Mr. Boy has been playing seventh grade football this year. He wanted to be a wide receiver, after he figured out that he couldn’t be a quarterback. A star seeker. When he accepted his assignment as an unsung offensive lineman, I knew he was serious. Then they switched him to defensive strong safety.
Not so strong, as it happened. Yesterday, in his team’s next-to-last game which turned out to be their first win, he was hit pretty hard. He said the opposing player got his helmet under Mr. B’s shoulder pads. I saw him walking back to the locker room with a scowl on his face.
Since he’s going through puberty, a confusing time for a child, he often scowls and so I didn’t think anything of it. Until I got home and the phone rang. It was his coach who said Mr. B was injured, and in a lot of pain, possibly from a dislocated shoulder. I should come take him to a hospital.
We didn’t get out of the emergency room until after midnight. It was that busy. The ER doc showed us the x-rays. Mr. B’s collarbone is fractured, which could take six to eight weeks to heal. So he’ll miss the last game. But he says he’s going to try out for football again next year. Like I said. Serious.
UPDATE: An orthopedic surgeon we saw this afternoon pronounced the fracture “light,” with the same healing time the ER doc specified but no need for any special brace or meds stronger than Ibuprofen. Mr. B., however, successfully convinced Mrs. Charm that he needed two days off from school going into the weekend.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 