Letters to Nowhere #1 (Completed!)

Letters to Nowhere: Part 21

"Sure." I sank back in the armchair, slightly disappointed that she didn't have a magic grown-up answer for me. We'd talked about my online classes, but we hadn't talked about college. I sat there for several seconds considering asking her if she thought I should head for NCAA fame in June or keep training here and push for elite goals. Goals my mom had been so afraid I'd work for and not achieve. She was afraid of my heart getting broken and me having nothing else to work for.

Jackie returned her attention to my list again. "Do you really think Coach Bentley would depend on you to keep an eye on his son?"

            "Uh, I guess not?"

            "But that's the only truly personal answer you put down on this list." She looked up at me again. "Everything else relates to gymnastics and Coach Bentley making this decision with his career in mind, rather than something personal."

            "Like what?" I asked. But I did remember one thing. The ring on Bentley's finger. His wife was gone.

            "It's not my place to tell you specifics." Jackie sighed. "It seems you and Jordan have more in common than you realize, and I'm sure if you really think about it, you can find the answers that you need." She gave me a wry smile. "Teenagers are savvy like that."

            I nodded, understanding her directions but not wanting to speak them aloud. We moved on to new topics for the rest of the hour. But when I got back to Bentley's and sat in the safety of the kitchen with no one else home, my laptop already open, I typed in, "Gymnast Henry Bentley wife died" to Google. The top result, just the headline, was enough.

            FORMER OLYMPIAN LOSES WIFE, DAUGHTER, AND PARENTS IN LONDON BOMBING

Nausea swept over me, and it felt like a twenty-pound brick had just settled into the pit of my stomach.

            "Oh my God," I mumbled to myself.

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