Jon was afraid to try calling Karyn still, and Karyn never called him, so he didn't know if his wish had worked. He hid under his blanket until he was called down for dinner, then he went back up to his room and hid under his blanket again. And he slept, but he didn't dream.
Biff did dream, however. Sunken in the middle of his teenage boy bed, surrounded by aromas that would normally belong in a locker room, sports memorabilia hanging on the walls and sitting on the shelves, Biff dreamed of football in a body that was once more built for the sport.
He was in the middle of the field, in a huddle surrounded by his teammates and friends. The scoreboard said they were losing 14-10. The field markers said he was on the fifty yard line. The game clock was at 0:05, just five seconds left in the game.
This was it.
A field goal would only be three points. They needed a touchdown for the win. Biff needed to run a play that would get them a touchdown from the fifty yard line. He looked up: Moose Matthews met his eyes. Moose was the best blocker that Biff had ever played with, he'd be the man to make sure Biff had a wide pocket to make his throw from. Moose's expression said "I'm going to protect you."
Next to Moose was Tom Welles, the fastest runner on the team. If he could get past his defender, nobody was going to catch up to him. Biff could see his legs vibrating with energy.
Steve Farber played center. He controlled the snap, and needed to get the ball into Biff's hands at the start of the play. Biff was going to rely on a good, steady toss from Steve to get himself positioned properly as quickly as possible.
This was Biff's team. At a stretch, Biff could throw a ball about fifty yards, but his accuracy fell off a cliff after forty. If this play went perfect, if everybody did their jobs, Biff knew he had a chance. And everyone felt locked in.
The timeout ended, everyone arranged themselves on the field, and the play began.
Like a machine, Steve sailed the ball directly into Biff's hands. The laces fell right into his fingers as he took one step back, two steps back. A defender bulldozed helplessly into Moose, and then another, both of them falling off of him like flies. Biff used this time to scan the field. Tom had broken through. He was on the 35 yard line. The 30. The 25. Biff pulled back his arm as far as it would go and let out an absolute rocket of a spiral.
Tom was at the 20 yard line. The 15. The 10. Nobody was within five yards of him. Tom caught the ball on the five yard line and ran through to the endzone without another jersey anywhere near him.
They'd won. The referee signaled end of the game. The scoreboard updated to 14-16. And Biff let out every ounce of nerves he'd been holding in, and collapsed backwards onto the grass.
No. Not onto the grass. Onto a sofa.
Biff felt the cushions around him and opened his eyes to find that he was not on the football field. He was in Karyn's living room. The one he'd found himself in that morning. He quickly jolted to an upright sitting position, scanning around the room. Why was he here?
"Are you feeling better, honeybear?" Bethany entered the room, holding a plate of scrambled eggs. "It must have been nice to win that game, hmm?"
The woman sat down next to Biff, rubbing his back with one hand as she placed the plate of eggs down on the coffee table with the other.
Biff put a forkful into his mouth, and it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. He relaxed into the sofa, Bethany's hand still on his back, and savored the plate of eggs.
"Your hair looks so shiny today," Bethany soothed. "Here, let me braid it for you."
And before Biff could protest that his hair wasn't long enough to braid, he could feel Bethany's fingers drawing themselves across his scalp, pulling long strands behind him, and as he'd learned with Kyla and Gladys and Monica, his body instinctively turned to the side to give Bethany better access to the back of his head.
And instead of questioning how any of this was happening, Biff simply accepted it and took another bite of egg, and relaxed as the world around him faded to black.
