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| (http://chestofbooks.com/sports/football/Player-Spectator/Drop-Kick.html) |
"Karma, what're you doing down here," calls Blaine with hands on hips and head shaking from side to side as his petite hippy friend strides over to the sideline.
"What happened out there?" she asks, pulling a pencil and pad from an oversized cloth purse with a peace sign sewn on.
"Part of the game," he says while taking her arm and turning her away from the team. "Now get off the field before you get in trouble."
"Blaine, I'm a reporter for the Searchlight," she explains, glancing at the ambulance pulling up to the huddle of coaches, parents, and rescue squad personnel gathered around a downed Harrison player. "This injury is a story."
"It's a tough sport," he mumbles, turning away to join the defense on the bench, but not before catching the disappointment in her striking hazel eyes. "You want the story, go talk to my little brother," he calls back.
__________
Wiley was Bound Brook's best fan. He knew all the players on and off the field, having matched numbers from the game program to pictures in Blaine's Echo yearbook. He also knew that BBHS had never had an undefeated football team since the school was built by the LaMonte family and opened as the Washington School in 1907.
On the Friday evening before the first-ever game against Harrison, a small town along the Passaic River near urban Newark, Wiley had donned his shoulder pads, red uniform, and white helmet and was enacting tomorrow's game in the Reed yard.
"Touchdown for Bound Brook!" called Blaine pulling in the driveway on his bike to his little brother's big grin. "Let's kick that extra point."
"Hut one, hut two, hike," yelled Wiley snapping the ball to Blaine. He dropped it onto the ground and swung his right leg as it bounced, catching the lower part of the ball with the toe of a white low-top Converse All-Stars sneaker and booting it over the fence into the parking lot of D'Angelo's bar.
"The Crusaders win 7-6," Blaine cries as Wiley clambers over the wire fence to retrieve the ball.
"How did you kick it like that?" Wiley asked when he got back to the yard.
"The drop kick is one way to punt, kick a field goal, or get an extra point after a touchdown," Blaine answered in more words than he usually used in one sentence. "It's not used much since the ball became more pointed, but we practiced it all the time in Kentucky when I was your age."
"Let me try!" exclaimed Wiley taking the ball, dropping it in front of him and whiffing as it bounced to the side.
"You have to let it hit on the lower half to get a straight bounce," advised his suddenly patient big brother.
"Yikes!" cried Wiley running for the house, startled in mid-kick by a loud pop and a puff of smoke up on Union Avenue.
"Easy now," laughed Blaine. "It's just a car backfiring at the stop sign in front of Dairy Queen."
"It's not the Blacks coming to get us?"
"Nah, those July riots in Newark and Plainfield are over now."
__________
Karma scans the full bleachers for the Reed family below the bright golds and reds of autumn on First Watchung, spying them on the top bench at the 50-yard line.
"Wiley, can I interview you for the school newspaper?"
"Huh?" he replies as Mr. Reed shakes his head up and down from his perch standing atop the bench.
"What happened out there?" she starts with head tilted and a blue beret not quite keeping her straight auburn hair from blowing across an angular face.
"We took out their star halfback in the first quarter, now it's a defensive back."
"It looks like he's hurt pretty bad. Did you see who hit him?"
"Nah, it's just a jumble of red jerseys running around."
"How will this long delay affect the game?"
"We're about to run all over them in the second half."
"Will it affect your brother Blaine?"
"He's the toughest ..." he starts but is interrupted by a siren and flashing lights as the ambulance rushes off the field.
Box Score
1Q
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2Q
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3Q
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4Q
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Total
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Harrison (3-2)
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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Crusaders (4-0-1)
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6
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6
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14
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12
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38
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