by ButterflyEffect

Was it sadness I saw when I looked up? Heartbreak? Grief, even? Surely not, after all these years. "So tell me," I blurted, untrained in any methods of subtlety, "How do you move on in life after being a great athlete?"

"You don’t."

Now, finally, I was silent. You don’t. No more banana peppers to crunch, no more unpitted olives to gnaw on. I picked up a package of Saltines and stared down hard at my plastic task of unwrapping.

"But I thought you were going to teach me how to transition to the next phase of my life," I begged.

"I never did," Jack answered. "It’s as if someone accidentally died and I never got the chance to say what I wanted to say . . . to say good-bye."

wasoxygen, WanderingEng...whomever else. Great read.