Mayhem in a PillChapter 58 Hiccups are Unexpected
- 3 years ago
- 17
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Sitting through class and waiting to tell the news of what happened last night after she dropped him off at home was sheer torture. With a couple of minutes left in his English class, Tim pulled up the website on his laptop and got it ready to show his teacher. He had thought it over all night before he went to bed and again during morning practices and other classes. Tim decided to give her the information and let her decide what she wanted to do. If necessary, he could tell her what he did to fix the problem.
The students closed their books and gathered up their belongings when the bell ending the class and starting the late lunch finally rang. Once everyone left, Tim brought his laptop up to the desk of his freshman English teacher and lover, Ms. Julianne Holmes.
“I really hope you aren’t going to show me some silly sex scene you found online, Timothy.”
“No. Nothing like that, but you do need to see this,” Tim answered as he turned the screen around for her to see. She could tell the picture was of her car at night, and it was leaving after dropping off Tim at his house late the previous night.
“Where did you find this?” she gasped, visibly frightened by the picture.
“Apparently, I’m very popular with the girls in this school and also a few of the boys. They have created several websites in my honor. They post news about me and my comings and goings daily.” He copied the website URL and emailed it to his teacher’s private email account. “I fixed the picture before anyone could figure out who it was.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, basically, I downloaded the picture then stopped anyone from getting onto the website and downloading it for themselves.”
“Well, apparently you are aren’t as good at the internet as you thought you were,” she exclaimed. “It’s right there for anyone to see!”
“Here, look at this.” He spun the laptop around on her desk and pulled up the original picture, putting both pictures side-by-side on the screen. “This one,” he related as he pointed to the original. “This one is the picture that went online first.” Julianne could see even in this picture that you could not see who was in the driver’s seat.
“I took it into Photoshop and played with the levels and made it darker, eliminating the chance that anyone could do what I did and figure out who was driving. I then re-cropped it so that more of the license plate was cut out of the picture.”
Julianne sat back down on her desk chair with a thump. She looked like she was about to start crying.
Tim decided to continue explaining what he did. “While I was photoshopping this original picture, I attacked the website with a DDoS attack.” He saw the confusion on her face. “I sent hundreds of thousands of inquiries to the website at the same time. I clogged the lines with so much traffic that the website shut down until the number of queries slowed or the website administrator could arrange for more bandwidth or more room for more people to visit the site. This is a big website, but not that big, and I was able to keep it down for a couple of hours while I scrubbed the original from any computer that had downloaded the picture. I then replaced those pictures with my doctored photo on each of those computers and, just in case anyone else was to come looking for the image, I went ahead and replaced the original with the new one right back on the site where we found it, with no one the wiser.”
“You know how to do all that?”
“Well, yeah. I told you. I read a lot.” He then smiled at her as he powered down his computer. “I even found the original picture in the SD card of the camera that took the picture and replaced it there as well. The fool still had it in the computer he uses for the web.”
“So what do you think we should do now?” She was still near tears and murmuring, nearly mumbling.
“I don’t know. I do know one thing,” he said, looking directly at her. He paused to brush a few stray hairs away from her face. “Well, two things. First, I don’t want us to end. That is a definite thing. I want what we have to continue.”
Julianne smiled at the glimmer of hope that the most wonderful man she had ever met in her life wanted to continue their relationship.
“But we also need to be a lot more careful. I think we have to stop with the weeknight trysts. We are just begging for trouble if we keep doing those. I think we can only see each other on the weekends.”
Julianne nodded her agreement. “I’m just happy that you want to keep seeing me.”
“Oh, it’s gonna take a little bit more than some pictures to get me away from you.” She wanted to jump up into his substantial arms and kiss every inch of his body.
Tim could tell she was about to do something like that, so he quickly took a step back from her. “We have to be careful, Julie, but trust me, I’m of the same thought, and it is taking a shit load of personal strength not to rip every shred of your clothing off your body and hammer-pound you to the wall.”
“Damn, Mayhem! Where you been? You just about missed my favorite class ... lunch!” Johnnie Boynes and the other guys were sitting in their regular seats with various foods piled high in front of each of them.
“Anybody need anything else while I’m getting my lunch?” The answers were mainly grunts but each held up a different food for extras. Three more hamburgers and one more pack of fries. “Dudes, if the coaches see me ordering that much food they gonna run me to death to make sure I don’t get fat.”
“Nah! They ain’t gonna do nothin’ like that. You the golden boy! The great new hope! You gonna be the Roosevelt High School equivalent to a football god once the brightness of the Friday Night Lights of Texas High School football gets their first look at your ugly mug!” The others at the table agreed with Johnnie and grunted or pounded on the table to register their feelings. “But you know what? You might get lost on the way back, or heaven forbid, drop my damn fries. I’ll come with ya.”
Walking to the lunch lines was delayed by several girls wanting to say hello to Tim and, to his surprise, a few for Johnnie as well.
Once they got in line, Tim was able to point out the importance of what had just happened. “Dude. They are finally beginning to recognize you. I knew you would come out of your shell someday and grow into that lovely bird. Ruffle your feathers, little bird. Ruffle your feathers!”
Several people laughed at the joke, but many more started laughing when Johnnie stuck his hands under each armpit, producing a wing effect and he started waving his arms and shift his butt from side-to-side like a little bird just learning to fly.
The lunch lady behind the counter looked at Johnnie like he was crazy. “Boy, what the heck is wrong with you?”
Without skipping a beat, Johnnie turned with his wings flapping and his lips pursed out like a beak. “I get a little bit crazy when I smell good food ma’am and, today, I smell a lot, and I thank you.” He then bowed to the woman. He turned to glance at Tim, and Tim joined in the bow. On the third bow, there were several others to join in with the two football players.
When Johnnie ordered a large cup of fries, the lunch lady gave him a large container filled to the brim, overflowing, then put it on a plate. In her enthusiasm, she poured a few more into the cup, but the fries cascaded out and onto the extra plate she had given him. It was essentially enough fries for several orders.
Tim got the other orders as well as a couple extra for himself including a couple of burritos. The two made their way back to the table, and Tim quickly jogged to the vending machine and bought himself four cans of Hawaiian Punch.
“Hey, the word is out about you making your varsity debut tomorrow night,” Jeff Smith said while passing an iPad around the table for Tim to see. The Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Daily podcast was well underway. Watching the podcast while eating had become the thing to do during the late lunch period. It could be seen on several tables, and the administration did not mind as long as there was no profanity, nudity or gore. Normal football violence was allowed. It is Texas!
“Yes, indeed, the big story coming out of the San Antonio area is centered around the Roosevelt Rough Riders. Legendary coach Big John Fontana not only changed up his offense from the 1970s to today’s version of football, but he’s now letting freshmen play on the varsity. Well, specifically, one freshman, Tim “Mayhem” Murphy has earned a starting job as the right defensive end in the Riders’ four-three defensive scheme. Kevin Thomas, what does this mean for the Riders going forward?”
“Well, Todd, this puts the eyes of Texas High School football all on the Rider team. We’ve all seen the various videos of how Mayhem has been causing just that, in every game he plays. He can thank the grading period for opening up the opportunities for him to pull himself up to the varsity. He proved he was too much for freshman football when he moved up to JV, which was the first crack in Big John’s coaching mountain of rules. When Mayhem played in JV, it was more of the same from the freshman game, just bigger kids being shoved,” Kevin said.
“This Friday, the Rough Riders will be on the visitors’ side of the North East School District’s Jerry Comalander Stadium. There, they will take on the Reagan Rattlers. Before the added hoopla of a new defensive end for the Riders, this game would have been one of the more evenly matched games in the state, as both are well-coached but feature underachievers,” Kevin explained.
“So what should we expect to see Friday night? Is it still an even game or does this Mayhem kid tilt the odds squarely into the Rough Riders favor?” Todd asked.
“Oh, the odds are now squarely with the Riders ... and now the city ... no, the state ... no, the country is gonna get their first look at Tim ‘Mayhem’ Murphy. I, for one, think he’s gonna deliver the goods. When I interviewed him a few weeks ago, I found a humble and quiet kid, but he just happened to be packed into the body of a Greek god, and I can say that with a straight face.”
“Well, don’t you think you are putting a little too much pressure on the young man to perform up to the standards you are placing upon him?”
“Not at all, Todd. Not at all. He has his head on straight! He understands that football is a tool to get where he wants to go. He told me he didn’t know if he had the talents to make a living as a professional football player, but he was going to try and find out!”
“Well, we are going to keep an eye on how Mayhem does tomorrow night against the Reagan Rattlers at Comalander Stadium,” Todd said, finishing his report.
He felt like everyone in the cafeteria was staring in Tim’s direction. They were staring in his direction, but all were trying not to look like they were staring in his direction. Tim could feel every eyeball staring right at him, but what surprised him the most was that he did not mind. “Well, looks like I’m gonna have to show the country what real Rough Rider football is all about.”
The deafening cheer could have woken the dead.
Jeff Green reached across the table and high-fived Tim with a thunderous clap. Tony Parker started doing the “Running Man” in the aisle between cafeteria tables. Johnnie Boynes had a massive smile on his face as he smiled at Tim and was sneaking fries from the other guys at the table. They either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Friday’s game was going to be interesting.
The coaches asked Tim before the start of Friday morning practice walk-through to get his ankles and wrists taped to make sure he felt comfortable with the added support and strength they provided. It took Tim all of two steps for him to realize he did not like the feeling of having his ankles taped. He quickly sat down on a small stool in front of the varsity locker entrance and used the Shark tape cutter chained to the seat. He cut the tape down from the top of the taped ankle to the mid-calf, down the side of the ankle, and through the middle of the foot. He picked up the two halves of the tape and trashed them both. He repeated the job with the other foot.
He looked up and saw Coach Shack with a small smile and the student trainer with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping and an annoyed look on her face. Coach Shack just pointed her to the table with the long line of other players patiently waiting to get their ankles and wrists taped for the night’s game. Coach Shack then went to Tim, “I take it you don’t like the way your ankles feel when taped.”
“Well, Coach, I understand how it’s supposed to help but, well, it just didn’t feel right.”
“Fair enough. What about the wrists?”
“Oh, those. I’m keeping those,” Tim gushed.
Big John stepped out into the locker area from his office and blew a few sharp reports with his whistle. “Okay, ladies, time for dinner. Let’s go to the cafeteria and see what we’ve got for dinner tonight. Remember, keep the noise down. Let’s go!” He pointed both thumbs over his shoulders and spun on his heels toward the cafeteria.
Tim was one of the first ready to go but did not want to be one of the first to get something to eat. When he saw Jeff Smith and Frank Robinson come out from the lockers in their shorts, half t-shirts, and flip-flops. Both guys waved Tim over to go with them to the cafeteria.
“So what do they serve for the meal,” Tim asked.
“Usually some chicken or pasta dish – something heavy on the carbs. Gets us fueled up for the game,” Jeff said as they left through the locker room exit nearest the cafeteria. “Last week was spaghetti that wasn’t half bad. No, let me take that back. I have not had a bad meal before a game as long as I’ve been on the varsity,” Jeff corrected. “The lunch ladies leave us well fed, that’s for damn sure.”
Right before they opened the door to the cafeteria, Jeff held the door and looked at Tim. “Now, there is not a lot of talking during the meal. It’s not against the rules or anything, but the coaches would prefer you to keep your mind on the game. Most guys prefer the quiet because it’s a sets the mood and helps to get your head in the right place to kick a little ass.”
“I usually listen to some music my dad had picked out for me before the game. I don’t even know what it is until I start playing it,” Tim said as they entered the cafeteria.
“Oh, yeah?” Frank offered. “Anything good?”
“Well, he said good music stopped at 2010. He sends me a YouTube link, and I watch a music video to a song I’d never heard before. Well, not every time. The last couple of songs, I had heard before. Just a good song to get your head right,” Tim explained while joining the end of the line.
The three players followed the short line to the servers. It was then that Tim noticed there were no lunch ladies there serving the food. The coaches were dishing out the meal.
“Tim Murphy, are you ready for tonight?” said the head coach, Big John Fontana. He was waiting at the end of the line for receiving food and handing over slices of toasted bread to go with the Chicken Parmigiana on spaghetti with a variety of sides.
“Don’t worry about the crowd, son. Just remember to do what the coaches tell you to do and concentrate on what is happening in the game,” he offered while patting Tim’s shoulder.
He spoke not just to Tim, but to each of the players in line, individually. He was giving words of encouragement to each as they came through the line.
Tim sat with next to Jeff Smith, and Frank Robinson sat in front of him.
“So, Mayhem, I didn’t hear you answer the coach. Are you ready for tonight?” Frank asked as he shoveled food into his mouth.
“About as ready as I can be, I guess,” Tim said as he took a small bite to make sure it was palatable. Jeff noticed the reaction on Tim’s face after the first bite.
“See? I told ya. I haven’t had a bad pregame meal since being on varsity,” Jeff said as he worked a large chunk of chicken into his mouth. “What about you, Frank?” he asked.
It took a few moments before Frank could answer since he needed to swallow some of the food already in his mouth. He didn’t wait to swallow it all but just pushed it to one side so he could speak.
“I’m with you, man. I ain’t never had bad food before a game,” he said as he swallowed the rest of the food in his mouth and continued. “Come to think of it, I ain’t never had a bad meal even for lunch during a regular day from this cafeteria,” he explained. Frank cut another large bite from the chicken parmesan and the spaghetti beneath it, but you could see he was coming up with an idea while eating. “I wonder if there was some way we could thank the lunch ladies.” He smiled at the thought then shoveled more food into his mouth.
“Yeah, that is probably something we can think about,” Jeff reasoned. “But not tonight.”
He then put some volume into his voice as he said, “Tonight, we are going to kick some Rattler ass!”
Jeff paused for the agreeing grunts, table pounding and hand clapping to finish. “From now on, Tim, once the school day ends, and we start getting ready for the game, ‘Tim’ goes away. Tonight we need ‘Mayhem.’ What do you think of that?”
Tim finished the last of his meal and could actually feel his team pride and spirit rise very quickly, but he decided to keep it under wraps for a little while longer.
“Oh, yeah, Mayhem is coming. I’ll let him out to play once I can put on my helmet and hit somebody,” Tim said in a deep, guttural, and menacing voice.
At the next table over, some of the starting members of the offense could overhear the conversation. “Damn, Tim, I’m sorry I fucked with you the day before two-a-days,” Rob Newsome, the senior wide receiver who challenged Tim when he received newer gear than even the senior stars of the team, apologized. “I’m thrilled that I’m not playing for the Rattlers!”
Even many of the coaches who were cleaning the food preparation areas started laughing at their players’ witty repartee.
The players returned to the locker room after they finished eating. While they were eating, a couple of the coaches were busy in the locker room. Someone had handed out all the jerseys for this night’s game. Roosevelt was considered the visiting team even though both schools shared Jerry Comalander Stadium as the centerpiece of their large Blossom Athletic Center complex.
In addition to the Comalander Stadium, there was also the Littleton Gymnasium, hosting the central basketball court with room for just over six thousand fans to watch a basketball game. The basketball arena was reserved for larger, more important games such as playoff and championship games. The complex also housed state-of-the-art Josh Davis Natatorium for swimming and diving competitions. Let’s not forget the eighteen-court tennis center, butting up against the newly-remodeled baseball stadium and practice fields.
As the visiting team, the Rough Riders were required to wear the darker-color uniforms while the home team wore their lighter ones.
The Roosevelt color scheme of patriotic red, white and blue had the team wearing white pants, their blue jersey with white numbering, and their red helmets. The players had only one school-issued helmet for practice and gameplay. Larger schools like Judson issued their players two helmets, one for training and one for actual games.
Tim sat down on the bench in front of his locker and noticed a blue jersey hanging from one of the hooks. He pulled it down off the hook and held it by the shoulders. The blue jersey was stunning to Tim’s eyes, and the white “99” with a red outline was just beautiful.
“We’re gonna keep you in that number for now, but later this week, the coaches are going to talk to you about an idea proposed by Coach Alvarez, but don’t worry about that right now; we’ll deal with it later,” Coach Barrett intoned before he left the lockers. He left a slightly confused Tim with a few other players, who sat near him, also wondering what he meant by that cryptic statement.
Tim quickly put that question to the back of his mind because he was still looking at his new jersey. He pulled out his phone and texted his parents, telling them to “keep an eye out for number 99!”
A minute later he got a “will do!” from his mom and a “have fun and screw the eggshells” from his dad as well as a reminder to check his email. He put his phone back in the locker, pulled out his iPad from his backpack, and pulled up his email, finding the link his father sent.
He then put the iPad down so he could finish putting his jersey on his shoulder pads, putting them over his helmet and placing them all on the floor in front of him. He grabbed his iPad and his headphones.
Tim found where Jeff and Frank were sitting off to the side away from everyone and subtly waved the iPad and headphones at Jeff who saw and nudged Frank. They both waved him over.
“Okay, I got the link from my dad, but I haven’t even checked it, yet,” Tim offered.
“That’s cool. Here try this.” Jeff handed over a small, blue-colored, five-way headphone jack splitter while Frank handed over his headphone jack. Tim plugged the splitter into his iPhone and plugged his, Jeff’s and Frank’s headphones into the splitter. Tim opened his email, clicked on the link and waited for the YouTube video to start. All three players smiled when they saw the title of the video before it started.
Everyone was now quiet as they sat on the school bus making its way down the highway to go to the stadium. Tim was still bobbing his head and tapping his feet to the rhythms of the couple dozen different songs he, Jeff, and Frank began listening to before the coaches declared it time to go.
There was everything from rap to heavy metal, and a couple of classical pieces thrown in for good luck. They all seemed to do what they were created to do. Tim didn’t really pay attention to where they were. He was focusing on the defensive play calls he had been learning. He did not want to make any mistakes! He knew, if he did, he could probably make something happen to correct the error, but not making a mistake in the first place would be the best option.
They were getting ready to pull into the stadium when, across the bottom of his eyesight, Tim noticed, “Good luck with the game this evening. You are going to do great. If you need us, we will be here.” Then a brief pause, “End of message.”
When he stepped off the bus, his helmet and shoulder pads firmly in his grasp, he followed the large frame of one of his teammates and used the noise of the bus exodus to muffle his thanks to the nanites.
Tim entered the locker room and remembered that he was supposed to put his gear down and sit for last-second pregame notes and encouragement from the coaches. Tim noticed Jeff waving him over when he got in the door and quickly dropped off his helmet and shoulder pads beside Jeff’s to then follow him out to do a walk-through of the field.
The fans were slowly beginning to arrive at the stadium. Tim and Jeff walked up and down the field. They would make a few quick sprints and then line up in a normal, three-point stance, proceeding to practice the various moves they had learned to use in other games. Tim also mixed in techniques he had seen on the internet. He was desperately trying to avoid thinking about how many people were going to be in the stands watching and how many internet people would be focusing on him for their stories this weekend.
Frank Robinson said, as if he was reading his mind, “You can’t do anything about the fans in the stands or the reporters recording every second of how you play. All you can do is play your best and be there for your teammates! You do what you can do. Trust me. Jeff and I’ll be there to clean up anything that needs cleaning.”
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-Tampa- Brad glided into the parking area outside Grace's apartment complex and thumbed off the power. As much as he loved his bike it wasn't the first time he regretted not having one of the older IC-powered two-wheelers. His baby was a blast to ride but the almost silent hydrogen-fueled power cell just wasn't the same as one of the older piston-banging throbbers. He'd heard rumors that someone was going to introduce a replica of the old Harley-Davidson line using a...
His smile was wide as he made his way down the hall to his room. He heard his mother showering and going through her processes for bed. His dad just gave a halfhearted hello as he walked past their bedroom door. His dad was busy watching TV. Tim turned on the overhead light as he entered his room and immediately closed and locked the door. He quickly blew a kiss to Cindy on the wall, sat down at the desk, and was taking off his shoes when his mom knocked. Tim unlocked the door. “Hey, I...
I didn't stay long at the party ― it was their party, not mine ― and hiked back up to the flying bridge. I sat there for a while and burned one while thoughts flew through my head. What had I gotten myself in for? Was it more than a little flirting? (Okay, I knew it was more than just flirting, but how much more?) The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want it to stop no matter where it led. The weather guessers were right about the front coming in, for once. By 0100 it was...
Top came back a little over an hour later grinning like a mad fiend at the same time Weird surfaced from his daze. "The East Bay warehouses," Top announced triumphantly. "That checks," Weird nodded. "The first tracker on her limo stopped transmitting about midnight, just about the time she was supposed to have left the party. The second one didn't stop until they got right here." He placed his finger on a map of the Bay area. It was an area just west of East Bay. At one time there...
We couldn't tell how closely they had been watching Tink's house or even if they were so we didn't head straight there. I'm sure it would have been safe enough but I didn't want to take even the small chance of getting into a firefight. Besides I had no desire to see Cynthia right then and Tink didn't want to go back home just yet. Tink did call her to briefly say she was okay and would be home soon. Luckily I had to only hear half of that conversation. "I'm fine, Mom," Tink said...
- Daniel- Okay, I knew the Xanadu was big but until you look down at it from a few thousand meters you can't really know just how fucking big it really is! Sure I know the specs and you can look them up yourself if you want to: 1,450 meters in length, 524 meters wide, displaces about 180,000 tonnes and carries up to 20,000 passengers with a crew of almost 3,000. That's not a ship, it's a small floating island! We got a good look at it as we flew out to meet it on the shuttle. Of course...
-Sumalee- I was happier than I probably should have been when Daniel walked into my lounge again the next day and sat down at the bar. I could not tell you exactly why I was happy he had returned but I was. I mean ... looking at him through unbiased eyes he is not particularly handsome, other than in an everyman, rugged sort of way. But he was nice and listened, laughed at my silly jokes and seemed to be enjoying talking to me for a reason other than just a ploy to separate me from my...
-Sumalee- It was still dark when I woke up that first night although I could see a little in the dimness from the small amount of moonlight shining in through the window. I rubbed my cheek on the warm surface I was sprawled on and smiled when I was rewarded by the scratchy roughness of Daniel's chest hairs. I hadn't moved a centimeter from where I had fallen asleep and neither had he. I was still face down on his chest as he lay on his back. He was not snoring but I could hear and feel the...
-Mr. Black- "Do you have the vest made up?" Black asked as Green frowned at him. "Yeah, sort of," Green replied. Before Black could ask the obvious question he continued. "The gel is setting up and will be ready at the same time everything else is. It'll go off; no problem. No, the problem is the detonator; actually the remote activator for the detonator. This wasn't exactly in the mission plans so we didn't bring that kind of equipment with us. I was able to adapt an old raghead...
-Sumalee- To say it had been an interesting evening would be an understatement. The relationship Daniel has with his team would make for a lifetime study by any clinical psychologist. We met two more of them that night: the brothers Stanley and Samuel. Their reaction to Lidia and myself was fascinating. It was almost like they had known us as long as Michelle, Brian and Nathan; almost like they had shared memories. As I said, fascinating, exciting and just a little intimidating. Not that...
A Man of Wealth and Taste Raymond Murphy had trouble keeping the smile off his face. His son Tim was going on and on about how cool it was being on the sidelines for the varsity football win against the Clark Cougars. The first half of football featured an unsure Roosevelt team going up against a Clark team who, though good, was not up to their usual standards and was going to have a down year. Roosevelt was not expected to make the playoffs. “I’m telling you, Dad, Frank Robinson looked...
Leonard Huffnagle was having a lot of trouble looking for dirt on Tim Murphy from San Antonio Roosevelt High School. The only tangible thing he was able to confirm was that Tim had gifted the Trojan iPad, given by Coach Andrew Thomas of IMG Academy, to his little sister, Carmen. IMG was known for recruiting the best high school football players from across the country and giving them highly specialized coaching to better prepare them for college football. Kids graduating from IMG often...
Rodney Valentine’s throat was sore from his screaming. His knuckles were scratched and bruised from pounding on that poor, unsuspecting asshole who didn’t know any better. Rodney was especially pissed because no one could figure out why he was so pissed off in the first place. Valentine and his posse of teammates arrived at the house party a little bit later than everyone else, as usual. It was an unwritten rule that the host of the party would have the game highlights from that weekend’s...
Tim, Troy, Rob, Frank, and Jeff were quiet most of the way on the drive to the address included with their multi-colored cards found in their lockers after the beating the Rough Riders had given to the Johnson Jaguars. The five young men crammed into Jeff’s GTO were mostly quiet, daydreaming about the story Troy had told them. “I think I know what this is. You guys feel like having an experience?” Troy asked with a strange, tilted smile. “My dad told me a story that he said I could never...
A Messy Situation Once Tim Murphy closed his bedroom door and turned on the bedroom lamp, he blew a quick kiss to his one-and-only Cindy, taped up on the wall, and collapsed on the bed with the biggest smile of his life. Tim was quietly reliving what had happened to him after the game. When he laughed to himself, he realized he didn’t even think about the game when the great time he had that night ran through his mind. The quiet knock on the bedroom door alerted him to the here and now. The...
Tim Murphy and the nanites in his body had already written the two reports – one for his English class and the other for his US History class. It was just a matter of typing and formatting the report in the proper sets. All in all, the two assignments only took a few minutes to type, save, and email to their respective teachers. When he sent his English paper, he had a flash of remembrance of his short relationship with his English teacher, Julianne Holmes, considered one of the hot teachers...
The week of practice started with a few announcements from Big John on Monday morning. Big John had canceled morning practice with a sign written on the giant dry erase board along the long wall in the locker room. He didn’t cancel all practice, but it would be just no helmets or pads. That meant a full hour of lifting weights rather than working out on the practice fields in full pads – a day off for sure. Before practice would have typically begun, the Roosevelt football teams met in the...
Going into downtown San Antonio for evening dinner was rare for the Murphy family. Of course, they went out to dinner occasionally but not very far from their neighborhood. Raymond had ordered the women in his life to a day of indulgence at their favorite beauty spa to get pampered and eventually have their makeup done. While the womenfolk were enjoying their day of pampering, the men folk went to fill a glaring hole in the younger Murphy man’s life: the lack of a nice suit. Tim had never...
As they did so often, the Murphy family sang along with the music on the radio. The Murphy parents both enjoyed all genres and encouraged their children to listen to all types of music. Juanita had her favorites and listened to them with the specialized music channels through the cable provider. She preferred the popular hits from the 1980s and 1990s, while Raymond also preferred that and rock music from the 1970s. The patriarch of the family steered into a parking lot nearby the...
The next day was moving day. I've heard how being out on tour with an entertainer can seem a little like riding a tornado without a safety belt but you couldn't tell that by me. I've heard how some tours play twenty cities in twenty days but that isn't how things are done in Ireland. Time seems less important and venues aren't always open when you want them to be. We were doing 25 shows in three months and that included a two-week break in the middle to "relax." Not exactly an arduous...
The next few weeks were just plain work. It probably seems like touring with a popular band would be great fun and endless adventure but mostly it was a lot like combat: endless hours of boredom interrupted by moments of shear terror. Well, terror is probably a bit of an overstatement, maybe agitation and concern would be more appropriate. Anytime the girls were heading into a large crowd there was a concern; happily we hadn't had anything like the clusterfuck we'd seen in Clonakilty but...
Feb 12, 2011 10:24 Am You were supposed to have checked out of the hotel by 11 am. The bags were packed but you had needs that must be tended to before leaving. A long flight awaited you at the airport and knowing you couldn't stand to be this horny all the way home you decided to take matters into your own hands one more time before leaving. I had been given the key to your room from the hotel manger. This was a room that was scheduled for remodeling and my contracting firm was putting in a...
A by product of time travel that no one knew about was the momentary blindness and nausea brought on from the rapid assault to your senses immediately after travel. But for some reason only on your return. When he re-materialized in the time travel chamber, Tim Murphy needed to shield his eyes from the suddenly ultra bright lights. He also needed to make a concerted effort to control his nausea. Nausea controlled and his sensitivity to light diminishing, Tim decided it was time to see how...
The drive to the hospital was uneventful and easy enough. Tim’s mother, Juanita, parked the family SUV in a General’s parking spot, right outside the front entrance to the emergency room. Tim’s father, Raymond, who was standing just inside the ER doors, knew from the frantic sound of his wife’s voice on the phone that she would not obey the parking rules and would take the first available space she found. Raymond quickly reached the SUV before Juanita could turn off the engine. He stuck his...
Summer two-a-day practices are a rite of passage for the Texas high school football player. The players arrived at their new high school, two weeks before the start of the new school year. Sure, they were only going to the football locker room, the football practice fields and also the weight room; but the psychological advantage of being able to GO to high school, earlier, was a definite positive feeling for the young soon to be high schooler. Freshmen did not have their own cars ... yet....
To say Tim was excited, would be a major understatement. “It was sooo cool, Mom,” Tim was almost jumping up and down in the front seat of the SUV while his mother was driving them home. “I was sitting there reading, and the librarian came up to me. I didn’t even hear her, as I was paying attention to what I was reading. She actually scared me when she touched my shoulder to get my attention. Standing with her was Coach Barrett, her husband. He’d come all the way to the library to just meet...
The lights turned on in the cell at half past six, every morning since Tim got back from his trip to the past. About a week after returning from the past, his nanites confirmed his hypothesis that no one he had met, yet, had any nanites of their own. Tim theorized to himself the interrogators did not have any nanite improvements since they constantly made mistakes in their questioning and also in their answers to his questions. Oh, they answered the questions as he believed they would but...
A good hundred or so young men full of testosterone and desperate to show they were not afraid, were indeed afraid. Afraid of not fitting in. Afraid of being shown they were not good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid they were good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid of the high school girls. Afraid of the high school guys. Afraid of the work their new teachers were preparing to pile on them. Afraid they would not be able to finish the work their new...
With the day’s drama complete after finishing with their equipment, they began leaving the locker area to try and enjoy their final day of relaxation before the two-a-days started. Tim and his friends crossed a very busy Walzem Road, right in front of the high school. Walzem Road’s three lanes headed northeast and three lanes going southwest were divided by a median island running the length of the high school. Once beyond the high school, the divider island changed into a turning lane....
The tacos were just great. Tim was still not doing anything to jeopardize the loss of the twice-a-week breakfast tacos treats. George was still bringing in the savory, artery-clogging breakfast tacos from everyone's favorite family restaurant. In fact, George was now adding an extra taco, since he understood the body's instant response once it smelled one of Yolanda's tacos. Whether breakfast tacos dripping in the grease of the Mexican sausage and fluffy egg combination, or the...
First day of school for both Murphy kids saw a return of a family tradition: Mom fixed a full breakfast for everyone. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruits and all kinds of baked goods. She generally cooks for the family, then the mothers from the neighborhood carpool come and enjoy a wonderful meal at their own pace. There were usually a few empty bottles of wine in the trash when the kids returned home from the first day of school. Rumor has it the same carpoolers also got together toward...
“Hey, Joe, what do you mean the freshmen offense knows fourteen plays already? I thought Big John only wanted the freshmen to concentrate on getting in shape, until at least the first scrimmage,” Kevin Krebsback, the JV and Varsity defensive backs coach asked, once the freshmen left the coaches office for second period. “It’s exactly what I said it was, Kevin,” Coach Alvarez said. As he sat back down at his desk, he saw he had everyone’s attention, including Coach Barrett. The freshman...
"I know you guys are keeping the pain receptors turned off during my questioning, but are there any problems with maintaining the status quo? I ask because I am starting to feel some of the pain," Tim whispered to himself while he held a pillow over his own face in a mock effort to fall asleep. "All efforts to minimize, and even counteract, the effects of the enhanced interrogation techniques are within their limits, and all nanites are performing at optimum levels. If you are, in fact,...
"So, how was the first day for you?" Tim's father, Raymond, was sitting on the desk chair while his son was finishing his first journal entry for his honors U.S. History class. "It was pretty good, Dad. You were right about the girls. Everywhere I went, I started seeing more and more girls looking at me and then looking away if I made eye contact with them. I'm not used to the attention, but so far it isn't bad." Raymond was practically bursting with pride. His son who, just a...
The newly-instituted procedure of sleep deprivation was annoying at worst because the nanites in his system could effectively turn off the pupils of Tim Murphy’s eyes and keep the lights from waking him. The same could be done for his hearing. The nanites would disable his hearing so any loud or annoying auditory stimuli would eventually be deemed ineffective. At the moment, Tim was quietly reveling in this private joke. The guards were pumping loud and annoying sounds, usually called music,...
Losing their first game of the season was bad. But when Head Varsity Coach John Fontana pulled his truck into his driveway, his wife was waiting outside for him. She had received several calls from various school officials, wanting to know what was Big John going to do about the brewing controversy. She told everyone her husband was not yet home, as he usually went to dinner with the other coaches after a big loss. When the teams won, he would tell his coaches to go home and be with their...
After informing the freshman football coaches of their opportunity to make changes to the football program, Roosevelt Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Big John Fontana decided to go watch the second half of the freshman football game. The freshmen were finishing the series against the Warren Warriors. The junior varsity started the losing streak 21-0 on Thursday evening. The varsity team followed up, getting soundly defeated, losing their game 48-0. In the coach’s eyes, though, the...
The interrogations were getting steadily worse. The large prisoner still refused to talk, and Colonel Kevin Price was losing patience quickly. Not only because he had never met a man who could withstand so much pain, but also because they could not understand how he could heal so quickly from the numerous rounds of interrogation. “Yes, sir, I still have no timetable for information from our guest,” Col. Price said to one of his many higher ups wishing bi-weekly progress reports. These men...