The Football Fiasco

by Mike Lupica

  “Sounds to me like your dad is a hero,” Zoe said.

  “He is!” Jimmy said. “But it doesn’t make me miss him any less. Thinking about him just makes me sad. But the other day it made me mad, too.”

  “And you took it out on the ball?” Zach guessed.

  Jimmy nodded.

  “I had stayed after school on Friday because there was a meeting in the cafeteria for kids who might want to join the Cub Scouts,” he said. “I told my mom that being a scout was something I was sure Dad would want me to do. I’d even get to wear a uniform.”

  “So what happened at the meeting?” Zoe asked, curious.

  “I thought it was just going to be kids,” Jimmy said. “But there were a lot of dads there, too. Some of them are scout leaders. It just made me miss my own dad even more.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Zach said.

  “Not as sorry as I am for what happened next,” Jimmy said.

  While he was waiting for his mom to pick him up, he happened to pass by the storage room. The door was partially open. Their football was sitting on top of the pile in the bin. He was feeling bad already about being picked last again that day, and missing the ball Zoe had thrown to him.

  Before he even realized what he was doing, he was jabbing the green ballpoint pen he’d pulled out of his pocket into the ball. He didn’t even know he’d actually put a hole in it until Zach found the deflated ball.

  “I am so sorry,” he said. “I wish I’d said something, but I was too ashamed.”

  “Forget it,” Zach said.

  “And we’re sorry that you’ve been feeling this way,” Zoe said.

  “As a matter of fact,” Zach said, realizing he’d come up with a brilliant idea in that moment, “that is why we’re going to ask if you can come play in our family’s touch football game tomorrow at our house.”

  Now Jimmy really smiled.

  “Do you mean it?” he said, eyes wide.

  “We try to never say anything we don’t mean,” Zoe said, looking at her brother.

  “You’re sure you’re not doing it because you think you have to?” Jimmy asked.

  “We’re doing it,” Zach said, “because we want to.”

  “And because you’re our friend,” Zoe added.

  She looked past Jimmy to the front of their classroom. The biggest smile in the room belonged to Ms. Moriarty.

  EIGHT

  The Walkers’ annual Turkey Bowl football game was scheduled to start at noon in their backyard. That gave Tess and Danny Walker plenty of time to finish cooking before the game, and everyone a chance to wash up before dinner.

  “It’s a good thing we play before we eat and not after,” Grandpa Richie said as they warmed up. “If we didn’t, all that turkey and fixings and pie might slow me down.”

  “No, we wouldn’t want that,” Danny Walker said, grinning at his dad. “You ought to get the chance to show off all that speed you passed on to the rest of us.”

  “It’s more than speed,” Grandpa Richie said. “You’ve got to have the moves, too, like I did in basketball.”

  “Sometimes making those moves just seems to take you a little longer in football,” Zoe teased.

  “Hey!” her grandfather said. “Whose side are you on?”

  Jimmy and his mom had arrived at their house a few minutes earlier. The night before, Zach and Zoe came home and told their mom about inviting Jimmy to the Turkey Bowl. Tess Walker then called Mrs. Evans to ask about her Thanksgiving dinner plans. Mrs. Evans said she had planned to cook up a small turkey, but the truth was that the holidays just weren’t the same with Jimmy’s father overseas. Tess had an idea: Mrs. Evans should drop their turkey off at one of the churches in Middletown where the homeless were served Thanksgiving dinners. Then they were invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Walker family after the game.

  “It must be so hard, not knowing when your husband is coming home,” Tess said to Jimmy’s mom.

  “We don’t care when it is,” Mrs. Evans said, “as long as he’s safe.”

  Because their own families were having late dinners today, Malik, Mateo, and Mateo’s dad also dropped by to join the game. They had enough players for five on each team. Usually Grandpa Richie and Danny Walker picked the teams. But today, in honor of Jimmy and his mom joining the game, Grandpa Richie announced that they would be team captains.

  Mrs. Evans said that Jimmy could choose first.

  “Can I make two picks?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Danny Walker said. “In the Turkey Bowl, we pretty much make up the rules as we go.”

  “Then I pick Zach and Zoe,” he said.

  “Well,” Grandpa Richie said, “that team is loaded with talent already.”

  Mrs. Evans took Malik and Mateo with her first two picks. Jimmy then picked Grandpa Richie and Mateo’s dad. Jimmy’s mom rounded out the teams by picking Zach and Zoe’s mom, and finally their dad.

  Zoe whispered to Jimmy, “My dad got picked last today, and he’s the best player in the game.”

  Jimmy just smiled in response.

  Danny Walker had bought a special new ball for this year’s game, with “Turkey Bowl” printed on the side. It was decided beforehand that the first team to score five touchdowns won. Before they started, Danny Walker looked at the twins. “Please tell everybody the only rules for the game that matter.”

  “Play hard,” Zach said.

  “Have fun,” said Zoe.

  “And nobody get hurt,” Danny Walker said.

  “Especially me!” Grandpa Richie yelled.

  Even though it was the end of November, it felt almost like a summer day. The sun was high in the sky over the yard and there was a slight breeze. It just seemed like perfect football weather. This was the Walker family’s favorite football day of the whole year. They were all together with family and friends, and they hadn’t even sat down to dinner yet.

  Zach and Zoe’s team got the ball first. Grandpa Richie was the quarterback. Zach and Zoe had told him the night before about Jimmy, and how nobody ever wanted to throw him the ball at recess. With that in mind, Grandpa Richie didn’t waste any time.

  “Let’s see what the new guy’s got,” he said.

  He positioned Zach and Zoe on one side of the field. Jimmy was on the other. Grandpa Richie told Jimmy to run down about five yards and cut to the inside.

  He dropped back. Jimmy made his cut. Grandpa Richie threw him the ball. Not only did Jimmy catch it, he ran for ten more yards before Mateo caught up with him and stopped him from going all the way for a touchdown.

  When Jimmy got back to the huddle, he looked as if he’d caught a pass in the Super Bowl. The smile on his face was like Christmas had come early. Everybody on their team high-fived him.

  Zach scored on the next play. When Jimmy’s mom’s team got the ball, Danny Walker faked a pass to Malik and then threw a long pass to Zach and Zoe’s mom, who looked even happier than Jimmy had when she scored a touchdown.

  There were so many good plays from both teams. But there was even more laughter. They were all doing what Danny Walker had told them to do: playing hard and having fun. Not only was no one getting hurt, but no one’s feelings were getting hurt, either.

  The game was tied 3–3 when Grandpa Richie called for a trick play. Zach would start out as quarterback. When Zoe snapped him the ball, Zach would run to his left, stop, and then throw the ball back across the field to Grandpa Richie, who’d be ready in the backfield. You could only throw one forward pass in football on the same play. That meant Zach had to make sure his grandfather was behind him before throwing him the ball.

  The plan then was for Grandpa Richie to throw a long pass to Jimmy.

  “Run as far as you can as fast as you can and I’ll get it to you,” Grandpa Richie said to Jimmy.

  “I’ll try my best,” Jimmy said.


  Grandpa Richie put a hand on his shoulder, smiled, and said, “Haven’t seen anybody in this game trying harder than you today.”

  The play worked just the way Grandpa Richie thought it would. Zach threw a perfect spiral to Grandpa Richie, who was standing a few yards behind him. Everybody on defense came running for Zach and Zoe’s grandfather, thinking he was the only receiver on the play. But then, he stopped and threw it to Jimmy near the end zone, who had no one from the other team even close to him.

  After the game, Zach and Zoe would admit they were afraid Jimmy was too open and had too much time to think about catching the ball without dropping it. But Jimmy gathered it in as if he had the surest hands in all of Middletown, and ran for a touchdown. It was at that moment they all heard clapping from the gate to the Walkers’ backyard.

  They turned and saw that it was a tall man in an army uniform.

  No one said anything until Jimmy Evans yelled, “Dad!” and started running across the backyard, the ball still tucked under his arm. He held on to it as he jumped into his father’s arms.

  NINE

  Jimmy was laughing and crying at the same time. Mrs. Evans had her arms around Jimmy and his dad, squeezing tightly.

  Nobody else in the Walkers’ backyard could believe what they were seeing.

  “How?” Mrs. Evans finally managed to say, tears beginning to drip down her face.

  “I found out two days ago,” Sergeant Evans said. “There were so many airplane connections I wasn’t sure if I could make it back in time. So I didn’t want to get anybody’s hopes up. But I figured that if I did make it back by Thanksgiving, it would be a pretty great surprise.”

  Jimmy held his father tight. Sergeant Evans had one arm around his son and the other wrapped around his wife.

  “When I got home, the lights were off and no one was there. So I asked the neighbor where to find you guys. Glad I didn’t miss the biggest football game of the year,” he said, winking at Jimmy.

  “So are we,” Danny Walker said. “Thank you for being here today. And thank you for your service, sir.” He shook Sergeant Evans’s hand.

  Zoe turned to her brother then and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “I usually am,” Zach said, grinning.

  At the exact same time they shouted, “Best Thanksgiving ever!”

  Suddenly, Grandpa Richie looked at Jimmy’s dad and said, “Can I ask you for one favor, sir?”

  Jimmy’s dad grinned. “Sure,” he said.

  “How about you take my place as quarterback. I think I wore out my arm throwing that long pass to your son.”

  “It would be my pleasure,” Sergeant Evans said. “I haven’t had a chance to play much football lately.”

  “This might be the greatest substitution in Turkey Bowl history,” Danny Walker said.

  “Maybe in football history,” said Tess.

  “One thing is for sure,” Danny Walker said. “No one ever traveled farther to get into a game.”

  Jimmy’s mom’s team had the ball. Danny Walker threw her another long pass, which she caught down the field for a quick touchdown, tying the game 4–4.

  The game came down to the final play. The ball now belonged to Zach and Zoe’s team.

  In the huddle Sergeant Evans said, “All of you try to get open. My arm’s a little rusty, but I’ll try to throw it to one of you.”

  “Not one of us,” Zoe said. “Jimmy.”

  “No doubt,” Zach said.

  “How are you guys so sure?” Jimmy asked.

  “My brother and I are pretty big on how stories are supposed to end,” Zoe said. “And we’re both pretty sure how this one is supposed to end today.”

  Zach and Zoe said they’d line up on the right, and told Jimmy to line up on the left. Then they’d crisscross in the middle of the field during the play.

  Zoe hiked the ball to Sergeant Evans and ran across the field with Zach, while Jimmy ran the other way. Zach and Zoe were both open.

  They just weren’t nearly as open as Jimmy was.

  He ran free toward the back of the yard. It turned out his dad’s arm wasn’t rusty at all. He threw the best spiral anybody had thrown all day. Jimmy reached up for the ball and brought it in to his chest. He crossed the goal line with the touchdown that won the Turkey Bowl for his team.

  He came running for his dad one more time and jumped into his arms, holding on like he’d never let go. Meanwhile, Grandpa Richie and Danny Walker huddled up and announced that Jimmy Evans was the most valuable player in this year’s Turkey Bowl.

  Not only was he the MVP, but Zach and Zoe’s dad agreed that Jimmy should keep the ball.

  Afterward, Malik, Mateo, and his dad said their good-byes before heading home to have dinner with their own families. Everyone else went inside to wash up, and watched pro football on television until dinner was ready.

  After Tess Walker said grace, Sergeant Evans said he had an announcement he wanted to make.

  He cleared his throat. “When I come home next, for Christmas,” he said, “I’m coming home for good.”

  “I knew it!” Jimmy shouted from beside his father. “I knew if I just wished hard enough for my dream, it would come true.”

  He reached into his pocket then and brought out a note card. It was his Thanksgiving writing assignment from school.

  He read it aloud to everybody sitting around the table.

  “‘I’m thankful for my mom and my dad. But I’d be really thankful if my dad came home.’”

  Zach and Zoe looked at each other, the same thought inside their heads:

  Green ink had never looked so good.

  TEN

  It was time for recess on the first Monday after Thanksgiving break. The weather wasn’t as warm as it had been on Thanksgiving Day, but everybody was still anxious to get outside and run around.

  They didn’t have a new football to play with yet, so they were hoping Mateo had brought his from home again.

  As they left the cafeteria with the rest of their classmates, Zoe pulled Zach aside. She looked disappointed.

  “Why don’t you look happy?” asked Zach. “We just had an awesome Thanksgiving and Turkey Bowl! Plus four days off school!”

  “I’m glad we solved the football fiasco,” she said. “But we still don’t know who the glasses we found belong to.”

  “That’s true,” said Zach. “But we did put up that flyer, and no one’s come to claim them.”

  “I know,” she said. “I just wish there was some way to solve that mystery, too.”

  Zach patted his sister on the back. “Maybe we will. But for now, let’s just go out there and have fun.”

  Zoe agreed.

  All of a sudden, Mr. Parker came jogging down the hallway from the other direction, something hidden behind his back. He proudly showed them what he was carrying in his hand:

  A can of something called “Fix a Flat,” which he described as “magic goop” that was supposed to seal up holes in flat tires. But he figured it could work on footballs too.

  “Thanks, Mr. Parker,” Jimmy said from behind him. “But we’re not going to need our old football today.”

  Mr. Parker looked confused. So did the other kids.

  Jimmy told everybody to wait where they were while he ran back to his cubby. When he came back, out of breath, he showed them all the Turkey Bowl ball he’d won for being MVP.

  “I’m giving this one to our class as an early Christmas present,” Jimmy said. “This will be our game ball at school from now on.”

  “Wait,” Zach said. “You earned that ball.”

  “We gave it to you because of the way our team won the game,” Zoe said.

  “And now I’m giving it back,” he said. “My parents say it’s better to give than receive. And you both know I already received the greatest gift I
’m ever going to get because of my dad.”

  “Well, if it’s okay with you . . .” Zoe said.

  “. . . I guess it’s okay with us,” Zach finished.

  Jimmy smiled at them.

  “Besides,” he said, “I owed you one.”

  * * *

  All the kids gathered around Jimmy to thank him and admire their new ball. Zach and Zoe stood apart, toward the entrance to the cafeteria, smiling. That’s when Zoe noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

  She turned to peek inside the cafeteria and saw Ms. Gundy, arms crossed, pacing the floor. Perched on her nose sat the glasses Zach and Zoe found in the ball bin.

  Zoe gently shoved her brother to catch his attention. He turned, and when he noticed Ms. Gundy, his eyes lit up.

  Suddenly, Ms. Moriarty appeared behind them. “Ms. Gundy came into my classroom right after you left on Wednesday.” The twins turned to face her. “I didn’t have time to tell you. She dropped her glasses when she was cleaning the recess equipment last Friday after lunch. Including your football.”

  Zach and Zoe looked at each other, stunned. “That was pretty nice of her,” said Zach.

  “Sometimes, people aren’t all that they seem on the outside,” Ms. Moriarty said, smiling.

  Zach and Zoe were happy Ms. Gundy found her glasses, and vowed never to call her Ms. Grumpy again, even in secret.

  Ms. Moriarty turned to leave, and Zach and Zoe filed out the door with their classmates. Finally, it was time to play some football.

  They walked outside together. It was Zoe’s turn to be one of the captains today, and it was time to choose sides.

  Zoe looked around at all the players and thought for a moment. She made her decision, and it was a no-brainer. “Jimmy Evans,” she called.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Mike Lupica (mikelupicabooks.com) is the #1 bestselling author of many popular books for young readers, including Fantasy League, Travel Team, Heat, and Million-Dollar Throw. He has carved out a niche as the sporting world's finest storyteller. Mike lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. When not writing novels, Mike Lupica writes for New York's Daily News and is a special correspondent for MSNBC. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeLupica.