DPXDC Prompt #88

Danny and Damian are twins but they get separated at age 7, years later when they’re both 14 they both are going to high school and their schools decide to create a program where they wind up as pen pals to each other unknowing that they’re talking too each other as it’s been set up to be anonymous. Danny decides to take a leap of faith and encrypts a message about the media blackout around his town and how they’re overrun with ghosts and could use the Justice Leagues help through out all of his letters knowing that very few could actually understand it but he just felt so tired and this was the only way he could think to get any help for his town.

Damian just wonders who exactly his pen pal is to encrypt these letters like this.

18/08/2017 17:00, Report by Steve Bartram ALAN TATE: ONCE A RED, ALWAYS A RED... Features editor Steve Bartram relives last week’s trip to the Liberty Stadium for Alan Tate’s testimonial as former Reds – including Tate’s close friend, Darren Fletcher – came from far and wide to salute an ex-Academy starlet who never made a senior Reds appearances, this was an occasion which showcased Manchester United’s family spirit… Dwight Yorke, his eye twitching with tiredness, sinks into his seat at the back of the coach. The previous day, he returned from working in Indonesia; a trip which followed a day at home in Cheshire after three weeks on the Reds’ pre-season tour of the US. As he tells Russell Beardsmore and Ben Thornley, without a hint of the infectious grin which accompanied his stellar career, 90 minutes of football is hardly what the doctor ordered. When Wes Brown boards the coach, however, he has just the tonic. “Yorkie. Poker?” The Trinidad and Tobago legend is exhumed. His hooded head lifts. That smile consumes his face. “Yeah, man. Just come and get me." By the time the coach has reached Sandbach – 40 miles into a 220-mile trip – the group is in full swing. Brown, Yorke, Fletcher, Danny Webber, Chris Eagles and Karl Munroe occupy the six seats at the heart of the coach. While the players are spread about the top level of the double-decker coach – Beardsmore and Thornley at the back, while Denis Irwin, Andy Ritchie and Quinton Fortune bookend the party at the front - the whole group intermingles. Those who aren’t involved in the poker drift past, pausing to share stories or crack wise at whoever loses a particular hand, before meandering downstairs to catch up with staff. Downstairs, the players share hugs and handshakes with security guards and Foundation staff. Di Ryding, the trip’s physio, catches up with players she has known since she joined the club in 2004. Everybody is family here. The reason this assortment of United players is on the bus is to contest the Alan Tate Testimonial. The Easington-born defender rose up through the United Academy system in the early noughties, winning the 2000/01 Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award and captaining the club’s Reserves before eventually making a loan deal with Swansea permanent in 2004. Over 250 games later, after the Swans’ first-ever Premier League fixture, he suffered a broken leg in a golf cart accident. Though his career continued, Swansea took the decision to award him a testimonial and a United XI was scheduled to provide the opposition on 13 August 2013. The only condition was a rearrangement in the event of the two clubs being paired together at first team level later that same week in the opening game of the Premier League season. That’s exactly what happened, and the game was postponed while David Moyes began his brief managerial reign with a thumping 4-1 win at the Liberty Stadium. After a combined seven managerial changes between the two clubs, several unsuccessful rearrangements and almost exactly four years, the Reds are now Swansea-bound. This group – with a combined 1,660 appearances, 157 goals and 49 major honours – is intent on honouring the 34-year-old who never played a single first team game for United. The road to this point has been long and arduous, and the bid to build a team has not been easy. Working in tandem with Fletcher, Manchester United Foundation co-ordinator James Lester has managed to pull off various coups, despite the friendly being arranged in the middle of holiday season and falling the week before the start of the Premier League season proper. Munroe, a late call-up, is a friend of Brown and an ex-Academy player. Meeting the coach in Wales is Clayton Blackmore, Kevin Pilkington, Erik Nevland (hastily flown in from Stavanger), Alex Lang and Damian Gielty. The latter pair are the only members of the group with no affiliation to United. Lang is Swansea’s 17-year-old youth team goalkeeper, providing emergency cover should anything untoward befall Pilkington, while Gielty is Fletcher’s cousin and flies in from Norway the day after completing a 50 kilometre hike. Fletcher has more involvement than most in this fixture, both organisational and emotional. “I was 15 when I moved down to go full-time at United,” recalls the Scot. “Tatey was already there because he was in the year above me. He recognised that I was a young lad finding my way in a new city. Whenever the lads went out for a meal or to the Trafford Centre to play pool, Tatey got me involved. He welcomed me into the group and that is something I’ve never forgotten.” Having assisted Lester in rounding up a squad which is now – bar those meeting the party later – safely en route, Fletcher can settle into the subplot of the trip: the poker. The six players use Brown’s custom-made poker set, featuring various coloured chips which bear the defender’s name on a United shirt. “I got it as a present and it’s my pride and joy,” beams the defender, before ruefully adding: “Eagles has had it in his garage for months.” Eagles is the youngest member of the party, a pup at just 31. Looking around the bus, he is 25 years younger than Ritchie, the group’s elder, and this is his first foray into legends football. “At first I thought it was a bit out of my comfort zone,” he admits, “But I spoke to Webbs about it and he sold it to me. I thought I was maybe too young… what is a legend anyway?” Therein lies a common theme surrounding such games: what constitutes a legendary Manchester United player? Webber mustered three senior appearances during his time on the club’s books, but has long since made peace with a debate which, on social media at least, often surfaces and seldom remains pretty. “Listen, I was on the radio the other night, debating whether or not Wayne Rooney is a Manchester United legend,” he tells the group. “If people don’t think he’s a legend, what chance has anyone got?” Eagles shakes his head. He notched 17 outings and a solitary goal with United – an unforgettable, vital strike at Everton in 2007 – before leaving the club to join Burnley the following summer. After a short stint at Port Vale towards the end of last season, he is currently plotting his next move as a free agent. So too is Brown. A week later, the Longsight libero will join ex-United coach Rene Meulensteen at Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League, but on the coach he mulls over his alternatives, one of which is to hook up with former team-mate Teddy Sheringham, a recent managerial appointment at Atletico de Kolkata, also in the ISL. Fletcher is the only professional, and has special dispensation to travel to the game. The Scot has been allowed by boss Mark Hughes to miss training and partake in the game as much as he likes, but returning with any kind of injury ahead of the Potters’ Premier League opener at Everton will not go down well. “Tackle like me,” proffers Eagles, suggesting the best way to approach the situation. “Just don’t do it! I’ve never been injured in my life!” As Fletcher mulls his dilemma, he steadily surrounds himself with coffee cups brimming with poker chips. John O’Shea calls Brown and is put on speaker for the party’s benefit. The repartee zips about the group, Yorke taking centre stage when he assumes the role of dealer. Though he turns 46 later this year, his regular golfing – he plays off a handicap of one – and gym work have combined to give him a doorman’s physique. Now, as he loudly predicts each card before he deals it, speculating on the other players’ strategies in order to get into their heads, he fills the bus. Not that the strategy ultimately breeds any great financial reward, but that isn’t the motive on this trip. None of the players are paid for answering the call to return to United duty. The motivation for playing is altogether more wholesome, ranging from longstanding friendship with Tate to craving the dressing room culture which underscored their playing days at Old Trafford. Between them, they have represented United from the reigns of Ron Atkinson to Louis van Gaal, but they are team-mates. “You just feel at home,” says Webber. “There’s that special bond you get at United,” continues Eagles. “You never lose friendships, it’s very strange. At other clubs I’ve been at, that’s not the case. I was at Bolton for three years but I wouldn’t go and meet any of them for a coffee, but at United, it’s like best mates.” After arriving in Swansea, the squad is bolstered by those who have made their own way, before the group heads to the Liberty Stadium. They arrive two hours early for the 7pm kick-off, but this has its benefits. While this is a friendly match, the players’ spread of ages makes the encounter “a high-risk game,” according to physio Di. Some hop on to the massage table, others take to the floor and go through their own stretching routines. Eagles requests music, and is duly handed with an enormous sound system by Swansea’s staff. “Did they pull this off the stadium?” he laughs, before putting on house music which, judging by one or two expressions among the senior seniors, prompts the first glaring reminder of the generational gap bridged hitherto. Eagles and Brown play two-touch keepy-up; Blackmore’s son – sporting a Henrikh Mkhitaryan shirt – weaves through the group and takes pot-shots at Pilkington; new parent Fortune rubs his face and stares into the distance, having hardly slept for two months. The football proves almost incidental. Within 11 minutes Yorke, who nine hours earlier joked about having an easy night, thunders in an unstoppable opener, which is equalised by a superb chip from Andy Robinson for a Swans legends team managed by Brendan Rodgers. Webber then slots home, only for Sam Ricketts to level once again. Those finishes are forgotten, however, shortly before half-time when Fortune misjudges a dropping ball and it hits him in the mouth. The United bench falls about in hysterics. So too, it seems, do the secret MUTV-watchers among United’s former players sat in their respective homes. The opening moments of half-time are spent with Fletcher reading aloud from a players’ WhatsApp group revelling in Quinton’s misfortune. “Did Quinny try to eat the ball?” messages O’Shea. By this point, Irwin has left the fray with a hamstring injury, throwing Munroe on for his legends debut. On the bench, Damian Gielty – whose football career included a stint in Luxembourg and peaked at Berwick Rangers – remains cool, seemingly unfazed by the fact that the next injury will turn his emergency call-up into an outing for Manchester United. His quads, he admits, are a touch stiff after the previous day’s marathon descent down a mountain. When Munroe is withdrawn with a toe injury, Gielty takes to the field midway through the second period, by which point Webber has clinically put United back into the lead. Yorke, who has dropped deeper and deeper, dictating United’s play, rounds off the scoring late on with a typically calm finish to secure a win. For the hosts, even an away win can’t spoil the party, and Tate takes to the public address system to express his gratitude for everybody’s involvement. At least, that’s what United’s players assume. On the field, they can’t hear a word. When Tate goes over to the visiting Reds to shake hands, Eagles quips: “Tatey, whatever you just said, well done!” All parties reconvene in the stadium’s VIP lounge for a post-match meal, where the players can unwind ahead of the following day’s hefty return journey. Fletcher will be up before dawn to take a car back over to Stoke for training, while Yorke has to hastily make his way over to Gatwick Airport before boarding a flight back to Trinidad. The striker is dismayed, however, to learn that he has a three-hour trip to London, having been told by Irwin that it would take him under 90 minutes. “Oh,” grins the Irishman, knowingly. “I thought you were flying to London.” The bulk of the group remains for a post-match party in Swansea, and among those who board the coach to return to Manchester the following morning, the chatter is as animated as it had been pre-match. “I know it’s a friendly game,” says Eagles, “but when Webbs scored to make it 3-2, I was punching the air and screaming! I don’t care who I play, I want to win, especially being back at United. Pulling the shirt on again and playing just brings back loads of memories. I loved every minute of it. "Having that kit on, it was like waking up, like I’ve been asleep for the last eight or nine years. I knew some of these boys from before, some of them I’ve only met on this trip, but I knew everything would just click into place because we’re all United players.”