I hope acting so harshly toward the committeewon’t cost Oliver any future opportunities to compete. Normally I’d suggest it’s a bad idea, but someone does need to do something so in the future men like Isaac aren’t allowed to continue on with their reign of terror.
It took an hour to hunt Isaac down and then another three of questioning to get him to admit his part in events over the last two weeks, but he finally did. The list ended uplonger than what he confessed to in the hallway with me. Pulling the smoke alarm in the American hotel, breaking into his own locker room to write racial slurs on the lockers, and hiring a woman to get compromising pictures of athletes was just the tip of the iceberg all in an attempt to make the snowboarders look bad.
The one thing no one has been able to figure out — his motive. It doesn’tmake sense to anyone else, but I’ve learned a lot about athletes the last few weeks. There’s a drive inside them to win and be better than everyone else. Isaac felt he fell short of his expectations and decided to take it out on the snowboarding team. Dexler called it a bunch of BS and told me he’s never working with athletes again. Before he left the hospital, he lamented the money not being worthit and said he’d go back to the states and take a job offer from one of his friends in Maine. Move somewhere calm and quiet where nothing ever happens.
At least with Isaac’s discretions out in the open and the committee’s inability to cover up Oliver’s trip to the hospital, Isaac will have to face what he’s done in a courtroom.
Oliver yawns and I move off his bed to give him more space. “Youshould get some sleep.” The doctors warned the pain meds would make him tired, but he hasn’t rested all day.
He grabs on to my hand squeezing. “Only if you promise you’ll be here when I wake up.”
I squeeze his hand back. “I will. I promise. I’ll be right in the chair,” I say pointing to a light brown chair tucked away in the corner.
Oliver smiles, his eyes closing as he leans back into hispillows.
