As Alex Cruz rounds third and heads home, he feels something snap within him, and in those seconds, he knows he is done. He knows it then, before the large words spew out of the doctor's mouth. His body tells him he is done so he takes a step away from the glory and the Major Leagues, away from the Colorado Rockies and Coors' Field, and ends up in Boulder, Colorado with his two kids and wife.
The so-called romance of the ages crumbles under the weight of their combined failures, and Steve Tanner watches their carefully carved out life fall to pieces before their eyes so he runs. He runs because he can't bear to stay, because he doesn't know what else to do, because he can't find the strength to repair the wreckage.
As they like to think, this is where the story starts, two men walking away from the past to a future. They're wrong, because it's bigger than their demons. It's about two girls, a crumbling gym, a broken man and a dream.
O-O-O
"Will you be my friend?"
And it's only five words spoken softly, breaking an awkward silence hanging between two girls who've never met before, but somehow, it means the world to her.
She says yes, in a voice just as shy and unsure, because she's Lauren Tanner, and she's never had a friend before.
O-O-O
Lauren Tanner grows up a little too fast, a little too soon.
She remembers blonde hair splayed across the white tile floor and the soft sound of her mother's quickly fading breaths. She remembers sitting on the front steps as the rest of the world disappeared from her consciousness, absentmindedly wrapping her arms around her small frame to shield herself from the biting cold as she watched the rain pour down in thick sheets reflecting the bright red and blue of emergency vehicle lights. They pull her mother out on a stretcher, and she doesn't know it then, but she will never again see her mother.
She's a girl without a mother so she learns to take care of herself, fearing no one else will (she's right in a way). She learns how to braid her own hair, tugging and pulling sections of long blonde hair across her head into tight braids just like her mother did. Her dad works late, and she learns to order pizza (even though she hates the gooey, sticky cheese that always falls apart) and then how to make salads and sandwiches and canned soup.
She grows up a little too fast, a little too soon so when she meets the little dark-haired girl with the bright eyes and even brighter smile she's in desperate need of something to believe in (a dream).
Kaylie Cruz resolves to never grow up.
She believes in everything (dreams and love and magic) so when she meets the petite blonde girl with sun-kissed skin and glossy hair, she wonders how someone's eyes can look so...sad, because she's Kaylie Cruz, and she doesn't really get "sad."
She doesn't need a dream; she just wants one (more than anything) so she grabs onto the first one she finds (gymnastics) and never lets go.
O-O-O
Marty Walsh ends, only it doesn't end quietly. It ends in a brightly burning inferno that takes the world (well, the gymnastics world) by storm. He ends his career with more medals than he cares to count in a blaze of fire and spite so he walks away.
Only, as he comes to realize, you can't just walk away from those things that built you, that carved you out of sinewy muscle and strong, resolute bone so he goes back to that world, hoping (but not really expecting) it will take him back with open arms, because he doesn't think he knows who he is without it.
Gymnastics, the pain, the struggle, the agony, and everything else beautiful and horrible that comes with is his only love.
Always has been. Always will be.
As it turns out, most gyms aren't keen on hiring loose cannon ex-gymnasts prone to public blow-ups and temper tantrums, and it's this knowledge that accompanies the realization that he may be done, that this world doesn't want him back so he heads home to his home nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and sits in front of the fire staring at the brightly, burning flames, watching as they slowly burn out, and all that's left is ash, ash and some softly smoldering firewood.
Denver, he thinks, is his last resort. If Denver Elite won't take him, the very gym that made him a star, no one will so he drives down that asphalt path that connects his solitude to his past and just hopes.
But there's this thing about hope. It's one of those fragile things in life, one of those ephemeral things that never sticks around too long, because no matter what the outcome, at the end of the day, hope is gone, replaced either by the crushing realization that you were wrong or with the elation of dreams come to fulfillment.
He receives the former, because one of the parents, Sheila Baboyan stonewalls him and forces the rest of the board to see it her way (she's uncompromising and unforgiving, just like him), leaving him outside the glass doors, unprotected against the cold mountain winds.
He thinks this will destroy him, only it never gets the chance, because that night, when he returns to his little mountain have, a man's voice crackles over the answer machine. It's Steve Tanner's voice, strong and sure, offering him a job. As it turns out, Steve Tanner, who grew up in the world of high stakes investment banking, and Alex Cruz, who's been known to take a chance on pitches he should let go, are willing to take a gamble on a loose cannon ex-gymnast prone to public blow-up and temper tantrums if it gives their daughters a shot at the Olympics.
O-O-O
Sometimes, pieces fall apart so others can fall together.