“Why Hayes?” I once asked him.
His favorite player was Hayes, the veteran captain of our city’s team.
Caleb looked at me like the answer was obvious.
“Because he always goes back for his guy.”
At the time, I thought Caleb was talking about football.
***
Six months earlier, Caleb had been walking home from school when a five-year-old boy chased a ball into the street.
“Because he always goes back for his guy.”
A pickup was coming.
Caleb ran after the boy and shoved him back onto the sidewalk.
The truck hit Caleb instead.
After hours of surgery and weeks in the hospital, doctors told me Caleb’s spine had been badly damaged.
They couldn’t promise he would ever walk again.
The truck hit Caleb instead.
He cried from pain. He cried when he couldn’t move his legs.
He cried the first time his friends played without him.
But he never regretted saving the little boy.
