Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath.
I pushed the cord in and went to turn on the shower. At least I could be fresh and clean on my first day. I hopped in and did my now usual five minutes of slumping against the wall while I let hot water run over my shoulder. It relaxed the muscles there, especially the ones that had been torn, rehabbed, torn again, and then completely fucked six ways from Sunday by a surgeon who I wanted to murder with my bare hands.
When I finally got around to getting soap on my body, I felt like I was starting to wake up. The dreariness and darkness of my mind started to fade, and I felt like I might just have a handle on things. I just needed to get dressed, get some food in me, and slap on a positive attitude.
The smell of cooking bacon helped. It was wafting down into the basement suite from the kitchen just above.
I made it into the bedroom again and got dressed, wearing khaki pants for the first time in two years.
“Morning,” Ryan said. “Allison made eggs and pancakes before she rolled out. She’s got some errands to run before her prenatal this morning. She left me in charge of the bacon.”
“I see that,” I said. I looked at my phone. “I might need to eat quickly, though. I spent more time in the shower than I thought I did.”
“Allison thought you might sleep in,” Ryan said. “She made you a to-go box.”
“She did?” I asked, touched. Allison and I had spent approximately two hours together total, and most of that was last night before I went to bed. She was very sweet, and clearly the love of Ryan’s life, but we barely knew each other. It was such a kind gesture for her to do that for me.
“Yeah, man,” he said. “All you might have to do is warm it up. There’s even a thermos of coffee on the counter. Get on out of here and be early for your first day. Don’t forget to take some bacon, though.”
I laughed and stuffed some bacon into the plastic container with the rest of the food and shut the lid again. Grabbing the thermos, I headed for the door and out to my car. Ryan and I had detached the trailer last night so I could drive to work without it, and I pulled away, having to back around it to get out.
Ryan and Allison lived a good fifteen minutes away from the school, which was par for the course with Murdock. The center of town was away from all the neighborhoods, which were still designed to give people space between houses. When I finally got to the school, I was still stuffing hot bacon and eggs into my mouth, determined to finish my breakfast before I went in.
Habit, fifteen years deep in my brain, had me trying to go in the student door with the kids. I had to stop halfway there and turn, heading toward the front offices and the door that led to them. I didn’t have the key that would allow me in, but Principal Runnels knew about that and was going to be waiting on me. When I knocked on the door, it opened quickly.
Ryan wasn’t lying. Principal Runnels was an excitable man, portly and squishy, but still with the air of someone who was deceivingly athletic. He certainly moved quicker than I expected. As he showed me around the offices, introducing me to other staff members, the grin on his face was infectious. He was having the time of his life, and when we got to his office, I saw why.
A framed newspaper with my picture on the cover of Murdoch Times from the day after I threw the no-hitter hung on the wall. Baseballs and footballs littered the shelves, most of them signed. He wasn’t going to bug me to sign a bunch of stuff. He was going to ask me to sign one thing, and it was going to live there, in his shrine to sports.
We sat and talked for a little bit before he handed me a keyring with two keys on it and my keycard to get into the building.
“These are for your office,” he said, the latter consonant coming out with a ‘th’ sound. “We hope you know we are excited to have you home.”
I thanked him, and he guided me back to the gym area, and then to the office where my key fit in the door. It was empty, save one giant cup that I instantly recognized. It was from when Murdock High won the state championship my senior year. The door closed behind me, and I sighed.
Well, here I was. No turning back now.
19
MALLORY
The first day of school was always fun. The chaos of kids running around trying to find their classes. Running into their friends that they hadn’t seen all summer, showing off their new clothes or haircuts or how much they’d grown. It was exciting to meet the new students that came up from middle school or moved into one of the surrounding counties that fed into Murdock High.