He would only stay if they hired a coach committed to winning a national championship. The truth was that he hated losing. He hadn’t come to USC to play on a .500
team, which was what it looked like this season was heading toward.
It felt good to have a plan he could now work on. Step one, win the Notre Dame game. Step two, wait to see who the next coach would be. If he was all about ego and the status quo, David would cut his losses and go somewhere where they were committed to winning. Between now and the end of the year, he would have a backup destination planned out.
His next thought was about his personal life. What the heck was he doing playing happy families with Crystal?
What made him think he had to be in a stable relationship?
He hadn’t been in college for a year and was dating someone exclusively. Yes, he’d warned Crystal that he might want to spend time with other girls, but the reality was David knew he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
That was the crux of it. As long as he was dating Crystal, he wouldn’t wander without her approval. For someone his age, that was just wrong. College was supposed to be about experimenting and finding yourself, and you didn’t get serious like this with someone in your first year.
He thought he needed to slow it down with Crystal because he compared her to Brook. With his ex, he had no doubt how he felt about her: he was all in. These thoughts would never have crossed his mind if she hadn’t left.
With Crystal, they were more friends with a common interest. It didn’t hurt that she was smoking hot, and they
clicked in bed.
Yes, he could just let this go and date Crystal for a few more months. But the real question was, was it fair to her if he knew he planned to end it? Because he also wasn’t the kind of guy who would knowingly use someone like that.
The one thing that made him hesitate was that if he did break it off with Crystal, what was the plan? He had zero time in his day to find female companionship. Would he turn into what Dare called him, a jocktard who got his relief from the string of jock bunnies who always seemed to be hanging out?
David stopped himself because he could see he was about to tie himself up in ‘what if’ knots. Something he’d learned was that he could only control what he could and focus on that. If he decided to open himself to the possibility of finding someone new, or a handful of someones, he would just see how that worked out.
◊◊◊
When everyone had finished speaking, the rabbi stepped back to the podium and chanted a prayer in Hebrew. When she finished, the funeral director and his staff started rolling the coffin out to the hearse, and the family walked behind.
The rest of the crowd followed the family out the doors and watched as the casket was loaded, then the hearse set out at a walking pace, with everyone following on foot. The hearse proceeded to the end of the block, where it turned the corner and stopped, waiting for the procession of cars that would follow it to the cemetery to form up.
Michael and Paige, whom David had met walking into the funeral home, found him in the crowd milling outside the funeral home. They explained that the Hebrew word for funeral, best transliterated as ‘levaya’ (with both ‘a’s making
an
‘ah’
sound),
meant
‘escorting’
or
‘accompanying.’ The walk behind the hearse to the corner is the essence of it, not the speeches. The family and friends ‘accompany’ the deceased on the start of their last-ever journey.
They then asked him if he planned to come to Lisa’s house later and shared some interesting tidbits about how Jewish families mourned.
They told David that after the funeral, the family would go to their house for what was called the ‘meal of comfort.’
The meal traditionally was only hard-boiled eggs with rolls or bagels, and the round shape of the eggs and rolls symbolized the cyclical nature of life.
They explained that the first-level mourners—parents, children, and siblings—sit ‘shiva,’ which means seven. They sit for seven days, usually in the house where the deceased lived, on seats no higher than about 10 inches off the ground. They wouldn’t go to work or school, watch any entertainment, or even prepare their own meals. Those would be made or catered by extended family and community members.
Family, friends, and people who knew the deceased would visit them for a few minutes to an hour or more, listening to them and talking to them, hoping to bring them comfort. Often, people the mourners had not seen in years would show up during the week to comfort them.
The shiva was to start in about four hours, giving the family time to return from the cemetery and have the meal of comfort. They invited David to join them and visit Sadie and her mom any time after that. David thanked them for taking the time to explain it to him and decided to go for a little while out of respect.
With an open window of at least four hours, he could attend practice.
◊◊◊
After practice, David asked to meet with Coach Thomas.
“Come in. What can I do for you?” David’s offensive coordinator asked eagerly.
“Coach Merritt and I have come to an agreement that I’m sure you’re aware of.”
“You’re talking about him wanting you to redshirt?”
“Yes,” David said and then continued. “I’ll have one game left I can play at the end of the season. Coach Merritt said I would get a chance to start against Notre Dame.”
“I’m aware of that,” Coach Thomas said with staid calmness.
David leaned forward in his chair.
“I want to start preparing for that game.”
“Okay,” his coach drawled.
“I would like access to all their game film and all your scouting reports.”
“You want all of it? Not just the defensive stuff?” Coach Thomas asked, his voice holding a challenge to David’s approach.
“I want to watch their games in their totality so I get a better feel about their defensive mindset when they take the field. What do they like to do when there’s a sudden possession change? How does that differ from when their offense went three-and-out? Do they like to gamble if they have a lead, or do they start to play conservatively?” David asked to make his point clear.
Coach Thomas nodded his agreement once he saw what David was getting at.
“I’ll agree to this if you do it on your own time. I still expect you to help Matt and the team prepare for the rest of the games.”
David knew a negotiation when he saw one, so he added,
“If you’ll allow me to pull players in for extra practice sessions geared for that final game.”
“They would have to volunteer,” Coach Thomas fired back.
David nodded his agreement.
“I want you to work with Coach Stackhouse and keep her in the loop,” Coach Thomas said, reaching for his phone.
A moment later, Amy came in and gave David a curious look.
“You have to do whatever I say for the rest of the season,” David quipped.
She didn’t buy it. Coach Thomas explained so there were no misunderstandings. David, in fact, wasn’t her boss, which made him smile. One of those life lessons he’d learned was that he didn’t have to be the boss to get his way. Plus, Amy would get out of playing team psychologist and do some actual football coaching.