He washed them down with a mouthful of warm Gatorade, which had been splashing around in his bag since the waiting terminal at Melbourne Airport; the pills felt bulky and almost caught in his throat but he swallowed another mouthful to get them down.
Micah didn’t feel any different: just another set of pills that could have been for anything. He hoped they did their job.
That night a fever developed and he got the runs. He had to beg off practice, but luckily he could blame it on picking up some sort of virus from the plane. It was a regular occurrence among the players, so there was no suspicion it could be anything else. By the second day he was feeling much better and managed to attend a shaky training session. The coach told him he still looked terrible, but that was it. Soon it was just like taking a vitamin, except there were tests coming up in the future. It was the best way to deal.
From the Reach Out, 25 June 2016
Out and About With Jasper Brunswick
A TALE OF TWO ATHLETES
MICAH JOHNSON and Will Deanes are examples of the highs and lows of pursuing the dream of athletic stardom. Will Deanes was to be placed in the draft for the AFL later this year. Micah Johnson was a success story of last year’s draft, finding a place with the Fremantle Dockers and relocating to Western Australia. He has proved himself a strong performer, and there is every expectation he will become better as he gains strength and experience to become a senior player in the future.
Will Deanes, unfortunately, has experienced all the lows. A bus accident that left his teammates with only slight injuries resulted in Will breaking his back. His career in the professional, even the suburban, leagues is over.
To such a young man that would be a devastating blow. But it could have been worse. Having now undergone another surgery, the future is looking a little bit brighter for Will. Once the swelling goes down, doctors remain hopeful that he could walk again. It will be a long, hard rehabilitation process, but Will may find himself on his feet once more.
Declan Tyler, mentor to Will, is visibly relieved at the latest news. “Will’s been through so many emotions the past few weeks, but finally he is happier. He’s had to accept that his life has changed, but it is looking a bit more hopeful than it was before.”
Will has every reason to be grateful. But he is still a young man who had his dreams crushed. And as Micah Johnson next runs out onto the field, Will may just be reminded of what he has lost.
Will Deanes was reached for comment, but did not respond.
Chapter 16
SAM WAS as good as his word, and since their talk on the Reid Highway, he had even entered into cahoots with Rick and Joanne, keeping them up to date on Micah and letting them know he was okay; in return, Sam seemed to be more in the know than Micah about how the Johnson family’s plans for moving to Perth were shaping up.
“Your mum might be able to get a transfer, and your dad’s handed in his notice,” Sam told Micah, after one such call. “He says he’ll just apply for lecturing jobs once he gets here.”
Micah had also been keeping in regular contact with his folks. It was Alex he was worried about the most. Alex, however, seemed to be pretty okay with it all. He was only in his first year of high school and the thought of starting a new one didn’t seem that traumatising to him.
“I’ll be the new kid from the big city,” he said one night on Skype, sounding remarkably upbeat. “Maybe I’ll even have some street cred. Especially with my famous footy player older brother.”
Street cred was the last thing anybody would associate with Alex, and being the younger brother of the gay Docker might be more of a hindrance than a help, but Micah wasn’t going to burst that bubble. He was just grateful that he wasn’t being thought of as a villain for totally upending his little brother’s life.
“Besides,” Alex continued, “everyone always talks about Perth’s beaches. Maybe I’ll learn to surf.”
“Maybe I’ll learn along with you.”
Alex’s face brightened on the computer screen. “That would be cool.”
Yeah. It would be. Micah was already starting to feel much more at peace with himself, knowing that his family were on their way to be with him again. Once upon a time he would have been embarrassed at being seen as too reliant upon them, but he didn’t care. Maybe not caring was a sign of maturity?
Or maybe a lack of it. Anyway. It was what he wanted.
Even the Mitchells were seeing a difference in him. Like Dane, he was coming out of his room more often and joining them sociably of his own accord. He hadn’t even checked out Grindr—he was in self-imposed abstinence mode until he was through his testing period anyway, as his overworked hand would attest because the desire of a still-teenage boy continued no matter what other dramas were going on in his life. He was going to delete the app, but first he wanted to see if that boy he still felt guilt over—the lovely business student whose name he couldn’t even remember now, and it shamed him even more—was still on there once Micah unblocked him.
He even managed to keep his cool when Jasper Brunswick’s insensitive column about him and Will was released. He had been sent the link by Emma, who was always in the know before he was. He had fumed for an hour, and ranted at Simon over Skype. Simon informed him he had already had words with Jasper, and Micah could just imagine the screaming that would have taken place. As usual Jasper’s partner, and Simon’s friend and co-worker, Coby, would have been caught in the middle. Dec was also ropable, as Jasper had asked him for a general update on Will in normal conversation, and it now appeared as if Dec had been aware of the article’s true nature.
But when Micah spoke to Will, he was surprised by Will’s reaction. Maybe it was due to the fact Will was feeling better now his fate wasn’t so much up in the air, but his slightly pixelated face on the computer screen contorted with laughter when Micah asked him how he felt about Jasper’s column.
“It’s just representing the soap opera my life has become.”