Episode 4: The Present of Presence

Sabre Stadium is in a hole.  The Stadium itself isn’t much of a structure so much as it is an earthen bowl, carved out of one of the larger rolling hills that is common in central Virginia.  The sound in the stadium swirls and spins as it rises like warm dough out of the hole in the ground. 

So that noise.  It hovers over the field and in the stands like an ominous fog, and any opponent who hikes down the long and disappearing driveway to play must know that—you’ll be growled at, screamed over, upended by noise.  I’d never been so terrified as when I first warmed up in Sabre Stadium as a high school sophomore.  The shouts echoed in my chest clear through to the first half of the game.

This year, the noise in Sabre Stadium has come from inside and outside of the field of play. Like most high school athletic seasons, JFHS has produced talk—not just by people part of the program, either.  Everyone has an opinion, and the existence of non-stop social media gives everyone a platform to say whatever they want, whenever they want.

 So, the first game I ever just dropped off Emma—I didn’t really think about it until I made sure that I couldn’t see her head bobbing into the slipstream of people walking down the hill to the game.  “She’s with Sia and Laya,” I thought. They’ll be fine. 

I turned up my radio to drown out the noise.

When she got back home after the game, she was still red-faced and excited and almost out of breath.

“How was the game?” I asked.

The student section of the bleachers, apparently, are very exciting.  So many people, buzzing around and talking and laughing and having a great time.

“So, you didn’t see much of the game?” I asked.

She watched the whole game, while she buzzed around and talked and laughed.

“So, how did THE BOY play?”

Apparently, he’s a very good player and a solid athlete, but he’s young, and he’ll get his shot. But he looked very cute, under those shoulder pads and helmet.

“And I got to talk to him after the game. He was sad they lost.”

She said she didn’t say much.  Neither did he.  She stood there, close by, as the noise drifted into the hills and neighborhoods.