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Welcome to the Church of The Reverend Cotton Mather.  This story is
the sole property of the author, and may not be copied or downloaded 
for the intent of profit. Permission is freely given for anyone to 
download or copy for their personal pleasure or use, as long as 
there is no intent to charge money or barter for the privilege of 
acquiring this material.

   (Copyright 2005, revisions c. 2007, R.C. Mather)

E-Mail all comments to RevCottonMather at hotmail dot com
Don't be shy!  I enjoy hearing from you.

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THE COMPETITIVE EDGE:
PLAYING THE GAME III

A Novel

by R.C. Mather



- - EPILOGUE - -

THAT WHICH HAS PASSED,
THAT WHICH WILL BE



And here we are, so many years after the end of the tale, with a lot
of relatively inconsequential events that were precipitated by the
incidents told.

For instance, Kayla is the mother of three beautiful Porter
children. Kaitlynn, the oldest and the apple of my eye, is thirteen,
and is her mother all over again. Very little of Sean was thrown in
as spice. She is youthfully slender, deceptively strong, with silky
white-blonde hair she ties back in a ubiquitous ponytail. And she
plays defense like a demon, striking terror in the hearts of
opponents and their coaches at the sight of her on the field. She is
partial to soft and supple athletic shorts. One, a bright red with a
white lightning bolt down each side from hip to hem, reads "Porter
Soccer." It's part of the Porter Enterprises uniform, and Kaitlynn is
proud of it.

The second pair is baby blue, and in an arc on the backside it reads
"TRUBBLE."

Despite the warning, boys have been sniffing around more and more
lately. Kait's clever, though, and seems to be traversing the
minefield of teenage hormonal rage with dexterity. She has shown an
attraction to fleet forwards lately, especially a boy, also in my
program, named Cody Fletcher. A good kid, but I'm keeping a close eye
on him.

Next is Timothy, who just turned eleven. Timmy is a lot like his
Uncle Michael. He's hard to motivate in school, but he has
exceptional mechanical aptitude. He doesn't have much interest in
team sports, other than a bit of an obsession with the Chicago Cubs,
preferring instead to ride his bike through the fields behind our
house for hours on end. He and his friends built a dirt bike heaven
out there, with jumps, ditches, and obstacles galore. He often comes
home bruised and bloody, with a big smile on his dirty face, after a
day out on his bike.

The baby of the family, Tynan Porter, is eight. Ty is small and
wiry. He's half spider monkey, able to shimmy up a doorframe with his
bare hands, and hang on by his fingertips. He loves to accompany his
dad on business trips around the area.

All three take part in my summer clinics, though Timmy does so under
protest. Ty reminds me of Kip Wilkinson at that age, enthusiastic but
undeveloped. Like Kip, Ty's day will come.

Speaking of Kip, he and his older brother, as I had predicted, were
stars for Coach Neville when they got to high school. They were the
backbone of Coach's only other undefeated season. Davey played in my
old position, right defender, while Kip, playing midfield, broke
nearly all Trent's scoring records. When he first made the varsity
team as a freshman, Davey asked me if he could wear my retired
number, and I was pleased to be able to let him do so. I went to
every game I could, sitting in the bleachers with Lori, David, and
the other parents. I was nearly as proud of them as were their mother
and stepfather.

Davey went on to play on a partial scholarship at Ball State. A year
later, Kip accepted an offer from the wily coach from Florida, Pick
Cropper. Jesse pushed hard on behalf of Maryland, but Pick played the
Porter Card, something neither Kip nor his parents were able to
resist. For my part, I was very happy to see him go on to my alma
mater. I knew he would excel under Pick's program. After all, he was
fully committed to the Porter system, to the extent he had the
university hire me to run his preseason and spring clinics.

Today, Davey is an investment advisor for one of the big firms. He
and his wife, Amy, have two kids. Yes, Lori is a grandmother, and a
doting one at that. Davey and his family live in Rhode Island, but
they get back here a couple of times a year.

Kip is also married, with one son and another on the way. He married
his college sweetheart, and he runs the Southeastern Division for
Porter Enterprises, from my Orlando office.

Shawna, their stepsister, is now twenty-one, and a newlywed. We
attended her wedding earlier this year. When she was a teenager, she
was our Number One babysitter. She was always a shy girl, lovely and
radiating an aura of innocence. She played recreational soccer, but
she really preferred softball. Lori might have been a little
disappointed in her sport of choice at first, but David leapt in and
encouraged Shawna at every opportunity.

Shawna's younger sister, Valerie, served as her maid of honor. Three
years younger than Shawna, Valerie has always thought of herself as a
"girly-girl." She loved to dress up in Lori's good clothes and parade
around. She discovered makeup at around the age of ten, and boys at
eleven. She has been a handful ever since, though her parents have
never once complained. Once she survived into her older teenaged
years relatively unscathed, Valerie seemed to find herself again, and
she has evolved to become a wonderful friend, daughter, and sister.

I had mentioned Jesse Wilhoit earlier. Kay and I were honored to
attend Jesse's wedding to Brittany. Bryan Watkins was his best man,
and Eric and I both stood up for him. Jesse stayed at Maryland for
seven years, helping Alan Russo build a powerful program there. He
was too good to remain an assistant for long, though. In 1992, he
took the head coaching position at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.
While coaching and building a very successful program, he also
continued his education, eventually earning his Doctorate in Sports
Management. The minute he stepped off the podium after the award
ceremonies, the President of the University offered Jesse the post of
Athletic Director. Jesse, of course, accepted, and he and Brittany,
along with their two kids, have lived in Oxford ever since. I tend to
call him Doctor Wilhoit whenever I can, just to watch him turn
several shades of red.

By the time Jesse and Brittany got married, Spencer had taken a deep
breath and come out of the closet. He brought a boyfriend to Jesse's
wedding, which kind of scandalized the parents, but didn't bother any
of us. By then, all his closest friends knew about it, and anybody
who had a problem with it found themselves outside our tight little
group.

Since then, Spencer has had some tough times. He found a wonderful
man named Thomas Albertson, and they were quick to realize they truly
loved each other. After a couple of years of living together, they
took their vows in front of a gathering of friends. Unfortunately,
Spencer's parents wouldn't accept their only son's choices, and they
stayed away. His sister was there, though, in a show of support.

Unbeknownst to anybody at the time, however, Thomas had, sometime in
the past, encountered the AIDS virus. Spencer and Thomas had several
wonderful years together, followed by two very difficult years.
Spencer nursed his lover throughout Thomas' long decline, until he
finally succumbed in January of 2000. It took Spencer a long, long
time to recover, and he is still healing. The one good aspect of
those last years was the reconciliation with his parents. When they
saw, even secondhand, the love and devotion shared by their son and
his love, they swallowed their pride and called Spencer. I'm sure
that reunion was painful and joyful, full of tears and apologies on
both sides.



* * * * * * * * * *



The summer I hired Elena turned out to be Danielle Nickerson's last
summer with us. She was swept off her feet by a grad student named
Robert Milano, an MBA candidate with large ambitions. Robert ended up
on a management fast-track with a Fortune 100 company. They moved
from the D.C. area to Dallas, and then to Los Angeles. From there,
they spent a year in Tokyo, eighteen months in the Netherlands, and
stints in Chicago, Madrid, and New York. They finally settled on a
gentlemen's farm in Connecticut, when Robert became a Group Vice-
President. They have an apartment in London, a villa in the south of
France, and a condo in Aspen. After so much moving around, Danielle's
glad to be able to finally set down some roots for her family. She
and Trent made their peace after their rather acrimonious breakup in
college. Trent and Robert will never be friends, but at least they
can sit down at the same table now.

Trent, for his part, has been married and divorced twice. He says
now he won't get married again, but I think that's just the residue
from his last breakup talking. He's got a lot to offer; he just
hasn't found the right lady as yet. He's running Spring Lake for me
during the summer, and the indoor facility we built a few years ago
the rest of the year.

Eric Johnson, who has been at my side since we were playing club
ball together, is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of
Porter Enterprises. His offhand comment during our early years of
operation, about Sean becoming a millionaire by the time he was
thirty, was oddly prophetic.

He hasn't been far behind me, however. I gave him a ten-percent
piece of Porter Enterprises after our third year of operation. In no
small part because of his efforts, that stake is now worth a heck of
a lot of money.

Eric and Keisha deserve a story of their own. They stayed together
all through college, and then things kind of blew up. Keisha wanted
to go to law school at the University of Chicago, and Eric wanted to
develop the Southeast for us. Keisha, a very strong-willed woman,
followed her dream. Eric, a very strong-willed man, followed his.
Their relationship was the price they both paid.

Eventually, Eric married on the rebound, rarely a good idea. It
lasted less than five years, and produced two children, a girl they
named Chantelle and a boy, Oman. Keisha met a high-powered litigator
while she was interning at a big Chicago firm. They got married after
her bar exams. She went to work for the U.S. District Attorney's
office in Chicago, and almost immediately the conflicts began at
home. Keisha's husband, Perry Kaiser, convinced her she should be a
stay-at-home mom. For the sake of her marriage and her children, she
agreed to give it a try. However, after a couple of years of putting
up with Perry's long hours at work billing clients whose moral
accounts were pretty much bankrupt, she had enough. She hired the
sharpest divorce attorney in the Midwest, and together they took her
husband to the cleaners. Adultery, mental cruelty, and an ill-advised
attempt to hide assets doomed Perry's efforts to escape unscathed. In
the final settlement, Keisha owned their house, free and clear, along
with a substantial bank account, and she went back to the District
Attorney's office a much happier person.

At our ten-year high school reunion, they both showed up alone, and
immediately found each other. Eric had been divorced for a couple of
years, and Keisha was still feeling the flush of victory and freedom.
They ended up celebrating together that night in an age-old fashion.

Within a few months, Eric had moved back to the area to be with
Keisha. We turned the Southeast Division over to Kip Wilkinson, who
reported directly to Eric, now working from our home office. Keisha
and Eric were married a year later, and have added two more kids to
their combined family.



* * * * * * * * * *



There are a couple others you might be curious about. Jorge Mendoza
is still working with me. He's developed a great program for teaching
keepers, something we call Keeper Conflict. He travels around the
country, running three versus three tournaments, with a strong
emphasis on goal defense. It's been a runaway success, and his
programs have helped shape many of the top collegiate and pro keepers
in America over the past several years. He's got ambitious plans to
expand into Mexico and Central America, and I'm excited about his
program. He also owns a piece of Porter Enterprises, and he's earned
it many times over.

Jorge's sister, Kristina, stayed in Texas after her junior year of
college. She married a policeman in Austin after she graduated. She
and her husband have three kids.

Molly O'Toole married her redhead from St. Louis, Patrick Kildare.
He works as an accountant, and they live now in Kansas City. They
have four kids, including a set of twin girls who will be just as
beautiful as their mother some day. Patrick is developing a fine mop
of gray hair trying to keep his brood in line. They have a big house
out in the suburbs, with a guest cottage they have turned over to me
for when I am in town.

Molly's brother, Josh, also married a girl he met at school. They
live in Pennsylvania, but they come back to visit the grandparents at
least once a year.

Who else?

Let's see... I lost contact with Alex after she left Gainesville,
before my junior year. I have no idea what has become of her. I have
occasionally thought about trying to find her, but I have never
followed up on the thought. Nothing good can come of it in the long
run. I am well enough known in sports circles. If she wanted to
contact me, she would be able to do so fairly easily, through my
offices if nowhere else. I haven't heard from her, so I have to
assume she's satisfied with the way we left things.

Erin Hughes went on to law school, and marriage. She and Kayla met
often over the two years we all were in Gainesville, but they never
developed a close friendship. I will leave it at that: Erin and her
family have a story of their own, but it is not mine to tell.

My brother-in-law and best friend, Jake Lehigh, married the love of
his life the summer after Jaimie graduated from Grinnell. He attended
pharmacy school at Iowa, and Jaimie taught the third grade in Iowa
City. After he got his degree, they came back home, and Jake began
working at Lehigh Drugs.

He had ambitions, though. He looked into the future, and foresaw
intense competition. Jake, his father, and his sister began to
position Lehigh Drugs for years to come. They opened a second
location, and then a third.

While Jake was building his family's business, Jaimie was busy
building their family. They bought a house close to their parents, a
three-bedroom fixer-upper that they quickly outgrew. Next came a four-
bedroom split-level, followed a couple of years later by the house
they are in today, a five-bedroom colonial that's finally big enough
for them and their five children. The two oldest boys, Jacob and
Brett, share one bedroom. Next is thirteen-year-old Lexi, who, as the
only girl, has her own room and bathroom. The babies of the family,
ten-year-old Jonathan and eight-year-old Matthew, also share a room
cluttered with clothes, gaming consoles, and action figures.

Jaimie presides over it all with a calm efficiency. She's a big
woman now, a great match for such a large man as Jake Lehigh. Easy to
smile, she rules over her household with a firm and loving touch.
There is no question of who is in charge at the Lehigh house, and
Jake couldn't be happier.



* * * * * * * * * *



And what of my family?

My older brother, Michael, and his wife, Gayle, had two children.
Michael is the area manager for a chain of auto parts stores, and
Gayle works for a big insurance company. Theirs is an ordinary
existence, perfect for them. They are happy, which makes me happy.

Stephen, and Tara, and Kyle, is another story. Stephen and Tara
never got married, but they had another baby a year after they
graduated from high school.

It was all just too much for their relationship to withstand.
Stephen was working for the Spring Lake Park District during the day,
and delivering pizzas at night, trying to keep up with their expenses
with two small kids.

They finally agreed to disagree, and they split up for good. Tara
moved back in with her parents, putting the kids in Jaimie's old
room, and Stephen found a cheap apartment near Spring Lake. Neither
of them is particularly happy, but they were pretty miserable
together. Perhaps this is the best for them. Kyle, at least, is going
to college, courtesy of his grandparents and his uncle, who is an
anonymous donor as far as anyone knows. Perhaps he will be able to
break the cycle his parents found themselves trapped within.



* * * * * * * * * *



Aside from my wife and my children, my greatest pleasure comes from
my work. Porter Enterprises, right from the start, influenced the
progression of American soccer, and that has continued unabated.
Porter-trained players are on every professional team in America, and
Division One colleges regularly recruit players if they have Porter
clinics on their sheets. American soccer now competes with the elite
national teams, and Porter players are prominent on both the men's
and the women's teams, both as players and as coaches. In fact, both
teams train for weeks prior to international competitions at our
complex in Texas, where Rico Montenegro is in charge. What Bolliteri
has done for American tennis, what Karolyi does for American
gymnastics, Porter Enterprises has done, and is doing, for North
American soccer.

When I see how great these kids coming up are at the game, I know
America's future on the world stage is assured. The average player in
a Porter travel team clinic now could outplay the Sean Porter of
twenty years ago, and hardly break a sweat. It's scary how good these
kids are.

And Kaitlynn Porter, I can say with only a touch of fatherly
exaggeration, is one of the best I have ever seen. Better than her
old man? By a long shot. She'll be an All-American her junior year in
high school. She'll get lots of attention from publications like
"Soccer Today" and "American Soccer Online," the premier Internet 
source for all things soccer, because of her lineage, but she'll hold 
their attention because of her skills.

And standing above all is the one person who I can proudly say is
responsible for it all: my lovely wife, Kayla Lehigh Porter. She has
been my rock, my solace, my joy, my reason. She has kept me focused
all these years, has been by my side through it all. She is the
strongest person I will ever know, and it still amazes me to have her
waking up in my bed every morning. 

One night, when we were on our honeymoon, Kayla and I were resting
in each other's arms. We were cooling down, letting the air-
conditioning in our suite wick away the sweat of our recent
exertions. She had her head resting on my shoulder, and I had my arm
around her, my hand languidly brushing up and down her back.

"Do you remember that night we watched 'It's a Wonderful Life'
together?" she asked me quietly.

"Of course," I replied. "We were in your basement, your senior year
of high school. With Jake and Jaimie."

I could feel her smile against my skin. She hugged me tighter for a
moment. "And do you remember what I told you that night?"

"About your favorite character? Sure, it was George Bailey's wife,
Mary Bailey."

Kayla craned her neck so she could look at me. She smiled sweetly,
and then put her head back down again.

"Wrong. I said my favorite character was Mary Hatch."

"The same person."

"Mary Hatch became Mary Bailey, yes. But when I was young, I always
identified with the girl, more than the woman she became."

"And now?" I asked.

She rolled over to lie on top of me. She gave me several small
kisses before saying anything.

"I loved Mary Hatch because she knew what she wanted from a very
early age," she whispered. "And she realized her dream." 

She wriggled against me, getting a little more comfortable. Feeling
her body moving on mine triggered a reaction in me, one that quickly
became obvious to us both. She shifted her hips, and I felt my cock
slide home. Kayla sighed contentedly and whispered, "And so am I."

Kip Wilkinson saw the true Kayla, lo these many years ago, when he
asked her, in childish innocence, if she was an angel. She is an
angel, my angel, and I cherish her each and every day. It's the least
she deserves, and she is more than I deserve. If I have been guided
to this point in my life, as I occasionally reflect, then it has been
my angel who has done the gentle guiding. I will trust her to
continue to guide me, with her strong and steady personality, until
the end of my days.





THE END





  
EPILOG