SEPTEMBER 20, 1958

Will had started the 11th grade a couple of week ago. It was a Saturday afternoon and he decided to get started on his homework since the math part looked like it was going to take a while. After reading over the first problem a couple of times he thought that it didn't make any sense at all. He knew exactly who might be able to help. He went into the kitchen where his mother was reorganizing the refrigerator.

"Hey Mom do mind if I ask Walter over to help me with my homework," he asked?

"Of course Sweetie," Ellen replies.

Twenty minutes later there was a knock at the door. Ellen opens it and not only finds Walter but there is also the three Flanagan boys, Seamus (Skinny) Mulligan, Daisy and Dora McClaren, Alice Holden, Laura Brown, Stephanie Griffith, and Anne Clarke.

"Hello everyone," Ellen replied. "Will is waiting in the basement. I'll be down in a few minutes with sandwiches."

This was a regular occurrence every week. A couple of days a week Will would stay after school with a tutor and then every Saturday a bunch of his classmates would come over to help him with his homework. Will would always call Walter and Walter would call everyone else if the work was extra tricky. Their mothers' would always send them with snacks and then if it got really late they would stay for dinner.

Patrick got out of work early just as Ellen finished making the sandwiches.

"Need some help with those?" He asked.

"Yes take one of these," she replies handing him one of the sandwich platters and headed down to the basement.

As they entered the basement they couldn't help but smile as they placed the sandwiches on the table in the middle of the room. Will was in between Walter and Seamus on the couch. Alice, Laura, Stephanie, and Anne were gathered around the coffee table opposite of them. The McClaren twins were at the vertical piano and the Flanagan boys were writing on the big Chalkboard Easel.

"Thanks, Mom and Dad," Will said looking up.

"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Gilligan," Everyone else replied.

"You are so welcome dears," Ellen replies.

"I am so glad that Will has all of you to help him with his homework." Patrick replies. "Things like these are a team effort. My uncle John had such a hard time in school. He didn't have friends like you. So at thirteen he dropped out of school."

"What does he do now?" Walter asks.

"He can barely read and write," Patrick replies. "So he works as an elevator operator in an office building in Erie."

"Wow," everyone replies.

"Well the only problem Will has now is that he tries to rush with his writing," Walter says. "Whenever he does that he ends up misspelling everything. We always need to get him to slow down."

Will smiles weekly at that.

"Well you know the saying," Patrick replies. "Slow and steady wins the race!"

As Patrick and Ellen leave the basement everyone claps as he gets another answer right and the boys ruffle Will's hair. Will truly was One Of A Kind.

OCTOBER 25, 1958

Ellen and Will were at the local grocery store. Ellen was picking up some ingredients for the pies she was making for the Flanagan's Halloween party. Ellen looked down at her list as they passed the apple display.

"Will would you mind picking up some apples while I get the milk?" Ellen asks.

"Sure Mom," Will replies.

As Ellen walks toward the dairy section Will picks an apple from the middle of the display and a second later all the apples start rolling onto the floor. Mrs. Fletcher was walking near by as the apples fell lost her footing and fell over as her cart continued to roll forward and knocked the grocery bagger head first into the trash barrel.

The barrel with the bagger inside fell sideways knocked a cart full of groceries over. A bottle of soda pop started rolling as Mrs. Henderson was walking up, stepped on it and toppled into Logan Boyle, who was stocking the top shelf on a ladder, lost his balance and fell onto the pie table and catapulted the pies into the air and across the store hitting several people in the face including the store manager Mr. Cavanaugh.

"Let me guess," he says as he wiped cream out of his eyes. "Domino Will strikes again."

Will laughs nervously as Mr. Cavanaugh shakes his and everyone in the store groans.

DECEMBER 20, 1958

"WILL STOP!" Danny shouted.

Danny had come home from college for Christmas and he and Will were running errands for their mom when all of sudden they heard someone calling for help.

Before it had snowed that year it had rained so much that the creek that ran through their town had turned into a seven foot deep river. The temperature got so cold the creek/river froze over. Now it looked like a local boy had fallen through the ice when going after his ball and he was now holding onto a chunk of ice in the middle of the hole. Will didn't think at all as he ran/slid across the ice to save the boy. He pulled the boy out and appeared to tie something to his hand.

"Danny catch!" Will replied throwing the ball of thick twine they had gotten for their mom to him.

Just as Danny was pulling the boy to safety two things happened at once they heard the fire sirens and Will took a wrong step backwards and fell through the ice and didn't come back up.

"WILL!" Danny shouted just as he got the boy to shore and the fire truck stopped on the bridge nearby.

Twenty minutes later the fire chief had one of those diving suits with the hard helmets on and jumped into the hole as other fire men kept an eye on his air line and walked along the shore to try and find weak spots in the ice. Danny and Will's parents and their neighbors and friends watched from the bank. Ellen was in tears in Patrick's arm and Patrick had his arm around Danny's shoulder. Will's study group was watching on in tears. Just as they saw the diver pop up they heard a voice behind them.

"Hey what's going on?" Came a familiar voice. They all looked behind them and see a wet shivering Will. They all screamed.

"Will where did you come from?" Danny asks shocked.

"Well when Mom and Dad met years ago..." Will started to say.

"That's not what he meant," Ellen interrupts him shaking. "How did you get here from under the ice?"

"Oh!" He replied. " couldn't find an opening in the ice so I swam into the d d drain pipe and swam out the o o other end."

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Ellen states as he takes Patrick's hat and playfully hits him in the head then hugs him.

"That was amazing Will!" Danny replies as he takes his jacket off and puts it over Will's shoulders.

"Three cheers for Will the Brave!" Shouts Fatso Flanagan.

"HIP HIP HOORAY HIP HIP HOORAY HIP HIP HOORAY!" Everyone shouts as they escort him over to an ambulance.

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