Mayhem in a PillChapter 53 Judson vs Roosevelt Electric Boogaloo
- 2 years ago
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Tim Murphy, his father Raymond, and Roosevelt Head Football Coach “Big” John Fontana were the last people to arrive for the morning meeting in a conference room in the Administration building of Judson High School. Judson Head Football Coach Jim Baker called Big John back approximately an hour after Big John told Coach Baker about the possibility of someone from his team or school had thrown a bag of feces at Tim Murphy’s house the previous evening. Coach Baker told Big John that Rodney Valentine professed his innocence at being anywhere near the Murphy household ever in his entire life. He also had to end his call to Big John when Valentine’s parents demanded to know why their son was getting charged with something he obviously could have never done.
“Coach Fontana, Mr. Murphy, Tim, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. Please come in and have a seat,” the Judson Principal greeted the Roosevelt contingent with a handshake and the Cheshire grin of a used car salesman. “Now let’s see if we can figure out what happened the other night. First of all, I am sure I speak for everyone here that we are all genuinely sorry for your family having to deal with something as disgusting and barbaric as what you have experienced. I hope you can put the entire issue out of your memories.”
Tim was watching Rodney Valentine and noticed the slight smirk on his face when the principal said the word sorry. In Tim’s mind, the entire investigation was over at that moment. “Yes. Thank you for your kind words. First of all, I’d like to have it known on behalf of all of us from the Roosevelt family that we are not, and I repeat not accusing young Rodney here of dong anything wrong. We are just here to ascertain whether or not he or anyone at his behest is guilty of befouling my, excuse me, I mean our home,” Raymond said while putting his hand on Tim’s shoulder. “For the record, after we finished cleaning up the disgusting scene on our front door, Timothy remembered the many different fan sites on the internet devoted to him and his exploits on the football field. Please allow me to be blunt, but the inspiration is setting the hearts a flutter in high school girls - and even a few older women, I’m sure - everywhere.”
Rodney Valentine fumed at Coach Baker for calling his parents with the accusations from the Roosevelt coach. But Coach Baker felt he did not believe Rodney’s assertions that he was at home when the incident occurred. Baker called Rodney’s parents with him seated across from him. “Mr. Valentine, it’s Coach Baker at Judson High. How are you doing, sir,” the coach asked while on speakerphone?
“Just fine, Coach. Just fine. Is there something wrong with Rodney?”
“No, Dad, I’m right here. But don’t believe anything coach is saying, I didn’t have anything,” Rodney answered.
“Please, Rodney, let ME talk to your dad,” Coach Baker announced with a higher volume nearing a yell. “Mr. Valentine, do you know where Rodney was last night at about seven o’clock?”
“Tell you the truth, Coach. I don’t know. I didn’t get home until nearly nine last night myself. Let me ask my wife,” Mr. Valentine offered. The two in the coach’s office could hear a muffled conversation over the speakerphone. Mr. Valentine put his hand over the microphone part of the phone. An audible click came over the speaker, and Mrs. Valentine was now on the line.
“Good evening, Coach. Um, if I remember correctly, Rodney came home a little bit after seven, almost half-past. What’s going on? Is Rodney hurt or something,” she asked, getting a little bit rattled.
“No, Mom. I’m fine, but Coach has some wild story about me that ain’t true. It ain’t true at all,” Rodney had stood up and nearly screaming to protest his innocence.
“Sit down, Rodney!” The Judson football star was still standing and heavily breathing like he wanted to start a physical altercation. “Sit. Down. Rodney.” The coach put on that stern, authoritative voice all coaches perfect from years of getting hormone riddled high school boys to concentrate on something other than seeing a real live, naked girl. It took another second before Rodney sat back down, and he did so in a mechanical form without any other movement. Like he didn’t do it, his subconscious forced him back into the seat.
“Coach, what’s going on? Is Rodney in trouble,” his mother asked?
“Um, I beginning to think he just might be.” Coach Baker began to lay out everything he had head about the attack from Coach Fontana. He also included that Tim had found pictures of an off-white almost pink 1960s Volkswagen Bug speeding down the street away from the Murphy home. “Put all that along with how Rodney seems to lose control whenever anyone mentions Tim Murphy, and I think Rodney may have done this.”
Rodney’s mother began attempting to cover up for her dear sweet boy who would never do such a wild and uncouth thing. It must undoubtedly be someone trying to cause trouble for her boy and ruin his chances at a college scholarship and professional football dreams of the family. Rodney’s father started to agree with his wife and demanded that Coach Baker immediately apologize to his son and also for even thinking their son could be a part of something like that. Rodney was smiling while he looked at the floor of the coach’s office.
“Okay, then I think we need to get everybody in a room, and we can talk out what happened and see the evidence. Because frankly, I won’t let Rodney play until we can prove that he had nothing to do at all with any of this.” Rodney jumped up out of his seat, suggesting the coach was crazy for even thinking about keeping him out of the game. Rodney’s parents were equally apoplectic, and their rants featured words like lawsuits and firings via the Rockets Sports Booster Club. “Listen, everybody,” Coach Baker yelled while trying to get control of the conversation once again. Rodney, this time, dropped into his chair like a little kid told he could not have his dessert after dinner for being a bad boy. “Let’s all get into a conference room here tomorrow, and we can go over the evidence and see if we can figure out what happened. Right now, we have the story contained. Coach Fontana said he did not want the story to get out to the media. That was no good for either side. So I can get Tim Murphy and Coach Fontana to come here tomorrow morning, and we can see if there is any validity to Rodney having done this at all. I also really advise you against bringing in legal help because that will take this to a whole other level, and right now, we need this solved quick and quiet.”
After a few minutes of hand-holding Rodney’s parents, Coach Baker let his star running back go on back to class. When he was gone, Coach Baker called Coach Fontana and got him to bring the Murphy boy and his parents for a little conference between the two schools and two families.
They sat around the table and listened to the ins and out of what happened two nights before.
“I first want to say I’m sorry about what happened to your family, but I also want to assure you that my Rodney did not have anything to do with the vandalism of your home. My boy was home early after practice because he is on restriction, and we’ve got him coming home right after practice, which ends at about six o’clock, and he comes through the door either right at half-past or depending on traffic and couple of minutes after that. I have been keeping an eye on him for the last couple of weeks to make sure he is home at that time,” Rodney’s mother said to everyone in the room. But she did not look at Coach Baker after she finished lying about what time Rodney was home that night. Coach Baker was staring at her, and he saw the same smile Rodney had on in his office.
After several minutes of back and forth and accusations countered by rebuttal and counter-accusations, the Judson Principal got the meeting again under control. “The way I see this, there is not enough evidence to prove that young Rodney here was the person who befouled your home as the picture does not show anyone’s face in the picture and the color of the car is still in question.” Raymond and Coach Fontana began yelling at the principal for obviously siding with his student. “Well, sir, I have never had a disciplinary problem come across my desk wit young Rodney here. Everything I know about him shows he is a sweet and compassionate young man who quite frankly is destined for great things after he leaves our school.”
Tim had had it. “Enough,” he yelled as he stood up to his full six-foot five-inch frame, and it was at full attention. There was an audible rip as his arm muscles tore through the sleeves of the t-shirt Tim was wearing. But he ignored them. “Let. Him. Play. Friday.” He leaned over the table and pointed his finger at Rodney. “See you then.” He then stood straight up again and took a few steps toward the door. Coach Fontana and Tim’s father Raymond was taken aback by what they had just seen but quickly gathered up the evidence they had brought with them and followed after their star football player. Rodney was still wearing his Cheshire grin as he had just gotten everything he had always wanted.
Coach Baker rolled his eyes to the ceiling, kissing his perfect season goodbye. The Coach was well aware of how well Tim could play and had secretly suspected the Roosevelt Rough Rider defensive lineman could probably perform even better.
When the door closed behind them, Rodney answered, “I’ll see you then.” The meeting broke up then, and Rodney returned to class while his parents returned home. Everyone confident they all got what they all wanted.
It was Friday morning, and no one knew what was wrong with Tim for the last couple of days. The few people who had seen the video and had heard about something happening at Tim’s house were not sure of what it was. The rumor mill was running rampant.
Tim went about his regular day but kept any extraneous talking to an absolute minimum. There was an aura of ’stay away’ around him. When in class, he was one hundred percent in that class, and it’s associated work. When walking to the next class, he remembered the game film of Judson he had seen. Even at lunch, when he should have been kidding around with his friends, they could not pull him out of his current obsession of knowing everything about the Judson Rockets’ possible game plans. At practices, he was quiet and performing every drill to military precision and without the normal gabbing with his teammates. They, in turn, took on his aura of preparation, and soon each player was preparing each second of the day while they were not doing classwork. Each member of the first and second string varsity football team was ignoring everything else about life except class and beating Judson.
After school, on game days, there was a pep rally in the gym for the student body to give support to the football team before there game. It featured the typical cheerleaders performing their cheers and practicing their shared yells between them and the audience. With the importance of the game, there would be either the full marching band surrounding the rear of the stage. Or just the drumline using time-honored beats to help raise the spirits of the football team.
Today, the full marching band was backing up the full cheerleader squad as well as all the dance teams on the side of the stage. The football team would come out from the locker room and walk to the gym wearing their jersey for the night and enter in front of the stage but for a few team captains and the head coach. Coach Fontana put Frank Robinson, Troy Williams, and Tim on the stage behind him for the pep rally. Tim never participated in the pep rally other than standing in front of the stage, but this was the first time he was on the stage. “Welcome, Roosevelt Rough Riders,” Big John exclaimed to appeared to be the entire student body. I just wanted to reiterate what the announcement from this morning. The school buses are going to hold back for about twenty minutes for you students who take the bus home after school, so you to can enjoy our pep rally!” Big John paused a few moments while the applause died down. “Alright now without further adieu, please welcome the offensive captain of your Rough Rider football team, the quarterback, number twelve, Troy Williams!”
Big John pulled away from the microphone, and Troy walked up to it. But before he started speaking, he spotted Rob Newsome away from everyone else and hiding off to the side. They made eye contact, and he jumped out from his hiding place, and Troy fired the football right to him. It was a fast throw and a fantastic jumping catch. Troy had almost overthrown him, but Rob was a great receiver. Troy mimicked wiping the sweat off his forehead, and Rob jogged back to rejoin the teammates watching the show. “Tonight, we have an opportunity to show Judson that we mean business, and we are coming to take away their dreams of a perfect season!” The student body appreciated the positivity coming from their starting quarterback. Troy stood back away from the microphone, and Big John stepped up again.
“And now the all-district, all-city second-team selection and the starting middle linebacker for the second year in a row, number 45, Frank Robinson,” Big John shouted into the pep rally microphone!
Frank had no trouble speaking in front of people. “Roosevelt High!” The students all cheered. “I said Roosevelt High!” They cheered again a little bit louder. “Now that’s more like it. We started the year smelling like a fart in a classroom.” The laughs took a few moments to die down from his joke. “But we are coming out the other side smelling like roses. Now we were supposed to play against these fools a couple of weeks ago, but God must have wanted to see a slaughter since he sent a hurricane to come down and give the Rockets a few more weeks of life before they got that ass-whoopin’!” The cheers took much longer to die down, and Big John looked admonishment at Frank rather than saying anything. Frank nodded his head and put his hands together like he was praying and stepped back from the microphone.
“We got one more person up here that I’m sure we would all like to hear from, but I have an announcement to make before he can say anything. Tim, take off that number 99, we have a new number for you.” Big John pulled the jersey that was over his shoulder and tossed it to Tim. He unfurled it and smiled at the significant number one on the white home jersey, with the number one on red lettering and a blue border to finish off the school colors. Tim pulled off his jersey, and his under t-shirt came off as well. From the stage around where Frank was standing came a piercing wolf whistle and a “YEAAAAAAH, BOYEEEEEE!” came from somewhere in the football team standing in front of the stage. Several other girls loudly cheered as Tim put his t-shirt back on and then pulled over his new jersey: number one.
“Wow, I guess I get a new number!” was the first thing out of his mouth when he reached the microphone. But he quickly got his faculties centered and looked out over the faces of his other teammates. As well as the faces of the student body, a lot of whom he had known since school started. He couldn’t help but remember the way he used to be before his changes. He grabbed the microphone as it was still in its stand. “I’m gonna show those losers what they ain’t never seen before! Judson, we’re coming for you!” For some reason, Tim thought the moment in Rambo Part two, where he is on the radio calling his superiors and promising to return after they had left him for dead, was an appropriate line to help stir up the crowd a bit. It worked.
The students in the stands shouted like crazed fanatics, and they were spurred on by the cheerleaders and dance teams as well as the band who started up a rousing rendition of the school fight song. The teammates made their way back to the locker room where the freshman and the JV not dressing out for the football game, grabbed the school things, and left to allow the others to begin mental preparations for the game.
Tim’s freshman squad friends who had now been all promoted to the JV were going to be dressing up for this game. The coaches wanted to have more players just in case of injuries, and they did not want to look like a smaller school dressing, only about sixty kids when Judson dresses typically over one hundred players for every varsity game. Johnnie Boynes, Tony Parker, Jeff Green, and Mark Mazzurana had all been promoted a week after Tim. But now they were going to dress up for the Varsity game. They were probably not going to play, but if they dressed, then there was a chance. Each of his friends was excited, and the closer the game came to kickoff, the more nervous they were all becoming.
Tim sat on the side at the same spot he sat when he was playing freshman ball, and Johnnie sat down right beside him. “You nervous?”
“Anxious. I can’t wait to get my hands on Valentine.” Tim had told Johnnie about the meeting at Judson and about how he was sure it was him who had thrown the sack of shit at his family’s front door. He even told Johnnie about the way his parents were covering up for him. It was like they all allowed him to do whatever the hell he wanted.” Tim had promised he was going to get his revenge. Johnnie was worried about Tim taking out his aggression on Valentine. Even though he was also sure the asshole had done the dirty deed, he did not want Tim to kill or maybe even maim the guy. The horse’s ass didn’t deserve that. Johnnie didn’t tell Tim he felt the guy did not deserve to get injured, but he counseled Tim to be careful and to beat him within the rules.
The bus ride from the school to the stadium was where Tim started feeling a few butterflies in his stomach. But right when he was getting ready to put his tablet away, he got an email from his Dad. Raymond had sent a link to another video to get him excited. He sent them every game but was getting worried since his Dad had not posted a video yet. He had already sent a picture of himself in the new jersey and told him to tell his mother and Carmen about the change. In reality, Tim was expecting a possible number change just because traditionally receivers wore numbers in the 80s or even from one to twenty. Tim knew that teaching him how to run routes and catch the ball was something that might facilitate a number change. Also, the idea of him wearing number one was starting to appeal to him.
Tim opened the link and waited for the video to appear. He had heard this song before and instantly knew his Dad had picked another winner. He watched it and was blown away with the creativity of those who created the video. The video for The White Stripes’, “Seven Nation Army” video consists of one seemingly continuous shot through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of mirrored black, white, and red triangles. The triangle sides alternate between images of the White Stripes’ Jack and Meg White playing, interspersed with marching skeletons and an elephant. The speed at which the triangles move forward through the tunnel speeds up and slows down in unison with the dynamics of the song. During the video, when the song begins to intensify, the lights surrounding the triangles flash, and other effects build up as well. The basic riff pounded throughout the song is what makes it an excellent song to listen to before preparing for a football game.
I’m gonna fight ‘em off
A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back
They’re gonna rip it off
Taking their time right behind my back
And I’m talkin’ to myself at night
Because I can’t forget
Back and forth through my mind
Behind a cigarette
And the message comin’ from my eyes says, “Leave it alone.”
The piercing baseline was still ringing in his ears when he noticed the other players gathering up their shoulder pads and helmets to get out the bus. He paused the song before it was about to begin for a third playing. Coach Alvarez was standing by the door of the bus when Tim got off. “Hey, did your old man forget to send you a song?”
“Nope. A little late, but I got it on the bus ride. I’m glad I brought it along just in case.”
“If you like, I can hang on to it for you during the game. That way, you don’t have to try to hide it here in the locker room without actually locking it up away for your protection,” Coach Alvarez offered. Since he was the freshman football coach, he and Coach Barrett were sitting in the coaches’ box with an overhead view of the game and were the people on the other side of the coach’s headsets they wore throughout the game.
“That’d be great, coach, thanks.” Tim tried to hand it to him right then.
“No, hang onto it for now. We still got walk-throughs, and you can keep it for now. I’ll come and find you when it’s time for me to get upstairs and time for you to warm up. What song did your old man send anyway?”
Tim just showed him the opening frame of the video, and Coach Alvarez smiled. “Now that is a good song and a greater video. Your old man has great taste in music,” he said. Both walked into the locker room and were just able to get inside before the first players were leaving to get a feel for the field.
Tim sat his gear down in the usual place with the defensive linemen. He noticed his friends did not know where exactly to go. Tim pointed Mark Mazzurana to put his stuff on the outside edge of where the other defensive lineman stored theirs under a few shower heads. He led Jeff Green and Tony Parker to the offensive lineman and finally showed Johnnie Boynes where the running backs huddled. He gathered each of them up and left for the field. They saw their respective positions and joined them while Mark stayed with Tim. “Um, what do we do now,” Mark quietly asked.
“Anything we want for now. Most guys walk along the field to get a feel for the grass or in our case field turf. Check to make sure your shoes can grab hold if you need to twist or turn or if you need to step hard for something. Then look into the stands and see if your family is here yet.” Tim and Mark both looked at the same place, and both saw their families, not that far from each other. Tim looked at Frank and pointed to his family. Frank looked at the scoreboard, and the time showed they were ahead of schedule. Tim and Mark could jog over to see their families.
Carmen was waving and jumping like she was riding a sky-high sugar rush. She tried deciding to watch the cheerleaders or the dance teams who were now taking their seats in the stands. “Hey there, kiddo, are you okay? You’re jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean or something,” Tim told his little sister.
“Sorry, it’s just that my friend Briana has an older sister and she is in the Patriots and her family was going to come to the game. I hope I can see her so we can tell everybody we were here at the game. That would be so cool!” Not five seconds later, Carmen took off at top speed after seeing her friend and her friend’s parents enter the stadium. His Dad Raymond came down to try and get a hold of Carmen before she knocked someone down with her energy. “Timothy Murphy, come here please,” his father used his full name something might have been wrong. “First of all, don’t worry, there is nothing wrong. I just wanted to caution you. I still remember what happened out at Judson and I’m telling you right now, if you purposefully hurt that boy, I will yank your ass right out of football. Potential college scholarships or not. If you try to injure him or any of the other team,” he paused, and with a stiff and robust pulling motion, he mimicked. “Yank!”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll admit the idea did cross my mind.”
“I’ll bet it was when his mother started covering up for him, huh.” Tim looked up at his Dad and could not believe he knew that they were lying.
“Well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that that boy has his family wrapped around his pinky, and I’m surprised they let slip he was on some restriction. I’ll bet there is some story there. Anyways. I’m not saying to play hard because these boys think you are going to take away their perfect season.”
“Their right. I am.”
“But cleanly and within the rules. Be so much better than them that they can’t believe it. I would not put it past them that they were the ones who sicced the state on us about drugs.”
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-Brian- It had taken awhile to get Allison calmed down and it wasn't easy, let me tell ya. Christ, the poor girl was completely overwhelmed and totally shell-shocked. If I'd had my med-kit with me I'd of tranked her (For those of you not lucky enough to have needed the services of a field medic it means I'd slip her an shot of Don't-give-a-shit juice and tranquilize her.) but I didn't and as my daddy always said, "Wish in one hand, and shit in the other and guess which one fills up...
-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...