The Coach

Chapter 6
Child's Play

Chapter Description: Gabe and his friend Jackson have a play date

“Vroom...eeeeow....errrrrrp...bang!” Gabe screeched as he ran the matchbox car in his hand into the leg of a rocking chair that in his imagination was a wall, then sending it tumbling across the living room carpet.

Gave put on a false high voice, “Oh no, help, help, we need the ambulance!” then switching to a deep voice, “We’re on our way mam.”

Gabe grabbed the toy ambulance and pushed it over, pressing the button on the side that caused the toy to make cool siren noises. His ambulance reached the rolled over toy car at the same moment that a toy fire-truck did as well. “Da fiah men are here to save the day!” Jackson announced, crouched on hands and knees facing Gabe.

Gabe shook his head. “Nuh uh, firemen put out fires, ambulance men help hurt peoples,” he insisted huffily.

Jackson stuck out his tongue at Gabe. “I was here first!”

“Were not!” Gabe replied plaintively.

Nodding his head Jackson insisted, “Were too.”

“Boys, play nice now,” a commanding voice interrupted.

Both boys looked up to see Gabe’s mom glaring down at them with a stern motherly look. “I don’t want to see any fighting, is that clear?”

Both boys nodded their heads wordlessly. “Okay then. Now Gabe, sweetie, why don’t you take Jackson out back and show him the fort you were building,” she suggested.

Gabe nodded eagerly at this suggestion, his mommy...er mom, was so smart. “Yeah Jackson, c’mon!” he yelled, hopping up and heading for the back yard.

She watched the eager boy head out in his smart Abercrombie polo shirt and baggy jean shorts. She just wished she had more appropriate clothes for him to play in. Those jean shorts were fine but he’d had them on for days now and they were getting pretty funky. His one nice t-shirt was being washed from getting stained with cranberry juice. She needed to do some shopping. Though it was cute to see the little yellow plastic Sheriff’s badge pinned on his nice polo shirt from an earlier game of cops and robbers, it looked so out of place on his good shirt. Jackson leapt up to follow his friend. He looked much more appropriate in his faded blue jean short-alls. Jackson wasn’t wearing a shirt, and didn’t really need one after all. He still had the neckerchief on his head from playing pirates earlier, though he’d left the little plastic eye-patch on the floor. Jane thought the short-alls were particularly cute on Jackson, she’d have to get Gabe a pair next time she went shopping.

Gabe bounded out into the warm autumn sun turning back every couple seconds to check that Jackson was following him. As he reached the edge of the yard and headed into the woods he held out his arms using his toes to grip as he hopped barefoot from root to root around the big trees. Then he saw it, his creation, the fort. He imagined himself to be deep in the dark woods of Transylvania, where his fort would protect him from all the creepy monsters from the fairy tales.

Jackson stopped beside him and stared at the fort. At first he didn’t seem all that impressed by the dozen or so pieces of wood leaned in a circle around a tree, teepee style. But then he smiled and announced “Cool!”

Gabe giggled and rushed into his fort, squeezing his bulky teenage body awkwardly between the branches. Jackson tried to follow but the fort wasn’t big enough to fit two tall muscular teens. Jackson pouted as Gabe crawled around the little space inside on his hands and knees in the dirt. “But I can’t fit Gabe,” he whined.

“You gotta be the monsters silly,” Gabe explained. “C’mon, attack the fort!”

“I don’ wanna be the monster!”

“You look like one!” Gabe chuckled.

Jackson took offence at this gibe, his eyes welling up. “Do not! You shut up!”

Now it was Gabe’s turn to stick out his tongue and blow a raspberry, pulling one of the logs over to block the narrow entrance. “You’re stupid!” Jackson spat, then turned around and ran back out of the woods stepping tenderly over the roots and rocks.

Playing in the fort wasn’t as much fun by himself though, so Gabe finally relented and headed back to the yard. Jackson was sitting on the railing of the back deck drinking some juice now, swinging his long bare legs and feet back and forth. Gabe had been playing with Jackson a lot more recently, and the games they played seemed so much more imaginative and fun than what they did before. In fact it was hard to remember what they used to do when they played together. Gabe was pretty sure mom didn’t used to call Jackson’s mom to set up play dates like she did now. In fact Gabe was sure he used to just call Jackson himself when he wanted to play.

Looking at his friend dressed in short-alls and bare feet swinging his legs like that gave Gabe the sense that this wasn’t right. He should be dressed like a big boy shouldn’t he? But then Coach gave him these clothes and Coach always knew what was right. So what was wrong with what was happening to them?

Mom interrupted his thoughts stepping onto the deck and staring at him sternly. “Gabe, didn’t I tell you to play nice?”

Gabe nodded. “Uh huh. I did mom.”

“Gabriel, I think you know as well as I that is not true. You wouldn’t let your friend into your fort.”

“But there wasn’t no room!”

“I don’t want to hear any buts mister. Now you apologize to Jackson this instant young man.”

Gabe felt like a scolded little boy. He blushed bright red. His mom wasn’t meant to talk to him like that, he was a big teenager, right? But mom was staring at him, hands on her hips, waiting. He felt so dumb but he finally mumbled, “Sorry.”

“You’re sorry for what?” she prodded.

“Sorry for not letting ?im play,” he muttered.

“Don’t tell me, Gabriel, tell your friend, and I want to hear you say it.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you in the fort Jackson,” Gabe finally managed loudly enough to be understood.

“There, now that’s better,” Jane declared. “Okay, now we need to do some shopping for dinner and then drop Jackson back home. So c’mon boys get your shoes on and let’s go to the car.”

Jackson and Gabe raced to the front foyer and looked through the pile of shoes. Gabe slipped on his comfy new SpongeBob flip-flops. He hadn’t worn anything else for days now, they didn’t have no tricky laces to knot. Jackson pulled on his sandals and they were off racing to the car. Both boys hopped into the back seats, knowing that was where they belonged. A moment later mom hopped in the front and checked to make sure they were buckled up. As they drove to the supermarket mom pushed a button on the dash and the soft flute music from the house filled the car as well. Gabe was feeling a little odd again. He really would like to be driving the car right now. But only big grown-ups got to drive cars. Of course he was a teenager and teens could drive right?

Gabe was so confused because he was certain of two things. One, that he was a big strong teenager and second, that he was too little to do any of the things teenagers were supposed to do. He couldn’t drive a car, he couldn’t even ride a bike without training wheels. He was supposed to be dating girls, but they were so icky. He was supposed to be going to parties and hanging with his buddies, but bedtime was eight o’clock, nine if he was well behaved. And what was more, he felt sleepy at bedtime, he couldn’t imagine going out that late. He liked riding his bike with training wheels around the driveway, but riding it way up the street seemed so scary, what if he fell and mom wasn’t there to help him? He was supposed to be watching MTV and going to concerts, but Nickelodeon was so much funner to watch and mom didn’t approve of MTV.

The music suddenly cut out, jostling Gabe from his thoughts. “Here we are. I’ll get the cart, you boys just wait here in the car for me. I don’t want you running around the parking lot,” Mom explained, getting out of the car.

She returned a moment later with a cart and let the boys out of the car. She had the child locks on, so she had to open the doors for them. Mom took Gabe’s hand and led him through the parking lot. At first this felt completely normal but then Gabe felt a flash of embarrassment. He didn’t want to look like a little boy holding his mom’s hand. But he lacked the will to pull away. She let go once they were inside, to Gabe’s relief. There were some odd looks, but mostly for Jackson in his short-alls. Gabe felt very grown-up in his polo shirt.

They made their way over to the fruit and Mom looked through the selection. Gabe thought he should be a good boy and help, but he couldn’t remember how to tell what fruit was ripe. There was such a thick haze in his mind now, so many things that he was sure were so simple, now were completely beyond him. He knew bananas were meant to be yellow, but some were green. What did that mean? Were green one’s tastier? He wasn’t sure. Maybe he should get some and find out. Gabe picked up some green bananas and put them in the cart. But his mom just chuckled and put them back. “No Gabe, let Mom pick the fruit dear,” she instructed.

Gabe nodded, picking fruit was a job for a grown-up. He did still wonder what green bananas tasted like though. Maybe there were blue bananas too! What would they taste like? He wondered.

“Sweetie, get me a couple Macintosh Apples please.” Mom directed, knowing they would all be ripe.

Gabe headed over to the apples, but there were so many kinds! He looked up at the signs above them. There were such big words. Gabe was sure he should be able to read big words, being a teenager and all. But the simple fact was he couldn’t. Big parts of his brain were all fuzzy or just plain empty now. Coach had assured him this was all temporary and he’d never been that good at school anyway, but it was still frustrating. The second word on each of the signs was the same, he could recognize that. He tried to sound it out. “Ahh...Puh...Puh...Lah...Eeh.” He squinted, that wasn’t right. “Aupp...lee,” he tried again, then “Ah...Plee.” Finally with a shock he declared out loud, “Apple!” That was what it said!

Though he felt very proud of himself for reading the tricky word, Gabe now realized he had no hope of sounding out the much bigger words. He decided to try his luck, grabbing two of the nearest variety and bringing them over to the cart, hoping he’d guessed right. Mom took one look at his offering and chuckled. “Oh Gabe, no those are Granny Smith apples, see how green they are? Don’t worry dear, I’ll grab the right ones in a minute.”

Gabe was crestfallen, of course these were Granny Smith apples, he knew that. Or at least he had known that before, but since the last round of special shots, things like varieties of apples were tricky to recall.

Gabe followed Mom along as they made their way through the supermarket, not saying much after that. It was in the pasta aisle that Gabe spotted some familiar faces. It was a group of kids from his school. Gabe hadn’t been in the last couple days since he’d been feeling so thick. Coach had gotten him and the rest of the team excused this week using some excuse about a flu outbreak.

Gabe was used to being the big man on campus, the star football player that others only dreamed of being. Feeling uneasy around less popular classmates was a foreign feeling to him. Yet despite being a strapping handsome athlete, he felt so little and vulnerable as the teens approached them. One of the guys was looking Jackson up and down with disbelief. Rather than address Jackson, he turned to Gabe. “Dude, what the hell is up with Jackson? How come he’s dressed weird, did he loose a dare?”

Gabe tried desperately to maintain his coolness, but a witty response simply couldn’t make it through the muddled mess of his brain. “Um...yeah...maybe,” he stammered.

The teen looked oddly at Gabe and a little quieter asked, “Dude are you guys fuckin’ high?”

Gabe didn’t understand the question, but tried his best to answer. “Nuh uh, but I’m real tall.”

The teen gaped at Gabe, then burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me man? You gotta be high!”

Jackson had been silently chewing on his fingernails but this laughter frightened him and he began to suck on his thumb for comfort. This childish behavior did not escape the gathered teens’ attention. One of the girls pointed to Jackson and announced, “Shit guys, Jackson is actually suckin’ his thumb! Lookit that, he’s acting like a baby!”

Jackson spat out his thumb and, still blushing, did nothing to help his cause by announcing, “I’m not a baby, I’m a big boy!”

The whole group was erupting in peals of laughter now. Another pointed at Gabe and declared, “Uh oh guys better watch it or the Sheriff will arrest us,” drawing their attention to the plastic police badge still pinned on Gabe’s shirt.

Their riotous laugh fest came to an abrupt end when Jane stepped forward, looking furious, and screamed, “What do you think you’re laughing at! What is wrong with all of you? Can’t you see you’re upsetting them?”

The teens fell silent in shock and looked over at Jackson and Gabe, both of whom looked devastated with salty tears tracing their way down their cheeks. The group looked horrified as it seemed to dawn on them that the duo weren’t high or drunk but had something very seriously wrong with them. The group mumbled apologies and began to make their way down the aisle away from the angry mother. All except for one girl who stepped closer to Gabe and looked up into his tear-stained face, rubbing his arm gently. “I’m sorry Gabe. Are you alright?”

Gabe sniffled and nodded slightly. “Uh huh,” he managed, trying to control his emotions again and get his dignity back.

“Okay, you hang in there big guy. I hope you get better and come back to school soon,” she offered, comfortingly.

Gabe wiped away his tears as she headed off to join her friends. All Gabe wanted now was to get home and away from all the scary teenagers.