When Tommy Broke His Arm

A short story by Larry A. Lovering

That day got worse and worse, I tell you, right after Tommy broke his arm, everything went downhill and we never had the chance again to beat the Hornets. I never saw so much dumb luck and bad things happening. But if you want the whole story, I guess I will start at the beginning.

We live in a place called Wethersfield, which isn't a town, its called a development. It was the greatest place to live in the world, 'cause it was all brand new. My dad got married in July, and we moved to Bellingham right afterward. It was cool 'cause we were the second family to move onto the hill at Wethersfield. My sister and me were the family to my new mom and dad. Our house was right next door to the first family that moved onto Theresa Road, that was Tommy and his older brother Jimmy. They had a cool dad who was into sports, so we got to play with all kinds of stuff, basketballs, street hockey, football. Basketball is how I got onto this subject in the first place, remember? Tommy broke his arm? Well, let me finish first.

Wethersfield was the greatest because it was new and there was all kinds of great stuff going in at the front, like a club house for the grownups and a pool for everybody. There was already a neighborhood down at the bottom of Lisa Ann Drive, and that's where the Hornets lived. They weren't insects, that was the other basketball team. So me, who is 11, and my sister, who is 9, lived all by ourselves on Theresa Road with Tommy and Jimmy while the other houses were being built.

That was the other cool reason Wethersfield was gonna be a great place to live. There were so many houses being built, that we knew there was gonna be a lot of scrap wood left so we could build tree houses. There were a lot of woods in back of our house and at the end of the street. Tommy, Jimmy and me talked a lot about tree houses, and in the first year we lived there we built three of them. One was really great, we had electric lights inside and a rug. The lights weren't really electrical, I broke up a flashlight and hooked up the light bulb to a battery. And it really wasn't a tree house, it was on the ground. We wanted to sleep in it some night, but I knew I couldn't stay outside all night 'cause I had asthma.

Anyway, in a year or so, more families moved in, but not too many kids, you know. There was some crazy lady who lived at the end of the street in a gray house, who was a hairdresser. She came running out of her front door in a bathrobe one Saturday morning, yelling that there was some animal in her house. We thought it was a wildcat or something, 'cause it must have scared her so much it made her hair stand up. Mr. Dever, Tommy's father and my dad went down with a ladder and checked out the attic, and didn't find anything but a hole, where a skunk or squirrel must have gotten in.

There was another guy who moved in by himself near the end of Theresa Road, across from Maureen Road, and he worked with electronics or something. I could go over his house and he would give me stuff like switches and meters so I could experiment. But the batteries I needed were expensive, so I mowed his grass with one of those push mowers to help pay for them. With the extra money I was able to get nutty buddies from the ice cream truck that summer.

We went to school on a school bus that took us from the bottom of Lisa Ann Drive to Pinecrest school that first year. That was a newer school, much better than the dumpy school I went to in the first week that must have been built when the town was built. Pinecrest had a cafeteria too, so we could buy lunch for 35¢ or milk for a nickel. I had Mrs. Shunney that first year, and I remember taking my tape recorder for show and tell one day. I thought I recorded the Patty Duke show on the tape but it was my sister talking and giggling with her girlfriends. My friends all laughed, and my sister never knew her secrets were being broadcast across the third grade.

In fourth grade we had Mrs. Tulemello, and I had to do a speech out by the flagpole, on Lincoln's birthday or something. I had to memorize and recite the stuff written at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty, you know: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore; send this, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp besides the golden door." I never knew why people in history used such a lot of big words to say something.

The big thing about Pinecrest that happened was when President Kennedy was shot. We heard about it as we were going to the busses to go home. Some of the girls and the teachers cried. My father was a Republican, and I guess I didn't know what all the fuss was about then. Of course I know now, I'm no dummy. I was in the Purple in the SRA reading things all year in fourth grade.

There were scarier things to worry about, to me anyway. We had the Civil Defense signs in the hallways at Pinecrest, and we would have an air raid drill like once a month. We moved out in the hallways and got down on the floor, and kinda rolled into a ball with our hands on our necks. I really wondered what would have happened if the Commies dropped a bomb in the playground behind us.

We really couldn't wait for the summers when school was all over. There was so much to do now that more of the houses had kids in them. One night, we did sleep outside, in the Dever's station wagon. Tommy told me he had pickle ice cubes with him, and I believed him. He was getting bigger than me, and stretched out over the whole back of the station wagon. We slept in sleeping bags and really didn't sleep for a long while, just talkin' and eating snacks. That July is when we started playing basketball.

Basketball was the way summer was, it started out slowly and coolly, then picked up the pace, got hotter and hotter, and then, you had to stop. We started to play a lot at night, under the streetlight, 'cause Tommy's dad put up a hoop on the electric pole. We'd play one on one, then the "clop clop" of the basketball would bring out the rest of the kids from the hill and pretty soon we'd be playing full teams. I have to tell you that I was not the best basketball player, and Tommy and Jimmy knew that. So, I would play guard sometimes, but never got to take the "big" shot. Tommy was over 5 feet now, while I was stuck at 4 feet and 6 inches. I didn't think I would ever grow, even though I ate a lot and tried to stretch myself on the trees.

We had a lot of the same kids playing almost every night except when it was pool night. Then we'd all climb into our cars and drive down to the clubhouse on Temi Road. We had to show a pass that had a picture of a Wethersfield house on it to get in, and then jumped in. Here, everybody was friends, even Ricky, the guy who would be the team captain of the Hornets, and some of the kids that lived on Ann Marie Drive, who were not liked by the kids on the hill, and I didn't know why.

That summer, Mr. Dever coached a baseball team that Jimmy was on, so we went to the games in North Bellingham sometimes. Baseball was a big thing in Bellingham, but we thought basketball was better, so Tommy and me never played baseball, except for the pickup games in the street sometimes. That had to stop when a line drive went on the roof of Mr. Guaraldi's house, and broke his gutter. We ran, but was glad it didn't go through his window. We all got in trouble for that, though, and our dads paid for the gutter. That's when we started going on the back road, behind Wethersfield, to the farm that no one lived at, and played there sometimes.

It seemed that every day, the streets got hotter, and we slowed down building tree houses, playing basketball and baseball, and just hung around. Sometimes we took a walk down the hill and around the lower part of Wethersfield, through the woods on a path to Sawyers store. We'd get a Coke and some Sugar Babies, or some liquorice, and head back to the coolness of the woods. The real treat was when the Charles Chips truck came and brought these big cans of potato chips, and then we'd put a lot in a paper bag and munch on those with the Cokes.

We started playing in the old barn at the farm on Nason St. There was some really cool nails and stuff inside the barn; they were like triangular at the top. But we had to be careful 'cause part of the barn was falling down. It smelled like a real farm, and had some hay in the bottom of the barn, but it was full of bugs so we didn't play in the hay too much unless we were collecting bugs that day. There was a tree outside the barn that was great to climb, 'cause it had low branches and was like a ladder to the top. I fell out of it once, but didn't get really hurt 'cause I fell in the bushes. My mom knew something happened though, and I couldn't figure out how she knew. Then when I washed my face that night I saw the scratches on my cheek and nose.

There was also the path through the woods that brought you to the railroad tracks. When you followed that there was a bridge just before Depot Street. We'd pretend a train was coming, and jump away from the bridge. It was too high above the water, and no one dared to jump off the bridge. The oiled wood of the cross-ties smelled so strong in the sunlight, and with the smell coming from the green water, we didn't hang around there very much 'cause it gave us headaches.

Then there was Box Pond, which had some cottages in the woods that looked like they weren't touched in years. The pond had green scum on it, anyway, and I couldn't figure out why someone would want to stay there. There was a factory across the pond that had a pipe that went out over the pond, and shot out some bubbly stuff into the pond all the time. We went exploring one day and found some stuff from an old cottage, and starting digging like we were archeologists. I couldn't imagine what one of those guys would do with some broken bowls and rusted silverware. I did find a watch, though, but it didn't work.

By the end of the summer of 1964, school was getting closer and we would be in a new school, actually an old school, called Keough. We went to Warwick Shoppers World in South Bellingham and got all new school clothes, but it was the sneakers I liked the best. They were black high topped PF Flyers, their TV commercial said you would "run faster and jump higher." I really thought I did, especially playing basketball.

So at the end of the summer, my dad and the other dads had a party on the street. They moved all the picnic tables out of the yards and put them in the street. My dad took his hi-fi speakers out and put them on the porch. They ran electric extensions all the way down to the street so they could put out coffee pots, and set up grills along side the street. Even the hairdresser lady and her weird husband came out with food and a grill. That was the best time; I think I ate ten hot dogs! Jimmy was dancing out on our grass with the music, so we all joined in and fell into each other. While the music was playing we were wrestling and laughing so hard that we worked up another appetite and went back for more hot dogs and chips. Everybody had a great time, even the girls were all dressed up and they were off laughing too and falling all over the place. We had to keep moving away from them and ended up at the other end of the street by the electrical guy's house. What a way to end the summer.

So, you are saying, what does all this have to do with Tommy breaking his arm? Well, I'm getting' to that, hold your horses. We started school at Keough, fifth grade, and it wasn't too bad, except there wasn't a cafeteria, so we had to bring our lunch everyday. I had a really cool lunch box that year, with Napoleon Solo on it from Man from Uncle. And Iilya was on the Thermos! Now I could have hot soup, I thought, bringing it with the Thermos.

The other new thing that started my school year was the paper boy job I got for the Call. The Woonsocket Call is a newspaper, and I had 50 customers in Wethersfield and up High Street. I wanted the job because I had my eye on a new bike, and my dad told me the only way I'd get it was to work for it. So, I looked in the Sunday paper and there it was, at The Fair, which was a store in Milford. It was a three speed Ross, all in black, with a tire pump clipped to the frame, and a light in front. This was perfect for delivering papers, even though I'd have to get off the bike every time I put a paper up at a house. I couldn't throw it, like I saw some paperboys on TV.

I made about three dollars a week, so the bike could be mine in ten weeks, I figured. But I didn't figure on spending money on snacks, school stuff, and a new hat. By the time November rolled around, I was still walking my route, and it took me about an hour and a half to do the whole route. Tommy, Ed, Lou and Steve would wait for me to get back so we could play basketball under the light. We had received the challenge from the Hornets, so we needed all the practice we could get. I convinced my mom that I could do my homework at night before bed. So we had about two hours to play.

Ricky, the captain of the Hornets, told us to be ready by Tuesday, November 9th. So we practiced every day, and all day on Saturdays. It was getting cooler every day, and even on Halloween, most of the kids had winter coats over their costumes. We were sure that we would win this game and put the Hornets down for the season. Tommy was in rare form, easily the best player, and we knew he was our secret weapon. The rest of us weren't as tall or as quick as Tommy, so we passed the ball to him, sometimes a high pass, and he stuffed it every time. We were a shoo-in.

The Sunday before the big game, it was warm enough to not have to wear heavy jackets, and we, the boys went out to the barn behind Wethersfield for some rest and talk. The barn had fallen down, finally, and we're sure it was because of a heavy windstorm that some people called a hurricane, but I didn't hear anything about that. The walls had collapsed toward the back, and you could walk over the walls but not underneath them where the hay was. We took some rocks and broke some glass that was left in the windows, climbed the tree for a good look, tossed a ball around, and generally was lazy all day. Then, the unthinkable happened.

We were climbing out on one of the wall pieces, following Tommy, when a creaking noise and a loud bang happened, and then I couldn't see Tommy. I heard him cry, then scream and we screamed "where are you?" We were panicking now, and running toward the front of the barn so we could run around to the back.

When we got there, Tommy wasn't on the ground but we heard him screaming louder. When we looked up, he was caught on a piece of wood and his arm was all twisted between that and another piece of wood. He was crying and screaming now, and we knew we were all in big trouble. So we tried to get him down, by stacking up crates to reach him but the screams were driving me crazy, and I wanted to cry and go home. But we knew we had to get him out of there so that no one would know were there. Our parents, and the police that stopped by one day had told us to stay out.

Steve pushed up on the wood that was holding his arm but he couldn't get it loose. That's when we knew that we had to get help. Billy, one of Louie's brothers, heard the screams as they lived right behind the barn. We told him to get his mom. Within a few minutes, an ambulance, police car and fire truck pulled up and out of the police car was the same policeman who told us to stay away from the barn. I sunk lower into the ground as his eyes met mine. The firemen took a ladder and a saw, and got Tommy out in a few seconds, screaming and crying. They took him away just as his mom came. She rode with them in the ambulance. The rest of us had to explain to the policeman what had happened.

We did get in big trouble for being at the barn, that's for sure. And everything that happened was like in slow motion, especially when my father showed up. All the fathers were lined up with the policemen and the firemen looking at us. Our heads were all down and we knew this was it. Well, that was the beginning of the end, you know.

After school on Monday, we had a meeting in the street of our team and decided to do the game with the Hornets anyway, the next night. I actually was pretty unsure of this, as we were all shorter and not terribly experienced with putting the ball in the basket as easily as Tommy had made it. So, we got out the basketball and drilled over and over again, until the newspaper truck dropped of the bundle of newspapers for my nightly run.

I saw Ricky while I was passing his street, Ann Marie Drive on the way to the shortcut in the woods for my customers over on High Street and Pony Court. Ricky was a little taller than me, but could jump higher, I thought. His reddish blonde hair glowed in the street light as he was talking to me. "So, you think that you'll beat us, huh?" he said. I told him that we were practicing while he was sleeping, so there. I didn't want to argue, I wanted to get home.

The next day, school was a disaster. I brought the wrong homework to class, we had a substitute who was very strict, and in the middle of one "yardstick snap" by the substitute, the yardstick broke just as the assistant principal walked in. Then, my lunch got crushed and something inside broke all over it and I couldn't eat it. The afternoon was spent looking out the window, wondering how I was going to play that evening. I was shaken awake by a question from the teacher, which I really didn't understand, and I was sent out of the class. I spent the rest of the class in the principal's office, and was sent home with a note. Great, another problem.

When I got home, Mrs. Dever was at our house, talking to my mom while she fed my baby brother. She told me that Tommy will be all right, but will be in a cast for six weeks. And she wondered why we would do such a dangerous things. I shrugged my shoulders and went to my room. I stayed there until the papers came, listening to the radio. They were playing the listener's favorites hits of 1965, and some of them were my favorites too, like the Beatles, Herman's Hermits and Roy Orbison.

A truck dropped off the bundle of papers, and I went out and sat in the front yard, folding them and putting them into my sack. I told my sister to tell my mother that I was leaving, and I started out. It was about 4:30, and dark if not for the streetlights that lit the night. I finished my route on the hill where I had the most customers, then started down the hill to the path over to Horseshoe Drive. When I got there, the streetlights were not on, and there were no lights in the houses. I thought this was strange, but the moon was pretty bright, so I kept delivering. It was beginning to get spooky though, as some streets were very dark when the big pine trees shaded the moon from the streets. I walked quickly up to North Main St to head to my last customers on High Street.

There were no lights here too, and when I began to walk up High Street I saw the biggest moon I have ever seen. It was pretty bright, but every corner had a dark side that I had to walk through and I began to imagine all kinds of spiders there, or dogs waiting to jump out. I was making myself scared. I put the last of the newspapers in the mailbox and began to walk downhill, a little faster than usual. Suddenly a car turned the corner and I had to jump out of the way to avoid him hitting me. I was not sure he saw me in the darkness. Candles were lit in many of the houses now, and I thought that this was a pretty big power failure. I got home about six, and my mom had candles lit in the kitchen. We had an electric stove, so what we had for supper was baloney sandwiches. She warmed my brother's formula up on a thingy called a fondue maker. Then, the phone rang.

"Is Larry there?" the caller asked. Yes, its me, I said. It was Ricky. He told me that Steve called him and that the game would have to be cancelled, his family got in an accident in the dark, but no one was really hurt, just shaken up. So, with no lights, the game would have to be cancelled. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I really thought the lights would be back on soon, but with Steve out, there was no way we could win, and now its all done. We couldn't play the Hornets again with Tommy until the spring or even the summer. That made me mad, until I thought of Tommy and how he was feeling with his arm. I went over to his house to see him.

"Did you know what happened? This is history-making!" Tommy exclaimed. He had a transistor radio playing in his kitchen, and heard that the blackout extended all over the Northeast. Whole cities were completely dark, traffic lights not working, businesses shut down. And I wondered where my father was, he was home by this time usually. He took the train into Boston. Tommy wasn't too sad about the game, he knew we would have won anyway. But it all seemed like dumb luck to me.

My father came home about an hour later, late because the train signals were not working. We talked for a bit, and then I took my radio into my bedroom and listened for the news. It was so weird to hear about a power failure that affected everyone, not just a neighborhood because of a car accident or something. I went to sleep that night with a candle glowing in my room, set on top of the red and white TV that was on my desk.

The next day, the newspapers were full of the story of the Northeast Blackout as they called it, and the power finally went on sometime during the early morning. I woke up to the smell of toast in the toaster, and felt the warmth of the furnace's heating pipes under the floor and under my feet. That winter, I delivered my papers every day, and with the Christmas tips, I was able to buy my Ross bicycle. I was only able to use it for a half a year, as by June we were on the move again, this time across the country. I'll never forget the night the lights went out and kept us from certain annihilation I thought, at the hands of Ricky and the Hornets.

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