Because of Blood

Chapter Nineteen

 

            Geri was the star of the parade, and she rode on a float made just for her. A large banner proclaimed STATE CHAMPIONS on the front of the float and on both sides a banner saying GERI STATE MVP. She waved like a queen to the crowd lining Fishinghawk’s Main Street.

           And though the aftermath was not exactly like the dream, the sensation was still overpowering. It took three overtimes to do it, but in the final one, when Geri put that basket in from the free throw line, that was it. Game over. State won. Fishinghawk ablaze. Geri triumphant. Even with a black eye and a sore thigh.

           The crowd chanted and clapped so long, the announcer had to come on the P.A. and ask for silence when the trophy was awarded. Then, it seemed to Geri that the noise grew even louder and stronger when she was named the most valuable player of the tournament. A lowly sophomore. She had a momentary feeling of panic: How would she top this in the next two years?

I can stay the same, she decided. Surely, that would be good enough for her, for Coach, for anyone.

           And Ganny, well Ganny never cared one way or the other if she won or lost. Ganny told her to have a good time. That was her advice.

           Before she walked out the door to get the bus that morning, she made Geri a big breakfast and had her eat it all.

           In between bites of scrambled egg, Geri told her about the dream she had had the night before, the parade, the float stuffed to the last bit of chicken wire with white tissue paper, the crowds, the princess wave.

           Ganny had laughed and enjoyed the description, and then Geri changed the topic. She didn’t tell Ganny about the other dreams, the nightmares, but she did ask a question.

           “What did Louise say when she regained consciousness? I don’t think you told me before.”

           Ganny’s laughter subsided, and she looked sharply at Geri. Then, her smile returned, as she remembered her sister.

           “It didn’t mean anything, just somethin’ about a blue jay or blue somethin’. The word ‘blue’ was really all anybody could decipher.”

           “Hmm,” Geri mumbled, her mouth full of strawberry jam and biscuit.

           “Ya haven’t been down there in a while, have ya?”

           Geri rubbed her legs, remembering the stark coldness, the chill coming up them, even though she only went in to her knees and then turned around and walked out.

           “There wasn’t anything there for me.”

           Ganny smiled and ruffled Geri’s hair.

* * *

           In the locker room, she congratulated Johnna on the last game of her high school career, and Johnna had the decency to shake her hand and nod. She and Bird left together, but Bird’s family all waited on her as she came into the hallway. And waiting on Geri was Matt. Again, her dad was talking to him.

           She took a breath and approached them. And was swamped by reporters taking her picture and asking her questions. Coach Thorpe came up behind her and helped her out with some of the questions and posed for the pictures.

           One of the reporters asked, “Are your parents here? It would be great to get them in the picture.”

           To his credit, her dad, who had heard, did not step forward. Geri bit her lip, considering. And Coach Thorpe saved her.

           “Geri lives with her grandma, and she couldn’t be here.”

           After a few more questions, he hustled her away, only to be intercepted by Scott.

“Hi John,” he said to Coach Thorpe, and they shook hands.

“Good to see you, Scott. What do you think of this girl? She’s something else.”

“Yes, you have really turned her into a ballplayer.”

Geri blushed and noticed that Scott did, too. There was some kind of curious thing going on between Coach Thorpe and her dad. They were talking to each other with their eyes, and Geri had no idea what that was about. Or maybe they had been having more conversations than Coach had let on that day he had talked about her dad.

Maybe it was the mood of celebration, maybe some feeling inside was shifting for Geri, but she felt her anger toward Scott ease and something else begin to replace it.Whattever it was, she found herself almost smiling at him.

Coach Thorpe nudged Geri on the shoulder. “I didn’t do much. She was determined, and all I had to do was ride her every once in a while. Since she was a kid, I could tell she had the will to do what she wanted. I just wanted to see if it would happen. I’ve learned a lot from her.”

It was the biggest speech Geri had ever heard him make, and she felt tears threaten.

“Well, congratulations, Ta--Geri,” Scott said. “You’ve earned it. I’ve enjoyed watching you play.”

He waited a moment, and when she didn’t respond, he began to turn away.

“Hey,” she said. “Thanks. Listen, I’ll . . . I’ll call you.”

His smile totally changed his face, and Geri suddenly remembered that face and the man who had taken her to the zoo and bought her cotton candy. Wow, that memory hadn’t come up in a while.

“I’ll be waiting,” he said.

“Speaking of waiting,” Coach Thorpe said when Scott had left. He nodded toward Matt who had been keeping an eye on them.

She couldn’t put it off any longer. She had refused to answer his phone calls.

Matt caught her eye but didn’t smile or wave her over. He was waiting for her to decide what she would do. Or at least she thought so, until her apparent indecision compelled him forward. He walked swiftly toward them then.

“We need to talk,” he asked, ignoring Coach Thorpe.

“Bus leaves in about twenty minutes,” Coach said and walked away.

“Twenty minutes,”Geri murmured.

Matt seemed exasperated now. He scratched his arm and looked away and then back at Geri.

“I don’t know why you’re giving me the silent treatment all of a sudden, but I need to know. I need to know what’s going on. I thought we were going to be all right.”

Another reporter burst in on them as if they weren’t even speaking.

“Hey!” Matt said. “We’re having a conversation here. Can you wait?”

His voice and the fact that he had about five inches on the reporter made him back off. Geri smiled.

“What are you smiling about?”

“I didn’t know you could be so intimidating.”

“Well, if I’d known it would put you in a better mood, I would have done it before.”

“Oh well . . .” Geri didn’t know what to say. She was still angry at him for the “tease” remark, for telling Johnna about it. If that’s what he did. But it had to be him, didn’t it?

“Geri, I’ve got an idea, okay.”

And the other part of her wanted to walk into his arms and forget the past and start over.

“What?” she asked.

“Call your grandma and get her permission to ride back to Fishinghawk with me. I’ll take you, okay. Let’s go find Coach Thorpe. She can talk to him on the phone.”

Her immediate response was to refuse, to be stubborn. But she didn’t want to refuse.

“All right. He’s probably just . . . Oh, he’s still down there.”

Matt went after Coach Thorpe, and Geri stopped at a payphone in the gym hallway.  She hoped Ganny wouldn’t be in bed yet. She wasn’t Geri explained the situation, which she agreed to, and by that time, Coach Thorpe was there.

Coach looked at her, and she handed him the phone. After a brief conversation, he gave them the okay.

Geri discovered some things on that two and a half hour ride home. She discovered anew how much she liked sitting next to him and talking as the night enveloped them. She discovered how relaxed she could be, even when talking about personal things, about problems that she usually liked to keep hidden.

And she discovered that he hadn’t said anything to Johnna about Geri being a tease. It must have been a good guess on her part. A guess born of the fact that Geri didn’t have a boyfriend and hadn’t kept Matt. And still, she looked like a pinup girl.

“I look like a pinup girl?” Geri said, repeating his words.

“Of course you do. You’re gorgeous. I’m not saying you would do something like that. I’m just saying you are beautiful in every way . . . even with a black eye.”

“Oh that,” she said, almost giggling, as she touched her fingertips to her cheek.

“Yeah, that. I heard about that.”

“Oh yeah, what did you hear?”

“You and Johnna duking it out in the locker room. It’s a wonder you got to play this last game.”

“I know. I still don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble for that. I ought to. I ought to be suspended.”

“Somehow I don’t think that is going to happen.”

“Maybe I’ll suspend myself.”

“For the principle of it?”

“Yep, for the principle of it and for the principal of it!”

They both laughed and then Matt got quiet and gave her a searching look.

“Come over here.”

“I can’t sit on the gear shift.”

“But get closer anyway.”

She moved close enough he could put his hand on her left thigh. Her stomach growled, and then a sound and feeling further down spiraled inside of her. The blood flowing through her, making its beautiful noise.

Matt seemed not to hear. He stroked her leg and then took her hand and kissed it.

“Promise me you’ll always talk to me,” he said.

Geri swallowed and felt her heart thud at the feeling in his voice.

“I promise.”

“Promise me you’ll be proud of who you are and what you look like, no matter what has happened to you.”

Tears begin to fall. Matt released her hand and turned on his blinker, pulling off the highway at an off ramp. He put the car in park and left it running for the heat.

“Now you can climb over the gear shift.”

She did and sat in his lap, as he held her. She put her head against his shoulder and kissed his neck softly, her arms wrapped around him. She played with the hair on the back of his neck, as he moved his hands slowly over her back. And she cried.

“I went down to the creek last night.”

“What?” he whispered, confused.

So she told him about Louise, about that place on the creek, about the blood and the flow and the cramps and the story of her life and death. And she told him that she walked down to the creek in the middle of the night, looked at the water, looked at where Louise had gone in, listened to the noise inside of her, and listened to the night.

And she walked back home.

By the time she finished the story, she was sobbing, and Matt was whispering to her and making reassuring sounds, his hands smoothing her back and then on her head, pulling her back so he could kiss her, kissing away her tears, whispering to her.

“You are beautiful in every way,” he told her.

I am, she thought. I am.

 

Ganny’s Gardening Journal

Another spring and I’m still alive. What will it be this year? I planted too damn many green beans last year. Not going to mess with them things again. Corn. I think the whole thing will be corn. That way, whatever I don’t want, the damn crows can have. We survived a tough winter. I hadn’t been that cold since I was a girl, burning my old coat almost down to my skin by standing too close to the stove to get warm. It takes a lifetime to figure out how close to get. I will help her as much as I can in the time I got left.