AR - The truth

“I want to know why it’s so important,” Adella insists, and you are still surprised. Adella knew? Of course she knew. Growing up with her father, she has to be suspicious of everyone. And Stef might not be as big a deal as Adella’s father, but she’s still a criminal.

Adella has a nose for this.

Stef smiles at her wife. “I thought this would be a conversation that we’d have in the hot tub.”

“Don’t stall,” Adella warns.

“She’ll tell you,” Jessica assures you both quickly, giving her wife yet another nudge in the ribs. “And please eat. Don’t let it get cold.”

You politely try to do that as Stef sighs theatrically. “All right, Adella. If you must know. I figured you would do it for the love of the game and to see some little kids have a good time. To understand this, you need to understand American politics. Right now if you want to get anywhere in politics, you have to stand out. The chief of police in Gurlberg wants to run for governor. To do that and win, she needs big victories that she can brag about.”

“There’s nothing big about Winter Soccer,” you remark.

“Not by itself. But as part of a larger pattern? She has to get in the headlines and stay there, and she plans to do that by getting several wins in a row. This will be one of them. The headline she wants is this: God helps downtrodden Christian conservatives defeat degenerate poor non-Christians who are probably also immigrants.” Stef shrugs. “You happen to actually be an immigrant.”

“I’m a visitor,” Adella corrects her flatly. “I am not staying. I’m going to rescue Riley from your horrible country.”

“That’s fine, but help us out first. You get the idea. If the church team rises up and beats the much larger public school team, that’s the kind of press that this woman wants,” Stef says with a shrug.

“It would be a good story. Aside from politics. The kids aren’t bad kids just because we don’t agree with their parents’ politics,” you point out.

“It would be a perfectly fine story if it happened fairly. But they fully intend to cheat. I’ve already done the legwork. Their team? It only has four locals on it. They’re poaching skilled soccer kids from other churches. I’m worried that some of them are too old, so they’ll be big and even harder to handle. So yes.” Stef waves her fork. “I want our team, which is not going to cheat, to at least have good coaching.”

You push your plate away and sit back, head spinning. That’s a lot. Some dirty tactics about practice would be one thing, but actually bringing in outside players? You’ve seen sports movies where the evil teams do this. But… it makes sense when you see that it’s not about soccer, it’s about this woman’s campaign.

The chief of police. “Her name’s Ellen, right?” you ask. “I think my mom knows her.”

Stef and her wife exchange a look.

“Of course,” she says. “Your mom, me—we all go way back with Ellen.”