Welcome back for another chapter with the boys of Mayfield. The Chapter 1 disclaimers apply. Be safe. Please, donate to Nifty.
This chapter is very short. This is where the two story lines in "The Big Time" merge. In the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven referred to themes from the first three movements to connect the bulk of the symphony to the choral movement. While this is by no means that kind of a masterpiece, the same idea is at work here. What I have done is kick in the major ideas from the high school story line of "The Big Time". If you want more detail I listed the chapters the themes could be found. Chapter 49 will start with a final theme of "The Big Time", namely Noah finally confronting his demon. From that chapter to the end everything will be fresh and new.
Douglas. thehakaanen@hotmail.com
CHAPTER 48 THE BIG TIME
Coach Sanders, Coach Hardy, and Coach Ecklund had worked hard to get the Mustangs in the right frame of mind for the State Tournament. They wanted the team to be mentally and physically sharp and to not be overly psyched. Baseball, more than any other sport, required a team to play on an even keel. A team that was too worked up would swing their bats too hard, throw the ball too hard, and just plain try too hard to make things happen. In baseball it was important for a player to stay within himself.
Overall the coaches had succeeded, with the help of their players, to put the Mustangs in a positive frame of mind. The team was loose, ready to kid each other, and realized they should not take themselves too seriously.
The exception to that was Eric, who felt fear. It was the fear that the entire season, the entire dream of winning State Championships, had fallen squarely on his shoulders. As a result he was uptight and nervous as he walked around with a perpetual frown on his face, grousing at his teammates. His boyfriend, Noah, couldn't reach him. His best friends, Scott and Marty, couldn't reach him. His best friend and catcher, Kevin, couldn't reach him. The more they tried to reach Eric, the more uptight he became.
[For details about Eric's state of mind, see the high school story line in Chapters 2-4 of "The Big Time".]
Eric's state of mind had him trying too hard, which had him throwing too hard, which put him totally out of synch. The Mustangs were down 4-0 to the Grant Valley Jackrabbits in the opening game of State before anybody even worked up a sweat.
But the Mustangs battled back to make the score 5-3 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. A three run inning gave them a 6-5 lead. A 1-2-3 seventh by Rich gave the Mustangs a come from behind win in the semi-finals. They would be playing for the State Championship the next day.
[For details about the semi-final game, see the high school story line in Chapters 5-10]
On the night between the two State Tournament games, most of the team relaxed with a circle jerk. It was not one big circle jerk, however. Instead, there were three circle jerks. The gay boys had one, three mostly straight boys plus Justin had one, and the seniors had one of their own.
[For details about the circle jerks, see the high school story line in Chapters 11-13]
The championship game was everything that one could want in a State Tournament title game. Their opponent was the St. Michael's Loggers, the defending State A champions. Rodney, the Mustangs' senior ace, started the game. Going into the seventh inning, the score was tied at 2-2.
The Mustangs rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh and took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the inning. With Rich, their closer, coming in to shut the door, the Mustangs were feeling very confident. But the Loggers had other ideas in the bottom of the inning and quickly cut the lead to 5-4. With two outs and a runner on second, the Loggers had their best hitter at the plate.
He laced a line drive to right, where Lars had just entered the game as a substitute. When Lars had had his game winning fantasy, it was all about his getting the game winning hit. While he did end up having the game winning play, it turned out to be a defensive play instead of an offensive play. The tall, slender blond made the catch of his life to give the Mustangs a 5-4 win and the State Class A Championship.
[For details about the championship game, see the high school story line in Chapters 16-19]
Not long ago the juniors and seniors had proclaimed themselves grown up. When Chandler had talked about having sex on the school bus coming back from a Mustang JV game, the upperclassmen were turned on by Chandler's tale, but they let everybody know they had outgrown those kinds of sexual hijinks. They truly might have thought they had matured since their early teen years, but, on the celebratory bus ride back to Mayfield, it was like old times as the cum was flying everywhere.
[For details about the sex on the bus, see the high school story line in Chapter 21]
The seniors graduated soon after the tournament and Eric's class was now the senior class. The summer had a few issues that needed to be dealt with, the biggest being that the entire weight of winning two straight State Championships now rested on the shoulders of the class that had come up with the idea back when they were in the sixth grade. However, except for their eighth grade school season, they had always had the seniors of Marty's class providing a big chunk of the talent and leadership.
During summer ball, they found themselves missing both that talent and the leadership, especially of Marty, their team captain and All- State third basemen. They missed Jerome in center, the solid starting pitching of Rodney, and the calmness of Rich as their closer. The players spent the summer learning new roles and creating new relationships. And they even missed the over-the-top jabs of Connor.
The idea of creating pairs to allow the players to get to know each other better though sexual contact was tried. The pairings happened in spite of themselves and ended up being a success. Even such negative naysayers as Gavin and Blaine found themselves getting into the affair.
The Falcons summer team showed improvement, both on and off the field. When the season ended at the end of July, they felt a sense of confidence that had been missing since the seniors graduated. They knew they weren't going to be the powerfully talented team that had won the Class A State Championship, but they also knew that they had their own talents and strengths. They had created the dream of the Go to State Team, the dream of their being the first Mayfield players to win back-to-back state titles. By the end of the season, they realized that it was time for them to stop whining and living in the problems and to start relishing their strengths and living in the solution.
Another of the problems that summer was the increasing depression of Noah. He started feeling that he didn't deserve being a State Champion because his negligence had led to Bobby's death. His demon, after keeping reasonably quiet for awhile, struck with a vengeance. Noah became more and more difficult for Eric to communicate with, a factor that had him feeling depressed as well.
It was during one of Noah's calmer moments that he realized the whole business with his demon had gone on long enough. He decided it was time to take care of matters. He needed to find the courage to tell somebody why he was responsible for Bobby's accident and for his resulting death. Part of him even said that he really wasn't responsible at all, but the demon seemed to kick that idea away as soon as it popped into his head.
Finally, Noah started trading emails with an old friend in an attempt to bring balance back into his life. He didn't like his dark moments any better than his friends and family did. He knew his behavior was hurting Eric, the person he loved the most in the world. His psychologist, Dr. Sabine, who was an old friend of his mother's, did not have his respect and was doing him little good as far as he could tell. He called her Dr. No-Spine to Eric.
The old friend Noah emailed was a person he felt could help lead him back on the right path. Those communications were with a distinguished Native American, who lived near Whitefish, Montana. His name was Robert, but he also went by the name Espowyes, which was Nez Perce for "Light on the Mountain". Espowyes had met Bobby when he and Noah visited with Noah's family the August before they entered seventh grade.
Noah told Espowyes of his problem, but did not give him the details, saying only that he'd been haunted by demonic thoughts in the years following Bobby's death. Espowyes told Noah it was time for him to come to Montana to cleanse his mind and his soul. He said Noah should bring his lover with him, for that love would be an important part of the process.
The result was Noah convincing Eric to ride the train to Whitefish with him to spend a few days with Espowyes. Eric was willing to do anything to eliminate the demon that created Noah's dark days. And so it was that on Monday, August 6, Marty gave Noah and Eric a ride to Centralia to catch the Amtrak Cascades #506 for Seattle. In Seattle they would catch the "Empire Builder" for Whitefish, carrying with them the hope that Noah would be able to do what was needed to discover the truth within him.
Next: Big Sky Country
[The last half of "The Big Time" deals with the Falcons summer team as well as the sexual pairings of the players. Noah's issues with his demon are scattered throughout the story.]