Rickie Vaughne has not had the easiest of lives to start out with. When he was born he was in the custody of a 17-year-old who had no concept of reality what so ever. She simply threw him in an orphanage the day he was born and forgot about him for the rest of her life. She did not know who his biological father was. It could have been one of the hundreds of men. It is the lifestyle she lived and unfortunately cost Rickie much of his childhood. When he first entered the orphanage he was just a baby.
As he grew through his early years it was the only life he had ever known. He lived in Southeastern Virginia, an area almost 90% white, and was the only black child in the orphanage. White family after white family came but they all pased on young little Rickie as they preferred to take the white children. The majority of kids taken in orphanages are infants and as Rickie grew into a toddler his chances of finding a permanent home dwindled and dwindled.
That was until one day when an old black women came into the orphanage looking to find a child to adopt. She was never able to have her own children and after getting divorced she decided that she wanted to raise a child. The staff at the orphanage didnt even present Rickie to the curious couples anymore. They thought he had no appeal over the babies and small children. He was almost 5 by this time and seemed to be destined along the path of some of the other “for-lifers” in the orphanage. These kids simply never were adopted and lived their entire childhood in a cramped overcrowded home. Rickie did not know how to deal with these things. He was given responsibilities such as caring for younger kids and cleaning the house. He was thrown into the harsh realities of the world at age 5. When the old lady came in, her name was Martha, she looked at all the babies but questioned the ethics of adopting one. She felt like she would just be overlooking some more needy children and asked the caretakers if they had any older children. The caretakers were shocked by this but soon agreed and brought Rickie and one other boy, named Michael, to meet Martha. “Stand up straight” she barked at both of them. They complied. She stepped towards them and began to inspect them through her old and faded purple reading glasses. She looked them up and down as if they were a painting in a great museum of art. She stepped back and looked at both boys in the eye. She waited for a second and then signaled for one of the caretakers to come over to her. “Which one of these boys is the best behaved?” she muttered to the caretaker so the boys could not hear. “Michael of course” the caretaker replied, “He always does all his chores and is nice to the other children”. “Is that so?” Martha inquired inquisitively. “ Alright that settles it, I’ll take Rickie”
The caretaker was speechless for a minute before finally sputtering out “are you sure? Rickie doesn’t behave himself. He gets into fights with the other children and disrespects his elders” “I do not believe that I stuttered” Martha shot back with a dominating intensity. “Please draw up the paperwork and I will wait in the lobby to collect my child. And as for you”, she pointed at Rickie, “Gather up your things and say goodbye to your friends”. Rickie was flabbergasted at what just happened. He was getting adopted! But why? Michael was better behaved and he knew it. He had always expected Michael to be chosen for that reason alone. Rickie was both overly excited but also extremely worried and confused. He didn’t understand why he had gotten adopted and he wanted to know if he was being tricked. He vowed to himself that he would never let his guard down and he would never accept this new woman as his mother. He wanted to but the hard life in the orphanage had taught him to never trust anyone and to never allow himself to love.
That day the two were riding home together in the car and neither had spoken until she pulled into her driveway. The house was modest, nothing fancy. “Here we are” she announced as she stepped out of the car. Rickie did not move until she turned around and glared at him with eyes that pretty much make you do whatever they wanted. They stepped in the door and so began his life with Martha. It was not bad, but it was not always ideal. Martha was the strictest woman to ever walk the earth. She kept strict bedtimes and wake-up times, forced him to eat every green on his plate, do every last piece of homework to perfection, and don’t spend more than 45 minutes in front of that “idiot box” a day. The latter may have been one of the hardest for Rickie to follow. Soon after moving in he quickly adapted to the rules of bedtimes and food because they were similar to what he had endured in the orphanage. In the orphanage, the caretakers provided no effort in education or entertainment for the older kids. They simply wheeled in a TV and that was the extent of their effort. Rickie had previously spent hours upon hours a day watching TV without any interaction with people. Now that he was at Martha’s he had to find other ways to enjoy himself from day to day. He began to read some, not his choice, but perhaps more importantly he began to play sports outside with the fellow neighborhood kids. The game the boys loved to play was Football.
They saw football in the media and the saw on the TV. Rickie had some experience with Football, he had played it a few times with the older kids at the orphanage had they decided to play outside for once in a while. He knew the basics, but it was with the neighborhood boys where he really found his stride. He would spend hours upon hours playing with them. Somedays he would use absolutely none of his TV time because he was too busy playing football. Soon Rickie began to dominate the boys but he was hungry to learn about the bigger and better complexities of the game. He heard from one of his friends that there were people who got paid a million bucks to play football on TV. Rickie had to know about this and he soon began to watch the games on Sunday. He never got to see the end of the games and he always had to ask his friends how they ended because Martha never gave him enough time to watch the games. Finally, Rickie was tired of that he brokered a deal with Martha that would allow him to watch all 3 hours of each game on Sunday in exchange for extra chores and No TV on other days of the week. Rickie began to do this and soon became the biggest fan of the local team, The Norfolk Seawolves. He knew every players name and their position plus their College and High School.
It continued like this for several years until Rickie entered Junior High at age 11. Rickie had been looking forward to this for a long time as it meant he would finally have the chance to football with a team for actual fans. He immediately tried out for the team and made it along with a few of his neighborhood pals. The team was absolutely terrible that season, going 1-7, but it was hardly Rickie’s fault. As a Cornerback, he set a junior high record for Pick-sixes with 13 over 8 games. Martha would never come to these games though. Rickie thought that this was because she was disappointed in him but she always told him it was because she didn’t approve of the violence in the game. This did not detour Rickie as he continued to begin his rise to dominance playing in the junior circuit.
During all of these years, Rickie had never lost his sense of adventure and breaking the rules. Martha would ground him and ground him but he never could be contained by her. When he was younger the things were innocent enough, exploring in the woods, pulling childish pranks, but as he grew older the things grew more dangerous like drugs and sex. Martha knew about these things but never mentioned them by name to him. Rickie vowed to never listen to her advice and continued his descent into the underbelly of the area he lived in. During all of this he was the star players of the football team. He set a state record for interceptions and blocks his Junior year and then broke all those records his senior year. He was the most popular kid in school but he always felt like there was something missing inside him. He had made a lot of poor choices and Martha had always been there strict as ever. Her attempts to discipline him grew weaker and weaker but she never seemed to doubt him.She had to bail him out of jail one night and she never looked upset or doubtful, only disappointed. She loved him and he could not bear to deal with that. He found outlets in not so great places but the guilt of Martha’s love only grew and grew on him. It was time for him to graduate. 12 hard years of work and he finally it was time to move onto college and the next step in life. He had a full-ride to Virginia Tech all-expenses-paid scholarship. He was seen as one of the hottest prospects in football but his life was not complete. He made it through 3 years of college before finally deciding to declare himself for the NSFL draft.
He had prepared for this for years and was slated to go #1 overall in the draft. That was when tragedy struck. The night before the draft Rickie received a phonecall. The call informed him that Martha had suffered a gunshot wound after being robbed back in his hometown. Rickie went into shock. He doesn’t remember everything that happened after that very clearly. What he does recollect was driving home. He drove to the neighborhood where he grew up and he drove past his mothers house and then he went and spoke to the police. The police informed him of the suspect at large and asked him to allow the police force to handle it. Rickie agreed and quickly left. He knew who did it. It was one of the kids he used to play football with.
HIs blind hot rage filled him and he went to find him with intent to kill. He almost did it too. He found him, cornered him, and raised his gun. The man cowered but something went through his mind before he could pull the trigger. It was Martha. He thought of all that she had done for him and the things she taught him. She would have never accepted murder perhaps that was the thing that could have set her over the line. He stopped, lower the gun, and fell to his knees. The man ran off but not before vowing to run directly to the cops. Rickie was arrested and tried for attempted murder. He was found guilty and forced to serve 5 years in prison.
He served his time and every day he thought of Martha and all the things she had done for him. He got out of prison and began to work on his football career again. He attended practices and tryouts and soon the old player worked his way onto every teams draft board. He was taken 30th overall in the DSFL draft by his hometown team, the Norfolk Seawolves. He played his first game on June 19th, 2038. He made 2 tackles and a blocked pass. After the game he looked out into the crowd and saw someone special. Martha looked at him and smiled.
As he grew through his early years it was the only life he had ever known. He lived in Southeastern Virginia, an area almost 90% white, and was the only black child in the orphanage. White family after white family came but they all pased on young little Rickie as they preferred to take the white children. The majority of kids taken in orphanages are infants and as Rickie grew into a toddler his chances of finding a permanent home dwindled and dwindled.
That was until one day when an old black women came into the orphanage looking to find a child to adopt. She was never able to have her own children and after getting divorced she decided that she wanted to raise a child. The staff at the orphanage didnt even present Rickie to the curious couples anymore. They thought he had no appeal over the babies and small children. He was almost 5 by this time and seemed to be destined along the path of some of the other “for-lifers” in the orphanage. These kids simply never were adopted and lived their entire childhood in a cramped overcrowded home. Rickie did not know how to deal with these things. He was given responsibilities such as caring for younger kids and cleaning the house. He was thrown into the harsh realities of the world at age 5. When the old lady came in, her name was Martha, she looked at all the babies but questioned the ethics of adopting one. She felt like she would just be overlooking some more needy children and asked the caretakers if they had any older children. The caretakers were shocked by this but soon agreed and brought Rickie and one other boy, named Michael, to meet Martha. “Stand up straight” she barked at both of them. They complied. She stepped towards them and began to inspect them through her old and faded purple reading glasses. She looked them up and down as if they were a painting in a great museum of art. She stepped back and looked at both boys in the eye. She waited for a second and then signaled for one of the caretakers to come over to her. “Which one of these boys is the best behaved?” she muttered to the caretaker so the boys could not hear. “Michael of course” the caretaker replied, “He always does all his chores and is nice to the other children”. “Is that so?” Martha inquired inquisitively. “ Alright that settles it, I’ll take Rickie”
The caretaker was speechless for a minute before finally sputtering out “are you sure? Rickie doesn’t behave himself. He gets into fights with the other children and disrespects his elders” “I do not believe that I stuttered” Martha shot back with a dominating intensity. “Please draw up the paperwork and I will wait in the lobby to collect my child. And as for you”, she pointed at Rickie, “Gather up your things and say goodbye to your friends”. Rickie was flabbergasted at what just happened. He was getting adopted! But why? Michael was better behaved and he knew it. He had always expected Michael to be chosen for that reason alone. Rickie was both overly excited but also extremely worried and confused. He didn’t understand why he had gotten adopted and he wanted to know if he was being tricked. He vowed to himself that he would never let his guard down and he would never accept this new woman as his mother. He wanted to but the hard life in the orphanage had taught him to never trust anyone and to never allow himself to love.
That day the two were riding home together in the car and neither had spoken until she pulled into her driveway. The house was modest, nothing fancy. “Here we are” she announced as she stepped out of the car. Rickie did not move until she turned around and glared at him with eyes that pretty much make you do whatever they wanted. They stepped in the door and so began his life with Martha. It was not bad, but it was not always ideal. Martha was the strictest woman to ever walk the earth. She kept strict bedtimes and wake-up times, forced him to eat every green on his plate, do every last piece of homework to perfection, and don’t spend more than 45 minutes in front of that “idiot box” a day. The latter may have been one of the hardest for Rickie to follow. Soon after moving in he quickly adapted to the rules of bedtimes and food because they were similar to what he had endured in the orphanage. In the orphanage, the caretakers provided no effort in education or entertainment for the older kids. They simply wheeled in a TV and that was the extent of their effort. Rickie had previously spent hours upon hours a day watching TV without any interaction with people. Now that he was at Martha’s he had to find other ways to enjoy himself from day to day. He began to read some, not his choice, but perhaps more importantly he began to play sports outside with the fellow neighborhood kids. The game the boys loved to play was Football.
They saw football in the media and the saw on the TV. Rickie had some experience with Football, he had played it a few times with the older kids at the orphanage had they decided to play outside for once in a while. He knew the basics, but it was with the neighborhood boys where he really found his stride. He would spend hours upon hours playing with them. Somedays he would use absolutely none of his TV time because he was too busy playing football. Soon Rickie began to dominate the boys but he was hungry to learn about the bigger and better complexities of the game. He heard from one of his friends that there were people who got paid a million bucks to play football on TV. Rickie had to know about this and he soon began to watch the games on Sunday. He never got to see the end of the games and he always had to ask his friends how they ended because Martha never gave him enough time to watch the games. Finally, Rickie was tired of that he brokered a deal with Martha that would allow him to watch all 3 hours of each game on Sunday in exchange for extra chores and No TV on other days of the week. Rickie began to do this and soon became the biggest fan of the local team, The Norfolk Seawolves. He knew every players name and their position plus their College and High School.
It continued like this for several years until Rickie entered Junior High at age 11. Rickie had been looking forward to this for a long time as it meant he would finally have the chance to football with a team for actual fans. He immediately tried out for the team and made it along with a few of his neighborhood pals. The team was absolutely terrible that season, going 1-7, but it was hardly Rickie’s fault. As a Cornerback, he set a junior high record for Pick-sixes with 13 over 8 games. Martha would never come to these games though. Rickie thought that this was because she was disappointed in him but she always told him it was because she didn’t approve of the violence in the game. This did not detour Rickie as he continued to begin his rise to dominance playing in the junior circuit.
During all of these years, Rickie had never lost his sense of adventure and breaking the rules. Martha would ground him and ground him but he never could be contained by her. When he was younger the things were innocent enough, exploring in the woods, pulling childish pranks, but as he grew older the things grew more dangerous like drugs and sex. Martha knew about these things but never mentioned them by name to him. Rickie vowed to never listen to her advice and continued his descent into the underbelly of the area he lived in. During all of this he was the star players of the football team. He set a state record for interceptions and blocks his Junior year and then broke all those records his senior year. He was the most popular kid in school but he always felt like there was something missing inside him. He had made a lot of poor choices and Martha had always been there strict as ever. Her attempts to discipline him grew weaker and weaker but she never seemed to doubt him.She had to bail him out of jail one night and she never looked upset or doubtful, only disappointed. She loved him and he could not bear to deal with that. He found outlets in not so great places but the guilt of Martha’s love only grew and grew on him. It was time for him to graduate. 12 hard years of work and he finally it was time to move onto college and the next step in life. He had a full-ride to Virginia Tech all-expenses-paid scholarship. He was seen as one of the hottest prospects in football but his life was not complete. He made it through 3 years of college before finally deciding to declare himself for the NSFL draft.
He had prepared for this for years and was slated to go #1 overall in the draft. That was when tragedy struck. The night before the draft Rickie received a phonecall. The call informed him that Martha had suffered a gunshot wound after being robbed back in his hometown. Rickie went into shock. He doesn’t remember everything that happened after that very clearly. What he does recollect was driving home. He drove to the neighborhood where he grew up and he drove past his mothers house and then he went and spoke to the police. The police informed him of the suspect at large and asked him to allow the police force to handle it. Rickie agreed and quickly left. He knew who did it. It was one of the kids he used to play football with.
HIs blind hot rage filled him and he went to find him with intent to kill. He almost did it too. He found him, cornered him, and raised his gun. The man cowered but something went through his mind before he could pull the trigger. It was Martha. He thought of all that she had done for him and the things she taught him. She would have never accepted murder perhaps that was the thing that could have set her over the line. He stopped, lower the gun, and fell to his knees. The man ran off but not before vowing to run directly to the cops. Rickie was arrested and tried for attempted murder. He was found guilty and forced to serve 5 years in prison.
He served his time and every day he thought of Martha and all the things she had done for him. He got out of prison and began to work on his football career again. He attended practices and tryouts and soon the old player worked his way onto every teams draft board. He was taken 30th overall in the DSFL draft by his hometown team, the Norfolk Seawolves. He played his first game on June 19th, 2038. He made 2 tackles and a blocked pass. After the game he looked out into the crowd and saw someone special. Martha looked at him and smiled.
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