The other night I went to a college soccer match (‘football’ to all you normal folks not living in the USA).

It was wild and energetic, the crowd was really getting into it. I was by the student section, and even though we were down by a couple goals they had yells and cheers for all kinds of things. One bright student figured out the name of the opposition goal keeper, who happened to be stationed near the students, so they were all singing about her. “Lauren, Lauren, Lauren.” Lauren was propositioned for a few dates (‘meet me at IHOP after the game’) and scolded for not running fast enough or for getting too far out on the field (‘Lauren, it’s safer in your box’) Overall everyone seemed to be having fun and Lauren was a darn good keeper and our team had yet to score with only thirty minutes to go in the second half.

One of our strikers centered the ball, and another went up to try and head it in – and Lauren tried to head it out. Their skulls smashed and they crumpled to the field.

In a split second the raucus crowd hushed. You could hear a pin drop. The clock (visible right behind the fallen players) had stopped, the other players had retreated to their benches, the students stared intently. Trainers and coaches tended to the girls, a campus officer next to issued instructions softly into his walkie talkie, alerting the campus EMT that they may need to mobilize.

I looked down at the ground and saw a beetle walking past. I crushed him with my shoe. Life is fragile, like that.

One by one, the girls sat up and were helped off the field. They had no idea who or where they were, but were fine later – a concussion but nothing permanent.

The game resumed. The students were confused, since the program didn’t specify the name of the stand-in keeper, who was simply wearing a jersey with “00” on it. In the end our team managed one goal, so it wasn’t a total shut out. And I bet Lauren had a huge headache for her trip home.