Goal Posts

The Bulls and the Storm spent much of the first and second quarter trading punts until the two minute warning. It looked like Jack was going to break fee and put six more points on the board but the right tackle hit him hard and the ball squirted out. The left corner caught it before it hit the ground and sprinted into the end zone.

"God damn it man!" Jack repeated over and over in the locker room.

"Man, come on! Shit, it happens!" Chauncey yelled. "Get over it!"

"Not your fault," more than one player and a few of the assistant coaches assured him, but Jack was despondent.

"What's the matter, Hot Shot?" Chip sneered at Arville. "Wow, five three and outs in a row? What happened?"

"Four," Arville replied, smiling wryly. "Last one was two and out, but I understand. It's hard for you to count that high."

At Darren and Elise's home, Rachael rocked Elaine on her lap and watched as the Storm rumbled out of the locker room to take the field for the second half.

"Hey, Rachael!" Arville's face suddenly took up the entire screen. "Hey Ripper! This game's for you!"

Both Elise and Iris shrieked and Charlie and Dick gave the television set the thumbs up.

"Running plays, they're killing us and their secondary is eating us alive," Arville said. "So, time for a little gun-slinging; what you say?"

"Fucking right!" Monroe said.

"Seventy nine!" Arville bellowed. "Seventy nine! Hut!"

"Seventy nine?" Coach Schaeffer screamed and rifled through a play book quickly to make sure he was thinking of the right play. "That son of a bitch better not be talking about seventy nine T!"

"There is no way in God's green earth!" Coach Schaeffer screamed, face turning tomato red with anger.

Monroe caught the ball at the twenty one yard line and thundered to the eighth yard line before three Bulls managed to drag him down.

The Bulls' coach had to burn a time out; three of his players were winded after a seventy two yard sprint.

"You are fucking beautiful," Monroe screamed in the huddle.

"You're not so bad yourself, sweet cheeks," Arville said.

"Oh, better not let Pedro hear you say that," Jack laughed.

The defense held and it looked as if Arville would have to relinquish the ball to their field goal unit.

"Ray, take a seat; I'll hold Pedro's balls," Arville smiled.

The Bulls defense was slightly puzzled at the laugher from the Storm but prepared to block the kick.

Hank hiked the ball to Arville and the Bulls' defense watched in disbelief as Arville grabbed the ball and ran into the end zone with it.

At Elise's house, Dick pointed to the sleeping Elaine.

"That one was for you, Ripper!" he said. "You hear that? That one was for you!"

"Oh oh," Iris suddenly groaned, pale face even more pale.

"What? Wat's wrong?" Elise asked.

"It's oh, I think it's..." Iris said then clutched at her belly.

"Oh, I think I've seen this before," Charlie said and got to his feet.

"Is it?" Elise asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I think Daisy's coming," Iris grunted feeling a slight panic set in.

"Yep; we've seen this before," Dick smiled. "And I think we all know how it turns out so we can just sit and watch the rest of the game, right?"

"Dad! Come on, drive!" Elise giggled while Rachael ran next door to tell Carmen what was happening; that Carmen would have to watch the grandchildren for a few hours longer.

So none of them saw the Storm's triumphant seventeen to seven victory.

"Hey; we're at the hospital, Iris went into labor," Rachael's message said. "But I seen on the TV here where y'all won; good God, that's what? Three in a row? I'm so proud of you, Honey, oh, and Iris says it's going to be a girl, she's naming her Daisy Ann, see she had this sister named Daisy Ann and Daisy was killed, what? Oh, okay, Honey, I got to go but I love you and when you see me I'll be an aunt, what? I mean I'll be an aunt again, yes I know I'm already an aunt, oh okay, bye, I got to go, love you, bye."

"Love you too," Arville murmured as he listened to the excited, happy rambling message again.

On the other bed, Pedro was on his cell phone, chattering excitedly and laughing in his native language. Arville heard his name mentioned a few times but largely ignored the other man. He listened to the excited message one more time, then called his mother.

"Oh, my God, have you lost your mind? Suppose one of those boys had tackled you," his mother chided him. "They could have really hurt you, Honey, you really ought to be more careful!"

"Good God, woman, he's a grown man, for God's sake, give me that phone," Jonas said, taking the telephone from the woman. "Hey boy, good game and who are Rachael and

Ripper? Huh? Sitting there, enjoying my cup of coffee and all of a sudden, your face is right in mine scaring me to death and telling some Rachael and Ripper the games for them?"

"Girl I been dating and she's got a baby girl named Elaine; we call her 'The Ripper,'" Arville admitted.

"And you dedicating games to them, huh?" Jonas asked, losing the mock-gruffness in his voice. "It pretty serious?"

"Dad, I think so," Arville admitted.

""Good, we need some more women around here," Jonas agreed. "God knows your poor mother can use a little help keeping us in line, huh?"

"And Rachael and Ripper's the kind keep a man in line," Arville agreed.

Chapter 8

"Aw, Cher, I'm Milt Duhon and this here's the Cast Iron Stomach," Milt Duhon smiled into the camera.

The Channel 12 crew chuckled; Milt was kneeling behind the countertop. He swiveled his head and craned his neck.

"And this is Arville Brodt; he's the quarterback for that U.L.D. Storm," Milt said.

The cameraman did a wild swivel and tilt to peer up at the smiling Arville.

"And Cher, as you can see, he's a big one yeah," Milt said as he got to his feet. "Cher, thanks for coming on the show."

"Aw, you welcome and thanks for having me yeah," Arville said, slipping into his childhood dialect.

"Man, Cher, you tell them what we fixing make us today, huh?" Milt asked Arville.

"Aw, this one my momma make and it is table pounding good yeah," Arville said. "We fixing us some of that chicken fried steak and them potatoes and we having us little bit of gravy go with it all."

The two men chattered with each other about food, about what they were cooking, and about football and then showed the camera their finished product.

"And that's a wrap," the floor manager called out.

"Man, that was great!" Milt enthused. "You ever want to come back you just say so, hear?"

"Thank you very much, Mr. Duhon," Arville smiled.

"Mister? Cher, we done cooked together! We friends now! That's how it is here!" Milt protested. "You call me Milt, you hear?"

The floor manager told Arville the program would air the following Thursday and Milt again repeated his offer; Arville could come cook any time.

The three female interns flirted with Arville and Vee Aucoin, the Performance 12 News meteorologist flirted with him as well. Arville was polite, but told them quite firmly he had another place he had to be as he dialed Dick Davis' phone number.

At the Davis' house, Rachael put Elaine into her playpen and puzzled over Miss Carmen's cryptic comment of 'don't worry about it' when she asked about getting another bed for Elaine.

Charlie was apologetic when he mentioned that they needed the crib back. It had been his crib when he was an infant; trey, Richard, and Carmy all spent their first six to nine months in that same crib and now Daisy Ann LaPointe would be sleeping in it as well.

"Well, I guess the playpen's fine," Rachael deduced. "There's that padding in there."

"See? Everything's fine," Carmen said.

"Hey Rachel, me and Jennica's going to Clark's for a hot chocolate while Darren and Henry are getting their haircuts; come on," Elise ordered.

"But Elaine's..." Rachael said.

"Go, go, I'll watch her," Carmen said.

A few minutes after Elise drove away, Arville pulled up. He and Dick made very quick work of pulling the new baby bed up the stairs and Carmen watched in amusement as Arville quickly assembled it while Dick tried to make head or tails out of the directions.

"And tighten that bolt and we're done," Dick weakly said as Arville tightened the last nut.

"Wow, Honey, he wouldn't have been able to do it without you," Carmen said.

"Be quiet, woman," Dick laughed.

"And there you go, Sweetheart," Arville said gently as he put the still sleeping infant into her new bed.

Driving back, Elise prayed that enough time had elapsed. She'd tried to eat her corn dog slowly, pretended that the hot chocolate was scalding, but finally had to pull out and drive back to the house.

"Hey, there's Mr. Arville," Jennica said as they saw the pickup truck.

"Sure is; wonder where he's going?" Rachael said, watching the truck turn the corner.

Elise mentally chastised her daughter. Rachael had been looking over at a man jogging with a large black lab and commenting that labs were such beautiful animals. If Jennica hadn't said anything, Rachael would have completely missed seeing Arville's truck.

"You said them labs are beautiful; you ever have one?" Elise asked as she pulled up in her driveway.

"No, would have loved one but my step-father hates dogs," Rachael admitted.

"How can you hate dogs?" Jennica asked, truly baffled. "We got Sam and he's the best dog in the whole world."

"Uh huh, you say that; it's not you cleaning up his poop," Elise said, herding the girl toward their house.

"Uh huh!" Jennica argued. "I picked up all his poop the other day, remember?"

"Bye," Rachael called out and entered her house.

"She's still sleeping; hasn't made a peep," Carmen called out from the kitchen.

"Really? All I heard was 'where's my mommy? I miss my mommy, when's my mommy getting home?' coming out of that room," Dick said, looking up from the sports channel he was watching.

"But you can't hear me calling you ten feet away?" Carmen asked as Rachael went up the stairs.

"Huh? You say something?" Dick asked.

"Ooh," Carmen growled at him but couldn't help but smile when he smiled at her.

"Where'd that bed come from?" Rachael asked, running down the stairs.

"Bed? What bed?" Dick feigned ignorance.

"Miss Carmen?" Rachael asked, knowing she would not get a straight answer from Dick.

Arville was pulling up to the practice field when his cell phone buzzed, alerting him to a text message.

'Love you' and a kissy face and it was signed 'The Ripper.'

"Best hundred and eight bucks I ever spent," Arville smiled.

He quickly changed into scrimmage equipment and ran out onto the field.

"Loco, you get away from e!" Pedro yelled as Arville quickly gave chase to the kicker.

"Ass hole," Pedro yelled when Arville tackled him.

"Whatever," Arville laughed and gave Pedro a hard slap to his buttocks.

"Man, what I ever do to you, huh?" Pedro complained as Coach Schaeffer angrily waved them to the bench.

"Loco, you loco, you know that, Arville, huh?" Pedro yelled at the laughing man.

Arville had to laugh when, in a scrimmage play, the small kicker came up behind him and tackled him.

"Huh? Huh? How you like that?" the Latin man yelled and ran for his life as Arville got to his feet and gave chase.

A hard rain blew in and Coach Schaeffer, just getting over a nasty cold, took pity on the players and sent them off the field.

Arville quickly dressed in his jeans and sweatshirt and ran out to his truck. He drove to the Davis' house.

He and Dick put Elaine's car seat into the front of Arville's truck, all the while cursing the pelting rain. Then the two men raced back into the warm living room.

"And would you look at this shit?" Dick laughed as the rain suddenly let up.

"It knew I'm made of sugar and I'll melt if I get wet," Rachael smugly said.

"Hey, um, I uh, my mom and dad?" Arville said as he helped Rachael into the rear of the truck.

"We uh, we live in a trailer," he mumbled as he buckled Elaine into the car seat and kissed the cooing girl on the tip of her nose.

He smiled at Elaine's toothless grin and closed the door.

"Hey, real quick, take a left up here, huh?" Rachael demanded.

Arville looked in the rear view mirror; Rachael's face had a hard set to it.

He took the left and drove down three blocks.

"Next street, take a right," Rachael said, voice flat.

"Now, all the way to the dead end," she said.

He drove five blocks to where the street came to an end.

"That house on the left?" she pointed.

He looked at the small wooden house. Like its neighbors, the house sat up on cinderblocks, it was painted a drab color, much like its neighbors. There was nothing to set this house apart from any other house.

"Cute, huh?" she snapped.

"I, yeah, it's nice," he said, looking at the older automobile that sat on the clam shell driveway.

"On the outside," she spat. "Inside? Nothing but blaming and hating and you're a sinful slut and you're a stupid whore and you're a disappointment and we're so ashamed of you and God will never forgive you and..."

She put a small hand on his shoulder.

"Arville, them houses look nice on the outside," she said. "You don't know what's going on inside."

She lightly rubbed his face.

"I'd rather live in a cardboard box as long as I know I'm loved than live in some million dollar home, you hear?" she said.

"Well, my trailer's a little bit better than a cardboard box," he said.

"Come on," he said, putting the truck in reverse. "My momma's dying meet Elaine."

He backed up to the next street, then swung right and put the truck in forward.

"Oh, and you too," he said and laughed when Rachael slapped his shoulder.

May Pierce greeted Rachael with a hug, then grabbed Elaine from Arville and did not let go. Jonas glanced once at Rachael's substantial chest, waggled his eyebrows at Arville, then pulled them into the kitchen, following behind May and Elaine.

"Kitchen's the brightest room in our house," he explained to Rachael. "This table's where we do all our talking, our eating, our deciding the important things in life."

"Oh, Arville! We don't have a high chair for Elaine," May cried out.

"Oh, well," she cooed to the infant. "I guess you'll just have to sit in my lap, won't you?"

"Miss Brodt, I help?" Rachael asked.

"It's Mrs. Pierce," May said gently. "But why you don't just call me Miss May, huh?"

"I call you 'Miss May' okay?" Rachael agreed.

"Or you can call her that mean old woman; that's what I call her," Jonas joked.

"He does," May affirmed. "He's so mistreated."

"Uh huh, poor pitiful man," Arville agreed, patting his stepfather on his shoulder.

"Y'all set the table," May ordered

Arville grabbed the blades and pointed to where the flatware was kept.

"You in for a treat yeah, mean as she is? That woman can cook," Jonas affirmed.

"And for calling her 'mean' you don't get you no silverware," Rachael said. "You can eat with your hands yeah."

"My house yeah," Jonas argued.

"Her stove yeah," Rachael responded.

Jonas laughed, got too his feet and grabbed a knife and fork out of the drawer.

Arville did rescue Elaine from his mother's grip while the woman served them the smothered steak over rice and green beans and scalloped potatoes.

"Oops, where's her diapers?" Arville asked. "I think someone's a little wet; probably from my momma squeezing her too much."

"You shut up you; I squeezed her just right," May said.

"No, no, Honey, I'll get it," Rachael said.

"Honey, huh?" Jonas whispered to Arville as Rachael took the wiggling infant into the living room to change her diaper.

"What she should call him? Meatball?" May asked.

After dinner, May fixed them bowls of ice cream and poured them each a small cup of aged coffee. Rachael watched as Arville took a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and dropped it into the scalding hot coffee and did likewise.

"Had me a boss, he come over and we give him a little bitty cup of that coffee and he's all 'what? I don't get a full cup?' so May gives him a full mug; he's our guest," Jonas laughed.

"Man tells him two days later 'I still ain't been able asleep no,'" May smiled.

"Here, look, here's where Arville was a boy," Jonas said, flipping open a photo album.

"Aw!" Rachael sighed, looking at a smiling boy standing next to a floppy eared hound dog. "Who's the puppy?"

"That was Booger," Arville said. "His real name was Hunter, but Momma kept calling him Booger so that was his name."

"Well he was nothing but a big old booger, always into everything yeah," May said.

"Look at you!" Rachael squealed, seeing a picture of a small Arville on the back of a horse. "Aw! My little cowboy!"

"Okay, I think we done seen enough yeah," Arville smiled and softly jiggled Elaine on his leg.

"No, I want to see more," Rachael smiled, clutching on to his arm.

"He wanted be him a cowboy," Jonas said, pointing to a five year old Arville, dressed in cowboy shirt and jeans and boots, lasso in hand.

"Then I get sober," May said, setting her jaw.

Jonas looked at his wife, letting her compose herself.

"And my sponsor gives me a Big Book," May said, swallowing.

"A what?" Rachael asked.

"Big Book; that's what they call their book in Alcoholics Anonymous," Arville said.

"And I look at her and I say 'well this is real nice yeah, but I can't read me nothing," May admitted.

"And Arville takes his momma and sit down with her and they sit right here at this table," Jonas said.

"And my boy he sit right there and he teach me to read," May said.

"And I tell him you need be you a teacher yeah," Jonas said.

"Is that what you going be?" Rachael asked Arville.

"That's what my degree's in," Arville agreed. "But it don't pay nothing."

"Cardboard box," Rachael said and squeezed his arm tightly.

"Cardboard box," Arville agreed.

They finished the coffee and ice cream, then finished looking at the photo album. Then Arville and Jonas cleaned up the kitchen while Rachael and May went into the living room so that Rachael could fee Elaine and change her diaper.

"Bye, you come back and you see me, okay?" May cooed to a sleeping Elaine when Arville and Rachael prepared to leave.

"And you come back and see me," Jonas said to Rachael, smiling widely at Arville's smirk.

Arville made quick work of detaching the car seat and carried the still sleeping Elaine to the door while Rachael held onto his arm.

"Aw, man, as much trouble as that thing is to put in why you didn't just leave it?" Dick asked when Arville set the seat on the chair by the door while Rachael got her daughter out of the bulky contraption.

"Y'all might need it," Arville responded.

"Naw, I don't fit in it no more," Dick smiled, shaking his head.

"Ahem, uh Honey," Carmen cleared her throat.

"Ahem, uh Sweetheart?" Dick said.

"Get upstairs, now," Carmen ordered. "They might want a little privacy."

"They've had plenty of privacy," Dick grumbled as he turned the television off.

"Uh, um, well actually," Arville said. "I've got a bunch of studying; Big World Economics test tomorrow."

He bent and gave Rachael a kiss then left the house.

"Bye, cowboy," Rachael called out and laughed when she heard his good natured groan.

Chapter 9

The Storm dominated the game and Arville was pleased to see the large number of fans that braved the nearly arctic cold to cheer their team on.

Rachael had wanted to come but Arville told her point blank that it'd be better for her to watch the game from the warmth of Elise's house.

"Plus that," he said and kissed her again. "You'd just be a distraction."

So Rachael sat on the couch, cradling her happy, cooing girl on her lap and watched her man fling the ball all over the field.

"And that's one of the scouts for the Jacksonville Jaguars," the announcer said as the camera swiveled to show a grizzled looking man in the stands.