The Great Quarterback Switch Read Online Free PDF

second quarter beat us,” he said.
    Carol looked at Michael. “I guess you really get hung up in a game, don’t you?” she said. “I don’t know how many times I said
     ‘Hi’ to you, and you never turned around once.”
    Michael stared at her through widened eyes. “I’m sorry. What quarter was that?”
    The girls looked at each other to verify the exact time.
    “The first quarter, wasn’t it?” said Carol, frowning.
    Vickie nodded. “Right. The first quarter.”
    The first quarter,
thought Michael.
It was probably when Tom and I had exchanged places. Oh, great. That’s just great.
    He grinned nervously at her. “That’s right. I really do get hung up in a game. I’m sorry, Carol. I’m really sorry.”
    “Oh, that’s okay,” she said. “I wouldn’t get mad at you for a little thing like that.”
    Michael was glad when his mother and father arrived to break up the party. Tom introduced the girls to them, then the girls
     left, and the Curtis family went on its way home. They rehashed some of the plays of the game, while Michael restrained himself
     from telling them about the complete, wonderful success of their thought-energy process. He wouldn’t ever tell, no matter
     what. That was one thing that was a bound secret between him and Tom. And, of course, Ollie Pruitt.
    They weren’t home more than half an hour, just long enough for Tom to get out of his uniform and into clean clothes and knockoff a sandwich, when Tom suggested to Michael that they go next door to see Ollie. The idea had been bubbling inside of Michael’s
     head, too.
    “Sure!” he said excitedly.
    They found Ollie cutting the shoots of a sea grape plant.
    “Well, howdy, boys,” he greeted them cheerfully. “Good game. Too bad you lost it.” He held the shoots while his eyes flicked
     from one brother to the other. “It worked, didn’t it? You got your TEC to work perfectly.”
    “Yes, we did, Mr. Pruitt,” Michael exclaimed. His body quivered with joy and excitement. At least they could share their experience
     with Ollie. He was a true believer. He would appreciate it.
    Michael explained it to Ollie first, how he had felt when the game had started, how he had tried to concentrate and wish so
     hard toput himself in Tom’s place; and then Tom butted in, saying how he had concentrated on the switch, too. And, suddenly, in one
     split second, the
actual
exchange: Tom in the wheelchair in Michael’s clothes, and Michael on the field in Tom’s uniform.
    “We proved it’s possible, Mr. Pruitt!” Michael said proudly. “And we’re going to do it again!”
    Ollie’s eyes sparkled. “Of course you’re going to do it again. You’ve got a good thing going, not only for you, Michael, but
     for Tom, too. Now he can rest while you play, and nobody will know the difference!”

7
    E ight and two.
    The ball was on the Eagles’ twenty-two-yard line. It was the following Saturday. They were playing the Moths. The Eagles huddled,
     split, trotted to the line of scrimmage.
    “Eight! Nine! Eleven! Hip! Hip! Hip!”
    Jack centered the ball. Tom caught it, stepped back, faked a handoff to Jim. Jim bolted through the line, pulling a guard
     and a linebacker after him as if they were magnetized.
    On the right side of the field, Angie wasrunning like a gazelle. Hans Steiner, the Moths’ left end, was after him.
    On the left side of the field was a stampede. Right end Chuck Willis and linebacker Moonie Jones were pounding the turf after
     Bob Riley.
    Lumpy was doing a good job blocking his man, Moe Finney, the Moths’ lanky guard. Moe might as well have been trying to push
     aside an army tank.
    But Nick Podopolis got through. Nick was the Moths’ middle linebacker on defense and played fullback on offense. He was big,
     fast, and strong. He was a midget bull.
    Michael saw him bust through the line between Jack Benson and Doug Morton. Nick went after Tom with his short, chunky legs
     churning like pistons. His broad shoulders were