Chinese Handcuffs Read Online Free PDF Page B

we’ll have this game.”
    The buzzer sounds, and the players take their spots. Wenatchee gets the ball in easily and brings it up slowly, once again under tremendous pressure, working down those last agonizing seconds. Each of Chief Joe’s players is glued to her man, and Wenatchee works furiously to get someone open on picks but is shut off. With eight seconds remaining, Renee Halfmoon breaks for the hoop up high behind her high post’s perfectly set screen on Jen, and Jen spins off to catch her. For a second it appears Renee has her beaten, but Jen miraculouslyslides to a spot between Renee and the hoop and plants herself. An astonished Renee desperately strains to switch direction at the same time that she pulls up short to avoid the charging foul; but it’s too late, and she flips the ball underhanded toward the hoop. It bounces straight back at them off the front of the rim, striking the court at their feet, headed for out-of-bounds. Both girls dive, neither sure who touched it last, and Jen is able to get her fingertips on it a split second before Renee crashes off-balance into her legs, and the crowd rises in unison to the sound of Jen’s head cracking against the hardwood like a cantaloupe dropped from the rafters. The ref’s whistle calling a loose ball foul on Renee Halfmoon and the game-ending buzzer sound together, and with both teams in the penalty situation, Jen is about to get a chance few athletes ever get and, truth be told, few want. She struggles to her feet; but the court and the crowd and the players spin as if in a slow-motion food processor, and she sinks back to the floor. The players gather around her, followed closely by Dillon Hemingway, the trainer, pushing his way through, kneeling and sticking three fingers in front of her face. “How many?” he yells over the crowd.
    Jennifer slaps his hand away. “I can see,” she lies. “Just give me a sec.”
    Dillon looks back to Coach Sherman, who is still on her way, and waves her back to the bench.
    There is no time on the clock as Jen stands at the top of the key alone. Players from both teams stand behind her, awaiting the outcome of their season, which rests unconditionally on Jen’s ability to drop a freebie under pressure. There will be no rebound, no last-second desperation jumper, but none of that is clear to Jen, whose brain is swimming. She bounces the ball slowly, shaking her head, willing away the throbbing pain deep in the rear of her skull and forcing together as one the two hoops she sees floating before her. Jennifer Lawless has made a living out of free throws all season long, and she has yet to give in to pressure of any kind, and she won’t now if she can just focus on the rim. She shakes her head again, bouncing the ball deliberately, buying precious seconds, and blocking out the screaming crowd. She holds the ball a second longer, then lets it go as darkness crowds in. She does not see it snap the bottom of the net, nor does she hear the Chief Joseph fans erupt.

CHAPTER 3
    Jennifer tried to lift her head from the pillow, but the throbbing pain forced it back. Lights flashed across the ceiling and walls, and a vaguely familiar silhouette sat motionless against the window to her left. It took her a moment to realize the wail of the siren came from the vehicle in which they rode. Slowly the evening’s events crept back into her head. She squinted again at the figure in the window and realized it was her sister, Dawn. Tears streamed down Dawn’s face as she stared silently out the window. Jen felt a hand on her head, looked up and behind her to see Coach Sherman, sitting next to Dillon.
    â€œNasty spill,” the coach said, and Dawn’s head snapped around, relief pouring almost instantly over her face. She leaned over and hugged Jen, then buried her face in Jen’s shoulder.
    Jennifer looked back up at her coach. “Did it go in?”
    â€œYes indeedy, it