Gym Candy

The bullet takes off part of Mick’s scalp but misses his brain. Drew carries him to the Jeep and takes him to Ballard Hospital. When Mick wakes up, his mother and father are there. They both tell him that he should have come to them, but also that they’ll help him get through the difficult times ahead. Before his parents leave him alone to go eat for an hour, they tell him that a policeman will be coming to talk to him, and that he has to tell him everything. The officer’s named is Lee Ikeda. He tells Mick that they have Peter Volz from Popeye’s “nailed solid” (304) and asks for the story of what happened. Mick tells him everything, then begins to cry. 

The next day, Mick’s parents take him to a drug rehab center. If he completes the program, it will be almost as if nothing negative had happened. He can even play football the next year. The head of the facility is named Mr. Riley. Before he shows Mick to his room, Mick’s mother says she needs to give him something. She goes to the car and returns with her Bible. Mick takes it from her and says thank you, which seems to surprise her.