Chapter 3: Another One Bites the Dust

Miss Auzins’ Latin Class, Medway High School

1:51pm, Thursday, November 8, 1979

I had only participated in one shared relief experience this second NIS week here at school, and that was a shared hand-job/finger-fucking experience with Chrissy Harris in the showers after PE on Wednesday. I was halfway surprised to hear Cindy Lewicky call my name after Miss Auzins asked if she wanted a helper for her relief session in our Latin class. I had only half-heartedly raised my hand up to volunteer, really doing it for appearance sake, only.

“I know you won’t be in class tomorrow, Mike and I so want to feel what Jenn, Lynette and a few other girls have experienced with your gifted tongue and fingers, please,” Cindy softly whispered as I slowly knelt down between her spread legs, with my hands on her bare, sinewy thighs.

“That puts a lot of pressure on me, now, Cind,” I joked as my fingers inched their way up towards her promised land.

“I know you respond well to pressure, Mike,” Cindy hissed as she felt my fingertips at the junction of her legs and her spread crotch.

“Okay, Girl ... you asked for it,” I whispered as I slipped my arms under her thighs, lifted up to reach along her bare torso to grab the metal bars on the back of her chair. Cindy was now pinned to her chair with your legs in the classic, spread opened, frog-position.

“Ohh! Damnnnn!” Cindy cried at both her current restrained position and from the sensations my tongue was generating in her wide spread, slick pussy.

“How does he think to do those things?” I heard from a female I thought was Beth Greyson.

“He’s just good at reading the situation and reacting to it, Beth,” Cano replied, confirming my identification of that questioner.

Cindy Lewicky didn’t make another coherent sound as I went to town between her wet pussy lips and around her hard little clitoris. Her abdominal muscles were working overtime, though, as she did her best to repeatedly force her pussy into my mouth while being restrained by my strong arms.

Cindy’s one intelligent utterance as her orgasm neared, said all I needed to know as far what she needed from me. A shouted, “Suck my clittie!” was followed by some grabbled groans, squeaks and Banshee yells as I clearly did as she requested.

When I slowly let Cindy’s legs down to the ground after her rocking experience, she barely whispered to me, “Being folded up tight like that never, ever hurt sooo good, Mike. Thanks for that wonderful...”

“I definitely had fun, too, Cindy,” I replied as I wiped her smeared pussy juices from my nose, cheeks and chin.

“Here is a wash-cloth for you,” Miss Auzins said as she hung the damp wash-rag over my right forearm.

“You want me or can you do this, Cind?” I softly asked as I took the wash-rag in my left hand.

“I better do it or you might start something in me, that we won’t have a second chance to finish,” Cindy replied with an impish grin.

Football Field, Medway High School

4:51pm, Thursday, November 8, 1979

“One more time, guys! Mike, leave NO DOUBT that it is a backward pass!” Coach St. Georges shouted out from behind our team’s kickoff receiving team. We had just did that kickoff trick play for the fourth time in practice and Coach pointed out that I, we all had to really sell out on our ‘right-return’ before I pulled up to quickly throw a lateral across the field to Ronnie Wood.

“Ronnie, you have to kinda hang back some, so my pass is definitely a lateral!” I yelled to my return partner on the opposite side of the field.

“Yeah, Ronnie! ... Just be kinda lolly-gaggin’ over there like you’re not involved in this return,” Coach added to my statement.

Even though our scout kick-coverage team knew what we were about to do, our final rep of that trick play worked to perfection. I returned the kick about twenty yards to our thirty-five yard line before I hammered on the brakes, and threw a thirty-ish yard lateral to Ronnie at our thirty-yard line. With Matt Connell as a lead blocker, Ronnie made his one man miss on his way to an eighty-yard touchdown run.

“Awesome play! Guys!” Coach Pierce called out as a few of us sprinted down the field in excitement at the end result of that play.

“Well done, guys! Michael, great throw-back! Ronnie, Matthew ... great block and cutback!” Coach St. Georges called as our team gathered between the far five and ten-yard area. “Now, I’m hoping we don’t have to use that play tomorrow, but we will if it’s needed. Everybody get a good night’s sleep and I’ll see you in the locker-room between one and one-thirty. Okay?”

“Yes, Sir/Coach!” we all shouted from our circle.

On the way to put our practice footballs in the mesh bag, Coach grabbed my arm and said, “I’m sure Central knows all about our triples, our boots and our play-action passes. So, we’ll just see how they start off defending our basic sets before we’ll know what is going to work best. Everything is open to you, ‘till we get a feel for things, ‘kay?”

“Sure thing, Coach,” I replied as Brad and Geoff helped me shag up the footballs. “If I see something I like, like one-on-one coverage with Smytty or Ronnie, can I go for the gusto?”

“With the way you’re throwing the ball, I’d be upset if you didn’t take a shot against a one-V-one defender,” Coach chuckled.

“Just hearing your confidence in me makes all the difference in the world, Coach,” I added as my favorite teacher gave me a soft shot in my left upper arm.

“You three ... make sure you get a good night’s rest. Geoff, I just have a feeling you’re gonna be needed big-time, tomorrow,” Coach called out to his three eleventh grade offensive threats, even though Geoff was a backup to Bruce Smythe.

“I’ll be ready, if you need me, Coach,” Geoff Thrilwall confidently said. I’m pretty sure that was the first time that Coach specifically singled out number 83 for a comment like that, especially prior to such an important game. I also noted that that little exchange put a little more spring in Geoff’s steps as we neared the varsity locker room.

Labatt’s Guest House

7:18pm, Thursday, November 8, 1979

We spent the first hour and fifteen minutes of our practice putting the music to Love Shack. Brick did a great job getting Eda all squared away with the three acoustic chords, which Cano said would be good for this song. Both Sammy and Brick took my suggestions on how I thought their lead and bass guitars should work with Cano’s keytar keyboard sounds. Even after playing with her since late February, I was still amazed at the unique and wide ranging sounds Cano could generate from her musical toys.

All four of the Time Bandettes were going to town on this song in front of me as I played Eda’s DW drums. After the first two run-throughs, Eda even looked like a regular guitar goddess as she easily joined in with her sister and Sammy to egg Cano into making a four-girl guitar-keytar train. Each of their heads rested on the next girls swaying butts with Brick in the locomotive position and Cano as the caboose while they jammed through my longest solo-vocal segment as I sang:

“Huggin’ and a kissin’. Dancin’ and a lovin’.

And around, and around, and around!“

When we finished up our second complete run of Love Shack without any major hiccups or changes, we stopped for a short break. Brick and Eda were giddy over their rolls in this song as we leaned against the kitchen island with some cheese ‘n crackers and drinks.

“From what I heard earlier from the back entrance, your Love Shack is gonna be one hell of a song and a crazy dance tune,” Sammy’s step-mom, Katie excitedly said as she walked over to our location with a big-time smile on her face, and a manila folder in her hands.

“I’m guessing Daddy hasn’t made it back from Toronto, yet?” Sammy half-way asked and stated to Ms. Katie.

“And your guess would be correct,” Katie replied as she flipped open the manila folder and carefully picked up the stack of papers with her fire-engine red fingernails.

“Is that what I think it is?” Cano excitedly asked as Katie tapped the pages on the counter top, getting them perfectly organized in her hands.

Katie took her sweet time in building up the excitement levels within us, before she said, “This is indeed your recording contract with CBS Records. And before you go all nutso on me, it does indeed include a sales driven, creativity clause.”

I barely had time to brace myself as both Brick and E lunged, and jumped up at me after hearing Ms. Katie’s good news. It was hard to tell which girl was my girlfriend, and who wasn’t as E matched her sister in both the number and passion of kisses I felt on my cheeks, ears, and occasionally on my lips.

Sammy and Cano were jumping and dancing with joy out towards the open living room, so at least I wasn’t worry about being quadruped teamed by my exuberant bandmates.

“Bandettes, Bandettes, Bandettes!” Ms. Katie finally said after giving us time to celebrate and semi-settle down.

When we had all regathered around the island, Katie proudly said, “I arranged with Mr. Murphie and CBS’s lawyers for a fairly low, one-hundred thousand album sales total for your first live album as the trigger level for that creativity clause. They wanted a two-fifty ‘K’ sales total, but when I showed them the sales’ totals of their new bands’ first albums from the last two years, which averaged just over seventy-thousand by-the-way, they agreed to the one-hundred ‘K’ units sold mark.”

“You did all that for us, Ms. Katie?” Cano softly asked and then reached out to rest her hand on Katie’s hands.

“It was fun researching all that for you kids,” Katie opined with a huge grin. “I haven’t gotten to use my Master’s in Library Science degree very often, so it felt good getting in Western’s library materials and hunting all that up to make a stronger case for the your creativity clause numbers.”

“We really-really appreciate you doing this for us, Ms. Katie,” Eda added as slid her butt onto a bar stool.

“Isn’t a hundred-thousand like a ton of records?” Brick incredulously asked as she leaned on my left shoulder.

“Yes, and that is why they agreed to that number, instead of two-hundred and fifty thousand,” Katie replied.

“So why didn’t we try to get the new band average for that trigger number?” Sammy asked of her step-mom.

“Because Katie probably found out that after a band has a live TV show, their album and cassette sales go through the roof, and...” I partly guessed at Katie’s reasoning.

“And I have faith that you’ll be seen all across Canada and part of the northern states, so you should have a monumental sales spike from your TV concert. That ‘exposure’ should easily push your numbers beyond that one-hundred ‘K’ sales goal ... oh, sorry about that unintended pun.”

“You really think we’ll win that band challenge and get to play on national TV, Ms. Katie?” Brick softly asked.

“I believe it because you guys also believe it, Lisa!” Katie confidently replied to our youngest band member’s hesitant question. Katie’s soft but assertive words seemed to help both of our youngest band members’ conviction levels as I saw a renewed sparkle in their eyes.

Katie fired us up even more when she asked, “How about playing the two songs you’re gonna play at that challenge for me? Give me all you got, and pretend I’m one of the judges, okay?”

Immediately after Katie’s request, both Sammy and Cano turned to me with a devilish gleam in their eyes. I was pretty sure what their looks meant but Cano left no doubt I had it right when she softly asked, “Do we play these songs with or without ... our clothes?”

“Oh, shit!” Brick automatically said when the full impact of Cano’s question fully registered in her head.

“We probably ... kinda should do this without clothes,” Eda hesitantly replied with her eyes as wide open as they probably could get.

“You’re gonna be okay with Ms. Katie seeing you naked, Mike?” Brick asked as she used a near death grip on my left forearm.

“Well, Bricky ... more than just Katie will see us naked at the band challenge and then on, on, uh, national TV,” I replied. My conviction for doing this concert was still being challenged as the thought of being naked on Global TV was even now almost incomprehensible to me.

“We’ve all been naked together at some point, so...” Lynette said and then reached to the bottom of her green Michigan State sweat-shirt and yanked it up over her braless breasts and wild mop of now statically charged, long blonde hair.

“When in Rome, and this NIS Challenge and Concert are our future Romes,” Sammy replied with a grin and soon had her hunter green bra enclosed breasts exposed to our eyes.

“Are we really doing this, E?” Brick asked as her fingers hesitantly began to unbutton the top two buttons on her multi-colored striped golf shirt.

“Think of this as just another rehearsal session, Brick,” Eda replied as her black t-shirt joined Sammy and Cano’s tops in the pile on the kitchen island.

In less than a minute, every one of us but Katie was sans clothes. With four beautiful naked teens in such close proximity to me, it was impossible for me to maintain voluntary control over my lower region, so I quickly added, “I’m real sorry for my ... condition, Ms. Katie. As you probably know, trying to purposely will an erection away is only making it...”

“No apology needed, Mike. I’ve kinda seen a few of those things in my day,” Katie chuckled as she moved over to the leather sofa in anticipation of our two song performance.

Somehow I knew Sammy wasn’t going to let this current conversation die, so she mischievously added, “But I doubt, Katie that any of those things looked as good or were part of a six-three, two-hundred and twenty pound teenage stud like Cuda.”

“Sammy!” Cano called out in surprise.

Ms. Katie, being one smart cookie wasn’t going to let her step-daughter get the best of her, so she quickly countered with, “And just how do you know what things I may or may not have seen in my travels to countless nude beaches in Europe, Miss Smarty... ‘Panty-less’ daughter of mine?”

“Ohhh, snap!” E called out as she set her naked tail on her leather cushioned drum throne.

Thankfully, our youngest naked member put an end to the Labatt ladies’ tit-for-tat word-fair by asking, “Are you singing first, or am I, Mike?”

“My guess is the judges will want to hear our original song, first ... so, ah, why don’t we start with Danger Zone, and then we’ll play our cover of Ain’t That a Shame.”

“Even though it’s a fifty-fifty coin flip that makes sense, Cuda,” Cano added from behind her keyboards.

“Do you kids plan on any lead in or introductory words for the judges? I’m guessing they’ll allow you to add a little context for your song or songs,” Katie smartly asked just before we were set to start playing.

“Because I’m singing lead on this, it might be good for one of you girls to give a little background information and relate how this song isn’t just an ‘airplane’ song but can be a metaphor for the tension in our relationships,” I said as I turned to look at Sammy and Cano.

“With the way you just said that, why don’t you do the intro, Cuda?” Cano countered.

“It’s your song, Mike, so I think it might be good for you to provide the background for it,” Katie quickly followed up on Lynette’s statement.

“If you girls are good with it, I’ll come up with something and have it ready for Friday,” I replied with a gentle nod of my head.

“Does that mean I have to do the same for our cover song?” Brick softly asked with a tone that suggested she would rather someone else take on that pre-singing responsibility.

“Me or Cano will do the intro to our cover song, Bricky,” Sammy quickly replied with a smile for Brick.

We played both of our NIS Challenge songs near flawlessly with Ms. Katie grooving to the beat on the sofa. Once more, Sammy took over Brick’s bass guitar role to allow our young busty singer free reign to simply sing and dance with her hand-held microphone.

When we were finished with them, Sammy’s step-mom offered this one piece of non-music advice. She constructively asked, “Lynette, can you play that last song on your keytar? You really need to get your body with your amazing boobs out front for at least one song in this band challenge. I think seeing Samantha’s, Lisa’s and your three distinctive breast sizes and shapes out front at the same time would only add to your group’s appeal ... and that’s not a knock or put down of you and your body, Eda.”

“I wasn’t offended and I got the point of your suggestion, right away,” Eda quickly replied with a smile.

“So you think we should go one-hundred percent in with the whole nakedness, sexiness aspect in the band challenge?” I asked as I saw Cano fidgeting with her keytar’s buttons and knobs.

“I don’t know why using what the good Lord gave you would be a bad thing in this NIS competition,” Ms. Katie thoughtfully replied.

“Yeah, we certainly aren’t hiding an ugly duckling back behind the drums or off to the side of the stage,” Sammy added with a small wave to Eda.

“If you girls are good, I’m certainly not gonna complain about having all three of you up front, playing alongside me,” I laughed and smacked Brick’s bare bottom.

“Hey, hey!” Brick squealed, and then quickly two-stepped away from me towards Sammy’s location.

“You guys wanna try Ain’t one more time with my keytar?” Cano asked with her candy-apple red keyboard slung around her neck and shoulder.

Brick looked at her wrist watch and quickly said, “Holy cow! It’s almost nine! We best head on out or Momma will be sending the Italian Mafia in search of us.”

“I’ll call your place and tell your Momma or Nonna that I kept you here longer than expected ... which is really what happened,” Ms. Katie quickly said as she pushed up off the sofa. “Will you need me to call your parents, Lynette, Mike?”

“A call wouldn’t hurt. Thanks, Ms. Katie,” Cano replied as she lifted her keytar up from around her neck.

“Better make it three calls, Ms. Katie,” I replied after Lynette.

On the drive, taking Brick and E home, Eda softly said from the back seat, “I’m sorry about messing up your alone time plans tonight with Brick, Mike.”

“All’s good, E. It wasn’t anyone’s fault that we lost track of time like that,” I replied and patted Brick on her left thigh as she sat in the passenger seat of my car.

“So what did you think of Tempe’s plans for us, tomorrow night, Mike?” Brick softly asked.

I let out a soft sigh and then said, “Both of you are taking a pretty big risk, saying you’re each staying at the other’s house. And I can’t believe that Anthony and Tina are mixed up in this little scheme, too.”

“It was Anthony’s idea to get co-joining rooms at the downtown Hilton for him and Tina, and for us,” Brick excitedly replied. “Have you figured out a plan, yet, so you’ll be able to spend the night with me and Tempe?”

“Not yet, girl! I only heard about it at lunch time, today,” I replied a little hotter than I wanted to sound.

“If you don’t wanna spend the night with us, just say...” Brick spat out.

“No-no! Sorry, Brick. I definitely didn’t mean for my words to sound like they did. I just didn’t have time to really formulate a reason for spending the night away from home, yet. That’s all.”

“Okay, good. Ya know, even if you can only stay ‘till like twelve-thirty or one-am, that will still give us plenty of quality time together,” Brick added with her smile back on her face.

“What if you tell your folks you’re going to stay at Wayne’s, tomorrow night? You can say that me, Brick, Tempe, and you and Wayne are gonna watch a movie and play some board games ‘till you give us a ride home. Then, just see if you can stay over with Wayne for the night,” E suggested.

“That just might be a solid, E,” I replied after digesting her words for a moment. “Heck the five of us could even start the evening out together before we head off to the Hilton.”

“I’d like that,” Brick quickly replied with a smile.

Medway Football Field

3:22pm, Friday, November 9, 1979

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!“ I fumed as I picked myself up off the cold, dying grass.

Just as I was about to release a sure touchdown pass to Bruce Smythe, who had broken into the clear; I was majorly blindsided. The football, which I had cocked in my raised right hand, simply popped up about five feet in the air into the waiting hands of a Central Elgin Titans’ linebacker. Their number ‘53’ ran untouched into our end-zone for a 46-yard pick-six.

The defensive end who steamrolled me didn’t add to my mood when he softly, but badly sang a few lines from Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust. Even though his piss-poor rendition wasn’t close enough to me to warrant a taunting penalty flag, it sure elevated my, ‘This ain’t over by a long-shot‘ feeling that was percolating up within me. With that song running through my head, I thought, ‘If I get a good shot at one of you, Titans, another one really could bite the dust.‘

I had no clue that in a few moments, I would soon wish I never heard of that Queen song or even contemplated that revenge oriented thought.

“Jeeze, Mike! Sorry ‘bout that,” Dean Smybarth said, which snapped me out of my funk. He had come to pick me up from the grass and to check on me after that hard lick.

“What the hell?” I simply said to my left tackle and Gary Danner, the tight-end on that side of the line, who stared in disbelief at me.

“I think Jay stepped on my foot and I tripped, Mike,” Dean said. He looked at Gary and added, “Gary picked up the linebacker like he was supposed to, but my guy ... he had a straight shot. Sorry, man.”

“Okay, Dean. Thirteen, fourteen points ain’t nothing to worry about. There’s still plenty of game left,” I said as I slowly jogged down to our end to play defense against the Central Elgin Titans extra point.

“What happened back there, Cuda? I was wide open,” Smytty asked as we lined up next to each other for this extra point attempt.

“Right before I was throwing it to you, I got blindsided and the ball...”

“Well, we know I can take that guy, now. It they shift a safety over to help him with me, that should allow Ronnie or maybe Brad to get free on the other side,” Bruce added as we watched the Titan’s kicker shank it to the left for no points.

“There’s our break, guys! Let’s do this!” I shouted to our team as we hustled over to the sidelines.

With the score 13-0 for the Titans, Coach St. Georges looked at all of us and asked, “Are you here to play winning football, or are you ready for the season to end... ‘coz you’re playing like country bumkins?”

“I’m ... we’re gonna win this game, Coach,” Matt said after looking in a few of our eyes.

“Okay, then. Now, I think would be a good time to use our throw-back play if they kick it to the right side. Ronnie, remember to hang back to give Mike that clear lateral,” Coach announced and then instructed my return partner. Before we left our sideline huddle, Coach added, “Act normal before the ball is kicked, guys. Don’t give this away before we have a chance to use it.”

The Titans did indeed kick the ball in my direction and I caught it at our 19-yard line. I yelled, ‘Go!’ to my teammates and started up-field near the sideline numbers. With the Central Elgin players crashing down on my location, I hammered on the brakes and fired a backward bullet across the field to Ronnie. Our trick-play worked beyond our wildest dreams as Matt lead Ronnie on an 78-yard sprint for an easy touchdown. There wasn’t a single Titan on that side of the field for Matt to block as he led Ronnie down the left sideline in front of our now screaming and dancing fans.

With Matt’s PAT kick, the score was now 13-7 with a little over two minutes left in the first quarter. On the sidelines during our kickoff, Coach called me and Barry O’Nils, our signal caller on defense to over to him. “If they complete one more pass to their big tight-end, Barry, I want you to switch to our Lucas coverage package. Mike, ‘88’ will then be your responsibility. Hit them with a few surprise blitzes, too, if you see the chance.”

“Sure thing, Coach,” Barry replied and smiled over to me.

“Do we need to wait for a completion to make that switch, Coach?” I asked.

After watching our coverage team tackle the Titan’s returner at their 29-yard line, Coach St. Georges said, “Switch it, Barry! ... Mike, I want you in a serious search and destroy mode out there.”

“You got it, Coach!” I shouted like a demon possessed as we sprinted out onto the field. Little did I know that Coach’s final instructions, paired with my revenge-tinted mindset would come back to almost immediately haunt me in an all too serious way.

Barry told our defensive players about our change in coverages, and I mentioned to Ronnie and Bruce about watching for my blitz signal, which meant ‘88’ would be running free in our zones when I blitzed. When their big tight-end shifted from their right to their left end position, I easily mirrored his motion, running behind our linebackers. I immediately tapped my butt, signaling to Ronnie I was going to blitz on this play.

I thought that the Titans’ QB might use my ‘mirrored’ man-cover giveaway on ‘88’, and ignore the possibility that I might rush him from my near proximity to the line of scrimmage. From their first handful of offensive plays, I noticed that they routinely snapped the ball on the first ‘hut’. I decided to gamble and timed my all-out rush to the quarterback’s prior cadence. Bypassing the tight-end, I zeroed in on the spot I thought their QB would drop to and sprinted there in a bad mood. Similar to my ‘whiplash’ hit on Parkside’s Todd Daymend, Central Elgin’s QB never knew what just trucked him.

The fumbled football bounded back towards the Titans’ end-zone after I completely obliterated the poor kid, and I saw Matt Connell racing towards the bouncing pigskin. Timing his reach perfectly, Matt corralled the football without slowing down and easily jogged in for a 19-yard touchdown with that recovered fumble.

As I moved off the Titans’ quarterback, I saw that his eyes had rolled back in his head, and he was basically lifeless under me. I immediately yelled and motioned to their bench and towards Dr. Wellend, who was already in a full sprint to check on this obviously hurt player. When I noticed this player was completely out of it, I knelt down beside him, held his head still in my hands, and waited for Dr. Candi and the medical people to arrive.

“He’s out of it, Doc!” I forcefully said as she slowed, and dropped down to her knees beside number ‘12’.

“Keep a good hold on his helmet, Mike, and don’t move an inch,” Dr. Wellend sternly said as maintaining spinal stability was her first obvious concern for this injured player.

When the Titans’ quarterback’s eyes slowly opened, Dr. Wellend softly asked, “Hey, 12, 12, are you with us, 12?” She then looked at their head coach and asked, “What’s this boy’s name?”

“Winston, Winston Graves,” the Titans’ coach quickly replied.

“Winston, Winston, honey. I’m Dr. Wellend. Don’t try to speak, just blink your eyes for me if you understand my words. Winston, blink for me, please,” Dr. Wellend softly asked.

When the player slowly blinked a few times, Dr. Wellend then said, “Lay real still for me, don’t try to move, Winston. We’re not in any hurry to move you. ‘Kay?” Once more, we saw a few lazy blinks of acknowledgement from the semi-out of it player.

Dr. Wellend immediately went about doing a series of sensory checks on Winston’s limbs. After she was satisfied he had feeling in all of his extremities, Dr. Wellend then had the injured quarterback try to move both of his feet, which thankfully, he was able to do. Winston was soon able to move his left arm and fingers for Dr. Wellend. However, his right arm seemed somewhat dead or lifeless when Dr. Wellend prompted Winston to move those fingers and hand.

“Please tell me he’s gonna be okay, Dr. Candi?” I softly asked with tears starting to run down over my eye-black paint.

“Right now, I think he’s just got a pinched nerve in his neck, or some type of stinger. Winston’s other limbs are good, so that is a real positive.” Dr. Wellend then turned to the game’s medic and said, “Sam, let’s get his neck in a collar and his body stabilized for the ride to the ER. You have called for an ambulance, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Dr. Wellend. It will be here ... no, wait, here it comes, right now,” Sam replied as he dug out the collar from his medical kit, and turned towards the siren sound coming from Medway Road.

“Okay, Mike, keep your hands real firm on his helmet while I slip this collar under his neck ... like so,” Dr. Wellend softly instructed me as she carefully positioned the neck brace around Winston’s neck and cinched it up tight under his chin and against the bottom of his football helmet.