The Chain (A Catherine Diary) - Stamfield. Complete

Chapter 99

99

I sat on the bench feeling a drop of moisture roll down the back of my spine. Some boys were dressing and some coming out of the showers naked, a couple, like Bran, had towels wrapped around them, others like Jack and Billy walked out with everything on display. I thought about how the girls, especially Carla would be so jealous of me, when I told them about this. This time I decided not to avert my eyes, but watched them discretely, while looking at Duncan deal with, what he referred to as an ACL tear on one of the players shoulder, which I recalled learning about with Preeti.

Another boy asked me to massage his calves, especially his Achilles, which I proceeded in doing.

'How was that, did it go okay?', Duncan asked, from behind me, once the boy had left.

I turned towards him so quickly, we almost bumped heads, he retreated like a professional boxer avoiding a punch.

'Sorry', I said avoiding eye contact.

'It's okay. I was just asking if Apache was going to be okay?'

'Apache?'

'Yeah', he nodded in the direction of the boy I had given the massage to, 'we call him Apache, because his real name is Roger and we already have a Roger, so it avoids confusion and also because, on the pitch, he is wild'

Duncan looked away, back at the boy he was dealing with. He seemed to be checking the mobility of the shoulder.

'Yes, I guess so', I replied, referring to his original question.

'Good. My boy here has an Acromio-clavicular ligament partial tear, which is a bit more serious. But he's hard as nails, he'll probably still want to play next week, but I won't allow him'

I recalled Preeti's presentation of the shoulder injury. I turned to look at him, he was dressed in just a towel, his upper body had a look of pure muscle. The type of body you watch the end of football matches for, when they swap shirts.

Duncan departed back to the boy, who's arm was held in a sling, to prevent him from moving it too much.

I turned away to see Dwayne walk out of the shower with his towel wrapped around his muscular torso.