Paddy reached out, snatched the pool cue out of Tom’s hand, and cracked him in the forehead, causing the young man to stagger back. Tom grasped the pool table to stay on his feet. Paddy grabbed his arm, stuffed it into one of the pool table pockets, and wrenched his arm to the side. There was an audible crack as Tom’s arm broke.
Then Paddy turned on Oliver.
“Get to apologizing.”
“I’m sorry,” Oliver said to Paddy.
“Not him, dummy. Me,” Cassidy said. “And you better mean it.”
Oliver glanced at his brother, then Paddy, and then focused on Cassidy.
“That night was the best and worst of my life. You probably have no idea how much I like you. No one has ever come close to making me want to become a one-woman man. At the end of the evening, all I was thinking about was that I would finally get to spend time with you alone. I just knew it was going to be a magical night.
“That’s why I told you I was okay to drive. I’ve driven in worse shape, but I should have stopped and thought for a moment. You are too precious to me to have been risked like that. And when that truck appeared, my instinct was to swerve left. I panicked and forgot that you drive on the right in the States,” Oliver said.
Then he went to his knees in front of her. Greg saw him tear up.
“After the crash, there was all that blood, and I could see the bone poking out of your arm. I was sure I’d killed you, and all for what? Getting to your place ten minutes sooner?
I felt horrible,” Oliver said.
“Why did you run?” Cassidy asked.
“I called my brother. He’d done something similar and told me that the police would soon figure out what happened, and if I were drunk and you died …” Oliver trailed off.
“So, you were a coward and ran,” Cassidy said. “You took everything from me. Everything. I had to drop out of school, I might never be able to row again, and my ultimate dream of becoming a Marine is over. I’ve spent every day since the accident in pain. And you ran. You only thought of yourself.”
Oliver looked up at her and nodded.
“I’ve heard enough. Take your brother to the emergency room, and then lose my number. I don’t ever want to see
you again,” Cassidy said.
“Are we done?” Paddy asked.
“Greg, pay the man and let’s get to the airport,” Cassidy said.
◊◊◊
Chapter 40
Bill had missed the chaos this new offense had caused in high school when Lincoln played Broadview Academy.
ESPN had paired the best team in Texas against the one in Illinois. Going into the game, Lincoln High had been a two-score underdog. Percy Wilkes, who’d played for Broadview in that game, was explaining to their teammates what had happened.
“To start the game, they lined up and kicked an onside kick. Our return team wasn’t expecting it, so they were caught flat-footed. Dawson scooped the ball up and began to run upfield. Just before he was tackled, he threw a backward pass across the field to this quick little guy who ran untouched for the touchdown.
“Then they went for two and scored. We stood on the sidelines in stunned silence, trying to figure out what had just happened,” Percy said.
“Dawson happened,” Bill said, which garnered some chuckles.
“I learned that day that it’s better to have him on our side. We didn’t believe they would onside kick twice, but they did, and Dawson recovered it again,” Percy said.
“Are you telling me they had their best player on kickoff coverage?” Willy asked.
“They had their best hands players, most of whom were starters,” Bill said.
“That just shows you how scared they were of us,” Percy said with a puffed-out chest.
“Tell them what happened next,” Bill said with a smirk that wiped the grin off Percy’s face.
“Fuck you too. I was going to show them that they’d messed with the wrong team. The idiots lined up two tight ends to help their tackle block me. I tossed the tackle to the ground and fended off the tight ends, and Dawson was
running right at me. You know that look quarterbacks get when they know I’m about to end their career? Dawson saw his life pass before his eyes,” Percy bragged.
Bill chuckled.
“Okay, Big Boy. Tell them the rest.”
Percy scowled at Bill.
“Some fucking plowboy knocked me on my ass.”
They were starting to draw a crowd as Percy’s teammates took a bit too much joy in his misfortune. They all knew what a beast he was. It had taken four Lincoln players to contain him, but they had.
“I didn’t see the play because I was looking at the sky, wondering if I would ever breathe again. But on the film I saw later, Dawson was caught by our linebacker for what should have been a short gain. But he tossed the ball back to his tailback, gaining another ten yards. Right before that guy was tackled, he lateralled the ball to a receiver who ran it in for a touchdown. With another two-point conversion, they were up by two scores.
“The same shit kept happening. Another onside kick was followed by them lateralling the ball around like they were playing rugby. They were up 32–0 at the end of the first quarter,” Percy said.
“So, will this work against Notre Dame?” Bill asked.
By now, most of the team had gathered around.
Everyone leaned in to hear what Percy had to say.
“Fuck, yeah, it will. Dawson will shred their defense if Coach lets him loose,” Percy said to the raucous response of his teammates.
Bill looked over to where David was standing off to the side and nodded. Percy, being the victim of this style of play, was saying what the team needed to hear. This had just gone from them having fun to being serious. Hearing it would work against Notre Dame and give them a chance was all they needed to know.
Bill could see that David having the two of them explain it was the right thing to do. He called it third-party validation. David could tell them until he was blue in the face. Having someone else they all respected say it made all the difference in the world. Now they believed.
◊◊◊
David didn’t make it back to the dorm in time to grab dinner, so he ordered delivery of a pizza with a giant salad.
He knew that Alex would devour most of the pizza and that he should be focused on something healthier, hence the salad.
While he waited, he pulled out his critical-thinking reading. Critical thinking is the ability to objectively analyze information and draw a rational conclusion. It used six skills: observation, analysis, inference, problem-solving, and communication.
Asking the right questions was a crucial step in formulating correct conclusions. The text gave examples like asking open-ended questions., questions that require more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Another kind was outcome-based questions. You used those when you felt the respondent had the necessary experience and skills to help you. The best example his professor gave was to offer a hypothetical to provide you with clarity.
David’s phone buzzed. The driver was almost there, so he went down to get his food.
Alex and Chloe were busy getting drinks and plates when he returned. It was amazing how they magically knew when food was coming. They helped themselves to pizza as David began to eat his salad.
“So, Yong?” Chloe asked.
David mentally smiled because that was a great open-ended question.
“What are you going on about?” Alex asked.
“When David took me home Sunday morning, he came in and dragged my roommate back to her bedroom,” Chloe overshared.