I was still stinging from my experience with Mrs. Brown. I was still really worried about Nate’s condition. What if he never walked again? I woke up early Monday morning with a good idea. I could ask Jeff’s dad if he knew how Nate was doing. I knew he sometimesworked on call at Gower General. He’d probably already checked up on Nate. I tracked down Jeff at lunchtime. He was in the cafeteria, about to launch himself into a huge piece of pepperoni pizza. “Yeah, I can ask him,” Jeff said after I’d put the suggestion to him. “But why don’t you come over after practice and ask him yourself? You can stay for supper.” It sounded like a good idea to me. I’d forgotten all about practice until Jeff reminded me. In fact, I realized that I hadn’t thought too much about football all weekend. Unlike Saturday’s light session, we wore full gear for our Monday afternoon practice. As I pulled on my pads, I realized it was the first time I had geared up since the incident with Nate Brown.
