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Authors: Rich Wallace

War and Watermelon (18 page)

BOOK: War and Watermelon
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I push up on one elbow. Every light in the house is off. “It was all right,” I say. “I had fun.”
“Just thought I'd check.”
“Thanks. It was good.”
“Peace out, then. See you in the morning.”
“You, too.”
He steps into the hallway, but I call him back.
“Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
“Did it work? The protest in Syracuse?”
“I don't know.” He takes another step into the room. “I haven't heard if we had any luck getting the recruiters off campus. But yeah, I think it worked . . . in a small way. Every voice makes a difference. Some are just louder than others. . . . Some people are a lot braver than I am.”
He closes the door. I turn off the radio and very quietly try to sing myself to sleep.
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
Tomorrow night could be huge. I can see it clearly: The starters build up a reasonable lead in the first half, and me and Tony and Joey take over the backfield for the second.
We begin a drive, keeping the ball on the ground, hitting the holes for four, five yards at a crack, piling up the first downs. I'm sweating and my heart is pounding, but I'm confident. I'm not screwing up anymore.
We cross midfield, into their territory, but then maybe we stall. Tony loses a yard. It's third-and-eight, and Joey looks around the huddle. He locks eyes with me.
“Forty-six pitch,” he says.
We break the huddle. I stare straight ahead and take a deep breath, hands on my knees. The lights are on and the bleachers are full, and all eyes are on us.
Joey flips me the football, and I hear the crack of the shoulder pads as the linemen ram into each other. I see that hole opening up. I see me bursting through it, hugging the ball and cutting toward the sideline.
A linebacker angles toward me, but I shift my weight and dodge past him, stiff-arming him and breaking free. I hear the coaches and the spectators yelling. I hear the defenders running toward me.
I'm in a full sprint now, heading up the sideline, ahead of everyone as I race toward the end zone.
I see nothing but daylight ahead.
BOOK: War and Watermelon
11.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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