EPILOGUE
Two Years Later
I was sweating heavily, and every breath was short and shallow; it just didn't feel like my lungs could take in any more air, as desperately as I wanted them to. It felt like my throat and indeed the entire insides of my chest was on fire – but that didn't matter.
I had to push on.
This was a deciding moment in my life – indeed, perhaps one of the greatest moments of my life. And what I did in the next few minutes would determine whether I would forever remember it as one of my greatest triumphs, or one of my greatest disappointments.
The other team served, and I jumped to intercept the ball as it came sailing over the net, but it was too high, and it passed over my outstretched fingers and dropped abruptly. One of our players dove to try save it, but it hit the floor just inside our line.
The referee blew the whistle, and shouted out, “Point for China! Team China 23, Team USA 22!”
I glanced across at Wade, who was sitting in the stands. His hands were clasped together in front of his face, and he wore an expression that shouted out worry in loud silence, but he fired me an encouraging smile as soon as his eyes met mine.
“You can do it, Eryn!” he shouted out, his voice ringing out loud and clear over the clamor of the huge crowd.
Our captain asked the referee for a quick timeout. We hurried to get together in a huddle while Team China did the same thing on the other side of the net.
“Listen, girls, this is it,” she said. “We're two games to two, this is the decider right here. We've made it this far – and I know it's been tough. I know that you're all exhausted. Hell, I am, too. But do y'all want to go home with Olympic silver or Olympic gold?!”
“Gold!” we all screamed out in unison.
“That's what I thought!” she shouted in response. “Come on, girls, we can do this; we can do this! Bring home that gold, bring it home!”
The Chinese had been destroying us the last three games with their killer server. We had won the first two games – only just, though – with scores of 25 to 21, and 25 to 20.
Since this new girl had come onto the court, she'd been dropping ace after ace with her unusual serving technique, which seemed to involve putting a crazy amount of backspin on the ball and combining it with a height that wasn't usually used in volleyball.
I'd been studying her technique for the last half hour, and suddenly, an idea hit.
“Harriet,” I said to our team captain, “if we can win this next point, give me the serve.”
She raised an eyebrow, obviously feeling unsure about this. “Are you sure, Eryn?” she asked. “I mean, you're strongest up at the net. That's where we need you most.”
“We're in a tough spot right now, Harriet. I've been watching their server very closely, and I think I've got her technique down. If you give me that ball, we can use the same technique they're using to break us against them.”
She breathed in a deep breath as she considered this. Eventually, she nodded.
“My arm's real tired anyway,” she said. “I don't think I've got it in me to serve another one. All right. If we win the next point, you and I will switch positions.”
I nodded. “We'll get this point; trust me.”
We broke up the huddle and all went back to our respective positions. The referee blew her whistle to indicate that the game was back on, and the Chinese team member took up the ball again to serve. This time, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw our captain, Harriet, subtly moving back; she knew what was coming, and was getting prepared to receive it effectively.
Once again, the ball sailed over the net, and once again, the unusual serve almost tricked us with its height and trajectory, but Harriet made a spectacular dive to save it. Then another teammate set up a perfect spike for me, which I smashed over the net with every ounce of force that remained in my body.
The Chinese players made a valiant effort to block it, but my spike was on target. It smacked the floor of the court with an explosive punch, and triumph blitzed through my veins as the referee blew the whistle.
“Point to Team USA! Team USA 23, Team China 23! Team USA has the serve!”
Harriet nodded to me, then passed me the ball as we swapped positions. I could feel a tingle of nerves as I made my way to the back of the court and prepared to serve. I'd been watching their best server and analyzing her technique for the last half hour, but watching and doing were two entirely different things. Even if I felt totally certain that I knew exactly how to do something. Which I didn’t.
One thing I had noticed was that as she tossed the ball up to serve it, she put a lot of front spin on it, which was very unusual and probably what contributed to the exceptional amount of backspin she was able to get. It wasn't how I usually served, and it wasn't anything I'd ever tried or even thought of trying in a game.
I couldn't help chuckling. What better time to try out a technique that you've never used in a game before than the deciding game of an Olympic final?
Still, it was this or lose. We had to pull some sort of ace out of our sleeve, and it was about the only thing we had left: using their own secret weapon against them.
I breathed in deeply as the referee blew the whistle to give me the go ahead to serve. I focused all my thoughts on the ball and the exact spot I wanted it to land, drowning out everything else around me.
Everything vanished into a blur – the roar of the crowd, the colors of the stands, and the vastness of the indoor stadium. All I could see in this tunnel vision I had induced was the ball and where I wanted it to go. I heard Leena in my head, reminding me how the technique worked.
I tossed it up and, like I'd seen the Chinese girl do, put a lot of front spin on the ball. And then I hit it in the same way I'd seen her hit it, the same way Leena had tried to teach me once before – giving it a ton of backspin.
It worked.
The ball sailed high over the net, and the Chinese girls were totally unprepared for it. They'd expected a standard serve, and this was about as far off standard as you could get. The player nearest to where it dropped made a desperate dive, but just couldn't reach it.
Again, triumph tore through me as I heard the pop of the ball hitting the floor and the shrill blast of the referee's whistle.
“Point to Team USA!” she shouted. “Team USA 24, Team China 23. Game point and match point! Team USA has the serve!”
The crowd was going totally nuts now, and there was so much cheering going on that it felt like I was at a rock concert. This was it. This next moment could be either the greatest triumph of my life, or the biggest disappointment.
I looked up into the stands to where Wade was sitting, and the look in his eyes boosted a last, fiery jolt of energy and strength through my tired limbs. It was a look of pride, pure and intense. I felt like I could do anything with him by my side – like I could actually win Olympic gold.
Harriet tossed the ball to me, and all of the players' eyes were on me.
“Come on, Eryn,” she said, and my teammates all echoed her words with their own phrases of enthusiasm and encouragement.
“Let's go, Eryn!”
“Kill 'em, Eryn, kill 'em!”
“One more ace, girl, one more ace!”
“You got this, Eryn! You got it! Make us proud.”
I looked once more at Wade, and the words he mouthed at me meant more than any words of encouragement from my team mates.
“I love you.”
That simple phrase was enough. I felt like I was ready to take on the world.
The Chinese team now knew what was coming, and realized that I had discovered the secret of their star server, and they moved into position accordingly. Once again, I drew in a deep, long breath, doing my best to focus completely and cut out every distraction from around me.
I focused again on the ball, and exactly where I wanted it to go, and with that I breathed in one final breath, tossed it up in the air with plenty of front spin, and then served.
It was a bad serve.
It veered right, looking like it was heading out of bounds, but thankfully the amount of backspin I'd put on it kept it in – only just though. It also made it very easy for the Chinese team to block and attack, and they sent it back over the net with speed. We defended well, and sent it back to them.
The crowd was roaring madly with each volley that we sent over, the tension was becoming unbearable. And then, I saw with horror, Harriet sending the ball over the net with a fumble, setting up a perfect spiking opportunity for the Chinese.
I didn't even think, or wait for them to do it. I just reacted, praying that I could make it in time.
I sprinted forward and dove through the air, aiming for the spot that I knew they'd spike it toward – an empty patch to the right of our court that had been left open after one of our players had just dove to save the ball.
It was a perfect spike, and the ball rocketed toward the ground. I was already airborne, but didn't know if I could make it. I hit the ground hard, and a sharp pain blasted through my shoulder, but my hand hit the ground a millisecond before the ball did, and I saved it.
The crowd cheered madly – it was a spectacular save, even if I said so myself. The ball bounced off my hand, and Harriet made up for her earlier error my smashing it back over the net with a precise spike.
The ball hit the ground in the very back corner of the Chinese court, and the whistle blew.
“Point USA! Game USA, match USA! Team USA wins the gold!”
The crowd erupted into a crazy roar. My teammates piled onto me, screaming with delight. I just laughed, and then cried – it was all too overwhelming.
“Oh my God, we did it! You did it!” shouted Harriet as she hugged me, with tears of joy streaming down her face. “We did it! We just won Olympic gold!”
After a lot more hugging and crying, we went to the side of the court, where our coach also gave us hugs and handshakes. My mom, Anne, and her husband were in the stands with Wade, and they hurried down to hug me and congratulate me. All of them also had tears of joy glistening in their eyes.
Wade was the first to reach me. He jumped out of the stands onto the court – and I jumped straight into his arms. He held me so tight that I never wanted him to let go, and I could feel just how proud he was of me and just how much he loved me. The warmth and love just radiated from him.
“You were amazing out there, Eryn, just amazing!” he exclaimed, before planting his lips on mine and giving me a deep and passionate kiss that left me breathless. “How does it feel to be an Olympic gold medalist?”
“It...it really doesn't feel real yet. It hasn't sunk in properly. I still can't believe it just happened.”
“You'll believe it when they hang that gold medal around your neck in a few minutes, trust me!” he said. We both laughed, and Wade hugged me again.
“Remember the house we looked at before we flew out here to the Olympics?” he said suddenly.
“In San Diego?”
“Yeah.”
“Guess who the proud new owners are?”
I beamed a huge smile at him. “No way...you bought it?!”
He nodded, smiling. “And, of course, there's the detached area of the house that your mom can live in.”
“It'll be perfect – and Anne will only be three blocks away.”
“And with the university just a 10-minute walk away, it'll be great for me for work. Are you happy?”
“Thrilled,” I replied, looking around, wondering why Mom and Anne hadn’t made their way to me yet. Anne was still standing at the edge of the stands, videoing everything with her camera. She smiled at me and waved. I smiled back. She’d always been the shutterbug in the family.
Suddenly, an altogether different look came into Wade’s eyes – one of extreme seriousness.
“There's something else I have to ask you, right now,” he said. “It can't wait any longer.”
“All right,” I said, feeling suddenly worried. “You know you can ask me anything.”
He dropped down onto one knee, reached into his pocket and pulled out a little, black box. My jaw dropped with shock, disbelief – and, of course, pure joy and ecstasy and jubilation. I looked up and saw that the TV cameraman had focused his camera on us, and we were currently on the huge screen at the center of the stadium.
“Eryn Barnett,” Wade said as he stared up into my eyes, “you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. Would you make me the happiest man alive and do me the honor of marrying me?”
I didn't hesitate, not even for half a second.
“Yes, Wade! Oh my God, YES!”
He slipped the ring over my finger, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me passionately – and once again, the crowd went wild.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams