Chapter 27

Instead of waiting for wrestling practice to talk to Coach Crisfield on Monday, Mark Easton decided to get it done early. He knew Crisfield was always in his office before school so he walked to the locker room and knocked on the door.

“Coach, can I talk to you?” Easton asked.

“Come on in,” Crisfield said. “I was just sorting through all this paperwork for districts. It gets worse every year. So what’s up?”

“Well,” Easton began.

“Don’t tell me,” interrupted Crisfield. “You want to move up to 171 now that Bowie’s gone, right?”

“No,“ Easton answered.

“Good,” Crisfield said. “The last thing you need is to change weight classes again. You’d be too light now, no matter how much you weighed.”

“It is about Bowie, though,” Easton said. “Some of the guys think maybe he should get one more chance. We think he should wrestle in districts.”

Crisfield removed his glasses and stared across the desk at Easton. “Now where in the world did that come from? There’s no love lost between you two guys.”

“I know he can be a real pain in the butt,” Easton said. “Nobody hates it more than me when he freaks out. It’s usually at me. But I’ve gotten to know him some. I can see why he’s so hard to deal with. He never gets a break. He’s got it pretty tough at home,” he said, using one of his many rehearsed lines.

“Come on, Mark,” Crisfield said. “You think he’s the only guy in the world with divorced parents? Hell, he’s not even the only guy on this team with divorced parents.”

“Yeah, but this is different,” Easton said. “He’s never even seen his father. He lives in this dumpy little house over by the pike. His mother works like twenty-four hours a day, so he’s pretty much raising himself. And the guys in his band give him are always giving him all kinds of grief because of wrestling. Until they kicked him out, I mean.”

“He told me he quit,” Crisfield said. “So that was another lie.”

“Just think how hard he worked since last season,” Easton continued. “I’ve never seen anybody come as far as he did. He’s committed to this. If you take it away after all he’s done it’ll kill him.”

“Why isn’t Kevin here with you?” Crisfield asked. “Hasn’t he joined the fan club too?”

Easton shrugged. “It isn’t unanimous,” he allowed. “But Tim Betterton agrees with me.”

“But Kevin doesn’t,” Crisfield said sharply. “Well unfortunately for you guys, you have no input on a decision like this,” he said. “It’s my call and you haven’t convinced me.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Crisfield said.

Crisfield laughed. “Now I’m getting advice from an eighteen-year-old kid,” he said. “Look, Mark, I know you mean well and I respect you for what you’re trying to do. When I was your age I might have thought the same thing. But I’ve been around longer than you so I’m a better judge of character. I’ve seen kids like Bowie over and over. It’s never a happy ending. You’re better off not getting involved with a bad apple like him. He’s going nowhere no matter how many extra chances I give him. I hate to be brutal about it but I don’t want you getting caught up in this. He’ll bring you down.”

“Maybe he’d be going somewhere if somebody would give him a chance,” Easton said. “If you took the time to get to know him maybe you’d understand better.”

“I’m usually pretty close on this type of thing,” Crisfield said. “Besides, he probably weighs two-hundred pounds by now.”

“No,” Easton said. “We made him promise to stay on weight. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

“So there is a fan club,” Crisfield said. He paused for a moment. “I can honestly say that I’m impressed. Who’s in on this with you?”

“Me and Tim,” Easton said. “And a few of Zach’s friends who are looking out for him.”

“Very interesting,” Crisfield said. “When did you come up with this ‘Free Zach’ campaign?”

“We got together on Sunday,” Easton said, not adding that the meeting had been an accident.

“I’m impressed,” Crisfield said again.

Easton stood up suddenly. “I’m late for homeroom,” he said. “I better go.”

“I can write you a pass,” Crisfield offered.

“I’ll make it,” Easton said.

“Mark?” Crisfield said when Easton reached the doorway. “I’ll take what you said into consideration.”

“Thanks,” Easton said before disappearing. He’d done his part.

~~~

“Zach, how’s the wrist feeling?” Tim Betterton asked when he found Zach sitting alone in the cafeteria during lunch on Monday.

“Hi Tim,” Zach said. “It feels a lot better.”

“Did you get it looked at by a doctor?” Betterton asked.

“Nah,” Zach said. “He’d just give it a fancy name and hand me a bill. It wouldn’t heal up any faster.”

“Easton talked to Crisfield this morning,” Betterton said. “He told him there was a team meeting and everybody there wanted him to reinstate you.”

“Is that true?” Zach asked incredulously.

“Sort of,” Tim said. “Everybody at the meeting agreed. All two of us.”

Zach smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “I hope he let’s me come back. I know I screwed up.”

“Maybe you should tell Coach that,” Betterton suggested.

“I probably should,” agreed Zach.

“How’s your weight?” Betterton asked. “Mark said you’d be keeping it down.”

“I don’t have a scale, but I had a good hard run yesterday,” Zach said. “I will today, too. And I haven’t eaten much. I can’t do much else with my wrist like this.”

“That’s good enough,” Betterton said. “We’ll work on Crisfield some more at practice today. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

~~~

“Now we’ve gone and done it,” Bo Herndon said a few seconds after the door slammed. “Goodbye Glimmer, it was nice knowing you.” Band practice had hardly begun andnow it looked as though it might be over.

“Relax,” Fauquier said over the sound of a gunning engine and squealing wheels. “I see him every day. He’ll still be there if we need him.”

“What makes you think that?” Herndon asked. “Was it the way he flipped you the bird? Or the patch of rubber he just left out front? He’s not coming back, Joe.”

“I thought we weren’t going to tell him about Zach coming back unless we knew it for sure,” Dumphries said.

“Who knew he’d go ballistic?” Fauquier asked. “At least we were up front about it.”

“Yeah, right. Up front?” Dumphries scoffed. “We’re screwing him over. I don’t blame him for being pissed. At least we could have waited until we knew we had Zach. It’s just as sleazy but at least we wouldn’t be stuck without a singer.”

“What’s with you guys?” Fauquier asked. “You hated me for hiring him and now you hate me for firing him.”

“So what’s going on with Zach, anyway? Did that chick ever call?” Herndon asked. Dumphries and Fauquier shook their heads.

“Why can’t he just come and play with us anyway?” Herndon asked. “What difference does wrestling make? We’re giving him another shot. He should take it.”

“He probably doesn’t see it that way,” Dumphries said. “We’re the ones who chucked him out. He doesn’t owe us diddly-squat.”

~~~

When Wednesday night came Zach didn’t want to attend the Chapel Forge dual meet. It was the last one of the season, to be followed by the district tournament two nights later. Although he still wanted badly to get back in the lineup, he didn’t see what could be gained by sitting in the bleachers watching. Crisfield might not even notice he was there. He’d agreed to the plan that Beth had spelled out for him that afternoon, though, and part of that plan was watching the match. The harder part would come afterwards, when he would try to apologize to Coach Crisfield for his behavior.

After school he’d gone for a long run, the same way he had on Monday and Tuesday. He considered lifting weights but decided against it. The wrist still ached but he thought if he was careful he could wrestle in the district tournament if Crisfield changed his mind. Once he cooled down he showered and wrapped the wrist in an Ace bandage. Then he walked to the school and bought a wrestling match ticket for the first time in his life. As he watched the bouts he practiced the words he’d use when the time came to talk to Crisfield. It would be one of the most important conversations of his life.

~~~

The presence of a backup 171-pounder had little effect on the dual meet, which Chapel Forge lost decisively to Linden. Neither team showed much emotion about the result. The match, a makeup of one that was snowed out in January, meant little to either team. Nobody on either side was thinking about anything except districts, which were less than forty-eight hours away.

When Coaches Crisfield and Hancock separated themselves from the crowd of wrestlers chatting on the mat Zach saw his chance. His stomach churned with nervousness as he stepped down the bleachers and walked over. The words began to pour out of Zach when he was still more than five feet away from the coaches.

“Coach Crisfield and Coach Hancock,” he began, “I just want to tell you how sorry I am for screwing up so bad. I know I hurt the team. I’d do anything to go back in time and do everything all over again. It wasn’t that I don’t care about the team. I guess I don’t know what happened. But I’m really sorry and I know I was wrong.”

Both men looked at him with the same dour expression. “I don’t suppose I need to list everything you did wrong,” Crisfield said. “Besides getting hurt and being overweight, you lied to us about how it happened. As a matter of fact, I think you lied about all kinds of things. That’s the part I have the most trouble with.”

“I know,” Zach said. “I guess I was afraid to tell the truth.”

“There are a lot of people pleading your case,” Crisfield said. “I didn’t know you had so many friends. Did you?”

“No,” Zach said. “Not until now.”

“From what I’ve heard, your weight isn’t a problem,” Crisfield said. “Is that still true?”

“I’ve been running,” Zach said. “I can still make the weight.”

“How about the wrist?” Hancock asked. “Don’t forget about that. Did you get it checked out?”

“I could wrestle,” Zach said. “The time off helped.”

Crisfield and Hancock looked at each other. Zach could tell they hadn’t expected this. “I’d really like to come back to the team,” Zach said. “I can behave better.”

“Okay, Zach,” Crisfield finally said. “I can’t believe I’m going back on what I said. You’re back in. Just make sure you keep yourself in line. You have absolutely no room for error. None. Understood?” He extended his hand as he said it. Thanks to an unlikely alliance of his peers Zach was back in the lineup and the band. It was going to be a complicated weekend but Zach wouldn’t have it any other way.