Touchdown (2 page)

“I’m hungry,” Bessie said.

Zoey chuckled. “You’re hungry, huh? Your mother has not fed you? Look what she’s left for us.” She opened the fridge again to show Bessie that it was empty. “There it is, you see? That bitch mother of yours stole it all, including a dick that does not belong to her.”

Bessie wept louder, which irritated her even more.

“God damn it! Will you stop crying?!”

A loud knock interrupted her. When she turned in the direction, she found a police officer standing by the door, as if he’d been there for a while already.

“You shouldn’t be talking like that in front of a kid, Miss,” he said. “I’ve heard and seen enough to charge you with child abuse. Your next door neighbor can testify.”

Zoey realized she had her fingers clutching the collar of Bessie’s dress. Quickly, she dropped her hand and took a deep breath.

What had she done? Out of anger, she had terrified this little girl to a degree wherein she was choking back her tears.

The police officer stepped behind her and cuffed her wrists. She didn’t resist or it would only make the situation worst.

Just a few minutes ago, she was rejoicing for the Jets win. Now, she was being arrested for child abuse. Not to mention… heartbroken.

Chapter 2

“Myers?”

Troy cracked his eyes open. That was Logan Norris’ voice, his team’s head coach and his maternal uncle.

“God damn it, Myers!”

He jerked up from the long table where he’d laid down for a nap. This old man’s voice sounded like a violent thunder.

“Get your lazy ass off that table and join your team on the field,” Logan ordered.

Troy yawned and glanced at his coach who was standing just a couple of feet away from him. He just took on two women last night which lasted until dawn. He didn’t even have breakfast yet. “Can I go get something to eat for a minute?”

Logan slapped the table. He leaned forward and glared at Troy. “Nobody’s going to eat until lunch. Let me remind you that you’ve lost your first two games already. With whom? With two teams who had never made it to the finals for the last twenty years. If that’s not insulting enough to you.”

Troy chuckled. “They just got lucky.”

“Got lucky, huh? You think they got lucky when that rookie scored two touchdowns right in front of your face? When that forty year old geezer outran you? And when that five and a half foot lad sacked you out of your wits?”

Troy jumped down the table. “I’ve had a bad day. It’s not like I’ve slacked off on purpose.”

“Slacking off is hardly the proper word to describe your performance. You were just plain fucking stupid. And you can’t afford to be more stupid than you already are, son. You lose one more game and you’re fucked.”

Troy threw his hands in the air and grabbed his helmet on the table.

“What the fuck is this?” Logan picked up the paper on the table. “I told you not to read these tabloids.”

“It’s more interesting,” Troy replied and walked away, heading back to the field where his team mates were practicing.

*****

“What the fuck, Myers?” Hank, the patriots’ assistant coach yelled. “You catch like a woman. Haven’t you been practicing your grip on women’s tits?”

Troy removed his helmet to wipe the sweat off his forehead while his team mates laughed.

“Ten minutes break,” Hank announced.

Everybody moved out of the field.

“What’s wrong with you, man?” Kirk Dobson asked as Troy headed to the bench. “You aren’t yourself anymore.”

Troy glanced at his friend and the star running back of his team. “What do you mean?”

“You…” Kirk paused, struggling for the right words to say. “You’re just not the same, man. You lost your spirit.”

He stopped walking, briefly frozen as he wondered if what Kirk said was true. “I lost my spirit, huh?” he asked and joined his friend on the bench.

“It shows, man,” Kirk replied and poured water from a bottle on his face. “You’re not the Troy Myers I used to know. Don’t see that speeding bullet pass you used to throw anymore.”

Troy nodded. Speeding Bullet. That’s another alias they had given him when he was still a rookie quarterback, because of his ability to throw at sixty miles per hour velocity. “Now that you mention it, I just realized no one has called me that lately.”

“Myers.”

Troy turned to Hank, who was about to whistle to get his attention.

“Logan wants you in his office right now,” Hank said.

Troy sighed. Now, what did his uncle want from him again?

He left his helmet with Kirk and climbed the stairs to Logan’s office. He found the head coach at his desk, reading the tabloid he had left on the table earlier.

“Sit down,” Logan said in a low, calm voice.

Troy pulled his shoulder pads off before he sat on the couch. He knew what Logan was reading. It was the same stuff that caught his attention, where his father had candidly admitted winning sixty thousand dollars when he bet all his properties for the New York Jets last season.

“You found something interesting in that tabloid?” he asked, even if he already knew.

“No.” Logan tossed the paper aside. “It’s all bullshit.”

Troy shrugged. Logan was also mysteriously quiet.

“I want to be honest with you, son,” Logan said a moment later. “When the news that you sold out the team broke out, I didn’t believe it. I had some suspicions, but I trusted you. I warned the press to stop writing about those rumors or I’d sue them for libel.”

Troy nodded. That rumor sparked when they lost the conference championship against the Jets last season. It died down after a while, but now that his father had come out in public bragging about his winnings, that rumor would be dug out of its grave to haunt him again.

“And now you think I really did it?” he asked.

Logan dropped his gaze to the table. A moment later, he looked into Troy’s eyes. “Did you?”

Troy chuckled. So his uncle, who had trusted him more than anybody else did, doubted him now, just because of a tabloid news. “You think I can do that to you? To the team?”

“Did you know about it before the game?”

“That my father had wagered his properties for the Jets?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, I knew it. I tried to talk him out of it. He didn’t listen.”

“Did he tell you to lose on purpose?”

“He did. He told me to break my thumb so I couldn’t play.”

Logan sighed. “I told you not to see them until the season is over.”

“I didn’t sell the team out,” Troy wanted to emphasize. “Maybe it affected me in some ways. I couldn’t get it out of my head during the game.”

Logan sighed. “Alright, I understand. You should have just ignored him. You can always buy the house back if he lost.”

“That part is easy. The hard part is…” He expelled a deep breath. He could not say it. He did not have to. His uncle already knew.

“Problem is, he put that shit on your head so you’d think twice about winning,” Logan said. “And you actually fell for it.”

“It’s not a trick. He’d done it before.”

“And he’ll keep doing it unless you convinced him it’s not gonna work for you again.”

Troy did not say a word. He wanted to do just that, but it was never easy for him.

“Did they blame you again for your brother’s death?” Logan asked.

“Not this time.”

Logan scoffed. “That’s good. Finally, they stopped.”

Troy shrugged. That was the very reason why his parents were wasting their lives away. Their favorite son, Ashton, was killed by mistake five years ago by furious Jets fans. They both blamed him for it. His mother even told him words that kept echoing back in his mind every time he closed his eyes.

“It’s your fault. If you hadn’t signed up for the Patriots, your brother would still be alive. They should’ve killed you instead.”

And that was not all. After Ashton was buried and he approached his mother to comfort her, she told him the same thing again, but in a different way.

“I wish it was you down that hole.”

Those words clung to him like a leech sucking off his blood. It weighed him down for years, and even until the present. He was guilty of two things—he looked a lot like Ashton, and he didn’t turn down the Patriot’s offer when they draft-picked him.

“That’s an old shit.” Logan ran his fingers over his gray hair. “I don’t think it’s the one weighing you down. Something is wrong with you, son. What is it?”

Troy looked away. How could he tell? He had no idea either. He didn’t even know something was wrong with him. All he was aware of was that his team had been consecutively defeated by two of the last seeded teams in the AFL.

“Are you depressed or something?” Logan asked.

Troy chuckled. “No way.”

“Bored?”

He couldn’t answer. That might be true.

“You must be tired of women. Why don’t you settle down? You’re twenty eight. It’s about time you start a family.”

Troy laughed. “I’ve got enough problems with my family already. The last thing I need is a demanding and jealous woman for a wife.”

“Choose your woman wisely.”

“There’s no guarantee I get to pick a good quality wife. We can never tell.”

Logan sighed. “What about a baby?”

Troy laughed again. “Coach, why are you suggesting these things?”

“I figured you must be depressed and bored. It happens a lot with successful people who’re at the peak of success and suddenly, there’s nothing else to keep them alive anymore. Raising a child might fix that.”

Troy scratched his forehead. Logan had a point, but… “I don’t know.”

“If it’s a boy, you can name him after your brother. Who knows? Your parents might grow fond of him.”

He lifted his head to look at his uncle.

Really? Would that fix his problem with his parents?

He laughed again, even louder this time. That was the silliest thing he had ever heard.

*****

Zoey quickly rose from the bench when she heard the bell ring. School was over. Bessie would be coming out of the gate any minute now.

She had not seen that kid ever since she was arrested by the police. She spent the night in jail until her lawyer, Chelsea Lewis, arrived in the morning to bail her out.

Fortunately, they dropped the charges of child abuse against her when Bessie herself confirmed her defense of
sudden emotional outburst
due to the deception done to her by her boyfriend and her bestfriend. She also presented the torn and crumpled letter of Beth as evidence. However, she was required to seek professional counselling to correct her behavior.

From then, she had retained the services of Chelsea for her petition to be a legal guardian to Bessie. She felt sorry for what she’d done to that kid, and she wanted to make up for it. Many times, she’d tried to see her, but the social worker wouldn’t let her.

Yesterday, she finally got the court’s order which was in her favor. Due to the social worker’s testimony that Bessie still wanted to go back to her despite what happened, the court granted her petition.

She just came from the office of the social worker who had custody of Bessie for the last eight months and presented the court’s order. Now, here she was—free to take Bessie home with her.

“Zoey!” Bessie came running and screaming towards her, dragging her backpack along.

She bent down and quickly picked the little girl up, hugging her as tight as she could. Bessie also wrapped her little arms around her neck.

“Oh, sweetie. I miss you,” she said, her eyes wet with tears.

“They said you’re in jail and you’re never coming to get me,” Bessie said and started crying.

Zoey put her down and wiped her tears. “Don’t cry. I’m not in jail. I’m here.”

“I knew they were lying. Why didn’t you come visit me?”

Zoey sighed. “I tried, but they won’t let me see you.”

“Why?”

“It’s difficult to explain.”

Bessie looked perplexed. “Are you taking me home?”

“Yes, sweetie,” she nodded. “We’re going home.”

Bessie hugged her neck. “Don’t send me back in there again, please. I’ll be good to you, promise.”

She stroked Bessie’s hair. “Not again, sweetie. Not ever. And I promise you, I will never yell at you again.”

Bessie smiled. “That’s okay, Zoey. I never hated you for that.”

Zoey felt like crying. The more that she regretted verbally abusing this beautiful angel. “You hungry?”

Bessie nodded. “Can we go to McDonald’s? I want a burger.”

“Of course. Come on. Let’s go visit Mister McDonald and get all his yummy burgers.”

*****

Zoey smiled as she watched Bessie play with other kids. She was glad the judge gave her the opportunity to be the guardian of this little girl, even if it was only temporary and subject to further evaluation. It had been too lonely in her apartment for the past eight months. Although she had spent quite a fortune for her lawyer’s fees, it was all worth it.

She won’t have to worry about paying her lawyer again, but she had other expenses to take care of. All the while, she thought she’d been paying her monthly rentals, but last month, she ran out of money and was not able to pay. She received a notice from the owner of the building, informing her that she was five months behind her dues. It turned out, Beth had been pocketing the money that she had set aside for rent.

She turned to the glass wall to look outside. It was getting dark, but she had no reason to hurry. Bessie was still having fun, and she did not want to deprive her of it.

Someone familiar to her crossed the pedestrian. She peered through the glass wall to have a closer look. She couldn’t be mistaken. That woman had the same blonde hair like Bessie. It was Beth.

Quickly, she stood up and called for Bessie. “You wait for me here, okay,” she instructed and was about to turn away when Bessie gripped her wrist.

“Where are you going?” Bessie asked.