The Sporty Sister

Solving Problems

Christi was in such a good mood that she wanted to visit Jose and his friends. She even felt confident enough to use her crutches. Even Adrian told her that she had been making excellent progress. Of course, he only said it was because he knew she was getting excellent care both in rehab and out. 

She still needed Fiona and Brick to drive her, but she didn't worry about her appearance. She didn't worry about what others would say. She just wanted to see some good soccer playing. When she arrived, she saw a sign in front of the school. The city was going to hold a hearing to demolish the building. Christi was floored. She stared at the obnoxious orange sign that announced there would be a town meeting at the beginning of the new year. 

She had no idea why. 

"I need you to take me somewhere," said Christi as she hobbled back to the car. She was determined to get to the bottom of this. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Christi pulled up to Jose's house. A small house that resembled a cottage. Even before she made it into the house, she could hear sounds of life lifting in the air. Dogs were barking and kids were laughing.

 It was as if Christi had placed her wish into the universe. Jose came outside with the soccer ball in his hand. It took a minute before Jose noticed there was a car outside his house. 

"Ms. Christi, you're here. I have to let the guys know," said Jose in surprise as he began to pull out his phone. 

"How about you talk to me first?"

"Right. Okay." Jose lead her to a swing on the porch. It took a second to get up the stairs, but Christi was fine. Fiona and Brick decided to stay in the car to give her privacy, but Christi wondered if maybe they needed the privacy. Almost three months to the day of their wedding, they still acted like unapologetic lovebirds. 

"How are you doing?" asked Jose as he tried to avoid staring at the obvious cast on her leg. 

"I'm doing great. No need to talk around it. My leg is healing."

"Yeah. I'm glad. I was watching the game with the guys on the team. We were so worried when you didn't get up."  

Jose looked down as if he were reliving the scene. Christi cut off the trip down memory lane because she didn't want to relive it. Ever since she left the hospital, she relived it in her dreams. Second-guessing her choices. Trying to recreate a better scenario where she didn't sustain her injury. Still, it was in the past. No matter how she replayed it, she saw the same result in the end. 

Besides, she had other issues to worry about.

"Don't worry about that. I'm doing much better. Anyway, I want to ask you about the old high school. What's up with that?"

Jose looked up quickly with wide, surprised brown eyes. 

"You probably didn't hear about it. The mayor decided that the school is an eyesore and wants to tear it down. Everyone's talking about it."

"What are they going to do with it? It has been there for twenty or something years."

Jose rolled his foot across the ball slowly as if he needed something to keep him sane. 

"That's the thing. No one knows for sure. The word on the street is that he is going to give it to some development company that's going to build apartments, a store or something like that. That's why there is the town meeting after the holidays. People are going to be presenting proposals for the piece of land."

Christi fiddled with her crutches as she thought. This wasn't right. Yeah, the place wasn't  pretty, but the fields were still used as unofficial park by town's kids. It seemed unfair to take it away without giving something back.