We Come Alive 3

Therapy

Wednesday afternoon, all of the friends had filed into the cars they always rode in and went off to work. It wasn't an easy day for them to have to work since it was blazing hot out and the constant early mornings and long days were catching up to them. Especially Ethan.

He was sitting at the small table in the front of the country club main building. There hadn't been any cars pulling up for the last hour so he was just sitting by himself. The boy who worked with him had gone off to the bathroom and try to get cool from the air conditioning.

Ethan was leaning his elbows against the table as he felt his body ache. His muscles feeling as if they were going to burn off his body. He was tired and wanted to just sleep right there. But at the same time his legs were shaking from how much energy he had and he could feel his heart racing in his chest.

Soon, the tiredness took over and Ethan found himself head down on the table half asleep. Right when he was about to drift into deep sleep, he felt a hand a his back. Ethan jolted up and saw the boy he worked with chuckling as he sat down next to Ethan.

"Hey man, no sleeping on the job. No matter how boring it is." He laughed.

Ethan forced a chuckle as he nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry."

~**~

That late afternoon, Andrew had been dropped off by his cousin at his physical therapy office. Andrew walked in with a jacket on and basketball shorts that showed off the bulky black brace over his left knee. Andrew did his usual routine of signing in at the front desk, have a passing conversation with the receptionist who had told him multiple times that she was hoping he'd come back to visit her when Andrew plays his first football game after he heals. She said she was rooting for him and hoped he got better.

Andrew walked into the physical therapy room and saw his physical therapist Seth standing there waiting for him. He was a man in his early 30's who had dark brown hair that he wore in a small bun on the base of his neck and bright brown eyes. He was a little big taller than Andrew at around 6'3" and had a bushy beard he kept trimmed to the best of his ability. He was Hispanic mixed with middle eastern.

"Hey, Andrew." Seth greeted him. "How's the knee?"

Andrew scoffed as he walked over to the examine table and sat down with his legs up in front of him. He let her right leg drop off as he kept his left knee on the table.

"Doesn't hurt anymore. Been good." Andrew informed. "Didn't have to stop at work, so that's good."

Seth nodded listening to him as he unbuckled his brace and pulled it off. Andrew laid back as he stared up at the ceiling as he felt Seth's fingers graze over Andrew's knee.

"Nothing hurts, no shocks of pain or anything?"

"No." Andrew answered. He felt Seth pat his leg signaling him to sit up. When Andrew sat up, he saw Seth still keeping his eyes on his knee.

"You got some swelling, but nothing major. You doing those exercises I been telling you to do at home?" Seth wondered.

Andrew nodded eagerly. "Yeah. Do them everyday. Whenever I can. Me and my cousin even go for jogs sometimes. Trying to get back at that field as fast as possible."

Seth chuckled. "Alright, but take it easy still. Don't go off running drills and taking tackles. But let's start you're warm up and work out."

~

After some warmups, Andrew found himself standing on a balancing block on his left leg while his right leg was bent and up so he was putting all his weight on his knee. He could feel another trainer behind him making sure he didn't fall while Seth was throwing a soft soccer ball to Andrew to catch.

Andrew groaned as he tried to stay up straight. He threw the ball back to Seth only for him to throw it straight back at him.

"Keep up." Seth called out to him, from his spot a few feet from him. "Keep going. State champions don't give up."

Andrew kept trying to keep up but would take longer to throw the ball back since he was focusing on not falling over. "Champions don't give up." He breathed. "Champions don't give up."

~

After doing all of his workouts, Andrew had to finish it off by sitting on a stationary bike paddling as he sat and watched the tv that was on the wall. It was an ESPN after show talking about the upcoming college football season.

Andrew sat back in the chair of the bike and sighed. He didn't want to watch it or listen to anything football, especially college so he was happy when he heard Seth come up behind him and stand next to him. He had his arms crossed as he stared at the screen.

"Want me to turn it off?"

Andrew shook his head with a sigh. "Nah, I gotta get use to it. I'm going to be training with my old team this coming week. My coach wants me to learn some drills, jog around the field. Some stuff like that. So gotta get use to football talk."

Seth nodded slowly before turning his gaze over to Andrew. "How's the scholarships coming? They offer you anything?"

Andrew shrugged. "I'm not allowed to know. My coach is handling everything. Sometimes I wonder if they're actually gonna want me."

"Why wouldn't they?" Seth frowned. "You're a state champion and a 2nd ranked Outside Linebacker at the combine. Why wouldn't they want you? Because of your knee? Lemme break some news to you, football players get injured all the time. College coaches know that. They're not going to deny you just because you tore your ACL."

Andrew kept paddling as he looked up at Seth with raised eyebrows. "Other than being a physical therapist, you know anything about sports injuries?"

Seth didn't say anything as he uncrossed his arms and showed Andrew the inside of his left wrist. Right beneath his thumb was a scar that was thick and was about four inches down the side of his arm.

"What? Got cut?" Andrew asked.

Seth chuckled. "No. Championship game, junior year in college. I was the pitcher on my baseball team. I was also the cornerback on the football team, but I was more of a baseball person. I throw the pitch and the dude hit it, went flying back at my wrist. Hit my glove. At first I thought I just had a simple break, but it hurt so bad. I was laying in the sand crying and screaming. Took off my glove and there was blood everywhere. My bone popped out of my wrist. It was a 95 mile per hour ball to the wrist. Never played again, other than with my son in the backyard. Lost my scholarships and dropped out of college."

"What college?" Andrew wondered.

"Texas A&M. Had a full ride." Seth informed him. "There was no hope in me playing again anytime soon, so I dropped out. I got hope for you, kid. I think you're going to be just fine and come back stronger than ever. Now, three more minutes on the bike and you'll be good to go just about."

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. Thanks Seth."

Seth just nodded without saying anything as he walked off. There was barely anyone else in the room since it was around 7 o'clock and most people had already left. Andrew just leaned forward and kept his eyes on the tv screen as he listened to them finish the show. He wanted for them to talk about him. He wanted to hear them talk about his comeback. He wanted to be the most talked about person on every football college show.