The Football Game

The air was cool, about as crisp as an early autumn day might get in Central Texas. The sky was dark, but the stadium lights lit the field brightly. The football players were smashing. The cheerleaders were cheering. The pep band was playing from the stands.

Their team was losing badly on the field. A band father turned with a guilty conscience from watching the band to watching the team from O'Henry score another touchdown against the team from Small. Then he turned back to watch the band again, watching the flutes and clarinets bop up and down as the percussionists banged out a cadence, watching the brass shine, watching the smiles on the kids as they held their instruments high and as they shouted the words to the fight song and the words to Macho Man.

I don't think the kids in the band are paying any attention to the game, he said to his wife sitting beside him.

They sat briefly in silence.

That's ok, she said. I don't think the football players are paying any attention to the music.

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O'Henry vs. Small Middle Schools. Fall 2003

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