March Madness

I remember something buzzing off and on during the night. But when I woke up the next morning my head hurt like I couldn't remember. It felt like someone had taken an axe and just split my skull open and all of my thoughts were leaking out.

I was on a bed and the comforter on it was pink. My shoes were on the floor next to it but I was still fully dressed. As I tried to sit up I groaned. The room was spinning and my head hurt even worse.

The sound of my groans must have alerted someone because the door opened. A young woman who must've been very close to six feet tall herself came into the room. A shock of inky black hair was caught up in a pony tail that hung to one side. Long thins arms and very sexy though thin legs peeked from openings in her shirt and shorts respectively.

I looked around the room wondering what the hell I'd done and why. My phone rang again. That was the buzzing I'd been hearing all night.

"It's probably GLO, whoever that is," she offered. "You got calls from them all night. They must've called you a hundred times."

"What happened?" I asked. "How'd I get here?"

"Oh, that's easy," she said. "Last night after you tried to drain the bar I work at, you passed out. I brought you home with me."

"Why?" I asked.

"It's not what you're thinking," she said quickly.

"What am I thinking?" I asked. "I don't think that I am thinking. I don't think my brain still works."

"Well you made some pretty big claims last night," she smirked.

"Oh lord," I said.

"So you do remember some of it," she said.

"No, that's an expression," I said.

"You told me that you were going to lick my pussy until I thought I was in heaven," she said.

"I was drunk," I told her.

"I don't know coach," she said. "You seemed pretty lucid. You told me it was a promise and you wanted me to remind you."

I looked at my feet. "I'm married," I said. "Or at least I was until last night." Maybe it was the despair in my voice or the expression on my face but all of the sass and sarcasm melted from her voice. She went back out to her kitchen and came back with a banana, a jug of Gatorade and a cup of coffee.

"Your toast will be ready in a few. I made you some fake bacon too," she said. "I'm a pretty good listener if you want to tell someone about it."

I looked at her. "They always say it really helps to unburden your-self to a stranger," I said. "That way you get it off of your chest and the other person doesn't care at all since your problems are no skin off their ass."

"Then you probably shouldn't tell me anything..." she said. "...Because I'm not a stranger. My name is Molly Anderson. I'm a psychology major. I'm majoring in sports psychology. You let me interview several of your players before and after your games here. Remember you made them treat me nicer. They kept calling me that tall skinny girl with no boobs."

"I think if they saw you now, you wouldn't have a problem with that," I said. My phone rang again. This time I picked it up and looked at the screen. It wasn't Gloria, it was Jamal. I didn't answer the phone for him either.

"Thanks Molly," I said, as I tried to stand up. "I won't forget your kindness. Who knows what could have happened to me."

"No problem," she said. "I needed a ride home anyway. That car of yours is a beast. When I launch my practice I'm getting one."

I started putting on my shoes. As I bent over to tie them I was sure my head was going to fall off.

"Coach, maybe you should see someone about the drinking," she said.

"Molly, last night I caught my wife cheating on me. Before that I hadn't had a drink in ten years," I told her.

"Coach, I'm so sorry," she said. I told her my sad story then and she really was a good listener, but I knew I had to get out of there. I'd intruded on her hospitality long enough. I also had things to do and decisions to make.

I tried again to tie the shoes and finally just said forget it and tucked the laces inside.

I walked outside of Molly's apartment and looked around for my car. I pressed the button on my key fob and heard my alarm. The car was parked in the lot behind the building. I walked around the building and found it.

I thought about going back to the hotel and confronting Gloria but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I went to the arena and the office they had assigned me and my staff. As I walked in, it was earlier than I'd normally show up, especially on a day that we weren't playing.

Jin Shu looked at me as I sat down. "Hey Jim, your wife wants you to call her," he said. "She told me to call her as soon as I gave you the message. I'm going to call her now to let her know that I called you and that she can expect for you to call her."

"Don't," I said. He looked at me strangely. "Jin, can you check around town and try to get me a room somewhere?"

"But you've already got a beautiful suite in the same hotel as the rest of us," he said. "Shit your room is way better than the one I'm sharing with my wife and daughter. It's bigger too."

"Al," I said, moving on to the next guy. "Find me a room. I don't care what kind of room or where it is. Just get me another room."

"Okay boss," he said.

"Jim, I would have gotten you the room. What the hell is going on?" asked Jin.

"Nothing," I said. "Call Gloria and tell her you gave me her message."

"But..." he started.

"Look, I know it will bother you to break your promise to her. So do it. But maybe after that you should start trying to figure out who you work for." His face got paler as he realized that something was going on between Gloria and I and he had landed right in the middle of it. He'd actually landed closer to her side than he was to mine.

Before he could answer, Jamal walked into the office. Several of the coaches started trying to talk to him and cheer him on. He made a beeline straight for me.

"Reggie," I called. He looked over at me. He had the job I had when I first started and he reminded me a lot of myself. With the exception that he'd never actually played ball.

"I need you to call and track down all of our players except for the starting five. I want them all at the practice gym at two p.m. for practice. Tell them to be ready to be there for most of the afternoon and early evening."

"For those of you who don't know it," I said loudly. "Jerry Atrick passed away last night. I'd like someone to arrange some kind of tribute or something for him. Email me or call me with details when you get it sorted out. The funeral arrangements are still being made. I'm planning on attending the funeral."

As I turned to leave, Jamal caught up to me. "Coach, I called you about a hundred times last night," he said.

"You were only one of two people who did," I said sharply.

"You didn't tell Coach Shu," he said.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Only the fact that he didn't strangle me when I walked by him," he said. "He gave me the same nod he always does. So he can't know anything about what you saw."

"Can you slow down?" he asked. "I really need to talk to you. I'm here as a representative of the team. Coach, you can't believe how sorry they all are."

I stopped and turned towards him. I looked at him and he looked me straight in the eye. "Why the fuck aren't YOU sorry?" I yelled at him.

"Look Coach, can we go somewhere that we won't be overheard," he asked quietly. "They asked me to come and talk to you for a number of reasons. One of which was because though we're all ashamed of what we did, I'm different from them."

"Why are you different?" I asked. "Is it because you're black Jamal? Or is it because you're from the inner city or any of those other clichés?"

"No Coach," he said. "You never treated me any different than you treated the other guys. The difference is because I never had sex with your wife. I'm sorry too though. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you when all of this shit started but you have to understand, they all blackmailed me. When it started, I remember asking them how they could even look you in the face after the way that they had betrayed you. I was already in love with Jennifer Shu by then. There's no way I'd ever cheat on her. None of the other guys have steady girlfriends so pussy is pussy to them. They very quickly let me know that if I opened up my mouth, her father would know it within minutes and I'd probably never ever see her again."

"Besides the way your wife explained it all of this was for the both of you anyway."

"What?" I asked. I didn't even want to talk to him anymore because my head hurt.

"Coach, you need to talk to her," he said. "If we keep winning she'll have all the money she needs and this whole thing can be over."

"Look Jamal," I said. "Just get away from me. None of this makes any sense."

"Coach, you have to talk to the guys and straighten this out before the game," he said.

"No," I said. "I don't."

"Well, at least talk to your wife," he said.

"No, Jamal, I don't have to do that either," I said and I walked away from him. As I stepped out the door, there was a throng of reporters waiting for me.

"Coach, you're one win away from your school's first ever trip to the final four. Can you give us...?"

"No comment," I said.

"Do you think that Billy Bathgate is on steroids?"

"No Comment," I said, walking briskly through them with my head down. It seemed that if I didn't make eye contact they didn't ask me any questions. For some reason basketball just seemed really unimportant since my entire life and marriage was falling apart. I made it to my car and got in. I started the motor.

The sound of the big V8 caused most of them to scatter and the rest moved out of the way as I slowly moved forward. When they were clear, I rocketed away from there, hoping the rocks kicked up in my wake didn't injure anyone. I just needed to get away to think.

I drove away from the downtown area and through the city's streets. Every playground I passed had small or large groups of kids playing basketball. Watching some of them made me smile. That was the game at its purest form. No boosters or alumni to please. No NCAA committees or coaches. No university commitments or program expectations; just put the ball in the hoop and get points.

I drove even further away and came to a large park. I got out of my car and looked for a place to just relax and think. It was deserted and there was a chill in the air. We were still too far away from spring for the weather to be this warm but I guess I was thinking in Michigan terms. Here the weather was a chilly fifty degrees, but back home I was sure we'd be in the single digits. I sat down near where a group of older men were playing chess.

Chess is a fascinating game. It teaches strategy and helps a person learn to focus their thoughts and solve problems. My job taught me the same set of skills. I had to develop strategies for my team to help them win over teams who were stronger on paper. I had to learn how to maximize our strengths and downplay our weaknesses, while capitalizing on every weakness the opposition had.

I needed to do the same type of thing here. The first thing I needed to do was to break the problem down into its component parts and decide how I felt about them and what to do. There were so many things to consider that I wished that I had my note pad to take notes.

First and foremost, were the pain and the emptiness that I felt at that moment. The pain I understood came from the betrayal. I'd been betrayed by the people who were closest to me, all at the same time. If Gloria had just had an affair, it would have been devastating but not this bad. I could have thrown myself into my work and concentrated on my team while we worked out the details and figured out what to do.

Or if it were a case where the guys on the team had done something like gotten involved with gambling or point shaving, again I'd have felt betrayed but I could have concentrated on my life outside of basketball. Maybe Gloria and I could have gone away somewhere to just be us while I figured out what to do about the situation with the team.

In this case, I lost both of the two most important things in my life at the same time. Losing both at the same time was nearly more than I could stand. Last night I'd done something that was just crazy, I'd just gone into a bar that I didn't know and tried to drink myself to death. I got really lucky that I didn't get robbed or killed. Having that girl who I'd let interview the team working there had been a stroke of luck. I'd probably never get that lucky again in life.

Just as I was contemplating my situation the phone rang. It was Al.

"Boss, we have a problem," he said. "There are no empty hotel rooms in town. I even tried some of the seedy motels on the outskirts of the city. They're all booked up for the remainder of the tournament. Several of the hotels did tell me that they'd have POSSIBLE openings as teams were eliminated. But most of them have waiting lists because the closer we get to the championship game the more the demand increases."

"Thanks Al," I said. "I'll work something out. I'll probably just sleep in the office for two nights."

"Uhm Boss," he said. "Are they finding you another room after the game? There's no way we're going to lose this game. We've already beaten them both at home and on the road. And we're better now than we were when we played them last. They also have a couple of injuries so they're just not going to be able to put their best foot forward."

"I'll talk to you later Al," I said.

"It's been an incredible year hasn't it?" he asked. "Jerry would have loved to have a year like this just once."

"I only wish he'd been here with us to see it," I said. As I hung up the phone, I was sadder than I'd been when I picked it up.

My phone rang immediately and thinking it was Al again I answered it.

"Jim, Honey, it's not what you think. You've got to let..." I immediately pressed the end button and quit the call. That would teach me how not to look at the screen before answering. My phone was barely back in my pocket when it rang again.

It was a cell phone number and one from my home area code. I recognized Fred's number and answered the phone.

"Yeah Fred," I said.

"Jim, it's not Fred. It's Millicent, I'm using Fred's phone hoping that you'd pick up. I figure it would be a safe bet since technically he's your boss," she said.

"What do you mean technically?" I asked.

"Well, you know how things work on the university level," she said. "It's all about dollars and students and keeping the boosters and alumni happy. Fred is in charge of our losing football team. They played ten games this year and lost eight of them. They're taking walk-ons now who end up starting. Our women's gymnastics team has barely enough members to field a squad and even at our home meets the stands are usually dominated so much by the visiting teams fans that we have to give them space to sit on our side of the floor as well as their own." She sighed.

"In terms of sports at our school, you're the big gun and we all know it. You can pretty much write your own ticket. You could probably have Fred's job if you wanted it. Anyway, that isn't what I called you about."

"I know what you called me about," I said coldly. "And I don't want to talk to you about it."

"Look Jim," she said. "You've always been a reasonable guy. Gloria has been crying her eyes out all night. She's going crazy and none of this was her fault. It was my fault."

"Bullshit," I said. "Gloria is thirty three years old. She's a grown woman and I didn't see anyone holding a gun to her head. Actually the only thing I saw near her head was dicks and she was just too eager to stick them into her mouth and suck them. You, on the other hand, were far too busy with your own activities to pay any attention to what Gloria was doing so I don't think this was your fault. Don't worry, I intend to keep this whole thing quiet until after the tournament. Tell Gloria that she can just keep doing what she wants to, I'll just file for a divorce and we can handle the whole thing over the summer."

"But..." she began before I hung up the phone.

My phone rang again. I was getting angrier by the second. I always thought that the main purpose for having a cell phone was the convenience. It was also great in an emergency, but this was ridiculous.

"What?" I said when I took the call.

"Sorry, I was just calling to check on you," she said. "You know...see how you're handling the hangover?"

"No, I'm sorry Molly," I said. "You wouldn't believe the day I'm having. Between what happened to me last night, both before I got drunk and me getting drunk; yesterday was a nightmare. Today I'm trying to just keep moving to get free. But no matter where I turn there are people looking for a story or people who want to talk to me to explain why sticking a knife in my back or my heart wasn't really as bad as it seems. You know...Well gee, Jim we fucked you over but it's really not that bad."

She laughed and her laugh was musical. "It sounds like you're dealing with a bunch of diplomats," she said.

"Huh?" I asked. I thought I'd missed something.

"My daddy always told me that a diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell and have you actually look forward to the trip," she laughed. As I thought about it, I had to stifle a laugh as well.

"Molly, you're the only pleasant thing that's happened to me since the game ended," I said.

"Aren't you nice," she said. "That makes me feel even worse."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, I was calling to ask you for a favor," she said.

"Shoot," I said.

"I can't," she said right back.

"Huh?" I replied.

"I'm terrible at basketball. I can't shoot to save my ass," she laughed. "Since I'm kind of tall every school I went to tried to get me to play basketball. I'm far better at volleyball." We both laughed.

"Okay Molly, now I owe you two favors," I said. "I owe you one favor for putting me up last night and one for cheering me up now."

"Uhm don't forget the other part," she smirked. "You know, that promise you made to me while you were drunk."

"I thought that I explained to you that I'm married," I said.

"I was perfectly willing to let you off, once you said that," she said. "Then you told me that...well you know what happened to you yesterday to cause you to fall off of the wagon. So, in my book, that means that you may be available soon. So if you get divorced, you owe me. If you patch things up you're off the hook."

"So since I owe you so much, what's the favor?" I asked. "Maybe I can work some of my debt down."

"Well, my Dad really wants to take my nephew to the game tomorrow night," she said. "But getting tickets is kind of impossible."

"Okay," I said. "I have some tickets left in the front row for family members of the players that weren't used. "I'll bring you three of them today. If you're not home I'll just slip them under your door."

"You're probably going to be busy today aren't you?" she asked. "I could pick them up at your office or somewhere and save you the trouble."

"Molly, I have no idea where I'm going to be most of the day," I said. "I don't even know where I'm going to sleep tonight."

"Don't you have a swanky hotel room, like the other bigwigs?" she laughed.

"I have a deluxe luxury suite," I said.

"Ooh, I love chocolate," she said. "What kind of chocolate goes in a luxury sweet?"

"Molly, you know what I mean," I said.

"Yeah I do," she said back. "You do know that if you need to, you could always stay in that same place you stayed last night. I'm working from six til two so you can stop by and get the keys either from the apartment or from the bar."

"Molly, that's way too much to ask," I said. "But thanks anyway. I promise I'll drop the tickets off though, so tell your Dad he's going."