Spectacular Things

In 2028, a pregnant Mia Lowe lives in Maine with her husband Oliver. Mia goes into labor on the same day that her sister, Cricket, is competing with the US Women’s National Soccer Team in the Olympics gold medal match in Los Angeles.

Cricket isn’t a starting player on the team. Sloane Jackson, Cricket’s former friend, is the starting goalkeeper and a fan favorite. The two women resent each other, but Cricket wishes Sloane good luck, nevertheless. Though Mia couldn’t fly to Los Angeles because of her pregnancy, Cricket imagines seeing her in the stands.

Mia watches Cricket’s game on the TV in the delivery room as she prepares to give birth. She and Oliver are both huge fans. Mia’s blood pressure is higher than the doctor considers ideal, but not enough to change the delivery plan. Seventy minutes into the soccer game, Mia watches team captain Gogo Garba score, putting the US team ahead.

At the 83-minute mark, Sloane is badly injured. Cricket, the reserve goalkeeper, takes her place. She sees it as her opportunity to become the starting keeper on the National Team if she plays well. The pressure is enormous, but Cricket makes a great save and the US team wins.

Cricket calls Mia from the locker room as she celebrates with her team. The sisters take turns congratulating each other. Despite some complications, Mia delivers a healthy baby. When she pushes the placenta out, however, she begins hemorrhaging. The doctor calls an emergency code and rushes her to the operating room.

After six days of press events and parties, Cricket returns home to Maine and meets her niece, whom Mia has named Elizabeth after their mother. Cricket also learns about Mia’s massive blood loss after the delivery destroyed her kidneys. Now Mia needs dialysis to survive until she can get a new kidney. Cricket is eager to donate hers until she learns it would mean the end of her soccer career. She tells her sister and brother-in-law that she needs to think and to consult her team, and then leaves without having made a decision.

In 1989, eight-year-old Liz Lowe attends summer camp for the first time, where she falls in love with soccer. She’s an only child whose affluent parents are indifferent to her at best, until they see how her talent will benefit them. Liz gains a nation-wide reputation as a soccer phenom. As a senior in high school, she’s named First Team All-American and has a verbal commitment to play for UCLA on a full athletic scholarship.

Liz gets pregnant, however, and gives birth before graduation, leading UCLA to rescind the offer. Liz refuses to name the father and her parents don’t support her choice to keep the baby. Wanting a fresh start, Liz moves with her baby to Victory, Maine.

When Liz arrives in Maine, her tenacity earns her a job working the front desk at Doctor Sally Green’s dental practice. She sells her luxury SUV for a down payment on a run-down bungalow and works tirelessly to fix it up and make it homey.

Mia learns she was conceived the night the US Women’s National team won the 1999 World Cup and named after the real-life star player Mia Hamm. Her mother tells her nightly that she’s destined to be a great soccer player. Liz begins training Mia to play at age four.

Mia doesn’t know anything about her father except that she takes after him in appearance, with her dark features and pale skin. One day Mia’s father shows up at their home in Maine. Liz is angry at first, but by the end of the day Mia observes them acting like a couple in love.

Mia’s father goes by Q, which Liz says is short for Quimby. He makes Liz happy and Mia loves him for it. Liz urges Mia not to get attached, though, because she doesn’t know how long he’ll stay. Q plays with Mia, takes her and Liz on fun outings, and fixes things around the house. One night, Q tells Mia he loves her for the first time, and she says it back. The next morning, he’s gone.

Liz is very depressed after Q leaves, barely getting out of bed or leaving her bedroom. Her realization that Mia’s teachers pity her finally snaps her out of it. One night that September, Liz throws a New Year’s party to symbolize a new start. She and Mia do a polar plunge at midnight and go for hot chocolate afterward.

The morning after the polar plunge, Liz enrolls Mia in peewee soccer. Mia loves it. Soccer offers an escape from the disappointment of Q leaving and the ambiguity of real life. The rules make sense and they’re consistent. In October, Mia sees Liz vomiting from the bleachers during halftime.

Liz gives birth seven months later and names her second daughter after real-life soccer great Kristine Lilly. The pediatrician compares the baby to a cricket because of her long legs, inspiring her nickname. When Cricket asks to start playing soccer at age four, Mia feels like her little sister is taking the last thing she’d managed to keep for herself. Cricket is as ambitious as Mia and even more talented.

At age six, Cricket learns that what she thought was a picture of her father in their bathroom is actually a poster of real-life Olympic runner Steven Prefontaine. The poster’s caption says: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” (61). This motivates Cricket and becomes her lifelong mantra.

When Mia is 14, Liz talks to her about her namesake being the ultimate team player, sacrificing personal glory to lift up the entire team. Liz asks Mia to take on more responsibility at home so Liz can take a second job. She needs more money to give Cricket the best opportunities in soccer. Mia agrees, knowing it means her own soccer career is over. At age nine, Cricket makes it onto an elite soccer team called the Stallions.