Chapter One: page 3 of 3
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Tink
"Damn!" Trevor shouts under his breath as his ball hooked severely to the left leaving the driving range on-the-fly right around the 250 yard marker. Ordinarily the sound of titanium hitting the low compression Titleist is music to his ears, except for what appears to be every 4th shot. "It never fails. Just when I think I have it beat, the dreaded hook comes back. I swear I'm going to beat Conrad senseless the next time I see him."
Emily stares out of the large bay window watching Trevor hit golf balls into what seems to be a black hole. The only light is the one adjacent to the building used to distribute balls and clubs to patrons wanting to hit a bucket. Trevor swings and she can hear a soft metallic sound and then in less than a millisecond the ball disappears into the abyss.
"Samantha, what is he doing out there? It's been dark for over an hour. He can't possibly see where those balls are going." Emily said as she stared through the double pained glass looking out into the driving range built adjacent to Samantha and Trevor's house. "I don't know Emily, he does this sometimes. He says it helps them think."
"Well, all I see him doing hitting a lot of balls and talking to himself." Emily said.
"That's what he does." Samantha said with just a hint of sarcasm as she steps beside Emily and looks out the window at Trevor hitting balls into complete darkness.
"I thought you had lights installed last year. Don't tell me their broken already?" asked Emily. "No they work just fine." Samantha replied. "When it's just him out there he leaves them off. Two years ago he was having some problems at the office with one of the employees. You remember, that medical assistant that was stealing narcotic scripts and filling them out and signing Trevor's name? "
"Yeah, I remember that." Emily replied "What a mess. I know he was pretty upset about that. I thought it all worked out?"
Trevor was a internal medicine physician in a very profitable practice in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. He has spent 2 years in the Army after a brief attempt at college just out of high school. He and Conrad had big plans for their careers. They were going to be big stars, Trevor playing baseball and Conrad joining the PGA. Trevor went to Edinboro University near Erie but got cut from the team for "conduct detrimental to the team." He told his parents he just quit, it wasn't for him. They were furious, he was a scholarship player and now that the money ran out they could not afford to keep him in school. Three weeks later he was in basic training.
He got out of the Army after a couple of years and completed his undergraduate degree at Penn State. Then went on to Temple where he earned his doctorate in medicine as an internist.
Conrad stayed at home and played golf for the local community college where he did very well and transferred to Arizona State and was the NCAA individual champion his senior year.
"It did." said Samantha "but not until almost a year later when they caught her and she confessed to everything. He went through hell trying to keep his name clean, and keep the practices' name out of the headlines. He almost lost his job and his license. I know he didn't really end up physically losing anything, but the way some of the people treated him was really unfair. I think that's what bothered him the most, the fact that his friends and colleagues all thought he was selling prescriptions on the street. They really started treating him differently; he said he never felt so alone in an office full of so many people." Samantha told Emily as they moved from the window back to the kitchen table. "That's when we built this driving range, Trevor really wasn't sure if he would be able to go back, so he said he needed this as a backup."
"So is there something wrong? Why is he out there now?" asked Emily.
"A friend of his from back home called and gave him some bad news." Samantha replied. "He had a childhood friend that was killed in a car accident yesterday."
"Oh my God Samantha, that's terrible! Who was it? Someone he was close to?" Emily exclaimed.
"It was a friend of his from school. Actually it was a friend's sister." Samantha said as she brought the cup of chamomile tea to her lips and took a sip. "He took it pretty hard. The funny thing is I didn't realize they were that close. He never really spoke of her."
"Well" Emily chuckled "maybe it was one of those high school flames."
Samantha said "I doubt it. It was the sister of his best friend growing up."
"You mean Conrad's sister?" asked Emily.
"Yeah that's the one." Samantha said.
Dave Conrad was one of the newest faces on the PGA tour. He had spent almost five years traveling with the Nike tour and in Europe before he won his card in Q school last year. He played in a few tournaments through sponsor exemptions but last year was when he really played well winning three times and finishing 14th in the Masters and making the cut for the players championship.
"It was Dave who gave him the idea to finance the driving range" Samantha said "even though they hadn't spoken in almost two years, somehow Dave knew Trevor was having some trouble and helped set this up for him."
"That's terrible Samantha. Isn't there a big tournament coming up soon? Doesn't Conrad have to play in it?" Emily asked.
"It's the biggest tournament of the year Emily, it's the U.S. Open."
"I can't imagine trying to play a big tournament like that after losing your sister." Emily said. "How do you think he would have done?"
"Well the top four guys are going to be there so they are always favored, but Trevor said Conrad has a great chance at finishing in the top 10" said Samantha while she got up for the table to put more water on the stove for tea.
"I wonder if he will still play?" Emily said.
"I don't really know him that well, I mean I have only met him a few times, but from some of the things Trevor has told me I'm sure he'll play."
