by Dan Doyle
Jim had long admired gardeners. They met a key requirement of a worthy undertaking—they were incrementalists of the best sort: careful, precise builders. In Jim’s view, they possessed so many admirable qualities: patience, diligence, selflessness, and, most certainly, a love of nature. And, as he noted in Josiane’s work, gardeners seemed to derive great pleasure and fulfillment from the task.
Jim had enjoyed the addition of poetry to his life so much that he had contemplated adding another hobby, one that was relaxing and not overly time-consuming. And one with a purpose, for Jim was forever about purpose. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed that gardening was the perfect choice, and he had discussed the prospect with Josiane, who was encouraging.
As he was thinking more about his entry to this new avocation, Jesse came around the corner, smiling broadly. “We found the book, Jim! It was in the University of Burundi library. They sent it over this morning. Got to get back to the Embassy, but I wanted you to have it right away.”
“Thanks, Jesse.”
The book was a collection of the works of El Greco. During Jim’s coaching stint in Spain, he’d come to realize that El Greco was accorded rock star status in the Spanish art community. The first owners he worked for, the Lopéz family, were major players in the art community who donated generously to various museums. From time to time, Jim would hear whispers about their private collection, including several El Greco paintings they apparently did not show except on rare occasions.
He recalled one such occasion . . . a magical occasion.
In his first year as coach in Spain, Jim was invited to a dinner party in celebration of the twenty-first birthday of the family’s oldest son, Jose, whom Jim had grown to like. After dessert, Jose’s mother, Andrea, said to the guests, “May we all adjourn to the library? Our family has something very special we would like to show you.”
Jim recalled the anticipation he felt heading toward the Lopéz library that evening. He remembered sensing that he was about to see something important—something unique—and his instinct had been spot on. When he entered the library, perched below perfect lighting was a painting that was, even to Jim’s untrained eye, awe-inspiring. He knew instantly that he was in the presence of preeminence and recalled being overpowered by the moment.
The painting was one of El Greco’s most famous originals, brought out by the Lopéz family from a bank vault in Barcelona in celebration of this ceremonial evening.
Navigating his mind back to the present, Jim picked up the pace of his page-turning of the coffee-table book of paintings. Moments later, there it was! And to his delight, his memory had proven accurate. He gazed at the image of a remarkably beautiful woman: El Greco’s legendary portrait, “Lady with a Flower in Her Hair.”
True to his recollection—and his quiet pleasure—the beautiful woman El Greco had painted four centuries ago was a near perfect likeness of Francesca.
Jim leaned back, looked up at the blue Burundian sky, and exhaled. He could not quite fathom his current emotional state, only that it was deep and absorbing.
Moments later, he regained a semblance of equanimity and saw Josiane heading to the garden with a pitcher of lemonade. Jim had already told her that he wanted to plant a small grouping of flowers to honor people special to him. He explained that there would be two plantings, one now and one in a month’s time. The second planting would honor his “African Dream Team—people like Bill, Mathias, Jesse, and Terrence.”
Josiane had smiled. “I will carve out a patch for you, Mr. Coach. A fertile patch.”
“Urakoze, Josiane. Many thanks. I’ll pick some and you can tell me if they’ll grow here.”
Laughing, Josiane said, “We have sun and water and good soil. You can pick almost anything.”
Jim decided his first planting would recognize six people who were a part of his African journey and who touched him profoundly: Edna, Sarah, Cynthia Foster, Barry Sklar, and Leonard and Consolaté Tangashika. With Josiane’s help, he would select plantings that would remind him of each of them.
Several days earlier, he had retrieved a book he’d seen in the Foster’s library, The Language of Flowers, and, after a couple of hours on the veranda one morning, he felt good about his choices.
While pouring Jim a glass of lemonade, Josiane asked, “Have you made your selections, Mr. Coach? For I can go now to make the purchase.”
Jim handed her his list. “I have, Josiane, and I think I’ve gotten the perfect matches.”
In Edna’s memory, he selected a blue salvia, but only after considering a dwarf sunflower. The book had the salvia aligned with “I think of you,” while the sunflower was “adoration.” “Adoration” was appropriate. Throughout their marriage, Jim loved Edna to distraction. At games, he would sometimes even glance at her in the bleachers and have to fight to regain his concentration on coaching. But “I think of you” encompassed all the times the thought of her would lead to extended reveries, happy distractions from the more challenging aspects of his life.
He mentioned his reason for this choice to Josiane.
“Mr. Coach, plant both. Together they will make a nice combination.”
Jim’s throat tightened and he clenched his teeth to fight back tears. He then said simply, “Thanks, Josiane, a good idea.”
For Sarah, for whom his love was mixed with admiration and pride, he chose a red carnation; the carnation was his favorite flower.
His choice for Cynthia Foster was serendipitous. She often came to mind when he saw the Bird of Paradise simply because of its striking, almost regal shape. Jim was pleased that The Language of Flowers associated it with “joyfulness.” From the beginning, the ambassador had impressed Jim with her irrepressibly upbeat, positive attitude, signaled so often by a captivating smile and hearty laugh.
Barry was easy. He ran his eyes through the pages of flowers until he found one associated with “gratitude.” And so, for his friend who had helped turn his life around, it was the Bell Flower.
The thought of Leonard unleashed a flood of emotions. He would need an entire garden to match these emotions. Could he possibly find just one flower to represent the feelings of a coach, friend, and, yes, a father? Slowly, Jim sifted his sentiments and finally decided on “pride” and the Amaryllis.
And for Consolaté, he chose a Dahlia, signifying elegance and dignity.
He passed the sheet of paper to Josiane, who looked at it and said, “It is a good list, Mr. Coach. I shall go now.”
As Josiane turned to leave, Jim looked up quickly from the book of paintings in his lap. “Josiane,” he said, “could you look at a picture?”
As she moved toward him, Jim handed her the cumbersome book. “That one, Josiane.”
“She is such a beautiful woman, Mr. Coach.”
“The flower in her hair, Josiane. What kind is it?”
“It is a jasmine,” she said admiringly.
“Would a jasmine grow in my patch?”
“Yes, most definitely. It would grow . . . and it would flourish.”
Without hesitation the coach said, “Then please, get one.”
As Josiane turned away from Jim, she felt a rush of joy at his decision.
Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to the publication of this novel. First and foremost, I am grateful for the support of my wonderful family—my wife Kathy, our children Danny, Matt, Andy, Meg, Carrie, and Julie, as well as my son-in-law Jake and my daughter-in-law Betsy.
I had two great editors work with me, Bob Stiepock and Nicole Frail. Lee Anne McCullough did a tremendous job helping me with transcribing and proofing. Special thanks to my literary agent, Jake Elwell, for sorting through all of the details.
I was fortunate to enlist the assistance of eleven “literary mavens,” all of whom read the draft and made excellent suggestions. To Linda Pearson, Alan Burstein, Rod Steier, Tim Brennan, Mark Epstein, Mark Newlan, Karl Lindholm, Tom Condon, Dr. Donald Pet and Marilyn Pet, and Lee Dushoff, my hea
rty thanks.
Through the book’s website, I look forward to keeping you posted on continuing and completing Coach Jim Keating’s story. For supplemental information relating to An African Rebound, including updates on the continuation of the Jim Keating saga, please visit www.anafricanrebound.com.