Chapter 32

Cole would never tell his team, but was glad Cedar Lake was the next opponent. The Vikings were off to a rough start, only 1-5 overall, 0-3 in district play.

Everybody expected Cedar Lake to be good prior to the season starting, but the Vikings had been destroyed by injuries.

Cole had never seen a team hit so hard. The only really good player left was their quarterback, Joe Johnson, a great athlete, one of the best in the district. He was an excellent quarterback and a really good basketball player. But it was baseball where he really shined. Along with Petros’ Kenneth Williams, they were as good as any pitchers in this part of the state, good enough colleges were recruiting him and the pro scouts were dogging him.

Johnson had a great arm. If he had all his teammates surrounding him, the Vikings could play with anybody.

Most of the Panthers knew how good Johnson was so Cole did not worry about his team being ready to play. He was more worried about how banged up his guys were. After six games, five of them very difficult, the Panthers were a group of walking wounded. Nobody would miss the game, but all of the players were nursing bumps, bruises and sore bodies.

Most of the Vikings’ games had been close, except for Summerfield. Cedar Lake got hammered in that game, 75-0, one of the many blowouts for Summerfield, still undefeated and ranked fourth in the state.

Cole watched film of that game and grew disgusted, felling like Summerfield ran up the score again. He never liked looking ahead, particularly that far ahead, but Summerfield was the last game on the schedule and Cole wanted the Spiders bad.

Summerfield had been a struggling program for years, a school blessed with good athletes and facilities, held back by poor administration thanks to a superintendent who cared little about sports and a bunch of coaches who were not very good.

But all that had changed four years ago with a new superintendent, who immediately got rid of all the coaches and brought in a young coach named Allen Mabry, who instantly turned the program around and ended Petros’ domination of the district.

Mabry was a pompous, arrogant, cocky, outspoken person with few friends. He didn’t discriminate, willing to run up the score on anybody his team played.

This did not improve his popularity, of course.

To reach the Summerfield game undefeated would be difficult for the Panthers, Cole knew. Aside from Cedar Lake and Lovings, two struggling opponents, the Panthers would also have to beat Big Cedar, a team coached by his former player, Tatum Sloan.

There were still three teams undefeated in district play: Petros, Summerfield and Big Cedar. Cole expected those three teams along with Forrester to make the playoffs, but had no idea how the final standings would shape up.

Practices had not been great this week, but got better each day as the players felt better and shook off the bumps and bruises. Cole had just heard from Doc Hardy, who said Skip was well enough to play.

Practice had just ended and Cole was watching the film of Cedar Lake and Summerfield, making almost as many notes on the Spiders as the Vikings.

The door opened about the time he expected. Scoop poked his head in, looked around to make sure the coast was clear and entered. Stub had offended him greatly the last time he visited the coach’s office and Scoop was determined not to have any contact with Stub.

Scoop was wearing a light black jacket with PETROS written across the front. He had failed to put on a hat, showing his hair had not seen a comb or shower in several days. He had on a pair of black sweats, black socks and a pair of old high-top Converses that were so worn his little toe was almost poking out.

He had in his hand the latest issue of the Petros Weekly Herald, fresh off the press!

“Here you go, Coach!” Scoop said, looking around to make sure Stub was not hiding somewhere, fixing to pounce on him and criticize his writing again. Scoop walked over and sat down in his chair, handing the paper to Cole. Scoop leaned forward in his chair, waiting for Cole to read the paper. Cole finally stopped the film, not that he really wanted to, picked up the paper and turned to Scoop’s story on the Forrester game.

He found it, right above an ad for the Chevy dealership in Hodgen, a place few people bothered to shop, preferring to go to Fort Smith or Tulsa instead, feeling like a little longer drive was worth the several hundred dollars they saved.

PANTHERS WIN THRILLER! the headline read.

Cole took a deep breath and plunged in, hoping not to see anything too embarrassing.

In one of the most exciting games I have ever seen with my two eyes, our gutsy Petros Panthers, led by the great Cole Lester…

Cole stopped and shook his head. He had told Scoop many times before not to write stuff like that, but his pleas fell on dead ears.

…traveled the long rout to Forrester last Friday and eventually came home the same night, victors in a game that finished with our Panthers ahead 41-35!

You know, over the years I have seen our Panthers win some great games, but few, if any, could top the thrilling win over a great Forrester team with their outstanding African American athletes.

Cole stopped reading and looked up at Scoop, wanting to mention that was probably not a really good thing to put in the story. But Cole could not do it, knowing Scoop didn’t mean anything by it and probably meant it as a compliment. He didn’t really want to continue, but knew Scoop would get depressed if he thought Cole did not approve.

“What do you think so far?” Scoop asked.

“It is very…interesting,” Cole responded.

“Kinda makes you wanna keep reading, huh?”

“You could say that,” Cole said, wanting to add that wasn’t necessarily true.

He smiled at Scoop and got one in return. Cole noticed Scoop needed to visit the dentist to get something done about one of his front teeth. A nasty cavity was quickly eating the tooth away and making it turn almost black.

Not real appealing to look at, Cole thought, then turned his attention back to the story.

The outstanding win was not guaranteed until the final buzzer sounded, sending myself and the fellow Petros fans into a wild celebration that the people of Forrester had not seen since their last state basketball championship, I am sure.

We went ahead for the final time on a touchdown run by Lucky Lester. Our guys then swarmed Darious Jordan, who had been a thorn in our you-know-what for most of the game, and stopped him to clinch the win.

It was a great performance by our offense, moving the ball pretty much all night. Our Panthers are really coming together now, I can assure you! We feature an offense that reminds me of some of our former offenses, explosive enough to score at any time, from any place.

While our defense pretty much stunk it up against Forrester…”

Cole sighed deeply, knowing Ichabod would not be thrilled to see that in the paper.

…it was mainly because of Jordan, a player as good as any I have seen in my vast experience as a sport journalist. It makes me dread next year, and maybe the next, as while Jordan is only a sophomore, he looks ready to play college ball.

With the win, we are back to five hundred on the season at 3-3. But more important, our Panthers are now 3-0 in the tough district we compete in! Hurrah! Next we will host Cedar Lake Friday with the old kickoff started at or around 7:30 at night, which is p.m.

Cole laid down the newspaper, willing to slide past the remainder of the story.

“Well, how’d you like it?” Scoop asked, showing a lot of enthusiasm.

“Words just can’t adequately describe my feelings,” Cole answered, an accurate statement.

“Thanks a bunch, Coach!” Scoop responded. He heard a door slam somewhere nearby, causing him to get scared. “Gotta go take the paper to my mother!”

Cole bid his farewell and turned his attention back to the television and VCR. He hit the play button on the remote and started watching the film again. The more he saw of Summerfield, the more Cole was impressed. This was a team that was loaded, pretty much in every area.

He tried keeping his attention on Cedar Lake, but it was difficult since the Vikings were playing Summerfield. Cole expected a fairly easy win against the Vikings, a feeling he seldom experienced.

Cole also knew his team had to keep improving to have a chance against Summerfield, but expected that to happen, even if nobody else did.

Cedar Lake’s line was just getting destroyed on the film. Cole watched the Vikings get hammered every play with Summerfield running the same plays over and over.

He had watched enough film for the night when the door opened and shut again. With the lights out in the office, Cole had trouble seeing who his visitors were. All he could tell was that there were two of them, standing in the doorway. Finally, he recognized them as his sons.

“Why don’t you shut that thing off and get something to eat before church starts,” Lloyd suggested, an excellent idea, Cole decided quickly.

“That sounds like the plan,” Cole answered, shutting down the VCR and turning off the television. “I’ll even buy.”

“That would be good since we don’t have any money,” Lloyd added, Lucky nodding vigorously behind his brother.
----
All week, Lucky thought of Toni and tried to scheme up some way to get around her, always getting rewarded with a smile during every encounter.

He had not talked to her much, knowing she worked every night. Lucky was lying in his bed, spinning a basketball on his index finger when the phone rang.

Lucky leaned over to the nightstand and started to pick up the phone, quickly figuring out the phone was not there. That figured, he decided, since his brother had a bad habit of getting his phone, walking off with it and forgetting to bring it back.

He hoped somebody else answered the phone, not knowing if his brother or father were even inside the house. The phone quit ringing so Lucky knew somebody had answered or the caller got tired of waiting.

Lucky expected the call to be for his father or Lloyd, since he seldom got calls, especially at night. Most of the calls were for Lloyd, since all the single women in town had decided he was the most eligible bachelor in Petros.

He lied back down on the bed and started spinning the basketball again when his brother’s footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.

Lloyd peaked his head in Lucky’s bedroom and looked around, not believing his brother kept his room sort of clean. His room looked like a pigsty. He walked into the room and handed the phone to his brother.

“Phone’s for you,” he stated.

“Who is it?” Lucky asked.

“Don’t know. Some chick.”

Lucky thought his brother was joking. Females did not bother calling him often, unless it was to get help with homework.

He grabbed the phone and looked at it, wishing this phone had Caller ID.

“Hello,” Lucky said.

“Is this Lucky?” the caller asked. It was indeed a female.

“Uh, yeah, this is Lucky.”

“Hi Lucky, this is Toni.”

Lucky froze for a second, not sure what to say. This was a new experience for him, talking to girls on the phone and since he wasn’t all that talkative anyway, it was a struggle.

“Hello,” he finally muttered out, feeling like a goofball.

“I don’t want to bother you but I haven’t had the chance to talk to you since the other night.”

“You’re not bothering me,” he replied, wishing he could think of something else to say.

“How’s it been going?”

“Real good. How about you?”

“Okay, just been going to school and working,” she added. “I really enjoyed the other night.”

“Thank you,” Lucky responded, then cringed when he realized how stupid that sounded. “So did I.”

“My dad’s going to let me off Friday so I get to watch you guys play.”

“That’s good. I’ll try and score a touchdown for you.”

“That would be nice,” Toni added with a laugh. “I also wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay,” he muttered, starting to get a little nervous.

“Since you didn’t get to go to the movie the other night like you planned, I was wondering if we might be able to get together Saturday and go to a movie?”

It was good Lucky had nothing in his mouth at that moment, or he would have swallowed it and probably choked.

“You still there?” she asked.

“Yeah, I was just thinking if anything was going on Saturday,” he answered, like it might be difficult to fit in his busy social schedule. "That would be great. I've been, uh, thinking about something like that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve just been kinda busy and…”

“You haven’t gotten up the nerve yet?” she suggested.

“Uh, yeah.”

Toni laughed. “I can’t believe I did. I guess I just couldn’t wait for you.”

“I don’t move real quick.”

Chapter 33