Me and Dale

When she finished with the tape she stood up and grinning while biting her lower lip, gave me a wink and said "you'd better go warm up and loosen up all those tight muscles before practice." And turned away quickly to fill the water bottles and let me retreat without too much more embarrassment. I was able to regain my composure before I saw or was seen by anyone else "Thank God!" I thought.

Although I didn't have to shave my leg every day, Dale did apply the talc along with the tape, and I did give her my full attention when she did. She never mentioned my situation again, even teasingly, but I know she noticed and she did blush and blubber sillily as did I.

During the Homecoming game that year, it happened again. I nearly broke my ankle turning on it at a dead run trying to make a tackle. Cursing and hopping off the field on one foot, Dale met me half way across the field to help me the rest of the way. God but it hurt! Our team ended up losing by 3 points, not that it mattered much to me at the time. I was very depressed, I sat in the trainers' room after the game and more or less just sulked while I was soaking the ankle in the whirlpool. I was really pissed. I had even planned to go to the dance after the game. Fortunately, my date understood, and ended up going with someone else. Dale was pretty subdued about it, I think she blamed herself maybe, like it was her fault that the tape didn't help.

"I'm sorry Tim... I knew you wanted to go to the dance and all..." She said a little more quietly than usual for her. "Does it hurt much now?"

"No... It does feel better... still throbbing a little though." I replied vacantly, staring into the swirling water.

"You need a ride home?" she asked hesitantly. My mom and dad hadn't come to the game tonight, I had planned on getting a ride home with one of the guys after the dance and all, but now I didn't have a ride. So I said. "Yeah..." Then I realized that if Dale took me home she'd miss the dance herself and added "But aren't you going to the dance?" She turned her head away from me and said.

"No... I didn't want to go to the stupid dance anyway!" That's when it dawned on me! How could I have been so dense? And, being the unlearned youth that I was, I said.

"What'sa matter... nobody ask you or something?" Then I nearly tried to bite my tongue off! "You idiot!" I thought to myself.

She turned to me with a cold baleful look and said again. "Well? Do you need a ride home or not?"

"Dale... I'm sorry... I... I didn't know... I..."

"Just drop it! Okay?" She said venomously, and then pitched me a towel. Well actually she nearly threw it at me. Then she turned and started out the door. "I'll be in the car. If you want a ride home you'd better move it! I aint waitin all night!" She said before she disappeared around the doorway. I really felt like a heel! And then my mind flashed back to the game when one of the guys told me that she liked me. Could it? Did she? "Girls!" I thought to myself as I got my ankle out of the whirlpool and hobbled to the dressing room to dress.

On the drive home I tried to smooth things over as best I could. I talked about the game and how badly it had gone. I thanked her for helping me off the field and for helping me to the training room and all. She stayed pretty quiet all the way to my house though, I was running out of things to say when she turned into my driveway. We just sat there in the car for a minute. I really didn't know what to say... then it hit me!

"Dale?" I said hesitantly. "I know I'm only a junior, and you probably aren't even interested in me or anything..." I stumbled on nervously. It felt as though my stomach was trying to tie itself in knots! "I... er... I mean... Dale... would you go to the Prom with me?" I was so nervous, I wasn't even sure that she'd heard me.

She turned to me, and I could see that she had tears in her eyes I thought that, well, I didn't know what to think. So I just swallowed and started to say something else, but she raised her right hand and touched my face then trailed her fingers down to my lips. Then she took my left hand in both of hers and brought it to her face. I could feel her tears on the back of my hand then she kissed my hand and said in a choked voice.

"Of course I will!" she half laughed and half sobbed. Then she smiled the most wonderful smile that I think I will ever see on any face again. I didn't know what else to say but, "You will? I mean... Great! Uh... but I have to warn you... I don't dance too well." I added grinning sheepishly. I'm glad that it was pretty dark, she didn't see me blushing like crazy! At that she giggled and squeezed my hand in delight. Then she added.

"Well if you keep on the way you're going, you probably won't even be able to walk!" She said teasingly, and letting go of my hand. I could see my mom looking out the window of the kitchen so I decided that it was time to go.

"Uh... Dale?" I started awkwardly.

"Yeah... I know." She said with a mock grimace, "You need a ride to school Monday right?"

Again grinning sheepishly I said. "Yeah... It's kinda hard riding the bus with a busted ankle... If it's not any problem that is?" I added hoping that she would say otherwise, and, she did. As I started to open the door to get out, she grabbed my hand again, and as I started to turn back to see what she wanted, She kissed me! Not a peck on the cheek like most girls do. A real kiss! On the lips! I was too surprised to do anything. I just sat there stupidly, suspended in time.

Then the door swung open, and the interior light came on and I could see that Dale's eyes were closed. Then she opened them and smiled at me as she pushed my shoulder out the door. I just stood there in the driveway for what seemed like hours as she drove off. I was shocked, stunned, I don't know what I was, but I liked it. Then the porch light came on and I snapped back to reality... reluctantly.

The next few weeks seemed to fly by. What with school and the weight training and the soaks in the whirlpool trying to get the ankle back in shape to play. "And to dance." I thought to myself. Dale was different somehow now, I really couldn't put my finger on it. She still teased me in the training room, and we had the usual water fights, but there was something else there too. I think the rest of the guys on the team sensed it too, they didn't talk down about "that girl trainer" any more, at least not around me. The Coach too seemed to treat her a little different. Or maybe it was all in my head? I don't know even now. We never kissed or anything in front of anyone, though there were several times that we pulled over coming home from practice or going to school. I did learn how to kiss pretty quickly, I guess some things just come naturally, at least with Dale they did. Dale and I became closer in those few weeks than the entire time that I had known her. We were both still pretty much innocent in so far as our "playing around" went. We petted a little, and kissed a lot. But we never went past the touchy feely stuff. Mostly because I was afraid to, though I wonder about Dale sometimes. She never said anything about it but sometimes when we had been "playing" and stopped for a breather, she'd have this little gleam in her eyes. Ah...If only I knew then what I know now. But that's life I guess?

In three weeks, I was ready once again to take to the field in uniform. It was the last home game of the season that year, which is usually when "Homecoming" takes place, but not this year for some reason that I can't remember. It was early in the third quarter, and things were going fantastic for our team. I was feeling great too, I had made several really good tackles and the fact that the whole family, the whole school, the coaches, and Dale had witnessed them made me feel like I was going to burst! I was having a ball and the other guys on the team were feeling the same way. It was all in all the best game we had had all year. Not that it was my doing or anything, but I had helped. Then it happened.

My team was on defense, and the other team ran an end around play. I was playing the linebacker position on the side that they swept to. I never knew what hit me. I remember seeing the ball moving in my direction. I remember the color of the other teams' jerseys. I even remember the numbers on the sides of their helmets. Then.

Whiteness.

I came to with a black and white blur hovering over me. As my vision cleared, I could see that it was a referee. He was saying something that didn't make any sense. Then Dale's face was in front of mine. I could see that she was very worried about something, but I had no idea what then her face vanished and the coach's and the team doctor's appeared in her place. My hearing was coming back now, they were asking me if I thought I could walk off the field. "That's silly!" I thought. "Of course I can." Someone helped me up onto my feet, and my world started to spin for a second then settled down. "That's strange" I remember thinking. I took a step with my left foot and then I moved my right one.

Whiteness!

I came to again as they were closing the doors to the ambulance. I saw Dale trying to get to me, her eyes were streaming with tears. The ambulance attendant asked me if I wanted anything for the pain. "What pain?" I thought. "What happened? What's going on here? What am I doing in an ambulance?" My mind was coming back on line now and I was wondering what the hell was going on. My mind didn't have any clues. As the ambulance started to move to pull off the field, my body began to report in to my still foggy brain. That's when I consciously felt the pain for the first time.

Whiteness!

I woke up yet again as they were wheeling me into the emergency room at the local hospital. I remember it being so damned cold! I was still dressed in my wet uniform, shoulder pads and all. Apparently someone had removed my helmet though, I could feel the cold air on my wet head. The doctor in the Emergency room looked me over and told a nurse to get a blanket, and then he looked at my right leg. I couldn't hear what he said, I was still swimming in molasses it seemed. I later found out that they had injected me with a mild anesthetic. I lay there in the emergency room trying to replay what had happened for what seemed like hours. I was still too numb to feel much, and I sure wasn't thinking too clearly.

Somehow Dale managed to sneak past the attendants in the room, or they let her in. I don't really know which, even now. But she was there. I could feel her holding my hand. I saw the tears in her eyes, and the worry on her face. She looked at my right knee and made a hurt face that hurt me more to look at than any I was feeling at the moment. She turned back to me and asked if the doctors had told me anything yet.

"No." I replied in a haze. "Dale? What happened? I don't remember. I mean I must have gotten hurt... is it bad?" I was not so much in pain as confused, and maybe in shock. The cold air didn't help either. I had the chills by then, and I was shivering. Dale stopped trying to hold back the tears then. She gasped and said.

"Oh Tim! They ganged up on you! I heard you leg snap all the way across the field! And then you screamed! I tried to help, but they wouldn't let me! They pushed me away! Then they put you in the ambulance and took you away... I..." It all came out in a rush, tears streaming down her face. She covered her mouth with one hand and still held mine in her other hand. That's when the nurse came in and took her out of the room. "Leg snapped?" I thought in horror. "Is my leg broken?" I wondered I tried to sit up, and that's when I noticed that they had me strapped to the gurney. I couldn't move! I was starting to panic when two more nurses came in and started to roll me down the hall. They took me to the x-ray room to get "pictures" of my leg. I was unstrapped and they moved me onto the x-ray table. I felt my knee when they did this! It did hurt! It felt like they were trying to pull my leg off at the knee! I looked at it while they were positioning the machine. It looked awful! It didn't even look like a knee. I didn't see any bones sticking out or anything and was kind of in a daze sitting there looking at the mess that used to be my right knee, it was so swollen that it looked like someone had moved my thigh down to just above my calf. And it was turning colors... blue and purple, and black. One of the nurses grabbed my leg to turn it just a little for the X-ray!!!!! If she had been within arm's reach I would have strangled her with my bare hands... then I passed out again.

Whiteness!

When I woke up again I was warm. I didn't feel any pain. I was just beginning to think it might have been a bad dream when I opened my eyes and saw the white ceiling. Looking down, I saw that I was in a hospital bed and there was a huge ugly lump under the blanket where my right knee would have been. I pulled back the covers and saw a mound of ace bandages and pillows. My leg was still there, but it didn't look like a leg. I touched it gingerly at first then prodded some more when I didn't feel any pain.

"They doped you up silly... of course it doesn't hurt!" Dale said from the left side of the bed, startling me. I didn't know she was there. She had stopped crying but her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were stained. She filled me in on what I had missed while I was out. She told me that the X-rays had shown that nothing was broken, but that I had separated almost every tendon and ligament in my knee joint. The doctors were still puzzled as to why my leg hadn't just broken. I would be on crutches probably for the rest of the school year just the same though. And that I would have to go through some pretty intensive physical therapy, but I should be ok in the end. I just sat there trying to absorb it all for a while.

"Well... so much for the rest of the season." I mumbled. Then I had a sudden painful thought. Turning to Dale I said. "Dale... About the dance... I..." Her hand flew to my mouth to stop my words as her eyes brimmed over with tears again she smiled weakly and shook her head. Then she leaned over me and kissed me. I could taste the salt of her tears on her lips, and I reached out and held her as tight as I could in the position I was in. If she found it uncomfortable, she didn't say anything. Dale just stood there trembling. I don't know how long we sat there like that, but I must have drifted off to sleep again.

I woke up the next morning, well actually the next afternoon. My mom and dad were there, and the Coach, and of course Dale. I could feel my knee throbbing now but it didn't hurt too bad as long as I didn't move very fast. It did send me a jolt when they put me in the wheel chair to take me out of the hospital though. They had me a pair of crutches waiting when I got to the door. I would later learn to hate those damned things with a passion unequaled to this day. Who'd ever have thought that your underarms could hurt so much?

After two weeks of sitting at home in front of the TV and being bored out of my head, except when Dale came by to drop off my school work, and to cheer me up, I was ready to try to limp to school on my crutches. I also started on the physical therapy regime they had planned for me. I had to do movement exercises, and had to be hooked up to a pulse generator. That was the weirdest feeling I'd ever had! It had two electrical lines with pads on the ends. The nurse would put them on either end of a particular muscle and hit a button. When the current ran through the pads, it made the muscle contract. It was a very weird feeling to feel my muscle move when I wasn't doing it! I also had to sit in the whirlpool for an hour or two at a time. But I could use the one at the school when I wanted too, and I did, often.

Dale would stay with me on the days that I stayed after school to use the pool. She would always help me getting in and out and of course she gave me rides everywhere! It got to the point that we were doing our homework while I soaked in the whirlpool. The football season came to a depressing end for me that year, and basket ball season soon was under way. The school was using the local college gym that year because they were replacing all the flooring in our gym, and doing work on the bleachers. So Dale and I were left pretty much to our own in the training room on the days that we stayed over. Mr. Reynolds even eventually stopped waiting for us to leave. As a matter of fact, he gave Dale and me a key to the back door so we could lock up after I got done with the whirlpool.

One evening, as we were sitting there doing our homework, and I was turning into a raisin, Dale kept looking at me and grinning whenever I looked up at her. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

"What?" I said a little irritated and a lot curious. She closed her book and grinned the most mischievous grin I'd yet seen her wear.

"I'll be right back" she said looking at her watch, and getting up to leave the room. Still puzzled I shrugged and went back to my books.

A few minutes later Dale came back. Dale was wearing a little, very little, one piece bathing suit, and that grin again. She blushed a little self consciously as she saw my uncomprehending and probably silly expression on my face. She did a little pirouette, and held her hands and arms up as if to say "well?" Then she turned and closed the door and locked it. I dropped my book into the water I was so surprised, but the splash brought me back long enough to scrabble for the book and save it. Well it was a little wet. Dale came over to me and took the book out of my hands and tossed it onto the table, and then she hopped up on the edge of the tub, and swung those long slender legs over the edge and into the water.

"Mmmm... Feels good." She said in a dreamy voice... or was it me dreaming? She looked at me and raised one of those big dark eyebrows and purred, "Well? Are you going to scoot over so I can sit down too? "

I don't think I said anything, I did move over though. I don't remember doing it, but the next thing I knew Dale was sliding into the water beside me. Then her arms were around my neck, and we were kissing. I wrapped my arms around her nearly naked back and held her like she was breakable. Before long we were panting and laughing and kissing again. It was wonderful! My hands started exploring more than I had ever done before then. I traced the line of her neck down her back to the little dimples on her back just above her backside, then around the curve of her narrow hips and up her sides to her underarms. I traced the curve of her arms up to her elbow and then back up her arms to her shoulders. When my hands found themselves back at her hips again they took a different route. I followed the contours of her legs to her knees, and then I started back up to her hips. I was very aware of myself becoming excited, but was afraid to mention it. As it turned out I didn't have to. Dale pulled back for a moment so we could catch our breath. Her eyes literally glowed at that moment. I was entranced. I blushed, when she looked down at the water smirking a little and she said.

"Problem Tim?" with a little voice from somewhere deep in her throat. When she looked back up at me I know I was about to burst into flames from the heat in my face. Dale smiled and reached down to my hands and took them in hers. She guided my hands back out along the outsides of her legs then at the knees, she pulled them to the soft underside between her legs... She slid them slowly back up along her soft inner thighs to the point where they meet. Dale closed her eyes and gave a little gasp as she touched my hands to her most private of treasures. Her legs clenched shut tightly around my hands and hers. She shivered a second or two then opened her mouth to say something that never came out... It just turned into a little sigh. Dale opened her eyes and smiled at me and released the pressure on my hands. She didn't move to pull them away, nor did I... I was enthralled. It was so soft and at the same time hard... well firm actually. And hot! I could feel heat from here even through the already hot water of the whirlpool. Dale leaned over and kissed me a long breathless kiss. And just when I thought I was going to pass out from the lack of oxygen, she surprised me yet again. Dale put her tongue in my mouth and started teasing my tongue! I nearly choked when I inhaled with a gasp pulling her tongue into my mouth that much further. Sputtering and giggling she rolled her head back over her shoulders leaning back and away from me. She started to slip when she did, but caught herself on the edge of the tub with her arms, but in doing so, she bumped my knee and I yelped in surprise and pain. Dale covered her mouth and started to apologize when I told her that I was all right... just a little pain... "I might be getting a cramp too." I said not really feeling the throbbing in my knee.