Alma Mater

Chapter 11 - Alma Mater

Later that month, while I was flying out west, I got a text from Jane; "Text me when you get this. Not big, but need your input." My interest was piqued, and so I called her as we were parked for our turn. "So, I just got some interesting news" was how Jane started. "My high school, St. Anne's, wants me to speak at their sports banquet in April." I just imagined it being in the school cafeteria, cookies and punch provided by parents, and pizza ordered by the coaches.

"Yeah, I could probably finagle some time off" I replied.

"Okay, good, and Tom, we need to do some clothes shopping for you when we get back" she finished. We talked about a few other things, and hung up so I could get on with my flying duties.

When I got back from that trip, Jane and I spent the usual time after doing the usual thing we did almost as soon as I got back. Afterwards, lying in bed, Jane told me about the sports banquet. "It's kind of a big thing at St. Anne's, and really has been since around when I was in school."

I joked "Guess you were born too early."

Jane smiled at me. "We had a pretty decent rugby team when I went there, and they just got better afterwards. A lot of the success they had drove a lot of other success. St. Anne's was originally the academic school for girls in the city, and it's still very good in that regard, but sports took over." There was a bit of sadness in her voice, but some pride in her school as well.

The next couple months went by too quick, and I felt like I was flying way more than I wanted to be. Finally, the day of the banquet, I was sitting on our bed, and Jane walked out of the bathroom, dressed to the nines. "Jesus Jane, how do you do it?" I inquired, and she smiled her huge smile.

"Tom, I have to look good for tonight" she started, and then, getting the clothes she had chosen for me out of the closet "and you have to look good too."

I chuckled, and said "Are you just bringing me along to show me off."

Jane said, in her sweetest voice "Babe, I would never do that" and she laughed. Her clothing selections for me was a sport coat with a green dress shirt, and then my usual slacks and dress shoes. "School colors" she saw my question coming about the green shirt. "Like I said, have to keep up appearances" Jane explained, jokingly.

The drive across the border went faster than normal. Jane seemed to get more nervous the closer we got to her old high school. I held her hand eventually, and she calmed a bit. This didn't seem like nerves for speaking, though. I knew her to be pretty good about speaking to people, and she didn't get flustered easily in crowds. Something else was wrong. Jane and I made the smallest of talk, none of which had much of any substance. We pulled into the school, which was a respectable size for a girl's high school of about 600. I could tell the gym, built since Jane had graduated, was a bit larger than what a school that size would need, but given Jane's comment about sports, it made sense. I remembered playing against a Christian school in Topeka that had about 200 kids in the high school, and a gym that sat nearly 2,000. Those things happen when sports are involved.

I parked the car, and Jane escorted me to the entrance we were to use, or she was to use and I was to be escorted to, as she was the VIP. Jane kissed me, and said something that puzzled me "Just, Tom, please remember who you fell in love with."

I looked at her, confused, but still said "I'll always love you." Jane smiled, and we went through the doors. Almost immediately, she ran into the person organizing the whole thing, and was pulled away. I was left in a long hallway, probably the one that ran along one end of the gym. It took me a second to realize that this was the school's combination hall of fame and trophy cabinet. The area nearest to me was blank, and I saw that the most recent trophies were for this past season. I kept walking, seeing a lot of trophies, and on reading one, saw that quite a few happened to be provincial championships. Damn, St. Anne's was a powerhouse at rugby. I figured that Jane seemed a little sad about being left out from the glory years of her school.

I followed the case along, looking at a few things here and there, and before I knew it, I had run to just about the end of the long line of trophy cases. As I looked, I saw three provincial championships almost at the end, and then noticed that they happened to coincide with the years Jane was at the school. Then, I noticed all of the articles and awards had Jane's name and/or picture on them. It all came together, in a comical fashion, like something in a movie when the thickheaded character finally realized what was going on. I'm pretty sure I even heard a 'ding!' off in the distance. Jane wasn't part of the rugby team; she was the damn rugby team. I finally paid attention to the little memorabilia and news clippings, and I saw what looked like a younger version of my wife...because it was the younger version of my wife. Local papers everywhere, Jane's picture, pictures of the team with Jane in the center, a picture of four girls holding Jane, who was beaming, and even a national magazine article, again with a picture of Jane. The local newspaper that was front and center had the headline 'MAJESTIC' on it, which seemed to be a play on Jane's maiden name. Everything started from these years. Holy shit, my wife was not just a sex goddess, she was a rugby goddess as well.

I felt the elbow in my side, winced, and there was Jane. "Tom" she seemed like she didn't know what to say.

"Jesus Christ, Jane, why didn't you tell me I was marrying the female Jim Thorpe."

Jane laughed, but was also crying a little "Well, I wasn't that good at basketball or softball, but" and she trailed off. She looked up, and I followed her eyes to the wall above the trophy case. There sat a plaque, with Jane's senior picture, her years attended, and her various awards. The plaque was the largest one, simply to fit everything. The biggest award, from what I could tell, was provincial player of the year her senior year. I looked, turned, and hugged her. "Tom, it was a long time ago, and I can say I'm not the same person I was then" she seemed apologetic.

"Well, Jane, I'm not the same person who almost turned into the human torch, but here we are." That brought out a smile from her. I held her for a minute, admiring her career, before we walked into the gymnasium. As we walked in, I said to her "Just so you know, I averaged 7 points a game for my high school basketball team my senior year" and Jane laughed hard, for a second, and then patted me on the head. God I love her.

Jane walked me up to the front, and when I went to join her at the front table, the event organizer said "Sorry sir, I'll take you to the table reserved for guests of the honored guests." I looked dejected, but a kiss from Jane made it better. Jane mouthed to me 'I'll see you later', and I gave her the look of a man who would hold her to that promise. I was seated with a group of people who looked to be the type who were more of the school benefactor, and less of the 'spouse of a former rugby star.'

I made some small talk, and one of the people at the table asked who I was with, and I told them I was with Jane. Conversation ceased a bit, and one man grabbed my hand and shook it, saying "Congratulations, you're a very lucky man." I said thanks, suspiciously. Everyone went back to the general chit-chat, but there were an awful lot of questions thrown my way about Jane. When I had a bit of downtime, I looked around at the gymnasium. First, calling it a gym was a disservice to what it really was; an arena. Second, given the limited success the basketball team had compared to the rugby team, I figured that the primary reason for this building was to host the sports banquet every year. It probably sat a good 2,000 people. My suspicions were confirmed when the place slowly filled up as I waited, almost to capacity.

The time wound down to 7pm, and the banquet pretty much started right on the dot. A number of people spoke, everything from school administration, up to a rich benefactor. The final speaker before Jane was Gerald Thorn, longtime head coach of the rugby team. I had seen him in the picture of Jane's team, looking much younger. He must have been early in his career when Jane was playing. He spoke of the team, of the importance of tradition, of the need to remember those who came before us. His final line was "So, with that, I give you the best way to introduce the next speaker."

The projector had been warming up and suddenly cut to a 25-ish year old video tape of a rugby game. One team, I was guessing it was St. Anne's, was in green, and was in their own end zone. One girl had the rest of the team around her, as a couple players in white substituted. The girl in the center of the green huddle wore 8, and looked like...no, whoa, it was Jane. The referee called for the two teams to come together, the scrum formed, and it looked like nothing happened, until, just as a girl in white picked up the ball from the back, she was hit, really hard, by...Jane, who tumbled after the hit, jumped up, picked up the ball, flattened another girl, and was finally brought down by someone playing really far back. Everything sort of happened so fast, that the next thing I saw was Jane go flying through a pile of players, and then everyone on the St. Anne's side went absolutely nuts, and a few seconds later went even crazier as the ref appeared to end the game.

Holy shit. Jane single-handedly won a rugby game. Jane wasn't Jim Thorpe, Jane was Wonder Woman.

Jane stepped up to the podium, and the crowd roared. She smiled, seemingly a little embarrassed, and waited for the crowd to quiet down before delivering her speech. It wasn't a long one (The speech by someone who had donated money for the new track was over double the length), but it was eloquent, funny, and beautiful. She spoke of her time at St. Anne's, of how proud she was of their athletic and their academic achievements, and of the importance of sisterhood. She finished her remarks with "And the most important of all that you can find is love. Love for your classmates, for your teammates, for your rivals, for your friends, for sports, for education, for others" she looked at me, and I saw her eyes were glassy "and most importantly, for yourself, because love for yourself is truly the greatest thing." This crowd was at their feet as she ended her speech, and she looked right at me, smiling her happy/sad smile.

After a few other remarks, and listing of all the sporting accomplishments that their girls had achieved that year, the banquet broke for a few minutes to hand out champagne to the people sitting in the VIP section, and for the folks in the stands to get ready. Jane was able to sneak over to my seat. "Jane, that as a beautiful speech" I congratulated her, and she beamed.

I gave her a big hug, and she whispered to me "We'll sing the Alma Mater, then I'll be free once dinner and dancing starts." I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and she smiled at me as she headed up to the front. Drinks handed out, the speakers all led the singing of the school song. Jane smiled at me the whole time she sang it.

The banquet involved food, a live band, a lot of shaking hands and meeting people, and a lot of names I would forget. Jane had lied about getting me near her, as everyone wanted to talk to her by now. I, in an attempt to find someone I knew, happened upon her parents. We talked for a while, and I congratulated them on having an amazing daughter. They were beaming as well.

I was wandering the crowd, waiting for the dinner rush to end, when I was approached by a short woman. "I'm sorry, are you Jane Majewski's husband?" I replied that I was, and she pulled me over to a table of women who all looked to be about my age. She introduced the group; she was Sally Nelson, and the others were Ashley Chisholm, Josephine Franetti, and a woman just shy of my height named Michelle Davis. I shook all of their spouses' hands, and got a lot of the story from the women there. Jane had been the team captain her Junior and Senior years, and co-captain her Sophomore year. She had been a force on the team (I had deduced that by her awards), and had been a mentor to all the girls on the team, essentially becoming a second coach. All of them spoke highly of Jane.

One of the husbands, who had apparently gone to one of the boys' catholic schools, had even known Jane back in the day. "Oh yeah, all the guys were scared shitless of her, because she was tougher than any of us on the field. She even ran over Chris' brother when a handful of us were playing rugby in the park one time. Jane was the only girl who played under the guys' rules in pick-up games, and even then, she was scary as hell." I figured I'd have to ask Jane about Chris and his brother.

I was enjoying my time talking to them, when suddenly Sally jumped up "JANE!" and she hugged my wife, who had just come up to the table. Jane sat with us for a while, and it seemed like a meeting of old friends who hadn't seen each other in 20+ years. Jane was crying by the time she had to leave the table, so I said my goodbyes, and left with Jane.

"Honey, you've got an awesome group of friends here" I congratulated her.

She, through glassy eyes, said back "I know. Thank you, Tom. Thank you." We got in line for food, and Jane was pulled away to go sit with a handful of rich donors. I decided to sit with Jane's parents, and had a great conversation about their daughter. The band was playing, a bunch of high school girls were dancing, and I could see Jane across the floor, enjoying her time. I was in the same room as her, and I missed her. I got up to take the empty plates at the table away, and ended up bidding on a week in Grand Haven, on the other side of Michigan, for the silent auction. Towards the end of the night, I found out I had won the auction, and turned to see Jane there; I got to get my picture taken with St. Anne's rugby legend Jane Majewski. The photo I got of that would be, for years, a conversation piece that my wife absolutely hated.

I had gotten us a hotel in Windsor, just across the river from Detroit, for the night. After everything wound down, I finally saw Jane again. She was finally free of people to talk to, and we almost literally ran into each other just off the dance floor. I took her hand, and looked at her. Her eyes were glowing, the bluest I'd seen since the wedding. "Tom, thank you for tonight. I never realized how much I wanted this." She kissed me, and I only smiled. We finally left the school around 11, after Jane had gotten a chance to talk to her parents, and then finally have a drink with some of her former teammates. Everyone promised to stay in touch. Jane spoke excitedly about everything on the short drive across town. I talked about her teammates, and was impressed about the stories that were told, and even more impressed with being able to watch her playing days. We got to the hotel, I got us the room, and we went upstairs. I was the gentleman, again, and let Jane have the restroom first. I was done shortly after, and opened the door to Jane, lying in bed, completely naked. "Make love to me, Thomas" she smiled, huge, mainly because my eyes went wide as soon as I saw her. She always had that effect on me.

After we were done, Jane lay on top of me, head on my chest, eyes closed. "I can't believe I've worn out Wonder Woman" I smirked, and Jane lifted her head up and looked at me.

"What are you talking about?" she said, sleepily.

"Well, I found out tonight that my wife single-handedly won a rugby game by herself, was tougher than the boys, is loved by all, intelligent, stunningly beautiful...Jane, you're Wonder Woman, aren't you?"

Jane gave me a look, and laid her head back on my chest "Then that makes you Captain America, babe." I tickled her, but she gently pushed my hands away with hers. I was ruining a moment. I just put my arms around her again, and we held each other.