{"id":4105,"date":"2013-12-05T13:55:49","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T13:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=4105"},"modified":"2013-12-04T23:01:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T23:01:20","slug":"forrest-chump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=4105","title":{"rendered":"Forrest Chump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forrest Chump by Brian53<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forrest sat on the bench at the training complex his head in his hands, where had it all gone wrong. He needed to talk to someone.<\/p>\n

The old tea lady had come out for a fag to find a distraught young man sitting on the smoker\u2019s bench. She ignored him while she got out her battered tin of golden Virginia and began making a smoke. With a final lick it was finished, she lit up and turned to the bhoy \u201cWell young man what have you to say for yourself\u201d<\/p>\n

Forrest started at the beginning. \u201cI remember when I was at school and addicted to football, my primary school teacher always shook her head when I would flunk the end of year exams, I can hear her voice as if it was yesterday\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll never amount to anything young James, kicking that ball around all day\u201d He sighed, he had liked that teacher. She would always say to him \u201cstupid is as stupid does, James. Don\u2019t ever forget that.\u201d He hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The old tea lady took a long drag and blew smoke rings into the air. \u201cGo on Jamsie\u201d James stared into space for a minute before he continued. \u201cI was good at tennis once you know, they thought I would amount to something but I have always wanted to play football.\u201d The old tea lady smiled as James continued. \u201cI remember the time a guy called Andrew Barron Murray had come down to the Prestwick Tennis Club, obviously I never knew who he was back then but he was interested in my two-handed backhand and made me show him the technique again and again until he\u2019d perfected it\u201d<\/p>\n

The old tea lady\u2019s smoke break was up and she laid a hand on his shoulder \u201cYou\u2019ll be fine Jamsie, you\u2019ll be fine\u201d She went inside. The kit man had been watching Jamsie all morning and was concerned. He watched the old lady go back inside and took his chance to join the bhoy on the bench.<\/p>\n

Forrest didn\u2019t notice the change in listener and continued to reminisce. \u201cI remember all the youth games fondly but the highlight for me was the four year contract in 2009\u2026…\u201d<\/p>\n

The old tea lady came out for her second smoke break of the day to find Jamsie talking away to himself and the old kit man asleep on the bench beside him. She sat down on the other side of Jamsie, took out her tin and quickly made a ciggy.<\/p>\n

Forrest had paused when the old tea lady had sat down; she had smiled at him as she made her cigarette. He thought back to recent events and couldn\u2019t believe how daft he had been. What was he thinking? It had always been his dream to play football at the highest level and here he was allowing people to lead him astray. Getting smashed out of his head with alcohol, he was meant to be an athlete ffs. What had it achieved? His football form was suffering and he was not only letting himself down but also the club and more importantly the fans. He had died of embarrassment when he had been arrested, how would he ever live it down?<\/p>\n

The old tea lady put her arm around Jamsie \u201cThe future is in your own hands James; just remember what I told you all those years ago, stupid is as stupid does, James. Don\u2019t ever forget that.\u201d He Had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forrest Chump by Brian53 Forrest sat on the bench at the training complex his head in his hands, where had it all gone wrong. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/forrest-chump.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-14d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4107,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions\/4107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}