Your Time

Chapter 57

{September 2034}

One of Carrie's favorite things to do was watch Maddie. With Harrison as the Cowboys coach and Adam as a wide receiver, they were gone for a few hours almost every day at practice. That gave Carrie plenty of time to give Joanne a break by watching Maddie.

Maddie was just over a year now. She loved to point at things and ask Carrie what they were. She also loved Leia. Often Leia would join Carrie and Maddie on the floor playing games. Seeing her four legged friend, Maddie would pet Leia and pile a bunch of stuffed animals around her.

Currently Maddie was now driving a pink punch big up Leia's side. She didn't seem to mind. Leia rolled onto her side so Maddie had more rocky terrain to explore.

Carrie came back from the kitchen with an apple cut up small enough for Maddie. Upon seeing her grandma and food, Maddie dropped everything she was doing and crawled over to see Carrie.

"Grandma!"

"Hi sweetie."

Grandma was one of the things she could say easily, just like she could say mommy and daddy. Over the past year, her hair had lightened to a shade of very light brown.

"Wapple."

Carrie handed her a piece of cut up apple that she immediately ate. "More wapple."

She continued to give Maddie one piece of apple at a time until the plate was empty. "Let's go get another apple."

Having four kids of her own, Carrie was very skilled at cutting fruits such as an apple with one hand and holding a kid with the other. She held Maddie with her left hand against her hip, and carefully cut the apple with her right.

"What's whaat?"

"What's what?"

Little Maddie pointed at the large apple her grandma was in the process of cutting up. "That's an apple sweetie."

"What's whaat?" She now pointed at the cutting board.

"That's a cutting board that grandma uses to cut up the apple."

Maddie pointed at the knife and tried to reach for it. "That's a knife. And you don't want to touch a knife because it's very sharp."

"Oh."

Carrie transferred the apple slices to a plate and they walked back over into the living room where Leia was waiting for them. Maddie pointed at Leia and asked, "what's whaat?"

"That's Leia sweetie."

But Maddie continued to point at Leia and ask what it was. "Leia's a doggy."

"Dowgy."

"Yeah Leia's a doggy."

She took a piece of apple from the plate and held it in front of Leia. When Leia went to lick the apple cube from her hand, Maddie turned towards Carrie.

"Watch this." Carrie took a few cubes of apple and held them out on her flat hand for Leia to eat. She licked Carrie's hand and the apples were gone.

After seeing her grandma feed Leia, Maddie tried again. This time she didn't flinch when Leia licked the apple cube off her hand. "Good dowgy!"

An hour later, Harrison came home from practice. Maddie crawled away from Carrie when she spotted her grandpa. She crawled around the couch, far enough that Carrie couldn't see her. "Maddie?"

But she was relieved when Harrison came walking over holding Maddie. "Somebody found grandpa huh?"

As Harrison sat down, Maddie took an interest in rubbing her small hand along Harrison's light stubble of a beard. "That tickles doesn't it?"

She smiled and did it again. Pretty soon Harrison was rubbing her feet against his beard, getting her to laugh.

When Maddie was done, she went and got her punch bug and brought it over to show her grandpa. "Did grandma get that for you?"

"Yes."

He was now laying down. Just like she had done with Leia, Maddie drove her little punch bug over Harrison. Then she went and got a second one. Carrie could see the expression on Harrison's face. One of the kids had given him a bloody nose in a similar way. To protect himself, he laid on his stomach so she could drive her cars all around on his back.

•••

The next night was Adam's first football game for the Cowboys. Carrie sat in the booth with Maddie on her lap, Adam's wife Joanne to her right, Ben beside her, Debbie, Emma, and Billie behind.

Adam wore number 10. Only being a rookie, Harrison already said he was the best receiver on the team. He wasn't being biased, it was true.

The family looked on as Adam did his pregame stretches. Harrison paced the sidelines, talking to multiple coaches and players. It was his second season as the head coach. Last year the Cowboys went 14-5. It was a very good record for the season, but they lost in the divisional round of playoffs.

Once Adam was done with his stretches, he jogged over to the sideline and gave his dad a high five as he went by. To Carrie, it was a little odd seeing Harrison as the coach because he was usually the one in the uniform.

They players then lined up for the national anthem. Carrie searched through the crowd to find her husband and son. There they were, standing side by side just behind the white line.

When the game started, the Cowboys elected the kick. So Carrie and the family had to wait a bit longer to see Adam in action.

The Cowboys defense didn't start out on a good note. They gave up two 20-yard passes. Harrison was trying his hardest not to get angry. But the way he paced, Carrie could tell somebody was going to be running at the next practice.

When the defense finally made a stop and didn't give up any points, Adam jogged onto the field with the offense. All of the sudden, he ran back to the sidelines for a second. It looked like he and his father exchanged some words as Harrison gave him a pat on the back.

The ball was snapped and Adam shot down the field in a slant route. There was nobody guarding him. He caught the ball outstretched in one hand and took off down the field. He beat the safety at the other teams 30-yard line and had a clear path to the end zone. When he crossed the goal line, everyone cheered, including Harrison who threw his headset and the playbook to run out onto the field and meet Adam.

Little Maddie who saw all the people standing up but couldn't hear them cheering due to her earmuffs asked her grandma, "what's whaat?"

"That was your daddy's first reception," Carrie answered. "The first of many."