An unwitting pedigree?

Ann doesn't know her father. She is now 13 years old and I had the sheriff take Louis away when she was 14 months of age. He never changed her diaper and I have none of the obligatory photos of father holding his infant daughter because he didn't. Since the divorce so long ago, Ann has spent the night with her father one time and that happened only because Jessica was there and watching closely.

But I have noticed over the years that biology will have its way. Ann has her father's darker skin while Jessica is more fair and red, like me. While Jessica appears to have inherited her father's height (Jessica is 6' and Louis 6' 3"), Ann is not so far behind and has, at 5' 7", long outgrown my piddling 5' 2". My hair is a dark Choctaw brown but Louis' is black and Ann's curly mane is much darker than mine.

I was surprised when Louis called tonight to check the results of the second track meet Ann competed in. I didn't know he was aware that Ann was running and he confirmed that she told him about the meet during one of their occasional phone calls . It is not like Louis to take an interest in any of the activities his children participate in. He never came to watch Jessica play softball or cheer at the many games I attended only to watch her jump around. He has never seen Ann play basketball or any of the other sports she works at. Only under my specific instructions that he not appear drunk or disheveled did Louis come to Jessica's graduation and behave himself long enough to see his eldest matriculate from high school and have pictures taken.

I was puzzled at his sudden interest in Ann's attempts at track and field. I have known Louis Davenport for over 20 years was married to him for 11 and I have never known him to be articulate about sport. He knows nothing about football and only professes to hate Oklahoma because he knows that pisses me off. I took him canoe'ing on our honeymoon and he whined to go home. He belittled softball as a "game for girls" and simply ignored cheerleading. He told me once that he was a "gymnast" in high school before he was sent, at 16, into a juvenile work camp for shooting and killing a black kid who winged Louis before Louis cut him down. Not adjudicated as an adult, Louis only stayed in the program for a year in 1973 or so because his Mama signed the papers for him to be shipped to Vietnam. Louis was "in country" at not even 18 and shooting at others legitimately.

I never listened much to what Louis said when we were married. In my book, you don't work or clean the house or contribute in other ways, you don't have a voice. Hell, I didn't know Louis was a track star.

I also never believe anything Louis says. So when he told me nonchalantly tonight that he likely still held records at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, in the running mile, the long jump and the hurdles, I was skeptical and found myself phoning his sister in Oregon to verify his claims. The sister didn't know if the records still held but confirmed that before Louis was sent away, the young bad boy was indeed possessed of an uncanny athletic ability in gymnastics (the rings) and in track and field. In addition to setting school records running the long distance hurdles, the sister said, Louis was a record miler, as well. He was not a short distance runner but one of the records he set was in the long jump.

Hmmmmmm. I was never a track star; my heart lies with team sports. I was never fast but I was quick. I relied on others to do what I could not pull off. I had no interest in pitting myself against any clock. I craved what I believed at the time to be a more cerebral challenge. I know now that there is no more intellectual challenge than to compete alone, against only your own endurance. I also know that, biologically, I make up only a small percentage of who my children are.

Louis chuckled in an unsettling and knowing manner when I reiterated his youngest daughter's accomplishments today: first place in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.6 seconds; first place in the long jump with an uncanny leap of 13' 4 1/2" that raised her coach's eyebrows; first place in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of less than 57 seconds; first place in the 200 meter flat out run.

Four gold medals.

"Been there, done that," Louis said smugly. Having verification, I realized it could be true.

Hmmmmmm....

If the apple doesn't fall far from the family tree, I hope Ann develops into a real track star and goes on to college without killing someone or being sent off to some distant war. I think I don't have much control at this point over the outcome.. May the Goddess watch over us all....