Levi

LEVI

I STEPPED OUT OF my house and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and smiled as the air filled my lungs. It smelled like fall in Autumn Springs and it was the best damn smell there was. Earthy, warm, with a hint of chimney smoke, and the sweetness from the fall flowers all rolled up into one. There was nothing else like it.

I made my way down the steps and opened the gate for the white picket fence around my yard. That’s right—I was a thirty-eight-year-old bachelor who owned a two-bedroom brick house with a nice yard and a white picket fence around the whole damn thing. Most people bitched about having to mow lawns in the heat of summer, but I actually enjoyed it. Owning a home was something I never thought would be attainable for me, yet here I was. I took pride in my home and had even built a nice deck in the back yard that was perfect for having the team over for a barbeque, or a few other teachers for a beer after work.

I walked down the sidewalk until I reached Mrs. King’s house at the end of the block. I quickly surveyed her yard and saw her newspaper was in the middle of the lawn. The new paper kid either had shit aim, or didn’t realize that Mrs. King was unsteady on her feet and could only walk on the sidewalk, not through the uneven grass. I quickly strode over to the newspaper, picked up it without slowing my stride, and jogged up the front steps. I was about to place the paper on her porch, when the screen door creaked open.

“Morning, ma’am,” I said to Mrs. King with a smile and a tip of my head. “I’m sorry if I woke you, but I was just bringing up your morning news.” I held out the paper and her small, frail hand reached out to grab it.

“Oh, Levi you’ve always been such a gentleman,” she said as she held the paper to her chest. The velvet dressing gown she had on that morning was a dark magenta and matched the paisley scarf tied around her head. One of the pink rollers her white hair was wrapped around peeked out in front where the scarf was knotted. She reached up and fluffed the side of her head scarf. “And you didn’t wake me. I’ve already gotten all the beauty sleep I needed for the day.” Her mouth tipped up into a saucy grin.

I chuckled back at her. It was part of our morning routine and had been ever since her husband passed away five years ago from heart failure. He’d fallen asleep one night and didn’t wake up the next morning. A peaceful way to go, but shortly after his passing, Mrs. King had confided in me she feared the same thing would happen to her, but no one would be there to find her. Ever since then, I’d made a point to stop and check in on her in the morning. If I couldn’t do it, one of the other neighbors on the block would. It was just the kind of thing you did in a small town like Autumn Springs.

“Now Mrs. King, I find it hard to believe you need any kind of beauty sleep.” I adjusted the strap of my cross-body bag so that I could zip up my jacket as I spoke. The early morning air had an extra bit of crispness to it.

Mrs. King laughed and set the newspaper down on her entry table before grabbing a small paper bag. “Always the charmer,” she said with a chuckle as she shook her head. “Such a shame you never found a good woman to settle down with. You’re quite the catch.” She looked at me with her head tipped slightly to the side as she handed me the paper bag. I knew that expression all too well—confusion mixed with sympathy.

I did the same thing I did every time Mrs. King brought up the fact I’d never married—put on a big fake smile and changed the subject. “You’re too good to me, Mrs. King,” I said through slightly gritted teeth as I held up the bag.

“Apple cinnamon,” she replied while waving a hand in my direction. Most mornings when I stopped by, she had a bag of muffins waiting for me. She told me once baking for just herself was no fun, so she was glad she had someone to share with. She reached down and handed me a larger bag. “And these are for the teachers’ lounge.”

I took the bag from her with a smile. “The entire faculty of Autumn Springs High thanks you, Mrs. King.” I leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I’d better get going so that everyone can enjoy a muffin before the first bell rings.”

Mrs. King reached up and dusted some invisible lint off the front of my jacket. “Have a good day at school, dear.”

“You have a good day as well. See you tomorrow.” I turned and made my way back to the sidewalk.

As I continued the walk to work with my two bags of muffins, I couldn’t get Mrs. King's words out of my head. “ Such a shame you never found a good woman to settle down with .” The thing was, I had found the most perfect woman…only we were young and the timing was all wrong.

Some of us were only destined for one great love in our lives—mine had been Emily Davis and I’d let her get away.

Emily and I had dated in high school. She was absolute perfection. Smart, funny, kind, incredibly beautiful, and a hint of shyness that was so adorable. Everything had been completely perfect, up until it wasn’t. I’d accepted a basketball scholarship to a local college. That first year had been incredibly overwhelming as I’d tried to maintain grades and my spot on the basketball team. Growing up in Autumn Springs, I hadn’t had to work that hard to be one of the best players on the team, but college was a whole different experience. Emily couldn’t wait to get out of North Carolina, and set her sights on Chicago. I had felt Emily and I growing apart, but I was young and didn’t know what to do about it. Our relationship had been as easy as breathing when we’d been together, but when we were apart it was harder than what either one of us had anticipated. At the time agreeing to end things and focus on our own college experiences seemed like a great idea. In hindsight, letting her go was my greatest regret.

It was always a strange feeling when I thought about that time of my life. I’d lost Emily, but that basketball scholarship allowed me to be the first member of my family to attend and graduate college. I knew I wasn’t going to play ball as a career, so I’d tried to make the most of my education and got a teaching degree. I’d done my student teaching and my first few years at different schools around the state, but ten years ago when a spot opened up at Autumn Spring High, I knew it was time to come home.

Luckily, my teaching spot had also opened up the opportunity to coach the varsity basketball team. My hope in coming back was to give to some of the boys on the team the same opportunity that had been given me—to attend college. In our rural small town, that was a huge deal. So far, I had more than a few success stories under my belt. A few of them had even returned to Autumn Springs after completing their education and helped out the community in different ways.

“Morning Coach!” I pulled myself back into the present and looked at one of the picnic tables scattered around campus. I saw Henry’s bright red hair before I saw his hand waving furiously. The kid could be a big class clown, but he’d learned to turn it off on the court. He could dribble a ball like he’d been born doing it, and had been my top scorer until Noah Williams showed up out of the blue earlier in the year. Noah blew me away when he’d walked on to court for tryouts. Our school was so small every kid who wanted to play got a spot on the team. The tryouts were more for who was going to be playing on varsity and what positions everyone was going to play. I’d talked to Noah a little in my class before tryouts and he’d mentioned he was from Chicago and was in Autumn Springs staying with his grandparents after his parents recently divorced. I could immediately tell it was a touchy subject with him, so I hadn’t pressed for any more information. Never once had he mentioned basketball until he showed up on the court and left everyone's mouth, including mine, hanging open in surprise.

“Morning, Henry.” I nodded in his direction. As I got closer, I could see there were a few other boys from the team sitting at the table including Noah. Three of the five boys were in my sixth period class. “You three ready for the test this afternoon?” I asked.

“Come on Coach…,” Kevin, a boy sitting to Henry’s left, started to whine. The kid was an incredible point guard, but would do just about anything to get out of school work.

“You know my rules,” I interrupted firmly. “Grades before plays. You don’t meet academic requirements, you don’t play.”

Kevin sat up a little straighter. “Yes, Coach.” Everyone at Autumn Springs High called me Coach, including most of my students who weren’t even on the basketball team. After my first year teaching and coaching, it had just kind of stuck.

I looked around the table. “Noah, how about you?”

Noah nodded. “I’m ready, Coach.”

I kept my face neutral as I nodded. “Good, because we’ve got our first game of the season next week, and I have high expectations.” I raised an eyebrow at the boys for emphasis.

“Yes, Coach!” All five boys shouted back. It took everything in me not to burst out in a huge smile. This year’s team was one of the best I’d coached and I was really excited for the season to officially start. My competitive side knew we had a good shot at winning the state championship, but I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on the boys before the season even started, so I kept my mouth shut.

“You got some snacks for us in those bags, Coach?” Henry asked with a smirk. “I could take them off your hands.”

“Nice try,” I replied. “You’d have to run extra laps tonight if you ate some of these muffins.” Mrs. King believed butter and sugar were the key components to anything she made. It of course made them delicious, but they weren’t exactly healthy.

The boys laughed and Kevin punched Henry in the arm. “You going to eat them all?” Henry asked in a teasing tone.

I patted my stomach which despite the fact I was creeping up on forty years old, was still firm. I wasn’t quite in the same shape I was when I was in my early twenties, but I took advantage of the school weight room, ran in the off season, and stayed after each practice for some sprints and to shoot some baskets of my own. “Nah, I've got to keep up with you punks. Can’t have anything weighing me down.” I winked at the boys. “I’ll see the three of you in class and the rest of you at practice.” I gave them a nod of my head before I continued my walk into the school. I needed to get the muffins into the lounge before the first bell before I was tempted to eat more than my fair share. They weren’t healthy, but they were delicious.