The Third Entry / Danny

I heard this story from Oscar Flores, whose son is on the football team and witnessed the incident that I am about to explain. Oscar runs the Shell station on fifth street. I've known him for years. Probably most of the permanent residents of our little town have known him for years. Jimmy, his son, was at football practice last Thursday. It seems they had had a fairly intense workout, outside in the heat, when someone threw a line drive pass at Danny Osmud. Danny didn't see it and it hit him right square in the chest and I remember hearing a report about this on NPR radio a few years ago, about the disproportionate number of deaths of young male athletes and two things they all had in common were a intense workouts followed by a sudden, hard blow to the chest. Danny hit the ground. 'He's not breathing!' someone said. Well, a panic ensued and Jimmy ran to get the defibrillator and when he got back Danny was sitting up like nothing had happened. He said he was okay, just felt kind of funny. And he looked kind of funny, too. The coach tried to feel his pulse but couldn't find it. School hasn't started yet, so there's no school nurse and of course the clinic was locked. The coach had him call his parents and tell them to meet him at the hospital - the coach was taking him to the emergency room. Then Oscar said that his boy noticed something real odd. From the time Danny came to until he left with the coach, which about ten minutes, Danny never blinked. Not once. Oscar asked me if I thought this could be a sign of shock. I said yes, I think so. I have no idea.