Paul and Sharon sat, dejected, as the Giants kicked the extra point to give themselves a 10-7 lead over The Patriots. "Oh come on, hon", he reassured her. "There's 11 minutes left, plenty of time to...go."

He couldn't help but notice Giselle tiptoeing past them back to her seat. She had apparently done her best to wash her hands and face, but her jeans were dusty, and her Giants jersey, now bundled under her arm, looked like it had been used to wash a truck.

Giselle saw their curious expressions, and as she sat down, quickly explained, "Oh, I'm all right. Just took a little tumble, that's all."

"Down a well?", Sharon asked.

"Sharon, please", Paul muttered.

Giselle had seen that nervous smile by Robert before, and knew what it meant - change the subject, please. Lucky for her, the scoreboard was happy to comply.

"Oh! The Giants scored, what did I miss?"

"Well", summed up Sharon, "Peyton's kid brother Eli hurled one, what, 45 yards? And New York kept chipping away until they scored just now."

"Ah", thought Giselle out loud, "nobody ever takes the youngest son seriously, until he gets the chance to prove himself."

"Well, somebody's youngest son will be the winning quarterback tonight," Sharon pointed out.

Robert waited until the crowd was good and loud for the kickoff, before quietly asking Giselle, "How'd it go?"

"Oh, the prairie dogs and mice were just itching to gobble up the leftovers lying around, but they were nervous about people showing up. I assured them they had the hallways all to themselves for the next few minutes, so they went at it. Too bad about all that dust they brought in. Should have seen that coming..."

"I mean, did anybody see you?"

"Just the janitor."

"What? What did he say?"

"Something about, how his sister had wasted money on psychics and fortune tellers for years, and yet he's the one who meets a real, live witch. Me, a witch! What would Narissa say about that?"

"And what did you say to him?"

"After we did our best to sweep out the dust?" Giselle put a finger to her lips, and softly said "Shhhhhh."

"Oh."

For the next three drives neither team could get even one first down, until the Pats finally went on a long march. 11 yards here, 12 yards there, the passes added up. Then one of the Giants defenders slipped. Seeing Randy Moss wide open in the end zone, Brady found his favorite target. After the extra point, New England was up 14-10.

Fans of both teams roared as the kickoff was set to begin, but Robert just sat and stared at the field. Something told Giselle this was not because he doubted the Giants could score a TD in the last 2:42.

"Robert?"

"I'm sorry, Giselle. Some dream weekend this has turned out to be, what with the loud music and shoes and...cleanup on Aisle 5. I brought you out here because I wanted to impress you. Hell," he added, rolling his eyes. "I wanted to impress my friends and co-workers, too - I took my girl to the Super Bowl."

Giselle searched for the right words for a moment. "Robert, you don't have to do anything to impress me. I'd be impressed back home with Morgan, watching this and munching on buffalo wings. But I never would have met the Coynes, or Sharon and Paul. Never would have heard about the chain gang or...Edward. As for the music and shoes, who wants to hear a story where you sleep soundly and your shoes stay clean? And as for the game?" She pulled back on the now filthy Giants jersey, "It's not over yet. LET'S GO GIANTS!" Robert could have sworn the receiver picked her voice out of the crowd.

After a first down, New York almost turned the ball over, but it slipped through the fingers of New England's defender. Such a big field, thought Giselle, but an inch or two can make all the difference. The Giants were still shy of midlfield, though, with just over a minute to go. Then the Patriots swirled around Manning, and her lungs seemed to deflate. It was like watching suds go down the drain. "I...can't...breathe", she whispered, half to herself.

Suddenly, Eli broke free, and hurled the ball into the air. On and on it went. At last, it came down into the waiting helmet(?) of the receiver, David Tyree. She kept waiting for the ball to bounce away...but it didn't. At that, she exhaled her last ounce of air with a deep "ohhhhhh", and sucked in oxygen as if she'd watched the whole drive under water. She laughed and laughed. The next couple of plays were a blur to Giselle, maybe because her brain was still playing catch up from the lack of air. But she wiped the tears from her eyes in time to see the touchdown pass with 0:35 to go.

The Patriots tried their best to get within field goal range, but it wasn't to be. Robert and Giselle hugged, as Eli took the knee with a second left to wrap it up. They shook hands with the Coynes, and thanked them for giving them the chance to see such a great game in person. They turned to Sharon and Paul, to offer the usual 'they played hard and had a great season' saying that no fan finds comforting. Sharon, gazing out at the celebration on the field, let slip, "I wish we..." and caught herself. But Giselle didn't need a magic mirror to finish that thought. Paul didn't either:

"I wish we hadn't come."

Robert had told Giselle about how marriages can break up from the simplest of things, thoughts said or unsaid. Giselle suddenly saw the same thing happening to Sharon and Paul. So she looked to her and said, "You know, Sharon, people come here because they love football. They love seeing royalty, being royalty. Paul came here because he loves you."

Sharon opened her mouth, but could think of nothing to say. She grinned sheepishly, and turned back to Paul, who still had a hurt expression. "This has been the best weekend of my life. Thank you." A look of relief came over Paul, and they kissed.

"Ah well," said Robert as he dialed home on his cell phone, "maybe all the Pats fans back at the Oasis will just sit and sulk tonight. We can finally get a good night's sleep. Oh, and Giselle, promise me one thing."

"Of course."

"When they have the ticker-tape parade back home to welcome the Giants, you'll let the city clean it up."

Giselle just laughed.

Robert got an answer. "Sam, Robert. Thanks again for watching Morgan. Wasn't the game something else? Is she still up? Good, put her on." He handed the phone to Giselle.

"Morgan, dear, I've missed you. We'll see you after school Monday. Wasn't that an amazing catch? Well, maybe Robert and you can go next time – I think one Super Bowl is enough for me. Did I what? Yes, I finally did meet the prairie dogs."

THE END

(Amy Adams was robbed of an Oscar nomination, in my humble opinion. So I hope you like this tribute to her performance. And for the record, I read about the female chain gang in the Boston Globe a few days before the Super Bowl - yes, I'm a Patriots fan.)