“With her tools of ignorance,” Julie threw in.
“Her what?” Jeri asked, one hand on her hip.
Lisa laughed and rolled her eyes. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you guys, later.”
“Oh,” Julie said, “I see my parents. I’ll see you guys inside.”
“Okay, White Girl.”
Julie skipped off to join her parents just as Bridget came bounding up to them.
“Give me a ride, Weesa.”
“Okay, Sweetpea, but it has to be tree trunk today.”
“‘Kay.” Bridget clamped on to Lisa’s right leg and sat down on Lisa’s foot. Lisa stiff-legged her sister toward the front of the restaurant.
Marlee laughed. “Oh, so that’s how you stay in shape.”
Lisa smiled. “Yeah, pretty much.”
As they emerged from behind the brick restaurant onto Main Street, cheers went up from the crowd. Coach Spears’s roommate, Anne, instructed the team to gather in front of the make-shift podium set up on the sidewalk in front of D’Amico’s.
Lisa stood with her teammates, Marlee to her left and Julie to her right. The lone seniors, Jeri and Paula, stood by themselves in front of them. Lisa’s parents, Lynnie, and Lawrence Jr. stood in the crowd to her left, but Bridget still clung tightly to her leg. Lisa lifted her leg off the ground every now and then causing her sister to giggle. Lisa craned her neck looking for Sam, but couldn’t find her in the mass of people crowding the barricaded Main Street.
Mr. D’Amico stepped behind the podium. His large frame belied the fact that he liked his own cooking. He put both arms out to his sides and said, “Welcome home, champions.” This incited thunderous applause and cheers from the crowd. He gestured toward Jeri’s mother. “Francesca and I would like to thank all of you for this wonderful parade and for supporting our daughter, Jerida. Oh, and the rest of the softball team, too.”
Marlee laughed and playfully pushed Jeri from behind. “Hey, Jerida.”
“Shut up,” Jeri said, but didn’t turn around.
Mr. D’Amico invited Mayor Bradley to speak, and the mayor practically leaped behind the podium. He’d probably just come from church, because he was dressed in a blue suit with a white shirt and a plain blue tie. His hair was almost completely white. Lisa pegged him to be somewhere in his sixties.
The mayor cleared his throat. “It’s a proud moment for our little village of Clarksonville. We are gathered here today to honor some of Clarksonville’s finest citizens. They fought hard and conquered all that challenged them.”
The crowd cheered, and Lisa wanted to clap, but her hand had started to throb again. She held it up against her chest to get some relief.
The mayor went on to thank the school board, the high school principal, and the athletic director. Lisa looked around and finally caught sight of Sam in the crowd. Her breath caught in her throat. Sam was so freakin’ gorgeous. How did I get so lucky?
Sam grinned when she noticed Lisa watching her. Lisa smiled and waved back. Sam put up one finger and then looked down for a moment. Lisa’s cell phone chimed. A text message had just come in. It was from Sam. “I luv u.”
Lisa hid the phone quickly, but Julie saw it. “Brown Girl, you are so caught.”
“Shut up,” Lisa said and texted Sam back. She typed in, “SAME!” Sam’s grin got even bigger.
The applause from the crowd refocused her attention to the podium as the mayor introduced Coach Spears.
Coach Spears coughed once and grabbed on to the podium as if she were afraid she’d fall over if she didn’t. “I am so overwhelmed with all of this.” The crowd cheered, and Lisa smiled when Coach Spears blushed.
Coach Spears smiled. “First of all, I must thank my Anne for putting all of this together. I understand she was the mastermind behind it all.” Coach Spears smiled sweetly at her girlfriend.
Lisa and the rest of her teammates hooted their approval.
Coach Spears’s girlfriend smiled back and then turned to acknowledge the applause and cheers with a couple of nods.
“She’s been my support for many many years, so thank-you, Anne.”
“Way to go, Coach,” Lisa whispered under her breath. Coach Spears had kind of just come out, but not so overtly that people would get weird about it.
It was just like she and Sam had been saying. If more people saw and heard gay people, then maybe it wouldn’t be so strange and terrifying.
“And,” Coach Spears continued, “I want to thank the team.” She gestured to the team in front of her.
“Whoo hoo,” Sam yelled loud enough for Lisa to hear. Lisa whipped her head around and scrunched up her face in a smile.
“From our two seniors down through our lone freshman, these girls worked together through thick and thin. They hung in there during two tough ones against East Valley—” Coach Spears had to wait because a chorus of boos had begun somewhere in the back.
Lisa laughed, but shot Sam an embarrassed look. Sam waved her down as if to say it was okay, and she wasn’t offended.
“No, no,” Coach Spears said, “East Valley has an exceptional team. We, however, were just a little more exceptional this year.” The boos turned to cheers.
Coach Spears said a few more words and then handed the microphone back to the mayor. She was about to walk away, but Mayor Bradley grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Not so fast, young lady,” he said. He turned toward his assistant who handed him a plaque of some sort. “By the power of the office of the mayor of Clarksonville, I am pleased and honored to give the key to the village of Clarksonville to you, Coach Dorothy Spears.”
“Whoo hoo!” Lisa yelled and slapped her thigh, careful not to hit Bridget who still clung to her leg.
Coach Spears said, “Thank you, everyone.” She held up the plaque with an old-fashioned key attached to the front. “Thank you.” Lisa saw the tears in her coach’s eyes and squeezed her own shut. She didn’t want to start crying, too.
Mr. D’Amico moved behind the podium and said, “Thank you all for coming. I would like to invite the team members and their families to come eat. Mangia!”
The rest of her teammates headed toward the restaurant, but Lisa, Bridget, and Marlee waited for Sam and Susie.
Lisa greeted Sam with a quick hug. She smiled at Susie. “Hey, Susie.”
“Hey, Lisa. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. Sorry about those boos for East Valley, you guys.”
“Oh, Dios,” Susie said. “You guys just wait until next year.”
“And you,” Lisa turned toward Sam. “You didn’t tell me you were coming, you sneak.”
Sam grinned. “It would have given away the surprise.”
“So you guys knew all along?”
Sam and Susie nodded and grinned. Everyone laughed and headed toward the front door to the restaurant. Lisa’s leg was getting tired, so she pulled Bridget up into a standing position. Sam reached for one of Bridget’s hands while Lisa held on to the other. Lisa’s family stood out front talking to Coach Spears.
“Lisa Anne Brown,” Lisa’s mother said sternly as she approached.
“Yes, Mom?” Why did it sound like she was in trouble? Sam, Marlee, and Susie stopped dead in their tracks wide eyed.
Her mother reached for Lisa’s right hand and held it up for Coach Spears to look at. “This is what she’s been hiding from all of us.”
Lisa felt her face flush.
“Oh, Lisa.” Coach Spears looked at the bruising. She felt around the side of Lisa’s hand, and Lisa winced. “As soon as this is over, your Mom said she’s taking you to the emergency room for an x-ray. You will call me as soon as you know anything. Understood?” She looked Lisa in the eye.
Lisa almost wilted under her coach’s glare. “Yes. Sorry, Coach.”
Coach Spears sighed and turned to Lisa’s mother. “Do you have a pen and paper? Let me give you my cell phone number.”
“Yes.” Lisa’s mother dug around in her purse and handed the requested items to
the coach.
Coach Spears wrote her phone number on the paper and handed it and the pen back to Lisa’s mother. “She really should go right now, but I think you’re right. She’s waited this long, another forty-five minutes won’t matter, but please call me the minute you hear anything, okay?”
Lisa’s mother sighed. “Yes, of course.”
Coach Spears turned to Lisa. “In the meanwhile we need to RICE you.”
“Rice?” Lisa followed her Coach into the restaurant thoroughly confused.
“It’s an acronym for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. I’ll send Annie to the car for an ace bandage, but I think Jeri’s dad will happily give us some ice.”
“Okay. Sorry, Coach.”
Coach Spears headed over to her girlfriend, Anne.
Marlee smacked Lisa on the arm. “Man, that looks bad Lisa.”
Susie said, “Dios Mio, amiga. Does that hurt?”
“Uh,” Lisa hedged. “Yeah, I guess it kind of does.”
Sam hooked her arm in Lisa’s. “C’mon, go sit with your team. Me and Susie’ll sit over there.” She pointed to a remote part of the restaurant.
Before Lisa could object, Mr. D’Amico came barreling up to them. “Could this be Samantha Rose? All grown up?”
Sam blushed. “Yes. It’s nice to see you again, Mr. D’Amico.”
He pulled her into a smothering hug and then held her out at arms' length. “I hope your mother and father are well?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You tell them to come to D’Amico’s, and we take care of them. Okay?”
“I will, sir. Thank you.”
Mr. D’Amico headed back toward the kitchen, and Lisa turned to stare at Sam. “How do you know him?”
Sam looked at Susie as if to get help, but Susie grinned and said, “Samantha Rose Payton, I guess it’s time for you to finally come out and tell these guys who you really are.”
Sam grimaced, obviously uncomfortable, and hid her face in her hands.
Chapter Nineteen
Closets
AT FIVE O’CLOCK in the afternoon, Lisa, her mother, and Sam were still sitting in the emergency room at the Clarksonville-Northwood Hospital. They had been there going on three hours and were still waiting for the results of Lisa’s hand x-ray.
Lisa’s mother stood up. “I’m going to step outside to call your father. I’m sure he hasn’t even thought about making dinner.”
“Okay, Mom.”
Lisa’s mother headed toward the automatic sliding doors, but then stopped and looked back as if remembering something. “Samantha, will you please get me if the doctor comes out with Lisa’s results?”
Sam nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Once her mother was out of sight, Lisa slowly turned to glare at Sam. “Were you ever going to tell me?” This was the first moment they’d had alone since Sam’s news.
Sam sighed. “Yes.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
The silence between them lasted for the longest twenty seconds of Lisa’s life, until Sam blurted, “I was going to tell you when you came over. You’d see it all, anyway.”
“But Sam—”
“I know,” Sam interrupted. “I should have told you that my family owns the D’Amico’s Restaurant building. I should have told you that we own half of East Valley, parts of Clarksonville, Southbridge, and Northwood, and that I live in a mansion. I should have told you that I’m really Samantha Rose Payton, heiress to the East Valley Payton’s fortune.”
Lisa shook her head still not quite able to wrap her brain around why Sam had kept it secret. “I can’t believe you own the Payton Arena. I never put that together.”
Sam simply shrugged.
“So, you’re telling me that when I saw Jewel last summer, I was sitting in a building you own.”
“Well, not me. My family.”
“Oh, and do you own anything yourself?”
Sam grinned, and Lisa’s heart fluttered, but she wouldn’t give in. Sam had kept something important from her, and she didn’t want to be distracted by Sam’s smile, or her silky blond hair, or the pendant dangling dangerously above her cleavage. Lisa cleared her throat and looked away from Sam’s blue-gray eyes, so she wouldn’t get sucked in.
Sam took a deep breath. “You really want to know?”
“Yeah.” Lisa snuck a peek for her mother, but the coast was still clear.
“You know that McDonald’s billboard on County Road 62 just outside of Clarksonville?”
“Yeah?”
“I own that.”
“A billboard?”
“Yeah. That one and a few dozen others.”
Lisa knew a look of disbelief crossed her face. “Oh, geez. I remember the little sign on the bottom that says, ‘Payton.’ Oh, my God, and all this time it stood for Samantha Rose Payton.”
“Could you not call me that?” Sam pulled her knees up and hugged them tight.
“Call you what?”
“Samantha Rose.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“I don’t…” Sam rested her chin on her knees.
“You don’t what?”
“I don’t want to be Samantha Rose.” She looked up at Lisa with pleading eyes. “I just want to be ‘Sam’ with you, like before. For once, I didn’t want to have to be Samantha Rose Payton, dutiful daughter of Gerald and Mimi Payton. My life is so much of a dog and pony show that I’m sick of it, actually.”
“Oh, yeah,” Lisa spat. “It must be tough having more money than God. Geez.” Lisa looked away.
Sam groaned, and Lisa felt bad instantly, but the black hole in her heart wouldn’t let her give in. Lisa had been embarrassed at the restaurant in front of her friends, when Susie blindsided her with the news about Sam’s wealth. According to Susie, Sam’s family was East Valley royalty and Sam was its princess. When Jeri and Marlee turned to look at Lisa with accusing eyes obviously wondering why Lisa hadn’t told them, she had no answer. She hadn’t known herself, which made her feel incredibly stupid because Sam’s family owned the building they were standing in. Even Jeri hadn’t known.
Lisa’s mother walked back through the automatic doors. The physician’s assistant scurried up to her from behind the nurses’ station.
“Dr. Sternberg sent me out here to fetch you,” the physician’s assistant said. “The x-rays are done.”
Lisa turned to say something to Sam, but Sam sat stonily with her face hidden in her hands, so Lisa left without saying a word.
Dr. Sternberg wasn’t in the examination room yet, so Lisa hopped up on the green exam table. Her mother sat in a gray metal folding chair at the foot. Lisa noticed the x-ray in the viewing box. “Is that my hand?”
Her mother didn’t have a chance to answer because Dr. Sternberg breezed into the room, salt and pepper hair pulled back in a bun, white coat billowing behind her.
“Yes, it is, and,” she switched on the viewing box, “you have a break right here just at the neck of the fifth metacarpal bone.” She used a pencil to point to a small fracture on the x-ray below Lisa’s pinky finger. “You must have clenched your fist just before the ball hit you. The force of the impact compressed the knuckle in the pinky finger which snapped the bone.”
Lisa’s stomach churned at the doctor’s description of her injury, and she had to turn away from the x-ray.
The doctor reached for a box that the physician’s assistant left on the counter near the sink. “Your injury is called a Boxer’s Fracture, and it’s fairly common. As long as you stay away from catching and other contact sports for a while you’ll be okay. Wear this soft cast religiously, and you should heal up in six to eight weeks. Twelve weeks maximum.” The doctor undid the Velcro straps on the soft cast to get it ready for Lisa’s hand.
“Mom, I have softball camp in two weeks.”
Lisa’s mother sighed. “I know, honey. We’ll figure something out.”
Dr. Sternberg showed Lisa how to place her injured hand gently into th
e soft cast and tighten the Velcro straps. “You may want your mom to help you out at first. It’s kind of tricky trying to do it with your non-dominant hand.”
“Okay,” Lisa said. This sucks.
“You can take the cast off for showers and to air it out, but I want you to wear it faithfully.”
“Okay, I will. Thank you, Dr. Sternberg.”
“No problem. If you don’t have any questions, I’ve got a snake bite on its way in.” She looked at them expectantly.
Her mother shook her head. “Thank you, doctor.”
“Okay, then. Good luck to you, Lisa.”
“Thanks.” Lisa took a deep breath. Her life had seemed so perfect a mere three hours before, but now not only did she have a broken hand, but she had a broken relationship, too.
It wasn’t her fault that stupid foul ball broke her hand. Lisa steeled her jaw and told herself it wasn’t her fault that Sam broke her trust, either.
AFTER SAM DROPPED them off, Lisa held her new cast high in the air in the living room. Lawrence Jr. seemed the most impressed and wanted to try it on, but their mother herded them all to the kitchen table to eat. Lisa’s father had made the Brown Family specialty of hot dogs and instant mashed potatoes. Seeing the combination made Lisa even more tired because it reminded her of Sam.
Lisa sat down at the table, and just after her family said grace, her cell phone vibrated.
Sam’s text read, “I wanted u 2 myself 4 a while. I didn’t want 2 share u with my complicated life. Sorry.” After reading the text, Lisa decided that her phone had been off, and she hadn’t received it yet. She powered down her phone and let her father plop a scoop of mashed potatoes on her plate.
After dinner she excused herself to study for her English exam the very next morning. Once in her room she changed into sweats and a T-shirt. She knew she should have pulled out her backpack and opened up her English book to study, but instead dug into her top drawer for her journal. She pulled the cheap green ballpoint pen out and sighed. Where the hell was her favorite blue gel pen? She rooted around the drawer for a few more seconds, but came up empty.
Tools of Ignorance: Lisa's Story Page 18