Chapter 17

It really didn’t hit them until the following morning. They were so concerned with the game against Reichert and disappointed with the way Petros played.

But it was the first thing Cole thought about the following morning, not the disappointing loss or the game against Hodgen.

It was ten years ago to the day.

The Panthers were getting ready to play Hodgen and Cole was consumed with the game, not letting anything or anybody take his attention away from the game.

Petros was on a roll with one of his better teams, fixing to play a game he really expected to win as that was the only time Hodgen was really down.

His wife needed to go shopping. He was watching film of Hodgen with the boys.

Sharon said she needed to go to the store and asked if anybody wanted to go. She wanted somebody to go with her so they could spend some time together.

Cole was too consumed with the film and thought going to the store was a waste of time. He and Lloyd told her they would pass. Lucky also wanted to watch the film, but didn’t want his mother to be alone.

“I’ll go with you,” he decided, jumping up from the floor and grabbing his shoes.

Cole almost changed his mind when he saw her look. He remembered thinking it wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with his wife. They had barely done anything together since the season started, but Sharon was going to Wal-Mart and he knew it would take at least two hours. Cole decided he could check out some fishing plugs while she shopped. Besides, there would be plenty of time to watch the film later.

“You want to go?” he asked his oldest son.

Lloyd looked at his father like he had lost his senses, feeling the same way about shopping as Cole did.

“Not really,” Lloyd countered.

“Hang on, we’ll go,” Cole stated.

Lloyd started whining about not wanting to go. Sharon had looked a little happier, but knew her husband and oldest son would rather not go.

She walked over and kissed Cole.

“You guys stay here,” she suggested. “We won’t be gone long and maybe we can do something later.”

Cole nodded and watched her and Lucky walk to the door. A strange feeling came over him as his wife walked toward the door. She stopped at the door, turned to look at him and smiled.

“Goodbye,” she added, waving at him.

She and Lucky hopped in her old car, a four-door Chevy they always referred to as the “stake-out car” since that was what it looked like. Everything was fine and it seemed like every other trip. Lucky and Sharon talked, laughed and sang along with songs on the radio, made funnier since Lucky didn’t know the words and blabbered something, trying to make it sound like the song.

Lucky was the first to see it, a small dog chasing a rabbit heading toward the road.

“Mommy!” he hollered, just as she saw it.

She hit the brakes and slowed in plenty of time. The driver of a truck coming from the opposite direction on the two-lane road, threw on his brakes to avoid hitting the dog, but was going too fast and lost control. The truck crossed the centerline and headed straight for the white Chevy.

It seemed like everything was in slow motion. Sharon and Lucky were wearing their seatbelts, just like they always did while riding in the car. It was hard to get Cole and Lloyd to do so, but Sharon and Lucky always did.

Lucky watched the truck head right for them, wondering why it didn’t turn away. If the driver of the truck wasn’t careful, he might scratch the car and his father would be upset.

She threw her arm out, trying to cover him just before the collision. Lucky closed his eyes and turned his head, wondering why his mother was screaming.

The blow was much worse than Lucky expected. He might have only been five, but knew that would leave more than a scratch. The sound of the metal hitting metal hurt his ears and he covered them with his hands, wishing the sound would go away.

When he was sure it was over, Lucky opened his eyes to see their car all crumpled up and the front of the truck only inches away.

Lucky knew he and his mother needed to get out of the car. He had seen wrecks on television and there was always a big bang after it. His arm was hurting. He looked down and saw a fairly large cut with blood pouring out of it. Lucky saw glass all over the front of the car and knew he needed to be careful. His mother had warned him about how dangerous glass was.

He released his seatbelt, unlocked the door and opened it. Lucky started to get out, but forgot to tell his mother where he was going. After turning toward her, Lucky knew something was wrong. Her side of the car had gotten hit worse and and he wondered why the steering wheel was that close to her stomach. Lucky was afraid that was hurting his mother.

Her eyes were closed. Lucky wondered how she slept at a time like this, certainly not a good time to be taking a nap. Not when the car might blow up any second. Her head was leaning over to the right and Lucky knew that couldn’t feel good. He had slept like that before and his neck always wound up hurting.

“Mommy,” Lucky said, putting his little hand on her shoulder and trying to shake her awake, the way she did him every morning. Except she always added a kiss.

She must be in a deep sleep, Lucky decided, but wasn’t ready to give up. He knew his mother couldn’t stay in the car, not when it might blow up at any second.

Lucky had trouble getting her seatbelt undone. He heard voices outside the car talking to him, but Lucky paid them no attention. He didn’t want to be rude, but his mommy needed help and they could just wait if they wanted to talk to him.

He finally got the seatbelt released.

“Come on, Mommy,” he urged, grabbed her arm and tried pulling her out of the seat. But she was too big for a little boy and seemed to have her leg stuck on something.

He felt hands on him, trying to pull him out of the car.

“Leave me alone!” he hollered. Lucky slapped at the hands pulling on him. “I need to wake my mommy up and get her out of here.”

A car loaded with Petros players arrived as Lucky tried to pull his mother out of the car and fight the men trying to pull him out of the car. The players recognized the car, even in its crushed condition, and ran to it.

There were four boys, all seniors at Petros. They saw Lucky first and then his mother. They knew this wasn’t good from the way Sharon looked.

One of the boys ran to a nearby house to call for help and their coach.

Cole and Lloyd were still watching film when the phone rang. Somehow, Cole knew something wasn’t right and this was a call he did not want to answer.

Lloyd started to answer the phone, like he usually did, but his father stopped him.

“Let me get that,” Cole almost shouted, pouncing on the phone like a cat on a mouse.

“It’s probably for me,” Lloyd protested, but got no response.

Cole grabbed the phone and didn’t bother with any greeting.

“Yeah?” he muttered.

The caller was Terry Quest, then a running back for the Panthers, now an EMT in Dallas.

“It’s your wife,” Terry said. “She’s had a wreck.”

Somehow, Cole knew the call would be bad, just not how bad.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It was bad.”

“What about Lynn?”

“Who?”

“My son, Lynn.”

“You mean Lucky?”

“Yeah.”

“He acts like he’s fine.”

Cole got the location of the accident. He and Lloyd put on their shoes, hopped in Cole’s truck, much newer at the time, of course, and took off, going faster than Lloyd ever went.

The ambulance was just pulling away when Cole and Lloyd arrived. The traffic was backed up in both directions for several hundred yards. Cole pulled over on the shoulder and drove as close as possible until a policeman made him stop.

He saw the ambulances leaving away while running to the wreck.

A wrecker was just hooking up to his wife’s car, looking nothing like it had earlier in the day. It was smashed and twisted so severely Cole couldn’t imagine anybody surviving the wreck.

He started looking around frantically for his youngest son. Cole about gave up and decided Lucky was in an ambulance with his wife when he saw his youngest son standing next to the group of boys who called him.

Cole sprinted to his son, Lloyd trailing behind. He dropped to his knees and hugged Lucky, then put his hands all over his son, looking for injuries.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked.

“I think so,” Lucky answered, trying to hold back tears. “I got an owie.”

He held up his arm and showed his father the bandage on his left arm. Cole looked at his arm, saw it wasn’t serious and picked his son up, giving the boy a squeeze so hard Lucky could barely breathe.

When his father put him down, even Lloyd hugged his little brother.

“Stay with him,” Cole told Lloyd.

Cole took off, searching for anybody who looked like they might know what happened.

The first authority figure he saw was a highway patrolman, standing off the side of the road, writing a report. He was a huge man, with his funny-looking hat, a brown shirt a little too small and a pair of pants that struggled to cover his massive thighs.

Cole asked where she was and the patrolman looked at Cole like he couldn’t believe somebody was bothering him right in the middle of his report.

“Who are you?” the patrolman asked.

Cole told the officer his name and that his wife had been in the wreck. The patrolman gave up on the report.

“Your wife’s going to the hospital,” he reported.

“How is she?” Cole asked.

“Are you a religious man?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Good, cause she’s in God’s hands. You need to start your praying. It was a bad one.”

Cole’s truck was stuck back in traffic so he hopped in with his players and they headed to the Hodgen hospital.

They ran through the emergency room door, looking for help but not finding anybody.

Cole took off down the hall, looking for a nurse, doctor or even the person who cleaned out the bedpans. He found a doctor walking down the hall. The doctor looked exhausted, like the weight of the world was upon his shoulders.

Cole told the doctor who he was looking for.

The doctor ushered them over to a waiting room, then took Cole to the side. They sat down apart from everybody else.

“We did all we could,” the doctor announced. “She was pretty much gone by the time she got here. I’m really sorry.”

Those were the last words he heard from the doctor, hollow words that cut through his heart like a hot steak knife going through butter.

He fell forward out of the chair, face first to the tile. He kept asking how this could happen, but got no answer.

So many emotions ran through his mind, tearing away at his sanity. Cole realized he was on the verge of shock, yet couldn’t stop the downward spiral.

Everything was blocked out. He didn’t hear the sounds of two boys crying, realizing they had lost their mother. His players tried to comfort the boys, a job he should do but couldn’t. Cole heard nothing, felt nothing until the two small hands were on his back, squeezing with all their power.

That shook him back to reality. He wiped the tears from his eyes. Cole saw the trooper had arrived and was standing next to the wall, trying not to show any emotion.

He turned to find Lucky hugging him, trying to comfort his father. Lloyd was standing next to his younger brother, trying his best not to cry.

“I’m sorry Daddy,” Lucky said, the tears streaming down his young face, his body shaking violently.

Cole tried to hug the hurt away, but it had a hold on all three of them like a vice, determined not to loosen its grip.

The next few days were the roughest days Cole Lester ever struggled through, a time when it was difficult just to get through the day, but also hard just to battle through minutes and seconds.

Cole always heard a person in grieving felt better after the funeral, but that didn’t work for him. He didn’t know how he could feel better after seeing the casket, the final resting place for his wife’s body, placed in the ground and buried.

He was just glad the final resting place for her soul was a much better place. That belief carried him through even the roughest times.

One night, Cole was having a rough time, looking back through the photo albums his wife put together so carefully. The pictures were like daggers getting stuck in his chest. He wanted to remember her, though, and this was one of the few ways Cole felt close to her.

A photo of her in the hospital, holding Lloyd shortly after his birth, was more than Cole could handle. He slammed the photo album shut and all the emotions that had been held inside came crashing out. Once again, the two little hands were on him, trying to give comfort.

Cole looked up to see his youngest son, standing beside him, trying to squeeze his father.

“It’s okay, Daddy,” Lucky mumbled in between tears. “I saw Mommy in a dream. She’s in Heaven and says it’s a beautiful place. All her favorite flowers are there and she met Jesus. Mommy says she’s waiting for us and loves us all. Even Lloyd.”

A lot of people tried giving support. But Cole just wanted to be alone with the boys, especially Lucky. His youngest son had a tough time. Cole knew Lucky felt the wreck was his fault and there should have been something he could have done to save his mother.

Lucky withdrew into a shell for a long time, not talking unless he had to. He had always been a cheerful, talkative boy. Lucky was still pleasant to be around, but lost a part of him on the highway that day.

After the first day, Cole never questioned what or why it happened, knowing there was some reason and if God wanted him to know, He would tell him. Cole figured God needed Sharon and that was it.

He never wavered in his faith, instead intensified it, devoting more time to church activities and reading the Bible. Since then, Cole had been by himself, just him and the boys. Other women hadn’t been any interest to him. Cole once had a wife as close to perfect as possible, and never thought anybody could come close to Sharon.

He had an occasional date, but it just didn’t interest him. If anything, it drew him and the boys closer. Cole remained dedicated to his work while realizing it was just a game. The losses still hurt, but not as much and he wouldn’t let the outcome of some game played by teenaged boys make or break his life.

Not when he had two boys to raise.

Chapter 18