ARROW - 157. Chapter 157

For the next five days, the boys sat around the breakfast table comparing notes, classes, and dorms. I think Tommy and Ivan may have realized that going to Yale was a penalty as compared with Ronny and Ritchie. I asked Ivan who would take care of his garden if he went to an out-of-state school. I didn’t need to say anything to Tommy, my question had him thinking about the Home.

“Dad, although it would be nice to go out of state for school, unlike Ronnie and Richie, we have other responsibilities here at home.”

Two boys got an extra hug that evening. I think the loser was Colin. He had to handle the business by himself. John helped a little, he was still only working half days. I told Colin he must be a little more selective in his cases. At least until Richie was home.

We received a letter from Geno stating they are planning on visiting in November. That was when Nonna was here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Angela said she was looking forward to seeing us and experiencing Thanksgiving. “Mama would tell us stories about spending this time with you and your family. We are looking forward and maybe in some way, we can relive Nonna’s visit with the boys.”

When I told the boys, they were excited, except Ronnie. He wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving as Michigan had a game that day. When I heard that I looked at Colin.

“Don’t worry, it will be televised. We will have a large tv installed in the Home, and we all will be able to see Ronnie’s team play. You understand that he might not play.”

“Pop, I’ll bet he will play and score one touchdown.”

There was one change, he decided to have a screen to project the TV game on. He then decided to have all of the people in the Home and our children watch the game at the club. He was going to make this a party. The cooks from the Home hit the kitchen along with James, Peter, and Bill helping out. I don’t know where Colin got them but we all had turkey legs. I think there were chicken legs for the children. Jimmy was busy making ice cream drinks.

The club would be closed until 9 pm. We had plenty of time to enjoy our party. Most of the small children sat on the floor, Colin had the tables moved to the walls to prevent anyone from getting to the wall.

Dinner was done in cycles. I think all in all, counting the ice cream drinks, we had seven courses. Colon got bibs with a picture of a Turkey on them for the young children. James was smart, except for the legs, he had vegetables in small potato-crusted nuggets. The kids loved them, and the cooks from the Home told James he had to make them in the future. For James that was the greatest praise you could have given him.

The game was televised beginning at 12:00. There were a lot of reporters and TV football announcers discussing the game. They talked about the coaches and how they thought they were going to play the game, the referees, and how they focused on the games. I was sitting there, I didn’t care about these pre-game discussions, I wanted to see Ronnie play.

The cameras switched to the field, and the commentary now related to the players. As soon as I heard Ronnie’s name, I snapped out of my doldrums. The announcer was reviewing the freshman players on both teams. I looked for Ronny, I found him seating on a bench on their side of the field. I knew Colin was watching the game but I was watching Ronnie. The game began, the other team won the toss and the game was on.

I thought the players knew their families are watching and they were going to play their best. Ronny set on the bench in the first hall. The Wolverines were one touch down ahead. The score was 14 to 7 in favor of the Wolverines.

The bands came out for the halftime show. James used the time to pass parquets of food to the children. I was watching when I noticed a few club members sitting at the tables.

It was fun to see the children. I knew they ate vegetables they didn’t like. I don’t know what James did, but they ate everything he gave them.

The second half started. I watched the team coming out on the field. I saw Ronny only he wasn’t heading toward the benches. He was going to play. “Dad, watch for the bullet.”

Now everyone was watching.

In the first play, Ronnie didn’t break out. They gained 20 yards, the coach sent in a player, and one came out. The second play was on the 30-yard line. In the second play, they lost when the full-back was dumped. The coach called a time-out. A new half-back was playing, and Ronnie was still in.

“Dad, the coach is angry. He’s pulling out the first string for some reason.”

They lost ten yards. Now they will need at least a sixty-yard run to score a touchdown.

I watched Ronnie, he was bouncing. “Dad, watch Ronnie he is going to go.”

Sure enough, the ball was snapped and Ronnie was gone, he caught the ball on the 45-yard line and headed for the touchdown. When he crossed the goal line, he danced. They showed the coach, he was smiling.

Ronnie scored one more touchdown and so did the other team. Ronnie played the rest of the half, but he didn’t score any more touchdowns. He did move the ball toward the goal.

Tommy said the other team will gang up on him now. They knew they need to watch him.

I was glad for him. I looked for Colin but he wasn’t in the room. “Where’s Pop?”

“I don’t know he left. Maybe he's in his office.”

'With help of Tommy, Richie, and Ivan, we rounded up the kids to go back to the Home. Tommy told them we had ice cream and cake for them in honor of Ronnie’s team winning. James had a small bag of cookies for them.

“James, if you see Colin, tell him we went back to the Home.”

Arriving at the Home, the cooks had a warm glass of milk for them to have with the cookies James gave them. I listened as the boys discussed the game as I wonder where Colin went.

I played with the children when I noticed the girls getting sleepy. I looked for my boys, the young ones were sitting next to Tommy, Richie, and Ivan. They were getting sleepy as well. “Marie, we should round up the children and head home. I’ll tell Pat if Colin shows up to tell him we went home.”

It bothered me that Colin left without telling me. He had never done that before. Even GG was quiet, which was unusual.

Arriving home, “Dad, Gram and Grand must be here”

I thought that would be unusual unless they thought we would be coming home after the game.

The boys took off, I had my arm around Carfl and Louis as we walked toward the house. “Did you enjoy the game?”

“I don’t understand it. I did like the snacks.”

I laughed, “Maybe when Ronnie comes home he can explain the game to you.” I said that as we entered the house, then I heard a lot of noise. Colin walked out of the living room meeting me in the kitchen. “Where did you go? Don’t ever do that again without telling me.. I was worried about you.”

Colin didn’t say anything, then Ronnie walked into the kitchen.

I had tears in my eyes, as I grabbed him Into a hug. I wasn’t going to let him go.

The boys started to relive the game. What this and what did you do, the questions kept coming and Ronnie between hugging and answering questions, the family was together. The young boys looked at Ronnie with their mouths open, he became an idol for those young boys. I was sure they would be telling all of their friends about Ronnie.

That night in bed, “Are you still mad at me?”

“No, but I was until we arrived home. Did the boys know?”

“No, I spoke to a company about renting the plane. They gave me a free demo and I couldn’t pass that up.”

“Promise me if you do that again, you’ll tell me before you do it. To be honest I was afraid too.”

“Why?”

“Ever since Carl entered our lives I have been very cautious. I was afraid they got to you. Please tell me when you do that again.”

I didn’t mind Colin taking a ride to see Ronnie play. I knew we couldn’t take all of the family.. Then I thought, why not? If we can all go to Europe, we can all go to Ronnie’s games. Now I can sleep. Decision made.

On Sunday, Colin flew Ronnie mack to Michigan. Before he left, he gave us a schedule of games. Away games, which we could possibly attend were at Penn State and Rutgers in New Jersey. The rest would be more in the midwest. At least there was a chance I could see him play.

“Dad, we need a large tv for the Home so we could watch Ronny play.’

When Colin returned I told him what Tommy said.

“I’ll bet there are a lot of programs besides football that the kids could watch. They even have educational shows they could learn from.”

Ronnie’s next game was in Maryland. I thought about attending with the boys but Tommy said it wasn’t fair for the older boys at the Home.

“Colin, do you think you can get something to watch Ronnie’s next game.”

“When is it?”

“According to his schedule it is December 5 in Maryland.”

“I’ll see what I can come up with.”

While Colin looked for a TV set, I drove Ritchie back to Amherst. Richie was close to home so I wasn’t as concerned about him being away from me as I was about Ronnie. I could drive to see Richie but not Ronnie.

Two days later, Colin showed me an 85-inch TV. “Where would you put it?”

“How about the game room? That wall which is at the front of the building doesn’t have any windows and is game free. We can move the tables when we are watching a game.”

I looked at the literature, and Colin was right. I need to get busy painting. He showed the unit to Charles, and Charles said he would install it.

By the weekend, we had a huge tv in the game room. The boys learning woodworking made stools for the kids to sit in front of the TV.

The original screen and projector were left at the club. Now all football games that were broadcasted could be seen. Anyone walking by the club outside could hear when a favorite team had a touchdown. I thought our membership would increase as soon as they knew about the games being shown. I also knew that once football season was over, basketball and baseball season would keep the club full.

That created another problem. The club was closed for the summer months, and that was when Marcel took his cooks to France. Baseball was a summer game. I thought the members would complain but surprisingly they didn’t. Colin announced that the club would be closed for only two months during the summer instead of three months. It was up to James to tell Marcel. We weren’t able to show all the baseball games but we were able to show the World Series.

We continued to watch Ronnie’s games when they were broadcasted. Tommy found a channel that showed cartoons or children's stories. So Pat thought she could use those channels to calm the children before bedtime. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.

The answer was simple, Charles bought a VCR to show DVD’s of children stories.