Another Season (Short Story‪)‬

Looking at the snow falling like white rain outside the window, Joe, the assistant coach, thought it would be a tough bus ride home. It would be a long haul anyway given the circumstances, but the heavy snow on top of everything else would make it seem endless. He looked back through the open gymnasium door. Big Louie, coach of the Mustangs, sat in a chair at the mat corner. The meet was long over but he had not moved in nearly an hour. Hunched forward, elbows on knees, hands dangling, he was the picture of immobility and of something else. Joe had found it impossible to get through to coach Parsons when he got into a blue funk like this especially when they had come so close. There was an intensity to the man that burned into the whole team like a kind of virus. They all seemed infected. Maybe it was necessary to be driven to be successful, but it sure was wearing on a guy. Joe had showered and was waiting for the team to finish their ablutions and for Birdman to return from the hospital. Waiting was tough sometimes and this was one of those times.