Naked Hero - The Journey Away

please?”
    “Mike and I need to go through his training plan, Fiona. Can it not wait?” asked Jim, looking over to his wife.
    “It’s waited too long already, Jim. Mike knows how to get Lewis in shape. He’s done it before.”
    “We can finish this tomorrow, Jim. I could do with stroll out. I’ll catch you both later.” Mike left the table and was gone in a few minutes.
    “So what’s up with you then?” asked Jim once they were alone. Fiona rarely interfered with his work - and never in a major way when she did express an opinion. He knew well enough that this was serious, and that he should take heed of what was to come.
    “It’s not what’s up with me, Jim Murdoch! It’s what’s up with you! Can you not see the boy’s upset? Really upset. Mary’s never been any support to him. You know that more than anybody. And now she just fires off at him all the time. He’s a young man with a lot of weight on his shoulders just now, and the pair of you should be helping him with it, not adding to it all.”
    “It’s the week before a Grand Slam, Fiona, and he’s probably gone out on the razz.”
    She pursed her lips, biting back her anger and own worst fears. “Well, we should wait and see. But if he has turned to drink, it’s because there isn’t anywhere else for him to go. Can you not try to understand what he’s going through? He’s twenty-three, Jim. Do you not remember what it was like to be twenty-three?”
    Jim came away from the table and sat beside his wife on the couch, giving her hand a brief squeeze. “Aye, I can remember all right. What it was like to be that age... and not have the talent that he has - to realise that I was never going to be good enough, no matter how hard I worked... never going to make the top. Davis Cup - that was the limit. Never a big final! Never a Wimbledon final! I don’t want to see him squandering the talent that I never had.”
    A hand was squeezed again, this time by Fiona. “You can’t bring resentment to the party, Jim. You’re his coach, and that means helping him to reach his potential, and you know what that potential is… he can go all the way… be number one. Can you do that for him, Jim? Get him there - because it’s not working right now. You’ve brought him a long way. But as you say, you’ve never been to the top yourself, and perhaps he needs someone now that has - certainly someone with more slow court experience to help out when the tour moves back to clay. He can do Wimbledon, and maybe even win here if the rain doesn’t come. But that’s not enough to go all the way.”
    Jim sat quietly, staring at a blank television screen, as more words struck him.
    “But it’s the other side that you need to think about now, Jim. He needs support outside of tennis. He needs someone who can accept him for who he is. Understand the problems that he’s got, and work with them, instead of fighting them, or at best pretending that they don’t exist. If you can’t do that, then it’s time to let go... We’ve got security for life now, so don’t hang on for the wrong reason. It’s Lewis we’re talking about here… Och, there’s no point in upsetting things any more just now, but think about it... after the Open maybe… Ask yourself what Calum would have wanted you to do. And if it’s the answer I think then do it well. Find him someone… Find him the man to take your place.”
    Having said her peace, Fiona retreated to the kitchen to make some tea, leaving Jim to stew in her words. He was not blind to the reality of his own limitations, and accepted that at some point, Lewis would, and should, move on to a new coach. But he had always thought that he would see the moment approach, know when the time was right, rather than be told that it was long overdue. It was one word that she had used more than any other that had stung him to the core. ‘Resentment, she says. How could I resent him?’
    He thought back to the time when he had visited the grieving family, concerned that Lewis had not yet accepted his place at summer camp, and even more so, by Mary’s obvious indifference. It was clear that the boy needed help desperately, so he took him under his wing from that moment onwards. Within a couple of months Lewis had relocated to Cambridge where the Murdochs were based: a trial period that turned into a permanent move. Mary didn’t seem to mind - an attitude that stunned the new surrogate parents, and came as a relief to the