Page 59 of The No Try Zone
“Colin?”
“Don’t sound so surprised that I’m calling.” I try to tease her, but my laugh is half-hearted at best.
“What are you doing?” She tilts her head. “Is that your ceiling?”
I angle myself up but slump in the chair. “Better?”
“Hang on.”
I hear a shuffling and her muffled words to Mom, then nothing for several moments.
“Okay. What’s going on?”
“Wait – where are you?”
“Home.”
A pang of homesickness hits me like a wrecking ball. “Is the snow still there?”
She laughs. “Of course.”
“Can you…go outside?”
“Aw, big brother.” Her voice goes soft with understanding. “Sure. Let me get my jacket and boots.”
A few minutes later, Erin opens the back door and I’m looking at a winter wonderland. They’d gotten six inches yesterday, and Erin sent me a video of the dachshunds damn near losing their minds in fury at it. They hate the snow, but they've gotta go out to use the bathroom. Their dramatics never cease to make me smile.
It’s late afternoon, and the sun is putting on a show as it sinks, bathing the sky in pale pinks, oranges and purples. Mount Mansfield rises in the distance, snow-capped and gorgeous as always. I miss it. I take a deep breath and let it out. It’s not nearly as good as being there, but it’s as good as I’m going to get.
Erin takes a few steps to the right, her boots crunching in the quiet. She flips the screen back to her face, her mouth pinched. “So what’s going on?”
I stare at her. “I’ve…really messed up, Erin.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, my God. Did you get a rugger hugger pregnant?”
I sputter a shocked laugh. “What? No!”
“Did you cover it up for one of your players?”
“No!”
“Then it’s not that bad.” She rolls her eyes. “Don’t get me all worked up over nothing, Colin.”
“Oh, it’s not nothing,” I warn.
“How bad could it possibly be?” She scoffs. “It’s you. Mr. I Have Everything Under Control and Can’t Be Pulled Off-Course.”
“I married a woman I’d known for five hours in Las Vegas, and I bailed the next morning, and now she’s the physical therapist for the team. And she hates me, but also I think she likes me, and I…fuck, I like her. Also we had sex before Christmas and…yeah.”
Erin gapes at me as a bird chirps in the pine tree behind her. “I’m sorry.What?”
“I told you.”
“Aliens are real. That’s the only explanation. The real Colin has been abducted and some tiny green man is using your body as a meat sack.”
I shiver. “Please, for all that is holy, don’t ever refer to me as a meat sack.”
“Okay, fine. But…all that really happened?” She squints at me, and she looks so much like our mom that for a second it feels like I’m about to be grounded.
