The Coach’s Wife
by Barbara
Casey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Another deafening roar
exploded from the coliseum, and when it did Marla threw down her partially
smoked cigarette and ground it into the polished tile floor with the toe of her
shoe. Quickly she reached for another cigarette from the opened pack in her
small red handbag. She lit it, sucked the smoke into her mouth, held her
breath, coughed, and then slowly released it. Marla didn't smoke, but when she
paced up and down the hallways of basketball coliseums, puffing on cigarettes
seemed appropriate. It gave her something to do with her hands, and it helped
keep her sane.
Marla
Connors, recently married to head basketball coach Neal Connors, travels with
her husband to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Piedmont State University
Coyote team is playing in the NCAA Finals. Marla has not been accepted by the
Coyotes, that loyal bunch of fans who follows the university team, partly
because she is almost twenty years younger than Coach Connors and a divorcée,
but also because the fans are afraid she will distract her husband from his
duties as head coach. They see her as someone who married Coach Connors just
for his money. Only Gale, the older wife of assistant coach Stu Simmons, goes
out of her way to be a friend to Marla.
The
Coyote team is plagued with problems from the very beginning of the season, and
when they finally manage to reach the NCAA Finals, it's even worse. Their
center is caught using drugs, Athletics Director Charlie Morgan, who is also in
Albuquerque for the games, makes a pass at Marla in her hotel room, and Coach
Connors comes down with the flu. No one believes that State can win the big
game.
With
so much happening, Marla can't shake the feeling that something evil is taking
over her life. She tries to convince herself that it is emotional anxiety left
over from the abuse she experienced during her first marriage to Dr. Martin
Andrews and that the stress from the tournament has brought it once again to
the surface. She soon learns, however, that the evil is real and it threatens
not only everything she loves, but her very life.
Illegal
drugs, illicit affairs, murder, and scandal that shakes the entire university
system are woven inextricably into Marla’s life until eventually she comes face
to face with her real tormentor. It is only then that she realizes the full
depth of her love for her husband--and his love for her.
Excerpt
Four:
Stu woke Marla early the next morning. Gale was nauseous and in severe pain. "The pills aren't doing any good, and
Gale won't let me call the doctor. I
don't know what to do," he said helplessly.
Marla put on her robe and slippers and went to Gale's
bedroom. Neal got up and went to the
kitchen with Stu to make some coffee.
Marla was stunned to see how sick Gale looked. During the time Marla had been staying with
her, Gale had started looking better.
Marla thought she might even be improving. After all, doctors occasionally made
mistakes. Seeing Gale now though made
Marla realize the doctors had been right.
Gale would never get better. Of
course, with everything that had happened, it was no wonder. She wiped Gale's face with a cool, damp
washcloth and sat down next to her, holding her hand and stroking her arm.
"I don't think I can go with you to the Cottage,
Marla. Not this time around
anyway."
"Of course you can.
We'll go there now."
Marla wiped the tears from her eyes and looked out the
window. It was just getting light--that
first gray light that comes with a promise of a colored, vibrant brightness to
follow.
"We are in the motor boat and crossing the channel that
runs between Morehead City and Portsmouth Island. It is still dark, because we want to get
there before dawn. That way we can see
and hear everything come alive."
She continued holding Gale's hand, gently stroking it.
"The water is calm this morning, and there's a slight
breeze. Our hair is blowing and the
salt-water spray covers our skin with little droplets of mist. Neal pulls the boat up to the dock and hands
Stu the rope. Stu gets out and ties the
boat to the dock. It's just a short walk
through the sand flats. You can smell
the Jobellflowers. When it gets light,
you will be able to see their beautiful orange-yellow color, but right now you
just smell them."
"What do they smell like, Marla?"
Marla thought for a moment.
"You know that mock orange bush in the corner of your yard? Well, they smell a little like that, except
sweeter. Once we get past the sand
flats, we walk on the wooden planks around the marshy area. The frogs are croaking. Scores of them. We hear several splashes as some of them jump
into the water.
"Then we get to the yard proper of the Cottage. We walk through the moss-draped oak
trees. The grass is soft and spongy, and
damp with dew. We can see the
Cottage. It's a rambling two-story,
white frame structure. There is a peaked
roof and lots of big windows trimmed in faded blue looking out to where we have
just come.
"It's almost dawn now, but not quite. There is still time to make a pot of
coffee. When it's made, we take our
coffee out on the veranda. It's a huge
wrap-around porch, and we sit in some wooden rockers, watching, listening, and
sipping our coffee."
Neal and Stu came in as Marla was talking. Neal sat down in a chair across the room next
to the window, and Stu lay down next to Gale on the bed.
"The first light is gray. It is the defining moment. It lets you identify shapes and forms off in
the distance--the live oaks, the saw grasses, the Devil's cane. They are starting to come into focus
now. And somewhere, not too far away, a
single bird begins to sing. Tentatively
at first, and then with a happy eagerness as other birds join in.
"Looking across the marshes and beyond where the ocean
waves break, the first color of dawn appears on the horizon."
"What color is it?" Gale looked out of her bedroom window.
"It's a soft pink, almost salmon, still muted by the
gray. Gradually other colors
appear--yellow, violet, orange--and as they do, more and more birds begin
singing. The seagulls and grebes, marsh
sparrows and egrets. A flock of pelicans
flies overhead in formation.
"You can see the Jobellflowers now. A carpet of yellow-orange spread out across
the sand. A soft dew covers everything,
and as the sun rises higher in the sky, a kind of gentle evaporation takes
place which makes you feel like you are seeing everything through a lace
veil. Everything glimmers, because it's
a silver dawn--that perfect time of day when everything is fresh and new."
Gale's breathing was coming rapidly. "It's so beautiful," she whispered.
Marla got up, unable to hold back her tears. Neal took her out of the room leaving Stu
alone with his wife. He was still with
her when she died later that morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Originally
from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent Barbara Casey attended the University
of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she
received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and
history. In 1978 she left her position
as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North
Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript
evaluation and editorial service. In
1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has
represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, and Japan.
Ms.
Casey's two middle-grade/young adult novels, Leilani Zan and Grandma Jock and
Christabelle (James C. Winston Publishing Co., Trade Division) were both
nominated for awards of excellence by the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the National
Association of University Women Literary Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh
Literary Award. Shyla's Initiative
(Crossquarter Publishing Group), a contemporary adult novel (occult
romance/mystery), received the Independent Publisher Book Award and also an
award of special literary recognition by the Palm Beach County Cultural
Council. The House of Kane (ArcheBooks
Publishing) was considered for a Pulitzer nomination. Another contemporary novel for adults, Just
Like Family, received “Special Recognition from the 7-Eleven Corporation.” Most recently, her young adult novel, The
Cadence of Gypsies, was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its List of Most
Notable Books. The Gospel According to Prissy, a novel for adults, has received
excellent reviews and received an IPPY Award for Best
Regional
Fiction. Warner Brothers Studio has also
expressed interest. Newly released in paperback, The Coach's Wife (ArcheBooks
Publishing), also a novel for adults (contemporary/mystery), was semi-finalist
for the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel and listed on the Publisher’s Best
Seller List.
Her
award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in
both national and international publications including the North Carolina
Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and
Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The
Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms.
Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North
Carolina. She also received special
recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian
children’s stories.
Ms.
Casey's award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in
The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in
The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg
Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus
Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Ms.
Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she
served as guest author and panelist. She
has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin
Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of
Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. She is a frequent guest lecturer at
universities and writers’ conferences around the country including the SCBWI
Regional Conference, the Harriett Austin Writers Conference in Athens, SIBA
(Southeastern Independent Book Sellers Association), Florida Writers
Association, and the University of Auburn, Montgomery. She makes her home on the top of a mountain
near Trion, Georgia, with her husband and Benton, a hound-mix who adopted her.
www.barbaracaseyagency.com
www.amazon.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.archebooks.com
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