January 1st (A Short Story Exercise)

I am doing a short story exercise from a writing course I found. I was given 10 words in which I have to use for the story. The following are the 10 words and my story. Please feel free to comment and critique. My working title is simply January 1st. 

1. Chopped
2. Home
3. Garden
4. Pig
5. Skin
6. Chalk
7. Black ‘n White Stripes
8. Rose
9. Bowl
10. Touchdown

Alvie sat silently staring out the window. It was spring now and he should be out in the garden readying it for the summer crop or helping his wife with the animals. Instead, there he sat…an invalid, confined to a wheelchair and lost from the world he once knew.

He looked out towards the pig pen as his wife emerged closing the gate and wiping the sweat from her forehead onto her shirt. Her skin was already a golden tan from all the extra time she had to now spend outside doing his chores and picking up his slack. Just another reason for him to feel emasculated and useless.

He thought of the home and farm he once loved. He gazed at the black ‘n white stripes on the bedroom wall. He remembered how much fun he and Sue had that day painting them, laughing at how gaudy he thought they were and secretly happy at how over joyed they made his beautiful wife.

Yes his wife. She, this home, the farm and of course football were the things he loved most in this world. At least they were. Now he could hardly stand the thought of the game as it was football that was partially responsible for bringing him here. That great all American past time left him forever an invalid, never again to be the husband, farmer or man he once was. 

   

As a running back and All State in high school, he believed that football would be his future with every recruiter in the tri-state area courting him. When he blew his knee out during a tackle as he made the winning touchdown at the state finals his senior year, gone were all his recruitment letters as well as his dreams of a career beyond high school. He had Sue though and with her help and a lot of physical therapy, he came back from the injury and began to focus on another dream…. starting a life with Sue on his late grandfather’s farm.

He and Sue had spent the last six years of their lives fighting insects, broken down equipment and drought and finally, last year their dreams of having a fully functioning, if not profitable farm were starting to take shape. He and Sue had never been happier and thoughts of adding to their family were starting to become an actual plan. Football was no more the dream that got away for Alvie as his real life, grownup dreams were starting to come true. Football was now just a sport he loved to watch on TV or head out to the occasional game when chores were done and time allowed. No more though. Not now and not ever again.

It was January 1^st, New Year’s Day. It was a cold and wintry day, but Alvie and Sue were happy. Alvie was especially happy as he had just found out in spring that he was going to be re-homing 24 young calves to his farm. In time this would mean serious money in the bank for the young couple and he couldn’t think of a better way to start out the New Year. He was also happy that today the Rose Bowl was being played. This year his team and his best friend Clay’s team would be going head to head. Alvie had a few dollars bet on the game, but the real fun would be trash talking Clay during the game. It was going to be a great day on the farm.

As game time approached, Clay and his wife Jenny showed up. Jenny went in the house to help Sue and Clay headed to the workshop to help Alvie finish up so they could watch the game. Clay had already begun the festivities early as in, he was still a little drunk and a lot hung over from the night before, so he had a little hair of the dog to get the party started. As Clay walked in the workshop Alvie was in full snow gear heading out. The neighbor down the road had gone off the road just off the highway and was stuck with a trailer full of horses. He needed help immediately in the frigid January temps.

Alvie grabbed Clay and they climbed in the Ford and headed out towards the highway. The wind was blowing and the snow had begun falling again. The roads were icy and Clay was none too happy having to go pull a trailer out when his head was pounding and he was ready for some football. Alvie would have rather been getting ready for the pregame himself but in this neck of the woods, helping your neighbors came before just about anything….even the Rose Bowl.

Once on the scene, neighbor Henry Davis was squarely off in the ditch with mud clear up to the hitch. The horses were cold and would neigh their displeasure of being at an angle (which messes with a horse terribly) as the men worked to first dig them out and then tow them out.

After a good 45 minutes and a couple of other passerby good Samaritans stopped to help, the trailer was free, the horses were on level ground and Henry was preparing to be on his way.  By this time Clay’s post New Year’s Eve hangover was starting to rear its ugly head yet again. Luckily he had the forethought to bring along a rather large flask which he had been steadily drinking from. He was at a functioning drunk level, but his attitude had been less than jovial since this whole cold endeavor had started. He had continually let everyone know that he wasn’t going to miss this game, and that he had A LOT of money riding on it. Everyone there including Alvie was getting irritated, but Clay was Alvie’s friend and you make exceptions for friends, so Alvie handled the task at hand and ignored Clay as best he could.

As Alvie unhitched the tow chain and carried it around the side of his truck, Clay suddenly decided that they could get home quicker if he drove, so he side swiped Alvie and grabbed the keys hanging from his coat. Alvie was less than happy but kept his cool realizing that Clay was well on his way to being full on drunk. Alvie blocked the driver’s door with his body and stared at Clay. Clay ignored the look and tried to shove Alvie to the side and gain access to the door handle. The irritation was growing in Alvie as he waved the good Samaritans on their way. Once again Clay tried the strong arm approach and this time Alvie shoved back knocking his feet out from under him on the slick pavement and causing Clay to slide down the side of the truck sideways.

Henry Davis had done a final check on his horses and was back in his truck with the heat on full and the pregame on the radio. He was oblivious to the shoving match that was taking place behind him.

As Clay pulled his way back up the side of the truck, Alvie had grabbed the door handle and was making an attempt to climb into the seat when Clay suddenly lunged up and forward pulling Alvie back out of the truck. It was almost as if Clay had become crazed by the cold and the alcohol and he screamed at Alvie that he was not going to miss the game and he was going to drive. Alvie tried to block Clay as he made a final lunge, but Alvie lost his footing and as Clay shoved him a final time, Alvie went flying backwards just as Henry had put his truck and trailer into gear. The trailer made a thrust backwards on the slick surface just as Alvie went sliding under the rear wheel.

The days that followed were full of surgeries, specialists and Sue constantly at his side both day and night with a look of exhaustion, fear and ultimately resignation. His spine had been broken and he was paralyzed from the waist down. The first responders had told Sue that had Alvie slid a few inches further, he would likely have been chopped in half. Sue was just grateful that her husband was alive.

Now, in the springtime when he should have been out bringing in his new calves, working in his garden and tending to the thousand things that always need done on a farm, he just sat there looking at his legs…the legs with skin as white as chalk and as useless as tits on a boar as his grandfather used to say. 

Clay doesn’t come around anymore. Sue told Alvie that once he got to the hospital, Clay was more focused on the game than his friend hanging to life. Clay lost the bet that day and apparently his shirt with other bets he had made. He and Jenny had their house foreclosed on a few weeks back and the country gossip was that they were headed for divorce court as Clays drinking had now become a “real issue.”

The air was warm as it darted through the curtains and Alvie wished he could enjoy it, but his joy was gone.  Once again Alvie was living the pain of losing his dream and this time he wasn’t sure he would ever come back from it.