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Bicycle Thieves

(excerpt)
It was an exceptionally cold day. The schoolyard was a sheet of ice, like one huge mirror. The glare was so bright that many of the teachers at Our Lady of Peace School refused to go out during the lunch hour to monitor the children. But it did not stop the soccer game. Every day the boys played their game though it hardly resembled the game played by Pele. For one thing the boys only played in the winter when there was a sheet of ice on the schoolyard or at least a smooth surface of snow. There was body checking. And instead of a ball, the boys used a frozen milk carton. On this day the game was especially spirited. The body checking was fierce and several boys found themselves on their backsides. And then Fred Shanahan got a break on Terry McDougall. Terry made a great save on a Shanahan’s breakaway stopping the frozen milk carton with his face. Two front teeth were lost. There was spots of blood on the ice. Higgins picked up Terry’s teeth.
“Somebody drop something?”
The boys turned and looked at Terry. Blood oozed out of the hole in the middle of his smile.
“My mom is going to kill me,” Terry said as he turned to the school.
The boys followed Terry to the nurses office. Phone calls were made. Terry was rushed home. When he returned to the school the next week, the soccer games had been banned.
“What for?” he asked.
 “Hey, you got your teeth back,” Higgins cried.
Terry smiled then slipped his two front teeth out of his mouth. The boys handed the teeth around.
“I gotta get some of those,” Higgins said.