The Comeback Challenge (9 page)

He’s not coming, flashed through Mark’s mind as he took the cordless phone from his grandfather.

“Hello? … Hi, Dad,” he said, his voice automatically dropping. “What? You’re on your car phone? … Yes, that’s Mom’s car. Right,
she’s here. … No, I don’t know when she’s leaving. That all depends. But what difference does it make? Aren’t you coming to
be with me?”

There was a long pause while he waited to hear what his father had to say. Finally he breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, I’ll
be here.”

He left his bedroom and dashed downstairs. Without a word to anyone, he swung open the door and let his father in before the
doorbell even rang.

“Come on in, Dad,” he said. “Mom, please don’t go. I really need to talk to both of you — together.”

Grandma and Grandpa Conway quietly retreated into the kitchen and closed the door.

Mark took his father’s hand and led him into the living room, where his mother was sitting.

Even with the sun shining through the windows, it felt like the North Pole in there to Mark.

Both of his parents started to speak at the same time.

“Mark, if you’re not happy here —”

“Darling, you can come and live with me if you —”

“Stop!” he shouted. “You haven’t even listened to me yet. It’s not about being here with Grandma and Grandpa Conway. They’re
terrific, and I love them. They’re not the problem.”

“Well, then I don’t see why we had to be here together to talk about something,” said his mother stiffly. “You didn’t have
to plan this little ‘surprise.’ ”

“Right, if there’s something else, you could have let me know about it,” said his father.

“Or me,” his mother shot back with an angry look at Mr. Conway.

“No, I couldn’t!” Mark blurted out. Both his parents turned to stare at him.

“That’s just it. Ever since you guys” — Mark’s voice broke slightly, but he cleared his throat and continued in a firm voice
— “split up, I haven’t been able to talk to you about anything. Nothing important, anyway, just about clothes, and school,
and how I’m doing on the soccer team. But I’ve never told either of you my thoughts about what you’re doing. About how it
makes me feel. I mean, since we’re never all together, it always seemed like I’d be talking behind someone’s back if I told
just one or the
other of you. So I just kept it inside. But it’s eating me up, so I can’t do that anymore,” he finished.

His mother spoke first after a long silence. “Darling,” she said, “we’re not trying to do anything to hurt you. It’s just
that we can’t agree on who you should live with.”

“If there was a way to settle the matter without lawyers, we would, Mark,” his father added. “But there just isn’t.”

“So I’m just supposed to pretend it’s
okay
that I feel like a soccer ball you two are fighting over?” He could see his angry words were finally sinking in.

“Mark, you never told us you felt like that,” his father said, his voice catching.

“Well, now you know. And I know you’re doing what’s best for you two. But please, stop using me in your game.”

He ran out of the room and upstairs to his bedroom.

The house remained quiet for several hours after Mr. and Mrs. Conway left.

Finally, when the sky had begun to darken and the clock’s chimes had rung four times, Mark slowly
opened his door. He went downstairs into the living room. Grandpa Conway was lighting a fire in the fire-place. Then Grandma
Conway came in with a tray of freshly baked lemon squares and a pot of hot chocolate.

“Cocoa?” his grandmother asked, holding up a cup.

Mark took it from her and sat on the arm of her easy chair.

“Thanks, Grandma,” he said. She patted his knee and handed him a plate with a lemon square on it.

“You know, I saw in the paper that the Knightstown Cineplex has some good movies,” said Grandpa Conway. “There’s no school
tomorrow, so we could take in one of the early shows. Anyone interested?”

“Fine with me,” said Grandma Conway.

They both looked at Mark. He took a long drink of cocoa, bit into a lemon square, and surprised them all, himself included,
by saying, “Sure. Why not?”

“Mark,” his grandmother admonished without missing a beat, “don’t talk with your mouth full.”

For some reason, that simple statement made them all laugh.

And for the first time in a long time, Mark didn’t feel like he had a heavy weight stuck in his chest. He felt like he could
do anything — go to a movie, or play soccer, or even talk with his mouth full — now that he had said what was on his mind.

W
hen Mark planted his feet on the soccer field the following week, he felt like a new person. Not all of his problems had gone
away — whose ever would? — but he knew he could play now the way he should.

It showed in the very next game the Scorpions played, with the Chelsea Chargers. As usual, the front line started out with
Mark, Evan, and Vince. But about ten minutes into the game, Evan got banged up and had to leave. The coach sent in Craig,
who had been warming the bench until then.

Craig wasn’t a natural forward. He didn’t have the speed. So the burden of moving in toward the goal fell pretty much to Mark
and Vince.

As soon as the Scorpions had the ball, Vince called for a play they’d practiced all week — except, during
practice, Mark had had possession and called the play. Earlier in the season, Mark would have seen this as a ploy by Vince
to keep the ball away from him. But now he knew he could count on his teammate to include him. This play depended on each
player doing his part in perfect harmony.

“Heads up, Craig!” he shouted as he received the pass from Vince. Vince rushed behind Mark, who turned around and tipped the
ball right back to him. Mark then became a blocker as Vince scooted around and headed toward the goal with the ball.

But that wasn’t the whole play. Vince had his choice: He could kick for a goal, or pass to either Craig or Mel Duffy. Mark
could see that Mel was in the clear. Sure enough, a second later Vince had passed Mel the ball. Mel aimed, swung his leg,
and kicked for all he was worth.

The ball sailed into the net for the first goal of the game!

Mark wasn’t surprised that Vince didn’t come over to slap high fives with him. After all, he thought, I can’t expect the guy
to change overnight.

The Scorpions took the game against the Chargers, 6-4. Mark and Vince each scored two goals.
Mark knew he and Vince were neck-and-neck for the most goals scored that season. But as far as Mark was concerned, such statistics
were unimportant as long as they both did their jobs well.

In the following game, against the Edgewood Eagles, the Scorpions scored five goals before their opponents got on the scoreboard.
Final tally: Scorpions 7, Eagles 2. Mark and Vince both sat on the bench, rooting for the substitutes, who played most of
the game. But Vince managed to score two more goals to Mark’s one nonetheless.

Despite Mark’s feelings about in-team competition, he didn’t mind the rivalry he and Vince had going. After all, it didn’t
harm the rest of the squad when their two top scorers were trying to up their records. As long as it didn’t spill over to
off-field, everything seemed fine.

The Scorpions’ record was 8 and 2 when the final game of the season, with the Newtown Panthers, rolled around in mid-November.
The Knightstown Scorpions were on top of the league by two games, with the next closest team’s record reading 6 and 4.
But Coach Ryan didn’t want them to let up just because of that.

“Champions aren’t the best only because they’ve won the most games,” he told the Scorpion players just before the game began.
“It’s because they always play and think like champions. So go out there on the field and show them why Knightstown has earned
its spot as number one.”

Throughout the season, Coach Ryan had made sure all his players had time on the field. But for this last game, he started
with his tried-and-true lineup: Evan, Mark, and Vince on the front line; Jim, Mel, and Johnny at midfield; and Craig, Eddie,
Harvey, and Stu in the backfield, with Charlie in the goal.

During the warm-up, Mark glanced at the stands. Sure enough, his grandparents were in their usual place right behind the bench.
His parents, however, were nowhere in sight.

Since the day he’d had his say with the two of them in the living room, he was aware of a slight change in the way his parents
talked about each other when they were with him. They no longer made angry comments about each other in front of Mark. But
Mark knew that sometime soon he was going to
become the focus of the divorce again. And what would happen then, he couldn’t begin to imagine. Or want to.

For now, he just wanted to concentrate on the game at hand. The Scorpions won the toss. Vince announced that they would start
with the ball.

The whistle blew, and the game began. As always, Mark felt a rush of adrenaline as he toed the ball over to Vince, who started
to dribble it down along the sideline.

“Come on, you Scorpions!” he shouted, racing to keep pace with Vince. “Let’s show ’em how to play this game!”

Within a few moments, it was clear that the Scorpions were the better team. But the Panthers weren’t going to simply roll
over. They had an impressive record of their own. There was nothing they wanted to do more than end the season by beating
the champs.

The Scorpions maintained good ball control and drove in strong to the goal. Passes skittered across the field from Evan to
Mark, Mark to Vince, and then back again. But as they approached the goal,
the Panthers bared their claws and soon had the ball heading in the opposite direction.

Then Eddie slid beneath a Panther wing and dislodged the ball, booting it out of bounds. The slide scratched him up pretty
bad, but he waved away the coach when he asked if he needed to come out. Like everyone else, Eddie was fired up to play the
best game he could. Mark knew he wasn’t about to let a little scratch send him to the sidelines so soon.

Eddie had his work cut out for him. Mark could see he was having a hard time covering his zone. The Panthers bumped and battered
him as he tried to break up their ball control. There was no doubt they were pressing hard to draw “first blood.” Twice Eddie
got knocked over the sideline as he tried to get a foot around the ball. The third time, though, Mark was right nearby. He
bore down on the Panther wing so hard, the surprised player tripped over himself. Eddie ducked in and scooted free with the
ball.

His kick downfield was blocked. A Panther interception put the ball back into their control. Then a good block by Harvey Kahn
shook the ball loose
near Craig. The carrot-topped Scorpion scooped it in, dribbled, then sent it over to Mark.

“Come to Papa!” Mark shouted as he dribbled the ball over the midfield stripe. Looking around, he saw that Vince was up ahead
of him, open for a pass. Mark booted it to him. The pass took a wild bounce and rebounded off a Panther’s hands. The ref blew
his whistle to signal for a direct kick.

Vince was closest and waited for the ref to place the ball. Then he took two large steps and swung his foot hard at the sphere,
sending it diagonally across the field. Evan Andrews was already running to get underneath it. With a decisive leap, he headed
the ball back toward the center of the field.

Mark wasted no time. He rushed forward, caught the spinning ball against his chest, and let it drop to the ground. Out of
the corner of his eye, he saw Vince streaking down the sideline. Mark knew Vince’s next move was going to be to cut across
the field. He’d be looking for a clean pass.

Now was the Scorpions’ chance. It was up to Mark to make it work.

He did. A swift movement sent the ball rocketing to Vince. Vince controlled the ball, turned, and
threaded the needle by hooking a kick just beyond the outstretched arms of the Panther goalie.

Score! Scorpions 1, Panthers 0.

Mark could see Coach Ryan smiling as he pounded his right fist into his left palm. He knew the coach loved to see a goal result
from teamwork, not just from a fluke.

The next time the Scorpions had possession of the ball, Mark hoped he’d get a shot at scoring. He could tell his teammates
were looking to set him up.

He didn’t disappoint them. He trapped the ball, dribbled, passed, and positioned himself exactly the way they had practiced
all week. So he was in just the right spot to go for it when his moment came.

He didn’t have to wait long. A pass from Mel a few feet from the corner of the penalty area was all it took. The Panther goalie
never had a chance.

Goal!

Less than halfway through the first half, and already the Scorpions had a solid lead.

The sweet thought of a shutout drifted through Mark’s mind, but he quickly blocked it out. That was dangerous, he knew. The
idea was to win the game, not to think about a particular score.

Unfortunately the rest of the team didn’t see it that way. The lead went to their heads, and play got sloppy. A lot of kicking,
tripping, and pushing fouls led to one penalty after another. The Panthers didn’t hesitate to use these lucky breaks. When
the whistle blew to end the first half, the score was tied: Scorpions 2, Panthers 2.

Coach Ryan had a good long talk with his team during the break.

“What is going on out there?” he asked incredulously. “You’d think it was the first game of the season instead of the last!
You have one final chance to show why you’re the champs. Now, go out there and show those guys who’s boss! Let’s see some
clean, smart, heads-up ball!”

With a roar, the Scorpions took to the field. But Mark sensed that the Panthers could smell an upset.

Well, they’re going to have to earn it. We’re not about to give it to them on a silver platter, he thought with determination.

The second half of the game turned into a defensive duel. Back and forth, up and down the field, the ball traveled as the
referee’s time clock ground away the remaining minutes left to play.