Gator Bowl

Mack Mackenzie smiled as he looked out the familiar back door window on the snow covered back yard. He was going to miss this when he went back to school in a couple of days.

The popping was dying down. He turned toward the stove. "Can I help you with that, Eddie?"

"Lord, no, Mack! You think I'm too feeble to handle popcorn?" said his step-mother, Edweena McKenzie. "You can take it to the living room when I get it finished up and buttered."

"Just like a man," said Charlene Thomphson from the kitchen table. "Never offer til the hard works over" This brought a laugh from the other soon-to-be football widows, Amy Grissom and Janet White.

"Now, what would you do without us, Charlene," he grinned.

"Don't know," she snorted with a grin, "but it'd be fun to fine out."

"That's it! I know when I'm not wanted," he said, inching toward the living room door.

"You ain't going nowhere," said Eddie, "untill you take the rest of this crap out to the testosterone brigade.

"Yes'm."

-------

Mack brought the bowl into the living room, where the men were generally ignoring the pre-game show. He sat the bowl down on the already crowded coffee table, then went over to sit by and swap licks with Kevin and Jamie.

"Kids," said Jack White, Jamie's father, with shake of his head.

"Like we never did the same stuff," said Michael McKenzie.

"No, we didn't," said Jack, "We were born old, Michael. Dignified and urbane, never did anything wrong, always polite to our parents..."

Phil Grissom, father of Jeffy, snorted his beer through his nose. "You Bastard, you did that on purpose!"

"Dignified," said Mack.

"Urbane," said Kevin.

"Never did anything wrong," said Jamie. "Hey, guess what!"

"You better not be about to cut the cheese again," said Kevin, scooching over.

"Aw, man! I haven't done that since middle school! Anyway, you know that tidal wave the other day?"

"Yeah," said Mack, "scary stuff."

"Joey was in it!"

"Crap!" said Phil, "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he called me yesterday when they got back to base. He was on the USS Marne River , out of Diego Garcia, and they passed right over it. Said he barely noticed it."

"Get out of town," said Michael.

"No, it's true," said Mack. "In deep water the wave is mostly below the surface. It's only when it hits shallow water that it builds up high."

"Did Diego get it?" asked Jack.

"Naw," said Jamie. "He said something about a deep trench or something protecting it."

"Anybody hear from the Griffins, yet?" asked Phil.

"Not a word," said Jack.

"Poor Tom," said Michael, "he was really looking forward to getting away with the family..."

"Damnit, can't we for once here what they're saying on the pre-game show without all this extraneous chatter?" growled Doug Thompson.

"Hell, Doug," said Michael, pointing the remote and pressing a couple of buttons, "there! Clossed captioning. Modern times a marvel ain't it?"

"He'd have to know how to read first," said Jack.

Doug sat back and gave them a dirty look.

"What good is all that jibber-jabber anyway, Doug?" said Phil. "We all know West Virginia's gonna kick FSU's butt."

"Bull," he said, glad to finally be discussing the game, "Bowden's Seminoles beat 'em in '82, he'll beat 'em again. _And_ the Mountaineers have lost ten of their last eleven bowl games."

"Didn't have my boy starting in those other games," he said with pride. "Most yardage gained this season than any of his teamates."

Kevin flinched, knowing his father was going to bring up his blowing off college later.

"Phil, when am I gonna educate any of you louts that you don't bet for the sentimental choice?" he said, shooting Kevin a dirty look.

There was a general uproar that Doug had had dared bet on FSU against West Virginia. Under the cover of the confusion, Kevin got up and left the room. Mack hung his head, then got up and followed him out.

-------

He caught up with him on the front porch.
"Hey, Kevin! Don't go man, game hasn't started yet!"

"Aw, I know, Mack. I just had to get some air. Dad's real envious of Jeffy being in a bowl game."

"You shouldn't let him get your goat, man. It's not like your back in high school. You've got a good job, making a decent living. He should be proud of you."

"Football's his life. Hardly ever thinks or talks of anything else, especially about how I got held back and blew any chance of a scholarship."

"That's his problem and hopefully he'll get over it one day."

"It's not totally his prob, bro. I miss him. I miss talking football with him." Kevin stared out over Lawndale's blanket of snow.

Mack sighed, wishing he knew what to say.

"I... " Kevin started, cut Mack an embarased look, then continued. "I miss talking football with you, too."

Mack gave Kevin a searching look. "Me too, Kevin."

"Well, I know I used to get on your nerves and all, but we had some good times, right?"

"The best."

"And back when we were in Scouts together, and Pop Warner football?"

"That time in second grade, when you beaned Brittany with that peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich?"

"And when you told me to see if that hornet's nest was occupied?"

"I didn't think you'd actually do it, man!"

The two men laughed and clapped each other on the shoulder.

"Good times, Mack."

"Nothing but."

"Hey, what about when you put that toy snake in Jane Lane's lunchbox?"

"Aw, man, I forgot about that! And she never figured out who did it, either."

"And when her brother came around to interrogate us, and you pretended to have that phobia?"

"And he ended up apologizing?!" Mack wheezed out as the two broke down into laughter.

"Hey," said Michael through the screen door. "If you two are finished picking out curtains, the games about to start."

"Be there in a minute, Dad," said Mack.

"Alright then," he smiled, then surveyed the sidewalk. "Guess Jake and Andrew ain't coming. More beer for the rest of us then." He shut the door.

Mack reached out to open the screen, when Kevin said, "Mack, wait a minute."

"Yeah?"

"Um, look... one of the guys at work... well, he told me what Mack Daddy really meant and... I didn't know, man. I'm sorry I called you that all those years."

"Hey, that's okay Kevin. Water under the bridge. I kinda knew you didn't know any better."

"Why didn't you tell me? I would have stopped if I knew."

Mack took on a pained expression. "All those years I tried to get you to stop and I had the solution right in... awwwww, MAN!!!"

The two of them went back inside, laughing, not noticing the dark SUV coming around the corner and passing the house for the tenth time that morning.

Inside the SUV Jake Morgendorffer was seething at himself. "First time I get invited to the McKenzie's New Years Bowl Game extravaganza and I can't ever remember the damned directions!!!" He drove on in not so quiet desperation.

_______

Thanks to RedlegRick for the suggestion of Grissom and Chaffee for the family names of the other two J's (although I didn't use Chaffee in this fic).

And of course, I couldn't help a leetle tie in with TAG's excellent "Nine Point Oh," from earlier in the thread.