Waltz of Her Life

Stephen pointed toward the field, slurring his words as he said "Look for number 73! Look for number 73!"

Linda recoiled from his beer-breath. "Jeez, hon, I know my own son's goddammed uniform number!"

A different man spoke, and the volume of his voice had been turned up as he said "And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for since 1995! Here are your Los Angeles Freedom!" The crowd cheered with such a deafening roar that Linda had to cover her ears.

After the kickoff and a couple of quarters of action, Linda knew enough about football to realize that the Browns were holding up quite well against the Freedom in their inaugural game. By halftime the score was tied seventeen all. "They might put Matt in during the second half, to help a drive for a go ahead score," Stephen said, still goofy and giddy from his constant procession of beers.

When the second half started, and the Freedom kicked the ball off to the Browns, their coach soon proved him right. Linda looked to the sideline and saw Matthew's gleaming, still close-cropped, penny hair but only for an instant as he put his orange helmet on. "Stephen, he's going in!"

They both stood and put their arms around each other proudly as their big son in his number 73 ran out onto the field to join his teammates. He bent over in the huddle with them and then sauntered with them to the line and crouched down into his stance as a left tackle. When the center hiked the ball, the quarterback ran into the backfield while Matthew drove hard against the red, white and blue Freedom player across from him. The quarterback heaved a long, arcing pass down the field, which a receiver caught near the sideline marker.

Stephen broke apart from Linda and began jumping up and down wildly. "That's my boy!" he chanted, "That's my boy!" He continued to jump and then suddenly lost his footing, stumbling down toward the people sitting in the row beneath him. It took Linda and two of the men to grab Stephen's arms and catch him before he fell atop some hapless spectators.

"I can't take him anywhere!" Linda said, forcing a smile.

Linda was glad to have seen the game, which the Browns lost in the last seconds, causing the big, bowl-shaped stadium to erupt into a fit of bedlam. She was also glad to return home from the frenetic weekend and get back to the life she knew best: nursing and dancing. Many of her co-workers and even a few doctors congratulated her, saying that they'd seen Matthew play on television.