by John Mancini
Chapter 4 -- A SURPRISE ENDING FOR HERNDON
Dad pulled into the parking lot at Herndon High School. On the way over, he and Joey had had their usual "Battle of the Radio Stations." The game was always the same, but Will enjoyed the action anyway.
Here’s how it worked. Dad put on one of those "classic" rock stations that played music from about a hundred years ago. Joey let the music play for about 3 seconds. Then Joey always said…"Daaaaaadddddd" in that long drawn way, implying that the music that Dad chose could not have been more out of date.
Joey then employed a rapid-fire technique that went through at least 37 stations in the course of about 15 seconds or so, desperately trying to find something appropriate. He finally settled on a "song" that consisted of a loud bass beat, some chanting, and every once in a while beeps that apparently indicated that some sort of obscenity had been covered over.
"Do we have to listen to ‘Gang Staaaaa’ music?" Dad had his own drawn out phrase during this little game, and it was on the word "gangsta." It didn’t matter what the music was, if it was recorded in the last five years, Dad referred to it as "gangsta" music.
Dad pulled the car into a space, among a lot of people from Joey’s school. Will noticed kind of a strange glow on Dad’s face, like he was planning some huge surprise. And then, before he knew it, it happened. Will didn’t think his father could move that quickly. Joey’s movements kind of turned into slow motion, while Dad’s speeded up into warp speed.
Dad rolled down the windows, switched the radio station to WMZQ-country, and turned the music up full blast. Glenn Campbell’s rendition of "Rhinestone Cowboy" echoed through the parking lot. All eyes turned to see who the doofus was who was playing such pathetically un-hip music. Joey got out of the car quickly and tried to disappear as quickly as he could.
"Don’t ever forget, Will, the one amazing power that parents of teenagers hold. The one power that cannot be overcome. The one power that can bring a "gangsta" listening eighth grader to his knees in a split second. The power to embarrass."
Although this was all pretty funny, Will could tell that unless he figured out a way to harness this amazing power, it might one day be turned in his direction. And Will was not a guy who liked to do anything that his friends might laugh at. "OK, Dad."
They went into the gym together, but Dad knew that was the last he would see of Will for most of the game. As soon as they went into the gym, Will spotted Daniel Chevalier. William yelled, "See you, Dad," and off they went.
William and Daniel had basically grown up together, as had the rest of the Mancini and Chevalier gang. Daniel was the fourth of six boys. William and Daniel’s birthdays were only two days apart, and they might just as well have been real brothers. In fact, given how much time he spent at the Chevalier house, William sometimes thought he was.
When Daniel turned four, he decided that he was going to learn to ride a two wheeler without training wheels. So he went to the top of the hill in front of the Chevalier’s, started running, and launched himself onto the bike. And down he went after a few feet with a crash. So he did it again. And again. And again. And again. Until finally, after a number of near-death experiences (Daniel, like William, had used up his nine lives when he was only six months old), he succeeded in zooming down the hill, barely in control, able to stop only by crashing into a tree in front of the Mancini’s house.
Which meant that William needed to learn to ride a bike. Immediately. Right then. Without another wasted moment. That day. Because if Daniel did it, William needed to as well. And after an equally painful learning experience, Will, too, had learned. That same day. No training wheels. No parents. Just William and Daniel, in this case with Daniel the teacher and William the student. By the end of the day, they were zooming down the hill on their little bikes like something that had been launched from a cannon.
And that’s the way they had always been. When one did something, the other was sure to follow. When they fought, they fought like brothers. But for the most part, they just had fun.
At basketball games, in contrast to football games, William and Daniel actually liked to watch the games. During football games, they often had no idea of even what the score was. They usually met up with Tyler and Jason and Brett and some other kids and just wandered around. Sometimes they went from parent to parent trying to get money to go to the concession stand - because they were "starving" - and then bought candy bars or something similar to avoid starvation. Or they tried to step on catsup packages to squirt other kids they knew. Or they convinced some parent to get them bottles of water because they were "sooooo thirsty," and then proceeded to spray each other with the water bottles.
But basketball games were different. Sure they still hit the concession stand. But they usually then went into the stands and actually watched the game. William and Daniel and Tyler and Brett had already decided that they were going to all go to UNC on basketball scholarships. So they took every opportunity to study the game.
On this particular night, William stocked up at the concession stand and bought a soda, two Slim Jims, a bag of potato chips, a Twix bar, and Milky Way. It was then that they ran into the evil Smalls.
"Hey little Willy boy. What are you eating? Give me some." Smalls towered over Daniel and William. He reached into Will’s hand and yanked out a Twix bar.
"Little Willy. What do you think about my new hat?"
Smalls had on one of those Nike hats that Will thought usually looked pretty cool on people. Except on Smalls. Smalls’ head was so big that the hat looked like a little piece of yarn stretched over a beach ball. Will toyed with the idea of saying this, but then remembered that one time Smalls got mad at a guy and took him in the bathroom and shoved his head in the toilet and then flushed. Will didn’t like that idea.
"Fabulous, Smalls. That hat is fabulous." Fabulous was a word that his Dad had started to use to describe everything. Will figured he might just as well use it with Smalls.
"You better think it’s fabulous. Because it is."
""Yeah, Smalls. It really is a very nice looking hat," Daniel chimed in, just to make sure that he stayed on the good side of Smalls.
"Willy boy. I’ve been thinking that I would like a soda. Do you have any money? Give me 50 cents."
For a minute Will thought about not giving him the 50 cents. But then Will remembered that in 3rd grade, he heard that a kid had refused to give Smalls money for ice cream. They said that Smalls took the kid’s sneakers and threw them in the dumpster. Right there on the playground. And of course the teacher hadn’t done anything. Will handed over the 50 cents.
"See you in church, Willy," Smalls smirked.
For a minute, William and Daniel considered ganging up on this big lug. But they decided against this course of action. For one thing, they would get in trouble with their parents. Secondly, if they started a fight, they probably would get thrown out of the basketball game. But most importantly, if they punched him, he would punch them back. And he weighed as much as both of them put together.
Instead, they headed into the game. By the time they got into the stands, the game had just started. William looked up at the scoreboard. Herndon was already losing 8–0.
This was going to be a tough game for Herndon. They were big underdogs to South Lakes. They had played once earlier in the season, and Herndon had lost by 25.
William saw Dad up in the stands with Mr. Chevalier on the other side of the gym. Dad spotted William at about the same time. William noticed that Dad was doing something strange with his hands, making little circles with his fingers and putting them over his eyes.
"Hey Daniel," yelled Will above the noise of the crowd. "Look at my Dad over there. What do you think he’s doing?"
Daniel looked over. "I don’t know. Maybe pretending he’s a raccoon?"
"Why would my Dad pretend he’s a raccoon?"
"I don’t know. I don�
��t understand why parents do a lot of the things they do." Will thought back to the episode with WMZQ in the car and figured Daniel might be right.
After another few South Lakes baskets, matched by only a couple from Herndon, the score had widened to 14–4. Herndon called timeout.
"Hey Will. Look at your Dad. He’s doing it again."
Once again, Will watched his father make careful circles with his fingers and put them up to his eyes. Now Mr. Chevalier was doing it, too. "I just don’t get it."
"Maybe they’re pretending that they have binoculars," contributed Daniel.
"How come?"
"Hey William, how should I know? I’m just trying to come up with ideas."
"Sorry Daniel. Maybe he’ll give us another clue. Let’s not worry about it."
As the first quarter wound down, Herndon staged a small comeback, but the score at the end of the quarter was a dismal 22–10 in favor of South Lakes.
"Will, look over. They’re at it again."
This time, Mr. Chevalier and Dad were standing up. How embarrassing. They both pretended that they were reaching into their pocket, pulling some
thing out, making little circles with their fingers, and then putting them over their eyes.
"They look like they’re making glasses," Will realized. "But why would they be doing that?"
"Hey, Will. Aren’t you supposed to be wearing your glasses at the game?"
"That just might be it." Will reached into his pocket and pulled out the glasses and held them out. Mr. Chevalier and Dad started clapping and sat down. "I guess after all that, I better put them on."
Will’s glasses looked like bifocals. The idea was to keep him from going cross-eyed. Will thought that was one of his Mom’s big fears was having Will grow up, and become a big success, and maybe become President of the United States someday. Then she was worried that he would go on national television to make some big announcement, and he would be cross-eyed. That wouldn’t be good.
They blew the whistle to start the second quarter. Will looked at the clock and it read 7:58. Will thought about this business about becoming the first cross-eyed President and put the glasses on.
Suddenly, everything looked like it was in some kind of super-sharp focus. This wasn’t what usually happened when he put the glasses on. Then, just as inexplicably, everything came to a stop. The noise of the game faded away. The colors were so bright that he thought they would explode. Then just as suddenly, everything faded into the background until the only thing that was still in focus was the scoreboard. The time on the scoreboard read 0:00. Underneath the place where it said "Home" was the number 79 and underneath "Visitor" it read 77. Will started to feel dizzy and ripped the glasses off.
"What….I saw…I think…" Will couldn’t seem to think straight. Finally he blurted out, "The Scoreboard. Look at the Scoreboard."
They both looked up. The scoreboard clock read 7:58. The score was Visitors - 22, Herndon - 10.
"What, Will? What’s the matter?"
"Nothing, Daniel. I just….Nothing."
Will figured maybe his glasses were dirty. No, they looked clean. Or maybe he needed to do his asthma medicine. No, he did that just before he came to the game. Or maybe the soda, two Slim Jims, potato chips and the Milky Way were reacting in some sort of strange soup in his stomach. That couldn’t be; that was all good healthy food. Or maybe it was the Orzo at dinner where his eyes were bigger than his stomach. That must be it.
"I think I just had something that didn’t agree with me for dinner. I just felt a little dizzy for a minute. But I’m OK now."
They settled back to watch the game. Herndon basically held its own during the second quarter, but nothing more. At the end of the first half, they were still losing 44–32.
At half time, Will decided he needed a few more refreshments in case his dizziness had been caused by an acute lack of food. But he thought that he better take it easy, and so he only got a piece of pizza, a Surge, and one more Slim Jim. He and Daniel met up with Tyler and Brett, and they decided to sit together for the second half.
The second half started out much differently than the first half. Herndon played ferocious defense, challenging every pass and preventing South Lakes from getting good shots. On the other end of the court, Herndon suddenly came alive, and started putting in bucket after bucket.
The crowd screamed its approval. Not only was Herndon making a game of this thing, but actually seemed to have a chance to win.
With one minute left, Herndon was actually leading, 76–75. South Lakes came down the court, carefully working the clock. 50 seconds left. Herndon tried to play tight defense, but didn’t want to risk fouling anyone on South Lakes. 30 seconds left. South Lakes moved the ball around the perimeter, trying to draw Herndon out of their zone. 15 seconds left.
William, Daniel, Tyler and Brett started chanting 10–9–8…with the rest of the crowd. With 5 seconds left, the South Lakes guard faked a shot, got the inside man from Herndon to come out to cover him, leaving his man behind, and then passed inside for an uncontested lay-up. South Lakes was up, 77–76. Only 2 seconds left. Herndon called timeout.
"Herndon always finds some way to lose these games," said Brett. "They get close, but they always come up short."
After the timeout, Herndon passed the ball up to Hunter Smith at half court. William and Daniel knew Hunter because he used to live in their neighborhood and once had run over Joey Mancini on his bike. Hunter turned and released the ball and a split second later, the clock clicked to 0:00. The ball sailed through the air. Swish. William, Daniel, Tyler and Brett screamed along with everyone else and ran out onto the court. They did this after each game. They didn’t know why, but they thought it was good practice for when they would all be playing together on scholarship at UNC.
In all the excitement, Will took a final look up at the scoreboard. Home - 79, Visitors - 77. He suddenly felt strange all over again.
And that was when William decided once and for all that he HAD to start wearing those glasses more often.