Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: ARTIFICIAL (08/11/16)
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TITLE: A Seam | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry Bovinet
08/18/16 -
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Like a Moses, Tom could part throngs of high school students in the hallways scurrying from class to class. His letter jacket with three cloth oval emblems gained him admission into an exclusive club. Girls could not join. Many boys openly longed to belong but their lack of size, speed, and/or skill prevented their induction.
Tom earned his entrance after his freshman year. His nine-yard touchdown dash in the last game of the year had sealed a come-from-behind victory and yet another conference championship. Players and fans couldn’t believe the coach’s decision to leave an untested rookie in the game at such a crucial time. Tom’s slashing run made him a hero and his coach a genius. All those in the stands and on the sidelines who questioned its wisdom irritatingly acted as if they made that risky call themselves.
“Atta boy, Tom. We knew you could do it!”
Now one of the three senior co-captains on the team, everyone expected to regain the conference title this year. Two frustrating years had passed since Tom reached godlike status in those nine yards.
How can one explain the over-the-edge hype of the first home football game on a Friday night? Movies and television shows cannot replicate the palpable exhilaration in the locker rooms and the stands before the national anthem. Then after “home of the brave,” fireworks could not compete with the pent up emotions as the opposing teams line up for the opening kickoff.
Tom awaited that kickoff with small jumps to release the combination of anxiety and excitement. A few windmills with his arms further elevated his heart rate to steel him for the next moment. Shortly after the official’s whistle blew, Tom tracked down the football spiraling through the air, adeptly caught it, and transferred all his energies toward the gaping hole his field of vision spotted in the kickoff coverage.
On his fifth step, Tom tripped. At least 10 yards clear of anyone in any uniform, friend or foe, no one had touched him.
A small tear in the seam of the artificial turf, unnoticed until that moment, caught the front cleat of Tom’s left shoe and sent him hurling. After landing awkwardly on his right leg, he instantaneously grabbed that knee and agonizingly screamed after which the raucous crowded immediately hushed. The football, once his greatest ally but now resting quietly on the surface, did not respond to his intense suffering.
The head coach and team doctor ran onto the field - no one had ever seen the coach run - to Tom’s side. With his sports medicine training, the doctor diagnosed the problem right away; tests would later confirm the accuracy of his initial reading.
“ACL,” the doctor whispered to the despondent coach. Surgery. Crutches. No more football.
Tom’s season and eventually the accolades heaped on him ended with that seam. The football team moved on, but Tom’s life hit the pause button.
Tom continued attending practice and the games, but could accomplish no more than that for the team. A player balanced on crutches garnered some respect, but not any wild cheers or manic enthusiasm. Students and fans reserved that for the players who made the crushing tackle or pile drove into the line to stretch for the first down marker.
Once in the middle of the team during games, every week saw him shift closer to the end of the bench and then off to the side by himself - oblivion in the football world.
The high school recognized seniors before the start of the last home game. Tom, constantly aided by crutches, shuffled across the field with his supportive parents. He received polite applause, but couldn’t stop the maddening loop in his mind.
“What if?”
Still on the sidelines but alienated from the hive of activity around the benches, Tom first glanced and then stared at the seam that had changed his life. Now repaired, he could see the vivid color of the new section that openly contrasted with the well-worn surface that had supported the frenetic battles of numerous football and soccer games.
An artificial patch on an artificial surface.
“Kind of reminds me of my life,” Tom snickered. People didn’t actually know Tom. They knew a now hobbled football player. A still somewhat popular student. But not the real Tom.
“Maybe I need to be more genuine.”
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