Game Change: A Nina Bannister Mystery (The Nina Bannister Mysteries Book 3) (34 page)

SWISH!

Next time down…

Weave weave weave Alyssha drives the middle!

Layup.

Nobody there to stop them.

“Infantry, infantry,” whispers Nina. “Hancock’s middle softening up.”

FAST BREAK BAY ST. LUCY!

TWO!

Forty five to thirty one.

BLAAAAH DE BLAAAAAH DE BLAAAAH!

Rest rest

BLAAAAH DE BLAAAH DE BLAAAHH!

Alyssha all alone inside.

Layup.

Forty one to thirty three.

Time out.

“Okay Coach. What are you going to do? Put them both back in? Or just one?”

Both McNulty girls back in the game.

And the Bay St. Lucy bench staring at them.

Nina to her team:

“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slip! Once more into the breach, dear subs!”

Blaaarr!

Horn sounds.

“Ok, girls. Go get ‘em.”

Five minutes into the second half, the first McNulty girl fouls out.

Forty four to thirty three.

Patricia, Emily, Maggie, and LaToya are gone.

Two more minutes and Patty drives.

TWEET!

“Number fifty-one, you’re…”

REF YOU IDIOT! YOU IDIOT!

Paper cups everywhere.

The second McNulty girl, incensed, shouting, red-faced, stalks to the bench.

Both McNulty girls are gone.

And Nina, always standing in one place, turns her head, stares straight into the Hattiesburg bench, and whispers:

“Now how tough are you?”

“Father said clocks slay time.”

      
––
William Faulkner
,
The Sound and the Fury

Eleven minutes to go.

Nina is now moving from cone to cone, shouting at the top of her lungs:

“Front her, Sonya! No, closer! Atta girl! Move in behind, Alyssha! NO! NO! MOVE AMANDA! That’s right; that’s…Now…now get into the press
now
DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM…

“GAME CHANGE!”

“THAT’S RIGHT TAKE IT FROM HER TAKE IT FROM HER TAKE IT FROM HER! YES YES YES YES …TWO! TWO! TWO! TWO!”

On you Mare ners
 
On you Mare ners

FAT FAT FAT FAT FAAAAAT!

“Get back get back double down double down on her KEEP PRESSINGKEEPPRESSING…

“GAME CHANGE!”

“WATCH THAT BASELINE DO
NOT
LET HER TAKE YOU DEEP HAYLEY STAY IN FRONT OF HER!”

“MOVE HER DOWN MOVE HER DOWN WATCH THE PICK WATCH THE PICK OK OK NICE PASS NOW SCREEN AND ROLL SCREEN AND ROLL SHOT SHOT SHOT! TWO TWO TWO ATTAGIRL ATTAGIRL!

Cheer cheer for St. Luuucy Hiiiigh!

Bring on the whiskey bring on the rye!

Ever loyal to those mare ners

Fighting for victory!

Six and a half minutes to go.

Fifty four to forty eight.
 

Baddadadadadda…

“NO DON’T LET HER SLIP BACK DOOR ON YOU BABY FRONT HER POST HER UP POST HER…OH!”

“GAME CHANGE! GAME CHANGE!”

“YES! YES, WAY TO PICK IT UP YOU MARINERS! NOW THREE QUARTER WATCH CENTER COURT WATCH THE SNOWBIRD WATCH THE SNOWBIRD THAT’S GOOD ALYSSHA HAWK HER HAWK HER PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS…”

“GAME CHANGE!”

Foul.

Haley at the line.

Swish.

Swish.

“ATTAGIRL NOW STAY AGGRESSIVE STAY AGGRESSIVE! MAN DEFENSE NOW SLIP INTO NUMBER TWO ATTACK NUMBER TWO WAY TO MOVE SONIA TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT YES YES YES NOW…”

“GAME CHANGE!”

“GREAT STEAL SHE’S OPEN DOWN COURT HIT HER HIT HER NICE PASS LAYUP YES!”

“GAME CHANGE”

“NOW DOUBLE DOWN POST HER UP POST HER UP POST HER UP!…”

Three and a half minutes left.

Fifty eight to fifty four.

“Front her, Sonya! No, closer! Atta girl! Move in behind, Alyssha!

NO! NO! MOVE AMANDA! That’s right that’s…. Now…now get into the press
now
DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM…

“GAME CHANGE!”

“THAT’S RIGHT TAKE IT FROM HER TAKE IT FROM HER TAKE IT FROM HER! YES YES YES YES …TWO! TWO! TWO! TWO!”

“GAME CHANGE!”

Two minutes left.

One minute left.

Thirty seconds.

Sixty to fifty eight.

Foul.

Alyssha at the line.

Swish.

Clang.

Sixty to fifty nine.

Hattiesburg ball.

Time out, Bay St. Lucy.

The players come to the bench.

Nina kneels in the circle and looks up at them:

“Twenty eight seconds left. The shot clock is off. They have a one point lead. All they have to do is hold onto the ball. If we foul them, they get two shots. They make those and we’re down by three. We could tie with a three.
Or we could just go take the ball away from them
! What do you want to do?’

Ten faces staring down at her.

All of them grinning as one.

And all shouting:

“PICKETT’S CHARGE!”

And Nina responding:

“OKAY! GO TAKE THAT WALL!”

Hattiesburg inbounds.

“Front her, Sonya! No, closer! Atta girl! Move in behind, Alyssha! NO! NO!

Clock winding down.

Twenty seconds.

Fourteen seconds.

Eight seconds.

“MOVE AMANDA! That’s right that’s…. Now…now get into the press
now
DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM DOUBLE TEAM…

And the ball is knocked away at the free throw line on the Hattiesburg end of the court.

Four players fighting for it.

Slap and the ball rolling toward mid court.

Four seconds, three…

Alyssha Bennett running fast as she can scoops up the ball dribbles once dribbles again crosses half court…

One second…

SHOOT!

…and the ball arches upward, soaring toward the rafters, Alyssha falling and sliding forward as the horn sounds.

The ball is flying.

Time stops.

“For every southerner there is the instant when it’s still not yet
two o’clock
on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out… and that moment we all think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain… to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made so many years ago....”
           
––
Faulkner
, Intruder in the Dust

SWISH.

An instant’s pause.

Then:

OHMYGODOHBYGODOHMYGOD!

And the gym is chaos.

Nina could remember taking two steps out on the court, remember the clacking of her high heels, remember the people flooding beside her, all moving in the same direction; then she was caught up in it, and for some reason the stream came to mind, the kayak, the rush of it all and the impossible mixture of sounds.

WE’RE GOING TO STATE WE’RE GOING TO STATE WE’RE GOING TO STATE!

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD

Now she was off the ground.

Going up, going up, carried, flat on her back, the thick, light blue, diamond-shaped rafters of the gym ceiling above her.

The whole huge yellow hot-dogged pulsing quivering shouting irrational one-being crowd was chanting:

NINA! NINA! NINA! NINA!

And:

ALYSSHA! ALYSSHA! ALYSSHA!

They were carrying her.

The town was carrying her!

But players all over the court were being carried!

Sonya, screaming deliriously as she, also flat on her back and floating in the waves that were people’s arms, piston-pumped her fists YEAH YEAH YEAH heavenward…

…as if heaven were anywhere other than here right now…

NINA! NINA! NINA!

ALYSSHA! ALLYSHA! ALYSSHA!

SONIA! SONIA! SONIA!

HAYLEY! HAYLEY! HALEY!

AMANDA! AMANDA! AMANDA!

It swirled around and around and around and around and the band blared…

BLAAAAH DE BLAAAH DE BLAAAAH!

Rest rest

BLAAAHH DE BLAAAH DE BLAAAH!

And the people blared:

WE’RE GOING TO STATE WE’RE GOING TO STATE WE’RE…

And the sea looked in from out where it was and laughed.

And the moon looked down from up where it was and laughed.

And the universe looked everywhere from the everywhere it was and laughed.

And things were right in Bay St. Lucy.

The crowd poured out of the gym and onto the streets, finding that everyone else was there also. It was Mardi Gras in Mississippi. Players, coaches, parents, grandparents, loved ones, neighbors, stray dogs, raccoons, and novelists careened through the town, which, being a seaside resort, lived its existence continually in a kind of mild buzz but seldom if ever got completely drunk.