Page 76 of Putting Out
She paused and then smiled. Kenny smiled back.
“Make Luke pay.”
“I’ll make Luke pay,” she said simultaneously.
“Okay, why don’t you go hit the ball and see how far it can go?”
Reilly walked to the tee and addressed the ball. She took some time to settle her feet, let her spikes dig a little into the ground. She wore tight spandex jogging pants and a top which gave her free range of motion while holding in the heat.
Like she’d done a million times before, she took a deep breath in then slowly let it out as a way to calm herself before the first swing of the day. It didn’t matter if she was on practice range with no one watching or in a major tournament with swarms of people hanging over a rope barrier, the adrenaline she felt every time she stepped up to the ball was always the same.
The pure thrill of knowing she was about to do something she did better than most people on the planet was always there. This was her place in the world. This was where she belonged.
On the tee box.
The ball resting in the gentle slope. The weight of the driver in her hands.
It was time to transfer all the energy in her body to the energy in the stick and set a small round object in flight.
Reilly breathed again. She could almost taste the dew rising from the deep green blades of Savannah grass. Moist was a flavor. It combined with the spice of fear churning in her body.
This was good, she decided. It was the first time in a long time she had no idea how this was all going to turn out.
She steadied her feet. Set her hips. And as she’d done every day of her life since the first time Pop had put a golf club in her hands, she let it rip.
“Fore!” Kenny shouted to no one as he watched the ball sail right.
Reilly cringed as she watched it fall short and into the woods. She reached her hand out for another ball.
Static came over the line on the walkie-talkie attached to Kenny’s belt.
“Shake it off,” Odie told her.
Good idea. She lined her body up again and this time focused on the natural motion of her swing.
She swung and hit.
Reilly felt the difference in the impact. The speed in which the club had descended had almost forced her hips out of position, but she’d managed to hang on. She lifted her head in the air searching for a speck of white she knew would be her ball.
She found it. High in the air and moving faster and farther than she’d ever seen it go before.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, afraid her eyes were deceiving her. The ball started to drop from its miraculous height. It hit the soft earth and bounced grudgingly until it landed in the short grass… directly in front of the three-hundred-yard marker.
Silence reigned as Reilly and Kenny both tried to come to grips with what had happened. The walkie-talkie crackled to life again and it was as if Odie was standing between them.
“Two hundred and ninety-nine yards… and two feet.”
“Holy shit,” Kenny whispered. Then he whipped his head around to stare at Reilly. “Can you do it again?”
Reilly held out her hand and Kenny tossed her another tee and ball. Once again the ball took off into the air with a speed she’d never seen before.
“Mary, mother of …” Kenny stopped as the ball dropped and they waited for the outcome. “Three hundred yards and one inch.”
Reilly threw her arms up in the air and shouted. The driver fell from her hands and she jumped over it on her way to leap into Kenny’s arms. He twirled her about and lifted her high in the air, before he set her back to earth.
“Shit, you know what this means? You know what this means?”
No, she thought. She didn’t know what the hell it meant. That was frightening, too.
