Chapter 2

Welcome To Odessa

July 3rd, 1988

My mother, brother and I have been driving towards Odessa Texas for the past two and a half days. My mother wanted to make sure we had plenty of time ahead of us so we got there safely. It was fourth of July weekend and firework stands popped up all over the highway, as well as cops and a few drunk drivers out celebrating America's birthday a day early. We stopped to see a few sights along the way, but most of the time the only sights we saw were old abandoned hotels and truck stops.

"How much farther mom?" I asked as we drove out of the city of Abilene.

"Umm probably about three more house" she answered looking at her watch.

"It's already been seven hours" I said rolling my eyes; "It feels like we've been driving through Texas for a week"

"And it feels like it's going to take another week to get out" Kevin added.

"Come on guys, it's not that bad. Take in the scenery"

I leaned my head against the headrest and looked out the window. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky and it was well over one hundred degrees out. It even looked hot out, it looked like if I step outside and put my feet on the ground I would melt. Abilene is known as the belt buckle of the West Texas Bible Belt. I could see a church steeple in the distant and wondered how the local Odessans would react to our non religious beliefs.

* * *

After close to four hours we started to see signs informing us that Odessa was less than twenty miles away; "Shouldn't be long now" my mom said pulling a piece of paper out of her purse; "This our adress. We're living on Turner Street" she read.

"Cute" I said taking the paper from her; "So has aunt Jackie told you anything about Odessa?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, filled you in on what the town is like. Do you have any idea what we're walking into?"

My mom glared at me; "Kelly your overeactng. It's just Texas. I spent the first three years of my life here and loved it"

"How do you know you loved it? I don't remember my first three years in New York City"

"Just...look for our exit"

"Yes ma'am" I said sarcastically, already picking up the southern respect of 'ma'am' and 'sir'. Nicole and I had been talking a lot about Odessa, she wanted to fill me in so it wasn't such a culture shock once we got there. She told me about the heat, the fenced in abandoned oil rigs, abandoned hotels, and almost vacant main street. She let me know that there's a 7-11 on every corner, fast food joints on every street, and for sale signs in almost every front yard.

Coming from New York City one thing she was worried about my reaction to was the segregation. She told me that Southside of town was where most of the minorities lived, the blacks and the Mexicans. There are a set of railroad tracks that run through town that at one time literally separated the blacks from the whites, but now symbolically do the same, most of the blacks to poor to live above them. In this racially separated town the 'N' word is used freely, both in a negative and casual way. The school system was segregated way back when and since going bi-racial many people in town think the reputation of the famed football team went downhill. Once you cross those railroad tracks and head for Permian high school on the north-east side of town you were on what they called the "fancy side" or the "white side". That was where we would be living, only a few streets away from Nicole.

"Look!" I said pointing at the bumper of the car in front of us; "MoJo. Do you know what that means?" I quizzed my mother.

"No" she said shaking her head and continued to drive.

"Kevin do you know?" He shook his head 'no'; "It's the Permian Panthers monicker, it's chanted at the games"

"Oh yea?" my mom asked, half interested; "Where did they get that from?"

"Nicole said it's from the title of a Wilson Pickett song but there was also this one time when some drunk alumni yelled it for no reason at a game and it stuck with the team. We're going to see it and hear it a lot. That and "goin to state in eighty eight"" I chanted with fake enthusiasm.

"Can we not talk about the Panthers?" Kevin asked glaring at me.

I turned to Kevin who was sitting in between my mother and I in the U-haul and looked at the black cast around his arm; "Sorry Kevin". He broke his arm a few weeks ago when he fell down a staircase in our apartment building, the cast won't be off his arm until the end of the season.

"It's okay" my mom said cheerfully; "We're going to keep him plenty busy around the house"

Kevin rolled his eyes; "Is it too late to study for my SAT's all summer instead?"

"Look! This is our exit!" my mom yelled a few minutes later and finally turned off the highway, we were so excited we started to clap and yell; "Turner street. Look for Turner Street"

Once we were off the highway we were automatically in a neighborhood where houses lined either side of the street. They were of moderate size, mostly drab colors, with a garage attached; "What's with these signs?" I asked looking at the big black and white wooden signs that sat in a few front yards.

"It means a football player lives there. It's their name, number, and position" Kevin replied; "But....let's not talk about football"

I nodded and kept looking out the window; "This is gonna be fun" I said under my breath.

"There it is mom!" Kevin said; "Turner street"

"Eyes like a hawk huh Kevin?" my mom said turning on her blinker; "Aunt Jackie is meeting us outside"

"Nicole too?" I asked

"Yes and Uncle Dan"

"Is it alright if Nicole and I go out tonight?"

"We just got here!"

"Well I need to pick up...stuff"

"What kind of stuff?" Kevin asked glaring at me; "We all need stuff"

"You know, shampoo, deodorant. Stuff"

"I guess" my mother replied; "Now come on, look for the house. Kelly what's the number?"

"3328" I read off the slip of paper.

We drove for a few more minutes down our street then finally saw Jackie, Dan, and Nicole standing in the bed of their pick up truck in our driveway waving at us enthusiastically; "Wow. Damn southerners" I said laughing.

* * *

Kevin, my mother, and I got out of our U-Haul and greeted our family; "I can't believe your here!" Nicole squealed giving me a big hug.

"Yeah at least I have you to hang out with"

"We're going to have fun"

"It's no so bad here" Jackie said laughing with her thick southern accent.

"You'll get used to it" Dan added.

"Give her some time" my mom said smiling at me; "She just misses her friends that's all"

"I also miss subways, taxi's, and hot-dog stands"

"Yankee" Dan said shaking his head; "They don't take to kindly to Yankee's in these parts"

"Don't listen to him, we'll be fine" my mother said laughing.

"Come on, I want to show you around" Nicole said tugging on my arm; "Is that okay Aunt Vicki?"

"It's fine" my mom replied; "Where do you want us to put your stuff?" she asked me.

"I'll take that basement bedroom" I said said fanning myself with my hand; "Kevin do you mind?"

"I don't care where you sleep"

"Alright, let me just get some stuff out of the U-Haul" I said to Nicole then ran back to the truck to grab my messenger bag and sunglasses.

"Make sure you show her the stadium" Jackie told Nicole when I walked back over to them.

"Yeah and hey while we're at it, why don't you introduce me to all the stuck up football players too?" I suggested with a fake smile.

"Hey!" Kevin shouted; "I take offense to that!"

"No it's cool, she'll say that until she meets them. They are really nice trust me" Nicole nodded; "I know a lot of them because Walter played varsity last year" Walter was Nicole's boyfriend since Sophomore year who graduated last year. After he went away to college in Tennessee he broke up with her; "I could introduce you to a few of them later"

"Only the cute ones okay?"

"Okay" she said smiling; "Come on, let's go get my truck"

* * *

Nicole and I walked the five blocks from our new house to her parents house to pick up her truck; "I"ll show you around our house later" she said opening the drivers side door.

"Yeah we should hurry up and look at this raging town" I said getting in the truck; "How long is this going to take?"

"Depends. What do you want to see?"

"Give me the grand tour"

Nicole shook her head; "Just buckle up please" I put on my seatbelt and we pulled away from her house and headed into town; "We passed first street, but this is Second Street" she said turned down a street that looked like all the rest; "Nothing here but junkyards, motels and that auto supply store"

I looked at the parking lot of the auto supply store and saw one beat up pick up truck; "Wow they do a lot of business there"

"Oh that's the owners truck" She continued to show me third through tenth street which were mostly residential but she she showed me the whorehouse on seventh acting like it was a national historic landmark in the town of Odessa. The ten numbered streets poured into Main Street. A dirty, grimy, street lined with buildings, most of them closed; "This is Main Street"

"Where is everyone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well shouldn't the Main Street be hopping? You know the post office, movie theater"

"Nope. This is it" she drove to the end of Main Street and I only saw about three people the whole time. Each one of them were just walking casually down the street. They weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, and it actually annoyed me at how slow they were walking; "You know Kelly you should change your attitude" she said with a laugh while we waited at a stop light; "Odessa isn't really that bad"

"It looks depressing"

"It can be a depressing town, yes" she agreed and turned onto Andrews Highway; "With the oil industry rising and falling people have no money so people don't do anything. Houses don't get sold, businesses close, there's no jobs" I nodded my head, not sure of what to say; "Did you know Odessa had the highest murder rate in 1982?" I shook my head 'no'; "We were ranked the number five worst city to live in the country out of three hundred in Money Magazine"

"Wow, and people think New York City is the worst city in the world"

"Odessa has that one thing that keeps people alive though"

"What's that?"

"Football" she stated smiling; "The Permian Panthers. The boys in black"

"Oh geez, here we go" I said rolling my eyes.

"You should give these guys more credit"

"Look, I understand they get out and play football in Texas and I know that's probably hard-"

"Probably hard?" she interrupted me and got defensive; "You have no idea-"

"Listen, all I'm saying is I don't like how football players get treated off the field"

"What do you mean? They get treated the same"

"No they don't. They get special treatment. They get all the girls, all the glory, party, drink, do whatever they want and the don't have to worry about the consequences because they rush one hundred yards and lead the town to a championship"

"You better not talk like that anywhere near the school or the stadium...you know what just don't ever say anything like that ever again"

"I'm sorry Nicole I just don't like it. Maybe because it's I'm a...Yankee!"

Nicole laughed; "Yeah maybe" She drove for a few miles then turned into a parking lot in front of the Permian High School; "Here it is" She drove around the building pointing to windows and telling me what kind of classroom it was, math, history, english - she knew them all. She drove around to the back of school; "That's the field house" she said pointing to a little building that looked like a shed sitting by it's lonesome behind the school.

"What's a field house?"

"It's the locker room"

"Well where's the stadium?" I asked looking around; "Why do they have a locker room but no stadium?"

"Ratliff stadium is three miles away, on game day they come here and go over the game plain and stuff, then a school bus takes them over to the stadium, with police escort and everything. Then when they get there they get changed in the dressing room" she explained.

"That's funny" I said laughing.

"Why is that funny?"

"It's just that in New York City everything is so compressed and tiny. Taking a police escort three miles would take an hour in midday traffic" We sat there for a few minuets in silence. It felt like Nicole was taking in the beauty of the high school. I felt like I was going to melt in the heat; "So what's the story with the football team?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well every high school football team has a story. You know, scandal, injuries, record breaking. What does Odessa have?"

"Well since 1946 we've won four state championships, been to the state finals eight times, and made the playoffs fifteen times"

"How do you know all that?"

"Everyone knows that" I nodded; "But we're goin to state in eighty eight. We're going to go undefeated too"

"We'll see"

"Hey. If your going to go to school here, you have to root for the Panthers. I have a few t-shirts you can borrow"

"Sure. So do you know the varsity team personally or do you just know them because you go to school with them?"

"Both" she laughed; "Walter knew them because he played with them obviously and I went to all the practices so we've hung out a few times. But I've also had class with all of them through the years" she said pulling out of the parking lot; "I'm gonna show you the stadium"

"Okay. Do you guys talk or hang out now?"

"Oh yeah, we go to the same parties"

"Can I go to one?"

"Of course! Oh it's crazy you'll love it"

"So tell me about the guys, any hotties?"

"Eh, not to me but to the rest of the school. Everyone loves Boobie"

"Boobie? What is that?"

Nicole laughed; "His name is James Miles, but everyone calls him Boobie. He's a running back, he's been playing since elementary school and the whole town has been watching. Can't wait to see what he does this year"

"I can't wait to go to the first game"

"Really?"

"Yeah. See what all the hype is about. Besides I need some new eye candy"

"Well if you want eye candy you can look at Mike Winchell, the QB, he's pretty cute, he's quiet though. I've known him since middle school, or Brian Chavez. Everyone loves him, he's a big guy, mean on the field too. He's Mexican"

"Oh no, not a Mexican" I joked.

"Shut up. Here we are" she said pulling up to the enormous parking lot that surrounded the stadium. It looked like it was placed there by an alien space ship, just sitting out there in the parking lot by itself. With the big steal lighting structure holding the bright lights surrounded the stadium, I had to admit it looked pretty amazing; "Those lights become an addiction"

"Oh yeah?" I asked looking at her.

"Especially when you live somewhere like Odessa. The Friday Night Fix we call it"

"I don't know what you're talking about. It's just a game" I said, still looking at the stadium.

"What did I tell you about not talking like that while your in Odessa? Kelly you just don't get it"

"What don't I get?" I asked starting to get annoyed.

"These kids...they...they hold the whole town on their shoulders. They have to work their ass off at every practice, and at every game to prove themselves, to prove that they deserve to be a Permian Panther and wear the black. They play through injuries so they wont be benched the following week. You know, I've seen broken fingers and dislocated shoulders being put back in place on the sidelines. Don't get me started on practices either, playing out here in the heat mixed in with the stench of vomit from overworking. It's intense. It's the most intense thing I've ever seen, and these boys love it. They live it. It's three and a half months of devotion. Nothing else matters in those three and a half months. Do you know how many people they play in front of?" I didn't say anything, I knew Nicole was on a rant and out to prove a point; "They play in front of as many as twenty thousand fans on a Friday night"

"That's a lot of people"

"It's a lot of people hating you if you lose"

"No one hates them if they lose"

"They'll never say it but..." she trailed off. A few minutes of awkwad silence followed.

"So...you guys have a mall around here?"

Nicole shook her head and got out of her trance; "Uh yeah...it's up the road" The mall was only a few blocks from the school and on the way there Nicole told me about the custom Mojo handbags that were sold exclusively at JcPenny; "Regular price twenty four ninety nine, but they are usually on sale for nine"

"Do you have one?"

"I have two"

"I thought so"

She pulled into the JcPenny parking lot; "This is it. Opened eight years ago. We have a Sears too"

"Is this it? It's so tiny" I said looking around the parking lot; "Is there a second floor?"

"Second floor? No. Are the malls bigger in New York?"

"Everything is bigger in New York"

"True" Nicole replied laughing; "I want to go back there again some day"

"Hey maybe after graduation we can go take a trip back up there"

"That would be awesome. I have no idea what I'm doing after graduation"

"I know what I'm doing"

"What?"

"I'm getting the hell out of Texas"