Last Man Out

Tommy and his mother rush to intercept Emily, but Coach Fisher reaches her first and easily lifts her off the ground “like a bag of groceries” (196). Emily and Matt trade insults before Coach Fisher calms the situation. In the car afterward, their mother tells Emily that she is proud she defended Tommy but forbids her from ever running onto the field again.

Back home, Tommy’s mother tells him that she is glad to see Emily’s fire return. He thanks Emily for defending him, and she says that she also wanted to confront Blake for what he said about their father. Tommy asks her to play soccer with him at Rogers Park, and he’s pleasantly surprised when she agrees.

In the week before the final regular-season game, Tommy reflects on the difficult season and the team’s need for one more win to reach the championship. The game in Waltham is a shootout, with the Bears leading 21–20 at halftime. With under a minute left, Waltham drives to the Bears’ 10-yard line.

Leaning on his father’s lessons about noticing players’ tells, Tommy notices the Waltham quarterback, Jack Reaves, glance at his target before the snap. On third and goal, Tommy reads Jack’s eyes, undercuts the route, and intercepts the pass. His play secures the Bears’ win and a spot in the championship. As his overjoyed teammates rush toward him, Tommy thinks, “Thanks, Dad.”

The Sunday after the Waltham game, Tommy skates with Mike at the Cleveland Circle bowl. Bored, he agrees to try hitching a ride on the back of a Boston College shuttle bus. They grab on, but the bus suddenly slows and swerves. Tommy loses his grip and shoots into traffic on Beacon Street.

He angles his board toward the sidewalk to avoid oncoming cars but slams hard into a streetlight and crumples to the ground. Pain surges through his left shoulder as an ambulance siren approaches.

Paramedics examine Tommy’s shoulder and transport him to St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. Mike calls Tommy’s mother and takes responsibility for the accident. Tommy also apologizes to his mother for making “the most boneheaded move of all time” (216). In the emergency room, a doctor diagnoses Tommy’s injury as a type-one shoulder separation.

When Tommy asks about the championship game in two weeks, the doctor tells him that his football season is over. During the drive home, his mother breaks down in tears and says, “I already lost someone because he loved taking chances so much. I'm not going to lose you, too!” (218).

The narrative moves back in time to when Tommy is eight and his father breaks his ankle jumping out of the window of a burning house. Patrick’s crew rescues a family from a house fire. After the family is safe, a girl cries that her dog is still inside. Patrick goes back into the burning building alone, rushing past Brendan, who was trying to enter the house first.

Patrick appears at a second-story window with the dog, jumps, and curls around the animal protectively rather than focusing on breaking his own fall. He saves the dog but breaks his ankle. When Tommy asks why he risked his life for a dog, Patrick explains that as “the best player on the team” (222), he had to be the first one in and the last one out.

During the week after his accident, Tommy shuts himself in his room and avoids his teammates. His mother urges him to attend practice, but he refuses. Emily then asks him to come to Rogers Park to help with her soccer drills.

He goes reluctantly but finds a measure of peace and happiness while watching her play with an energy he hasn’t seen from her in weeks. During a break, she tells him that she understands why he loves football and that she wants to rejoin her team. She promises, “I’ll play for both of us” (229).

That evening, Emily tells their mother that she wants to return to her team. Her mother calls Coach Gethers, who arrives that night with the entire Bolts team to welcome Emily back. Coach Gethers explains that she saved Emily’s spot, hoping she would return. Emily jumps back into practice with enthusiasm.

On Saturday, in her final regular-season game, Emily scores one goal and assists another in a 2–0 victory that locks up a spot in their championship. Tommy feels that his sister is playing for the whole family.

A week later, at the championship game against the Wellesley Wildcats, Tommy acts as an unofficial defensive coordinator. He helps Mike with keys and alignments from the sideline before climbing to his father’s old spot at the top of the bleachers. The game is tight, and the Bears lead 21–19 with less than a minute left as Blake drives the Wildcats to the nine-yard line.

During a timeout, Tommy sprints down and tells the defense that Blake will fake a pass and run because the quarterback wants “to win this all by himself” (239). On the final play, Mike reads the fake, meets Blake at the line, strips the ball, and recovers it. The clock runs out, and the Bears win the championship. Tommy poses with his teammates and the trophy. Afterward, Coach Fisher tells Tommy that he’s proud of the way the boy handled himself during this difficult season and that he knows his father would be proud as well. Tommy grins and tells his coach, “I was the last man out” (242).

The next Saturday, Tommy gets ready to watch Emily’s championship game. His sister comes to his room and thanks him for taking her to Rogers Park because this experience motivated her to return to soccer. At the field, Tommy watches her warm up before climbing to the top corner of the stands.

Emily waves up to him “smiling brilliantly” before kickoff (245). As the game begins, Tommy reflects on how proud their father would be that his two children found a way to rescue one another from their grief.