach?”