The Chain (A Catherine Diary) - Stamfield. Complete

Chapter 90

90

On the walk back to college, Dwayne and Roger tried to explain the rules of Rugby, but they were using so many unfamiliar terms, like scrum and line out, I gave up and just let them ramble on.

When we arrived, I was surprised at how many people were there. I counted eighteen and Jack hadn't even arrived. Two college mini buses were parked up and there was a whole load of testosterone flying around. Five boys were throwing a rugby ball between them, three were play fighting, some were helping two adults pack the back of one of the buses and then there was one seated on the ground reading. I recognized him from somewhere, but couldn't place it.

The boys throwing the ball around were the first to see me approach with Roger and Dwayne and proceeded to do lots of finger pointing, laughing and making displays of physical prowess with the ball.

'Hi, you must be Catherine', I turned to see an elderly man, slightly balding, very grey. 'I'm Duncan...the physio'.

'Yes, the boys were telling me about you'

'That's good. I hope none of it bad', he joked, trying to put me at ease, or maybe even himself. I smiled to make him feel his attempts were successful. 'To be honest I have no idea what to expect of you, I've never had a student or work experience, with me, so if you just follow my lead and tell me to slow down if you don't understand anything'

'That's great', and it was, I was far more relaxed now, he obviously didn't have great expectations of me and on that score I certainly wasn't going to disappoint him.

I followed him to his car and helped him unload his bag for him, he was stronger than he looked. He carried a fold away massage table and an additional bag, I was left with the original bag, wondering what he could have in it that was so heavy. I followed him as he headed to the back of the bus.

'Don't let these boys intimidate you, they used to try and intimidate Andrea when she started doing this'

'Andrea?', I asked

'My wife...well, not any more, we finally divorced a month ago. She was a qualified physiotherapist, but hadn't worked in the field for years, so when I volunteered to do this for the boys, she wanted to also', he paused and looked over at the boys throwing the ball around. 'You see that blond haired boy, the one with the ball'

'Yeah'

'That's Billy, he's my son...our son and the team captain, so naturally Andrea wanted to be a part of this too'.

'So she stopped doing this because of the divorce?'

He looked at me with a complex expression on his face, the wind catching what little hair he had and dropped it where it hindered his vision. I made the presumption that he thought my question was both immaterial and inappropriate.

'And that's why you happen to be here', he said with a stain of sarcasm.

'Sorry, if I offended you', I wasn't sorry, after all if he was still carrying baggage from his divorce, he certainly shouldn't be taking it out on me. However, I didn't want him to dislike me already, or else it could be a very long evening.

He grunted and carried on to the van. I noticed Jack had arrived and he was busy chatting with Dwayne, Roger and a couple of other guys.