Five years later

Disney World with three kids under ten is a really stupid idea, but when you win the America Bowl, you go to Disney. I have led the Redkings to two America Bowl wins since my beautiful wife helped me walk back onto the field four years ago after the birth of our daughter Raven.

I couldn’t have done it without her; she was instrumental in my recovery. I was optimistic in thinking I could make it back in four months; it took me more like seven, but still much sooner than the eighteen months Dr. Moto predicted.

I did however stand at the altar when we got married. I refused to use crutches or sit in a fucking wheelchair when I vowed to love and protect her all the days of my life.

Now I’m vowing never to go to Disney in ninety-degree humid weather for all the days of the rest of my life.

“Daddy! Go with me on Splash Mountain again, please,” Harper says, dropping her head back dramatically.

“See if Mommy wants to go, my stomach can’t take that drop again. We’ve been on that thing four times today, can’t we do something else?”

I sound like one of my kids whining about going on that ride, but we’ve been here since they opened this morning and it’s four o’clock. The baby needs a nap, Ame needs a good strong drink, and Raven’s little legs are worn out.

Harper is still going strong though, and I hate to disappoint my little girl.

“I’ll go with her, you guys go ahead and go back to the hotel. We can feed her and bring her back after the light parade,” Brea says.

“Yes! Please, Daddy, let me stay with Brea and Roman, please, please, please.”

“No need to beg, Princess, you go ahead and have fun with the childless wonders.”

“Oh shut up, old man, you’re just jealous you can’t keep up,” Roman says, high-fiving Brea.

“You just wait, you’ll have kids that will sap every ounce of energy from your body someday.”

“Nope, no way. I like my freedom,” he says.

“Me too,” Brea says, winking at Roman.

Ame walks up sweaty and tired, toting Sebastian in a side sling but gorgeous as ever.

“We going?”

“Yes, Harper’s staying with these bozos,” I say, hitching my thumb over my shoulder at the fiery redhead and the muscle-bound linebacker.

“Oh great, thanks guys,” she says, and turns without another thought to find an air-conditioned bus. I’m a mere step behind her waving at Harper, who is skipping away with our friends.

“Where the hell does all that energy go when you grow up anyway?”

Ame looks down at the bundle on her hip and then to Raven struggling along next to me without a word.

“Adulting is hard,” she says, pointing at the next bus.

“Daddy, up,” Raven says with her hands in the air.

“Yeah, daddy up,” Ame repeats, some sass returning to her weary voice.

I lift Raven up and steal a kiss from her and then Mrs. Silver.

“Daddy’s already up for you, Mama,” I whisper in her ear.

She groans. “Please tell me we have a babysitter tonight.”

“We have a babysitter tonight, all night. My mom offered to take them in her room.”

“Oh thank the Lord. I need a bath, a massage, dinner, a drink, and a silver snake.”

“That sounds like a perfect night, especially the snake part.”

“I knew you’d like that. I’m beat, but this has been really fun you know, hot and sweaty and exhausting … sort of like sex.”

“I never thought about it like that.” I sit Raven in the seat next to me on the blessedly cool bus and hold out my hands palms up. “Sex, Disney World, sex, Disney …”

“You better stop weighing those options and pick sex or you’ll be sleeping alone tonight, buddy.”

“Sex.” I lift my right hand high with enthusiasm. It was never really a contest.

She giggles, and we settle into our seats watching out the window as the bright colors of Disney World go by.

It’s crazy that the thing that could have ended my career was the thing that brought me back. My injury led me back to Amethyst, and she took my hand and led me back to life.