They rode to the Bells’ house in silence, and Landon was glad to get out of the car.
Brett’s mom greeted Landon at the door with a smile. “Hi, Landon. They’re down in the man cave. I’ll show you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Bell.” He followed her through a small living room and down the stairs. At the bottom, a big, hairy dog lay sprawled out, sleeping.
“Just step over her, okay?” Brett’s mom said.
Landon turned a corner and went down another small set of stairs, entering the man cave. It was a shrine to the New York Giants. Everything was red and blue. Signed pictures and jerseys covered the walls. A big, blue sectional couch surrounded the enormous flat-screen TV festooned on its edges by Giants pom-poms. Brett and his dad sat side by side on the edge of their seats, and the action hadn’t even begun.
“Brett . . . Brett!”
“Huh, what, Mom?” Brett turned his head. “Oh, hi, Landon! Come sit down. Dad, Landon’s here.”
“Hi, Landon.” Coach Bell sprang up. “Rashad’s got a bum ankle and they’re talking about what it means. . . . Come on over. Sit down. Right here between us. Want some chips?”
“Sure, that’d be great.” Landon sat and took a handful from the bag they placed in front of him on the coffee table. Brett offered him an orange soda, and he accepted gratefully. “I guess I should have worn something blue.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Brett swatted the air and then pointed to the Jonathan Wagner jersey he wore. “I wear this for luck, and I keep this in my hands the whole game.” Brett showed him a football that had been signed by the entire team.
“Wow. Nice,” Landon said.
“Yeah. Hey, at least you didn’t wear brown and orange for Cleveland. Ha-ha.” Brett chucked Landon lightly on the shoulder and turned his attention to the screen.
Landon started watching and felt a little jolt of pleasure when he realized they had the closed-captioning feature turned on. Landon had thought about that on his way over, but he had decided he wouldn’t mention it. Most people didn’t use the closed-captioning feature, even though most new TVs had it. He looked back and forth between Brett and his dad, but their attention was on the screen.
Landon sat back and breathed easy. It choked him up a little bit to be there, just hanging out with such nice people who took his limitations in stride.
On the wall Landon saw Eli’s jersey, and Rashad’s, and also older Giants like Michael Strahan and someone named Gifford. There were footballs everywhere, as well as pictures of a much-younger Coach Bell. One shelf held nearly a dozen wrestling trophies, some with gold medals slung over them, confirming that Landon was in the presence of athletic royalty.
The Giants fell behind early in the game, and Landon worried along with his hosts. After two turnovers, though, and a stunning block by Brett’s uncle on a sweep, the Giants got right back into it. Once they had the lead in the fourth quarter, it was all a ground game for the Giants. They made no secret of running the ball behind big Jonathan Wagner. Several times the TV announcers ran close-up replays of the huge lineman plowing people down.
“Awesome!” Brett turned to Landon, and the two of them slapped high five.
“We should run the ball like that, Dad.” Brett spoke across Landon to his father, so Landon caught every word. “Layne Guerrero is as good a runner as any in our league. We’d be better pounding the ball than all that passing garbage we did today.”
Landon thought of Layne as just a quiet kid who never did anything to Landon but smile pleasantly. He hadn’t known he was supposed to be a star runner. Like most of the team, Layne hadn’t done much of anything in their game earlier.
Landon turned his attention to Brett’s dad, who scratched his chin. “Well, I hear you, but Skip’s a good quarterback, and Coach Furster likes to air it out.”
Landon turned to look at Brett.
“Yeah, ’cause his mopey son is a receiver.” Brett slapped the football he’d kept in his lap throughout the game.
“Okay, Brett.” Brett’s dad rumbled when he spoke. “Let’s talk nice, okay?”
“You should coach the team.” Brett muttered the comment under his breath, but even Landon knew what he said.
Landon wondered if that was even possible. It would be a dream come true for him, having a head coach who was actually nice to him, who liked him.
Landon held his breath, waiting to see what Brett’s dad would say.