Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 28: Big Fun on the Bayou
Saturday, September 13, 1986
We were up and out around nine. As we’d hoped, Amy loved our favorite restaurant and wanted to hear the story of how we’d found it. Angie and I explained how we wound up here during our family trip back in the summer of 1981. We’d just thought it looked good. And, fortunately, it was good! We added stories of coming here on various other trips, which she seemed to enjoy hearing.
She also enjoyed beignets.
“I think I might like to learn how to make these,” she said. “My guess is that they’re difficult, but ... all of cooking was difficult for me at first. Perhaps like anything, it is becoming less difficult with practice. It is also fun!”
Paige nodded. “It really is. Though I think part of it is that there are six — seven, now — of us cooking. Well, sometimes nine, but neither Candice nor Sherry cooks with us very often. Which is fine! But splitting up the work is a big deal. My mom cooked every day when I was growing up, and I’m sure she got tired of it sometimes.”
“Ours, too,” I said. “But then we started helping. Now, she’s got our dad helping.”
Angie giggled a bit. “He was so helpless! Daddy Frank was a good cook, though.”
We shifted topics, bouncing between classes and the upcoming games, and lingered over coffee until nearly eleven.
We drove to the Superdome, planning on heading directly to Baton Rouge after the game. Once we were inside, this felt almost like going to the Astrodome for a high school game. Neither TCU nor Tulane were all that big, at least compared to A&M or UT. Courtesy of Sandra, we would have very good seats near the forty-yard line on the lower level, if back a fair bit. Perhaps we would have seats that good at Kyle Field next year as seniors, but even that was iffy.
Curtis and Marsha were here, too, I was pretty sure. We had no way to find them in the crowd.
Once at the stadium, we headed to our pre-arranged meeting spot with Sandra. She was waiting when we got there, along with a group of other women.
“Hey!” she said. “Girls! This is Steve, Jasmine, Angie, and Paige. And ... Amy?”
“Yes, Amy,” she confirmed, smiling.
Sandra hugged each of us, and many of the others did as well. As expected, most of them were players’ girlfriends.
Angie had to recount the story of how she and Marshall become ‘frenemies’ (she didn’t use the word, but the meaning was there) and then simply friends. Sandra hadn’t heard the ‘Marshalls Rule!’ story from nationals, and burst out laughing when she did.
“That sounds like him! Well, and you. I’m very glad you met. Not as glad as Marshall is, but glad enough.”
“We’re glad, too,” Angie said. “Marshall is one of those people who would leave a big hole if we didn’t know him, even if we never knew there was a hole.”
“I like that phrasing,” Sandra said. “I might borrow it.”
Angie grinned. “Feel free!”
We hung out for about twenty minutes, then headed to our seats along with the others. The game kicked off about half an hour later. We spent much of the time cheering for Marshall and the other guys her friends knew.
Tulane struck first, with a field goal. TCU tied it with a field goal of their own in the second quarter and pulled ahead with a touchdown, but Tulane countered with two touchdowns of their own, making it seventeen to ten at the half. We were optimistic that Tulane might pull this one out.
Those hopes started to falter in the third quarter, when one of TCU’s running backs broke two fairly long runs for touchdowns. Suddenly, Tulane was a touchdown down and looking like they couldn’t stop TCU’s offense. Nor could they mount a drive of their own.
That reversed itself on the next series. The same running back broke through the line and ran immediately into Marshall. He lost the ball in the collision. Marshall scooped it up and took off for the end zone. Just like that, the game was tied.
Sandra and her friends erupted as Marshall grabbed the ball and didn’t stop bouncing up and down until after Marshall himself was back on the sidelines being mobbed by teammates. We were right there along with her. A lot of hugs and high fives were exchanged.
After that, it turned into a defensive battle. Tulane got one more touchdown, and both teams scored two additional field goals, making the final score Tulane 37, TCU 30.
Marshall had a lot of tackles. I wasn’t sure how many, but he was all over the field. I’m sure Coach Brown was happy to have Marshall starting for him. Would it move the needle on the NFL? Only two of his teammates had been drafted last year. Neither had seen action in an NFL game yet, though. So ... maybe?
After the game, we hung out with Sandra and her friends on a concourse. All of them were excited. Sandra herself was exuberant.
“Did you see that move he made?” she said, bouncing. “And a touchdown! I wasn’t expecting to see him running the ball! He looked good out there!”
“He did!” one of the other girls (Zoe, I think) said.
A bunch of them agreed in unison. So did we.
After a bit more conversation, Sandra said, “We’d better let these guys go. They have to get over to Baton Rouge.”
“Just watch yourself and be polite,” Zoe advised. “They’re tough, but they’re also really hospitable — if you’re polite in return. They’re miserable if you’re not, though.”
“They really are,” another girl added. “We’re always nice, but we’re from Tulane. I’ve heard stories, though, from SEC games. Some of the other schools get stuck up, and it doesn’t go well.”
“Expect a lot of yelling. It’s good-natured, though,” said yet another of their friends.
“You guys are from A&M, though,” Zoe said. “We’ve heard your stadium is really loud, too.”
Paige nodded quickly. “It’s so loud! Amy’s still getting used to it.”
Amy blushed but smiled. “I usually don’t like ‘loud,’ but it’s different with good friends. Also...”
“I brought earplugs,” she added, showing off a pair.
“Good idea!” Sandra said. “If you’re noise-sensitive, you’ll want those.”
Zoe nodded. “Yeah. You will.”
We parted with more hugs.
“See you for lunch tomorrow!” Sandra said.
“We can’t wait!” Angie said.
“I brought extras,” Amy said, once we were in the car.
Everyone took a pair. I probably wouldn’t wear them, but ... maybe? It depended on how the crowd noise worked. Kyle Field worked very well to channel the noise onto the field. It had never felt nearly as loud to me as I knew it was for the players.
We were parked and walking to Tiger Stadium an hour and a half later. The tailgaters were out in force, and we got offer after offer to stop and try some of their specialties. We did, too. There was some good-natured chatter about how they were going to win big, but it was just chatter. They also said very nice things about A&M and how good the team was this year.
A few times, it came out that we knew some of the players. Our hosts made a point of wishing our friends well and hoping it was a clean, safe game. Not so well that we won, of course, but the attitude was what I would hope for.
I had heard rumblings about visiting fans having some trouble at Tiger Stadium, but maybe that was far in the future. Or, maybe, they brought it on themselves. In any case, we had a great time spending a couple of hours chatting with the LSU faithful.
Amy was the only one who caught any grief, and that was just one fan shouting ‘Hey, goth chick!’ and another yelling ‘Who would go out with that?’ at her. She didn’t even respond. Paige, however, flipped the bird at the second one. She got high fives from everyone for doing it.
One of the tailgaters apologized for the second guy, but Amy shook it off.
“It is hardly the worst thing I’ve heard,” she said. “I’m comfortable with myself. If he’s not, that’s his loss.”
“A big loss, too!” Angie said.
That was a huge change, and we all knew it. Especially Amy. I could vividly remember saying just that to her — that it was their loss, not hers. Hearing her repeat it so forcefully said a great deal about who she was now.
Once we were in the stadium, we found ourselves in the middle of thousands of A&M fans. We were unlikely to have any trouble here!
This game felt almost like the Tulane game. The first quarter ended 7-7, and the second 14-14. A&M had been fairly heavily favored, so a tie wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t a disaster, either.
A&M had a lead early in the third with a field goal, but LSU scored a touchdown to pull ahead again, 21-17. The next play was a near-disaster. A&M’s quarterback, Kevin Murray, went back to pass and tossed it right to an LSU defender, who got to the ten-yard-line before Andy caught up to him and tripped him up, seemingly by his shoelaces.
Two plays later, Cal came to the rescue, sacking their quarterback. It was a clean hit, but it knocked the poor guy out of the game. There was a long pause with near-total silence while both teams’ medical staff checked him out (A&M’s bench was considerably closer to him than LSU’s, so they got there first). He eventually got up, waved, and walked off, but he was obviously limping. He left to a standing ovation from pretty much everyone in the stadium, at least.
LSU, perhaps rattled, gained nothing on the next play, then missed the field goal. A&M took the field, and Murray’s next pass was a short pass that Rod Bernstine turned into a ninety-yard touchdown. That brought A&M into the lead, 24-21.
From that point on, it was nearly all A&M. They added two touchdowns. LSU’s backup quarterback couldn’t move the ball, and Cal wound up getting several tackles and one more sack. Johnny Holland was out there more, and did more, but Cal might have had the defensive play of the game. Kip, meanwhile, wound up with at least four passes batted away and several tackles. The game ended 38-21, a very solid A&M victory.
It was fun knowing more of the players. We could cheer for them by name, and did. Not that they could hear us, but still.
I had to wonder what this would do for A&M. They’d come into this ranked number seven in the nation, and this might move them up. They certainly hadn’t won a national championship in my first life. Would they this year? I doubted it, but what did I know?
We didn’t make it back to our car until nearly midnight. Many of the LSU fans stopped us to offer congratulations, along with good-natured comments like, ‘We’ll get you next time!’
They might, too. A&M was playing them at Kyle Field next year. Hopefully, we would defend our home field, but LSU hadn’t, and we couldn’t count on it. They’d looked pretty good, honestly, and would be a threat, especially if their quarterback stayed healthy.
While I had no idea how this game had gone in my first life, I could easily imagine it going differently. No Andy, and perhaps LSU scored on that interception, if it happened that way. No Cal, and perhaps their starting quarterback picked us apart like he had on the previous drive.
Both of them would be starting next year. What difference would that make?
Once we were back at our car, I set out for New Orleans, while the girls all snoozed a bit. We were finally in bed at about two in the morning. Everyone agreed we wouldn’t meet up until at least ten, maybe later. Lunch was at noon, and no one wanted to have breakfast before one of Marsha’s meals.
Surprising me, Jas and Amy had gotten a second wind from their naps, and we didn’t get to sleep until well after three, after they had declared there to be enough ‘more’ for a very late night.
Sunday, September 14, 1986
We didn’t get out of our room until nearly eleven. Angie and Paige were waiting in the lobby, but said they’d only been there for a few minutes.
Part of our delay was due to Amy, who had a last-minute crisis over whether to wear her full outfit or substitute a more conventional choker and bracelets. Both Jas and I felt it was her choice, but that Curtis and Marsha wouldn’t take it wrong. Angie and Paige seconded it emphatically, once we met up with them.
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