61
DANNY
Kurt Brodsky scores a last touchdown to ice
the game and the stands erupt as his teammates rush him in hugs and
helmet slaps. As the team jogs back toward their sideline, though,
Kurt stays in the back of the end zone. He raises both hands high
up in the air, pauses, then lowers his arms as if prepping and ...
and ... flings himself backward while his legs power his big body
up and over. Kurt Brodsky, in full helmet and pads, does a
supremely ugly-beautiful back handspring that barely gets him
around to his feet again. Awful landing aside, the handspring is
still pretty cool. The stadium explodes all over again as the stunt
is lovingly captured by Tina in slow motion up on the Jumbotron. He
still needs to keep his elbows locked when he throws the trick, but
I’ll make sure to remind him sometime before the championship
game.
“He made it!” I whisper.
“We made it!” a boy’s voice, no longer mine,
corrects me before vanishing forever.