The 3rd quarter proved to be much like the 2nd, with neither the Patriots nor the Giants able to get near the end zone. During one TV timeout, Pat asked Robert how he and Giselle had enjoyed their weekend in Glendale before kickoff.
"Uh, you tell me about your weekend first."
"Well, we've been here since Wednesday. There was this 'Big Ticket Gala' in Scottsdale that evening. Jay Leno told jokes, and all sorts of celebs and football stars signed a Harley that was auctioned off. It raised money for the Super Bowl Host Committee and the Hall of Fame. Funny," Pat mused, "you wouldn't think either one would be strapped for cash."
"We went on a bus tour around the desert", added Patty, "and there was this concert near our hotel where I had to explain to Pat who Mary J Blige is. How about you two?"
"Well, we were lucky enough to find a motel with one last vacant room - the kind where the remote control is chained to the wall."
"Ah, the Oasis," sighed Giselle. "How that young man dived from the roof into the pool straight between those two girls I'll never know."
"Call Beijing!", Pat piped in.
"Yeah, music booming all night made much more sense when I was 20," Robert reflected. "We tried to mingle with the party goers, but that didn't turn out well."
"What happened, some kid who had one too many throw up on Giselle's shoes? He he," Pat chuckled.
"How'd you know that?", Giselle asked, astonished.
Robert winced, and the Coynes were dumbstruck for a moment. "Ah, that's a good one Giselle…is it?", asked Patty weakly.
"Well", she shrugged, as the Giants punted again, "Cinderella never had that problem with her shoes. They did apologize, though."
A New York penalty gave New England its best chance to add to the lead. But another sack of Brady, plus a gamble on 4th down where a field goal was within reach, made short work of that drive.
As the whistle sounded to end the quarter, Patty turned to Giselle. "I know this trip hasn't been a dream getaway for you two. And I know it's a cliché, but things can always be worse. My newspaper sent me here because they wanted a Super Bowl story for once with no football players or celebs in it."
"And what story did you find?"
"A female chain gang, can you believe it? There's maybe two in the whole country."
"Chain gang?"
"I know, it sounds like something from your grandfather's time. But now states are saying 'Why should we pay good money for jobs that prisoners will do it for free?' So here are these female inmates, within sight of the 'NFL Experience Ferris Wheel', picking up trash & pulling weeds."
"Ah, and what did the villains do to get there?", Giselle asked with an air of satisfaction. Robert's jaw clenched; he was angry at himself. It was so much fun showing her what life here had to offer that it was easy to forget that life isn't fair. So Giselle would now hear that firsthand from a woman she barely knew – and not from him.
"Villains?", Patty asked. "Giselle, I don't know anything about what you learned growing up. But from what I've seen, there are bad people, and there are people who make bad decisions. Anyway, it wasn't my job to find out what they were convicted of. I was there to hear their stories. They told me about getting two meals a day, and feeling hungry all the time. One girl joked that the mystery meat was ostrich. None of them are football fans, but like she said, 'We've got to clean up that Super Bowl.'"
"Yes, it's very sad", Pat said offhandedly.
"I thought…", said Giselle, then trailed off. Thought what? That the good guys always win? That crime doesn't pay? Anyone would deserve three square meals after a hard day's work like that – even Narissa. "Was there anything else you could do for them?"
Patty smiled sadly, and shook her head.
"Well, I'm gonna stretch my legs before the whistle", Pat remarked.
"I'll join you," Patty said with an air of relief.
Giselle stared glumly at the field below, while Robert tried to think of something to say. A couple of fans were tiptoeing past them when the guy asked his girlfriend for the time. She checked her watch – and promptly spilled half her popcorn into Giselle's lap. Giselle smiled and nodded as the girl apologized, to be polite. Then she started absently munching on the popcorn.
"Giselle, I'm sure you didn't mean it like that."
"Yes I did, Robert. I thought I was better than them. They're the bad guys, right? And if I had been the one hearing their stories, it wouldn't have made a difference. What could I do for them, sing?"
An image popped into Robert's head, uninvited, of Giselle trying to cheer up the chain gang with a hearty rendition of "Come my little friends / As we all sing a happy little working song / Merry little voices clear and strong / Come and roll your sleeves up…"
Giselle held up a kernel of popcorn. "And they'll be cleaning up all the spilled popcorn and hot dog wrappers while the rest of us are going home."
"Well, I'm sure the stadium's staff will do most of the cleanup after…" Robert knew this was not what she meant. So he took a stab at it: "People give money to good causes all the time. But when you take what you're good at, and use it to help others, you give something of yourself, too."
A light seemed to go off in Giselle's head, and she slowly smiled at Robert. Oh great, he thought. He was about to point out that security would not appreciate any unauthorized cleanup projects, when they both overheard Sharon say to Paul, "Boy, this 4th quarter will be a doozy. There won't be an empty seat in the house."
At that, Robert simply smiled and nodded. "Odd jobs, huh?"