Chapter 12

June 22, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

I woke this morning spooned to Rhee’s back. I’ll say ... er ... write it again: I can now understand the attraction of marriage ... or living together. This is very pleasant. I found myself cogitating on sexuality and relationships. While I know that I am not gay – I want my dad too much and I am interested in Brett, I can imagine being happy living with Rhee. But then my brain took a side channel and I imagined living with Rhee ... and my dad. Oooh.

I pulled my mind out of that track, picked my head up a bit, and kissed Rhee’s right shoulder. I leaned over a bit farther, then pushed aside her hair so that I could see her face. At that, she started rousing. Her eyes did not open, but a smile grew across her mouth.

“G’morning,” she said, and reached up to hold my right hand, which had been on the upper part of her right arm.

Right then, the alarm went off. Because Rhee can be a sound sleeper, her alarm is not within reach of her supine form. The alarm is also very annoying! Rhee bolted upright and reached to turn off the blasted thing, coming partly out of the bed.

She then turned to me, “Well that was a mood-spoiler. Come on; shower time.” And then, at lower volume, “I cannot imagine what we smell like.”

We showered and dressed in our uniforms, then headed to the kitchen.

“Morning, girls,” said Carol brightly. “Good luck, today.”

“Thanks, Mom,” replied Rhee. “You seem chipper.”

“A good night’s sleep does wonders. I’m off to work. I should be home on time.” Carol hugged Rhee and then me. “Later.”

As Carol headed out, Rhee asked, “When are Gracey and her mom picking us up?”

“Is that a hint to get a move on with breakfast?”

She grinned at me, nodding her head.

We were waiting in the living room, talking about inconsequential things, when Gracey’s text arrived that they were a couple blocks away. We grabbed our bags and as we were exiting the front door, their car pulled into the drive. I was surprised to see Liya in the back seat. Without planning it, after we put our bags in the trunk, Rhee and I went to opposite back doors, which forced Liya into the middle of the back seat.

I grinned at Liya as she pouted and moved over and asked, “To what do we owe the honor of your presence today?”

“Well, I was going to say that I missed you guys, but since you’ve made me sit in the middle...” Then she elbowed Rhee and grinned hugely at me. “Actually, I know that this is an important game and I came to support my buds’ team.”

I grabbed her with my left arm and pulled her in for a hug. “Thanks!”

We all chatted animatedly during the hour-and-a-half drive to GV’s home field, with topics ranging widely, Gracey’s mom even having input.

The game was a good one, a well-fought battle. Rhee scored on a penalty kick early in the first half. It was a little annoying for me, because the foul wasted what was a good pass from me that led her in front of the D into the penalty box. Oh, well, the goal is the important thing, though I had quietly been keeping track of assists in the league; I was leading, but by only one.

GV got the equalizer late in the first half when our defense swarmed Sanderson, who had dribbled into the middle of the penalty box. She managed to sneak a pass to the right to the unchecked wing, who easily toed it into the near corner.

The second half was mostly a tough, defense-dominated struggle. Our plan for Sanderson was obviously working, as she got only two shots, both from poor position and neither was close to on goal. Then, with about ten minutes left, Sanderson pulled a doozy of a move on Ann, toed the ball past her on her right, ran around her on her left, and met the ball at the penalty box line behind Ann. No one else was close, and one cannot expect anything but a goal when a forward of her caliber has an open shot from that close.

We were nervous, what with so little time remaining. We huddled quickly before our kick-off and I told the team that we had to press, that nothing much else mattered if we didn’t get the equalizer. It would be all offense, all the time from here out. We managed to keep the ball mostly on their side of the field for the next seven minutes but got only one poor shot out of it, as their D mostly kept us out of the penalty box.

At the 3:00 mark, GV got a break and pressed hard on offense, which collapsed nearly all of our team into our defensive perimeter. Nearly all.

I was just outside our penalty box, when Gracey stripped their left wing of the ball just outside the goal box (whew!), looked up, and passed it to me. I controlled it, looked up, and saw Rhee still in our half of the field, but streaking toward theirs. I just hauled off and booted it long down the middle of the field. With their defense having to turn around, Rhee easily beat their center fullback to the ball, which she met a bit outside the penalty box. It was child’s play for Rhee to deke the goalie and stroke it into the bottom left of the net.

Whew. Equalizer. I would be quite happy to leave their home field with a draw. Regulation time had ended, and we were into stoppage time when GV’s center midfielder corralled the ball in the middle of their half and then did what I had just done a few minutes earlier: booted the ball long. Sanderson was already on the move, and already behind Ann. She caught up with the ball about halfway into our half of the field and with at least three steps on Ann. There was just nothing anyone could do, other than hope that Brianna, our goalie, could pull off a miracle or, even more miraculous, hoped that Sanderson would make a mistake.

Sanderson was nearly to our penalty box and my heart was crashing into my stomach, when out of nowhere, Gracey came streaking in from Sanderson’s left and tackled the ball away from her! Brianna quickly pounced on the ball. She had just punted the ball long -- good thinking, Brianna; when there’s so little time left, no sense playing with the ball in our half of the field – when the ref blew the final whistle.

WOW!

I sprinted for Gracey. Rhee and I got there about the same time and we nearly pile-drove her into the turf. Brianna joined in, and then most of the rest of the team jumped on the pig pile. I have never been so happy to squeak a draw.

When we lined up for the traditional end-of-game handshaking, as Sanderson was their captain and first in line, I grabbed her hand and said, “Damn. You scared the hell out of me.”

“I scared you? García scared me. Where the hell did she come from? I was just about to shoot and then I found myself rolling on the field.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see her much before you did. I was just about to start crying. That would have been a disappointing end, for us, of a helluva game.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll catch you on your field next month. Good game.” And, then we started the lines moving in opposite directions.

In the locker room, I caught up with Gracey right after Brianna did, who was saying, “Thanks, Gracey. I didn’t know how I was gonna stop her. I got caught between meeting her at the penalty box line or waiting for her. I would have had no chance to stop Sanderson.”

I butted in, hugged Gracey tight, released her, and said, “Yeah, Gracey, where the hell did you come from?! Oh, and Sanderson wants to know the same thing.”

“It wasn’t much,” she replied, downplaying her effort. “I saw their midfielder boot the ball, realized what could happen, turned, put my head down, and sprinted for the middle of the penalty-box line. I was surprised to look up and see that I could get to Sanderson shortly after she crossed the line. So, figuring that even a penalty would give us more of a chance than we had at stopping Sanderson’s shot, I just went for it. I was just fortunate that I had a clean angle on the ball and didn’t miss.”

We were all in the process – the slow process, considering all the excited gabbing – of stripping for showers when Coach called out, asking us to, as she says, ‘Gather ‘round.’ She had a ball in her hands, one to which Coach had obviously taken a Sharpie.

“Settle down,” she yelled. The roar dropped, and she started talking. “Good game, all of you. The defense earns kudos for following the game plan and holding Sanderson to a single goal. I remind you that this is only the third time that she has been held to fewer than two, though we didn’t shut her out like Central did.” She then grinned and added, “Of course, we didn’t get to face her right after coming back from an injury.”

There was much laughter.

“Settle,” Coach said, again. When quiet reigned once more, she continued, “Speaking of goals, our quiet, unobtrusive center forward – what was your name, again...” Laughter again drowned out Coach’s voice. “Well, whatever her name is, she scored twice, the second time on a great job of quick thinking on her part for taking off. But ... that goal could not have happened without Gracey’s superb defensive play to get the ball away from GV and her immediate pass to Beth. And then, it could not have happened without Beth’s heads-up play to see Rhee streaking and then putting the ball practically on her foot 40 yards downfield. After all that, I would probably have had to bench Rhee if she’d missed.”

Pandemonium!

Once things quieted down, Coach continued again. “However, we almost expect Rhee to get at least two goals a game, so that’s no big deal.” Snickering was in evidence. “The winning aspect, er ... the reason that we managed a draw was the superb play of the defense. So, to recognize that defense and to honor, directly, one player on that defense, today’s game ball goes to ... Gracey García!”