Chapter 47

Cole actually slept in thirty minutes later than normal the following morning, not that he minded. His body needed the extra rest.

He hadn’t gotten home until almost midnight the night before, later than Lucky was allowed to stay out. Cole wished Lloyd still had a curfew, but knew that was useless. If he pushed his oldest son hard enough, Lloyd would just move out.

All the way home, he expected the boys to be waiting for him and grill him good.

Lloyd was still out and Lucky was asleep in the family room with the television on a football game from the Pac-10. He covered Lucky with a blanket and made it safely into the bedroom without getting the expected interrogation.

He read his Bible and then tossed and turned for another hour, so excited sleep would not come. It had been many a year since Cole Lester felt so alive.

Lucky was the first one of the boys to wake up that Sunday morning, as usual. The boy just couldn’t stay awake late or sleep in very long in the morning. Sometime during the night, he made his way into his bed and went back to sleep.

When Lucky made it into the family room, he found his father sitting in his chair, reading the Bible, just like every other morning.

The Tulsa newspaper was on the couch, waiting for him. Lucky bypassed the first few sections until he found the sports.

He had been up late enough the previous night to get most of the important stuff. But college basketball was starting and he wanted to check up on the stories and scores. Lucky also wanted to read the stories about the high-school playoffs and see which teams won.

Lucky saw most of the favorites won and there weren’t many upsets. There were only sixteen teams left in the Class 2A playoffs going into the quarterfinals and for the first time in a few years, one of those teams was Petros.

He saw Summerfield won in another blowout, setting up a game against Honobia, a team ranked second and picked by many to be the best in the eastern part of the state.

Lucky noted that Anson, the top-ranked Class 2A team again, also won easily. All the writers were saying Anson would win another state championship with ease, or at least get to the finals and meet Honobia, although Lucky certainly hoped that wasn’t the case.

There were too many good teams left.

He saw a story on the Summerfield game. Lucky laughed as he saw several players were quoted as saying they wanted to keep winning and get revenge on Petros.

Lucky doubted that would happen, of course. It would be tough enough for the Panthers to beat Albion. Plus, he doubted Summerfield would beat Honobia.

He finished up the sports and waited for his father to finish reading. Naturally, Lucky wanted all the details from the date, before Lloyd could get up, if possible.

But just before he got the scoop, Lloyd came strolling into the family room, wearing only a pair of baggy boxers that nearly reached his knees. Lucky and Cole were already dressed for church. Lloyd appeared to have had a rough night.

“Good morning,” Cole said.

“Good morning,” Lucky responded, wishing his brother had slept longer.

“Did you get lucky?” Lloyd asked.

“What?” Lucky responded.

“Not you,” Lloyd stated. “I meant did Dad get lucky? On his date, nothing to do with you.”

“Did I what?” Cole asked, wishing his oldest son would not be so crass.

“Well, did you?”

Cole actually felt lucky to just go on a date. He had a great time and it seemed like the doctor had also.

“Surely you’re not asking your father if he was anything but a perfect gentleman?” Cole remarked.

“Yeah, but not just you,” Lloyd responded. “The doc might have gotten a little frisky.”

“You think so?” Cole asked. “Why don’t you ask her. She’s back in my bedroom listening to everything you’re saying.”

The two boys looked like they just won a million dollars. The look on their faces was priceless. Cole knew he shouldn’t have said it, but the look on their faces was worth it. Lucky looked a little disturbed, kept turning to look down the hallway to make sure no female was walking around.

Lloyd jerked forward on the couch, his mouth hanging so low Cole hoped his chin wouldn’t hit the floor.

“Are you serious?” Lloyd asked.

“Naw, it was just a joke,” Cole replied. “But you should’ve seen your faces.”

“That was a good one,” Lloyd added. “So she didn’t teach you how to play doctor?”

“You know, I’d think that after all these years that you’d know I’m not that type of person,” Cole responded. “That’s not what I believe in. Neither does Sarah.”

“Who?”

“The doctor,” Lucky answered.

Lloyd finally decided to put aside the teasing and find out what really happened.

“Tell us about it,” he pleaded.

Cole did, telling his boys about the night.

“First off, we went to the Western Sizzlin’…”

“Dad, you really didn’t take her to the Sizzlin’, did you?” Lloyd asked.

“Yeah, it was good.”

“You gotta know that impressed her,” Lucky commented.

Cole did not pay any attention to the boys. He went on with his story, telling how they finished up their meal and drove around the fancy part of Fort Smith, mainly in Fianna Hills, looking at the lights.

“Did you drive the beast?” Lloyd asked, referring to his father’s old truck. It had seen better days. Cole knew that, but was still a good, dependable truck. It just didn’t look all that great. Lloyd had been after him for the last five years to trade it in for something newer but Cole just didn’t see any reason to do so. Plus, he was too cheap.

“Of course,” Cole answered.

“I’m sure that won you some points,” Lloyd added.

“She didn’t seem to mind.”

“She was probably just being nice,” Lucky commented.

“Yeah, just wait until you try to get her to go out again,” Lloyd stated. “I see now why you didn’t get lucky.”

Cole ignored his two sons and told about driving around, looking at the houses.

“Did you see any of the bums downtown?” Lloyd asked, settling for this question. He really wanted to ask if they saw any professional women standing on street corners but knew that would push it.

“No, were you there?” Cole asked, getting a giggle out of Lucky. His oldest son did not come by his wit without a little help from his father. Cole could still bring it when necessary.

Lucky was enjoying this greatly. It seemed like old times with his father and brother ragging on each other, neither one pushing it far enough for the other to get angry.

He was really happy for his father. It had been a long time and Lucky knew his father had sacrificed a great deal over the years for him and his brother, along with the teams at Petros.

Lucky just hoped his father wouldn’t get hurt. Members of the Lester family and females did not seen to have the greatest luck together. He was still seeing Gabby and everything was good, but he remembered what happened with Toni and how she put him in the dumpster.

Plus, Lloyd seemed to have a different girlfriend every week. He never had trouble getting a date. Lloyd just had trouble keeping the same date. Most of that was his fault because he was looking for perfection and never found it. He also had little patience with women. As soon as they did something that got on his nerves, Lloyd performed his vanishing trick.

Cole was not exactly used to playing the “Dating Game”, either.

Their father finished the story by telling about stopping to get some hot chocolate.

“I made sure she got extra marshmallows,” Cole bragged proudly.

“Good for you!” Lloyd complimented. “I never realized what a romantic you truly are.”

Cole finished by telling them he dropped her off at her house in Hodgen.

“Did you kiss her?” Lucky asked, causing Lloyd to laugh.

“That’s on a need-to-know basis,” Cole responded, smiling at his youngest son.

“That means he struck out,” Lloyd ventured. “Did you get in her house?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Did she ask you in?” Lloyd asked.

“Yeah, but I felt like it was too late.”

Lloyd buried his head in his hands and groaned.

“Sometimes I find it hard to believe I came from you,” he moaned. “She might’ve been feeling a little frisky!”

“It was his first date,” Lucky argued.

“So?” Lloyd asked. “It never stopped me.”

“That’s why you don’t have a lot of second dates,” Cole pointed out.

“Most people don’t do stuff like that on a first date,” Lucky remarked, like he was an expert on the subject.

Cole knew there was fixing to be an argument so he headed back to the kitchen to see if they had any food for breakfast. Lloyd ate like a cow and since he moved back in, it was almost impossible to keep any food.

He saw there was enough to make eggs and bacon. He started cooking as the boys argued about Lloyd needing to get his life straightened out. They lost interest in arguing after a few minutes and started talking about sports, with the bacon sizzling in the background.

“Hey Dad, you never told us if you kissed her,” Lloyd reminded.

“No, I didn’t,” he agreed.

“Didn’t tell us or didn’t kiss her?”

“I didn’t either…she kissed me.”

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Pastor Sam Furman spent a good ten minutes of the service that Sunday morning bragging on the football team and trying to get everybody to go to Friday’s game at Albion.

Not that it was necessary. Most people already had plans to go and wouldn’t miss it for anything other than a bad illness or death.

Lucky sat with Gabby and Andy on the first row. He always liked to be as close as possible. Lucky knew it was strange, but he always seemed to get more out of the service by being closer.

As far as Lucky was concerned, the pastor was a good preacher, when he got away from football. The pastor always said his three favorite things now were Jesus, his family and Petros football.

Some people would argue the last two items were not in the correct order.

It was a good sermon, as usual. Pastor Furman preached about how one person could make a big difference, talked about Nehemiah, and challenged everybody to be a person who makes a difference.

Lucky always felt such a comforting presence in church. Unlike most people his age, Lucky was not forced to go to church, never had been. He chose to go, loved to visit God’s house and feel the comfort that washed away anything bothering him.

He sat on the aisle. Gabby was next to him, then Andy. Gabby and Andy had been going to different churches until she and Lucky started seeing each other.

Lucky felt her next to him and it made his tummy tingle. He loved to just be near her and smell her. Lucky had no idea what kind of perfume she wore, just knew it smelled great.

He also liked the way she moved closer, trying to get their bodies together. Lucky had been surprised when his father invited the three of them to go out and eat. In the football season, Cole usually went home after church and worked out a schedule for the week’s practice and watched film.

Andy had to go home and help his father clean out the garage, but Gabby agreed.

They went to Cole’s favorite restaurant, the Western Sizzlin’ in Hodgen, which did not surprise Lucky. He wasn’t sure if his father liked the place because of the quality of the food, or the quantity since it had an all-you-could-throw buffet.

Lucky was afraid his father would do something silly to embarrass him. But Cole was the perfect gentleman. He prayed over the food and talked with them and had a great time. Lucky sat back and watched his father, never remembering him in such a good mood.

His father was always kind and treated people with respect, but Cole smiled and joked with people he knew, acting almost like a salesman.

Cole even had dessert, a rarity for him. It was strawberries on a piece of pound cake with a lot of whipped cream on top. He couldn’t figure out how to make the can of whipped cream work so Gabby was enlisted to help.

He pounced on the food, quickly getting some of the whipped cream on the tip of his nose. When Gabby noticed, she couldn’t keep from laughing.

Outside, it was a cold, damp day, the kind best suited for staying inside a warm house. Gabby invited Lucky over to watch some football, since she had figured out that was the best way to get him over on a weekend afternoon.

After he got through in the garage, Andy joined them and they played cards for most of the afternoon. Lucky stayed until it was time to go to the evening service. Gabby couldn’t go because she had tons of homework and a test the next day.

Lucky barely kept his eyes open during the evening service, the long weekend finally catching up to him. It was a great relief when his head hit the pillow, an hour earlier than usual.

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Cole spent more hours than normal that week watching film of Albion, looking for any kind of weakness. He quickly figured out where the Antlers were not the strongest, but they could certainly not be classified as weak.

None of the coaches who played Albion gave any information that helped. The best advice he heard was to pray for rain. Because that was the only way anybody could stop the Antlers.

Cole felt good about his defense, especially the secondary, although he knew those guys would get a huge test.

With Skip, Gary, Lucky and Kenneth, this group was starting to play as well as any secondary Cole had coached.

Cole was overjoyed with how well practices went that week. The Panthers looked great, playing better than they had all year. This was important since Cole knew the Panthers would have to play this way to have a chance to win the game against a very good team.

Naturally, nobody gave Petros a chance to win. Of course, most of the “experts” had never seen either team play, so that carried little weight with Cole.

All week, everybody Cole talked with only wanted to talk about the game. Not that he cared. Cole was excited, feeling like something good was going to happen.

One of the benefits of getting into the playoffs and advancing was the extra practice the younger players received. Cole saw lots of improvement from them and expected this to be a great benefit the following year.

Seth and Happy were two of the sophomores who kept catching Cole’s eyes. He could look ahead in two years and see a backfield with Seth and D.J. at running backs with Happy coming in on short-yardage situations and at the goal-line.

These guys, along with Lucky, would give the Panthers a chance to have a great backfield.

The excitement continued building throughout the week. Everybody was anxious for the game. All the businesses downtown and along the highway showed their support, putting messages on their signs and painting the windows to support the Panthers.

Most of the cars also had shoe polish messages on the window. With both Petros and Hodgen this far into the playoffs, the other county schools threw in their support.

Cole tried to treat it like it was another ballgame but the players did not buy it. There were pep rallies almost every night and socials to get everybody together.

It was amazing to watch. Once again, Cole could not believe the support his boys received. That was one thing he really loved about Petros. The community supported its teams with great passion. It was that way even when they struggled, but not as strong.

School let out early Friday for another pep rally. The old gym was filled to its rafters and hundreds of people stood outside, hearing the sounds and wishing they arrived sooner.

Lucky felt good, the best he had since midway through the season. This was partly due to playing so little last week and also because his body was healing, something it definitely needed. With Albion this week, and if the Panthers continued to win, either Honobia or Summerfield the following week, he needed to be close to a hundred percent. Plus, if Petros won those two games, a likely battle against Anson in the state finals would be the reward.

He knew his body would take a beating in those games and needed the recuperation time.

The buses filled up just after three for the long trip down the two-lane roads to Albion. Cole did not care for bus rides, especially the ones that carried him over and through the big mountains in southeastern Oklahoma, like this trip.

The players all brought sack lunches with them to eat as a pre-game meal. Many also brought pillows to hopefully sleep away much of the trip.

Everybody got to stretch their legs and use the restroom halfway through the trip, stopping at a convenience store high in the mountains. Lucky walked over to a lookout point and admired the scenery. It was truly a beautiful day, the only problem was it was cold and getting colder. Everybody had hoped for bad weather, aside from Lucky. He did not want Albion to have any excuses if Petros won. Plus, it would also harm the Panthers, since their backs would slip and slide just as much.

“This sure is pretty,” Cole remarked. He had slipped in beside his son to take in the scenery, the only people in the two buses to look at the sights.

“God is a great artist,” Lucky commented.

The two stood there for several minutes, neither saying a word as the other players went about their business. They did not see the need to come view this majestic sight. Down below, there was a large pond barely visible through the pine trees Lucky never saw before, despite stopping several times at this store. He wondered how hard it would be to get there, knowing the slope and undergrowth would make it a booger.

The bears, mountain lions, snakes, ticks and other things he might encounter made the trip even less appealing.

Cole put his arm around his son’s shoulder, a move that surprised Lucky, but also made him feel good.

He looked up at the man who raised him, who sacrificed so much and never asked for or expected anything in returned. Lucky felt a love for this man that was beyond the grasp of the universe. As he stood there, looking into his father’s face, there was not the least bit of worry about the other guys seeing him and ragging him about getting hugged.

Not that he cared. Lucky decided somehow he would give his father the one gift to never come his way: a state championship, something Cole always dreamed of but had yet to grasp.

Lucky hoped it would be this year, but if it wasn’t, sometime over the next two years, his father would receive a gold ball.

“I love you, Dad,” he stated, the first time those words were spoken in way too long.

Cole squeezed a little harder. He had not been expecting that and found it hard to reply.

“I love you too, Lynn,” Cole managed to say.

They stood overlooking the vista a little longer, both wishing this could last much longer.

“We better get going,” Cole remarked.

“We’re gonna win this game,” Lucky mentioned, a comment that came out of nowhere.

“I think we are, too.”

“Don’t think it, Dad. Know it, because it’s gonna happen.”

Chapter 48