Chapter 52

Gwen drove Steve to the hospital the next morning and assisted Laura in preparing Steve for the needed stitches. Then she watched as Laura carefully sewed Steve’s cuts closed. “You both understand that this really should have been done a couple days ago? However, having the state title in Sparta required that we postpone it. That was a great game. People are still all excited about it.

“Notice how close together I’m making the sutures. We don’t want Steve to walk around like Frankenstein or something out of the ‘Walking Dead,’ do we?” asked Laura rhetorically. “He should be totally healed in a few weeks with very little scarring, if any. Compared to the bullet holes here in his arm and hip, they’ll look great.

“You kids have done a wonderful job promoting the hospital fund. We’re getting calls about it now. We’re setting up an account for the donations, and we’ll acknowledge that they are a result of the senior class’s efforts. You’ll be able to add them to your class to