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Chris was unconscious! The stadium was in complete silence as doctors from the crowd attempted to tend to Chris but to no avail. The ambulance whisked Chris away with Mrs Newton accompanying.
Dad arranged for Newt to go home, telling him not to worry as Chris has got ‘a hard head’. Chris was cleared of broken bones or sprains but was still in a coma. Newt believed it was because Chris just needed a rest. Disappointed that he couldn’t visit, he went to bed. He replayed the touchdown and heard the crunch of shoulder pads and cracks of helmets; all a blur. He drifted off to sleep thinking about his inner other only to be awakened by Mom asking him to look after himself. His Saturday was spent answering phone calls by well-wishers who wanted the latest updates.
Cecil and JJ dropped by to cheer him up and updated him on how everyone was calling it the ‘Big Tackle’. Cecil also told Newt that some of the Ferrets were out to get Reggie who was accused of head-butting Chris into a coma. Reggie’s car was spray painted and his tyres slashed. It got Newt thinking again – how could anyone be sure it was Reggie? Cecil and JJ then talked about Halloween and Newt tried to avoid it but they planned to meet up at 6pm the next day.
Newt frantically searched for a Halloween costume, but nothing spoke to him. After having SpaghettiOs for dinner, Dad called to ask him not to wait up. With no other news, he felt dejected and fell asleep watching television.
He dreamt of Chris teaching him to skate when he was four but glided right onto the football field only to watch Chris get crushed. He jolted awake to find it was Sunday morning and Chris was still unconscious.
He had breakfast alone and felt miserable and invisible as the newspaper reported Chris to be an only child. As he continues his search for a costume, everything was either too small or short or torn. He gave up and prepared to tell his best friends that he ‘did not feel like Halloweening that year’.
He dozed off again and woke to find Mom folding Chris’ clothes in slow-motion, carefully smoothing out the wrinkles and hugging them as though Chris was still in them. He offered to help Mom but there was ‘not a thing’ he could do to help. Then, an idea sparked, and Newt rushed off to put on one of Chris’ hand-me-downs, hoping to cheer Mom up. As he was doing that, Mom left for the hospital and Cecil and JJ turned up at the door. They looked amazing – JJ is Splendida, a fictional character from her favourite book and Cecil is Mozart. They couldn’t figure out what Newt was as he simply looked like a messy clothes hamper with Chris’ old pants, shirts and shorts.