Yet the unspoken, or perhaps unrealized, sense that it was all too good to be true hung in the air. If they had taken the time to think things through, they would have realized that the entire plan rested on a stranger whose last name they did not even know, who was now hundreds of miles away, along with one James K. Bagneski, who barely would have qualified to carry their spikes a few years earlier. But greed, ignorance, and delusion kept those nettlesome thoughts tucked away, out of site, and made certain they were delivered to this very moment.

So, on the short journey from their home to the Grants’ house, as the pickup seemed to drive itself, the brothers sat in silence, each lost in his own thoughts.

Tony planned to take his share of the cash and move to another part of the country. He wasn’t quite sure where, but a girl he’d dated had moved to Monterey, and the last time they spoke he promised he would come out for a visit. He figured that was about as good a place as any, and now he would have the money to do it. Who knew? Maybe he would stay there for a while, or go someplace else, but it sure was time he got out of his parents’ house. He needed to start over where no one knew him and had all of these big expectations. He hated the look of disappointment when he told local folks what he was up to these days, which was basically nothing, or nothing he could talk about. Tony knew there had to be something better for him out there, but at twenty-two, he didn’t yet know what it was.

Danny looked out the window and started to think about the voice. That’s what he called it: “the voice.” This was the voice inside of him that told him what to do and what not to do. He wasn’t sure where it came from, but he knew it was there, knew it was real, and knew it was his friend. When he was alone, driving the pickup or walking in the woods, he would talk out loud to it, but most times it was just there in his head. It really came alive in ’78, on the field, when all of a sudden something would seem to take control of his legs and tell him to “cut right, turn left”; he would put his head down and run, and a few seconds later look over his shoulder to see the pigskin about to land in his hands.