Excerpt from The Penny Crusade

Four boys in an Oklahoma oil town form a secret club that changes their lives.

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In a world plunged into the darkness of a horrible war, Hitler’s war, Tom Jackson was a figure of shining light.

To us kids, he was a hero like Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, or Joe DiMaggio. Even grownups admired him. We’d go to the football games at the Bartlesville high school stadium on Saturday night to watch Tom Jackson quarterback. He had flash and dash.

My family had just moved to this new neighborhood in town. Tom Jackson lived there with his younger brother Norm, who was my age.

That was when I found out about Tom’s lucky penny. It was an old Indian head. His father got it in the first World War, in 1916. He was a new soldier on a troop train heading to New York City, where he would be shipped to France. Kind of worried.

Going through a small town in England, the train slowed. Tom’s dad was at an open window, waving to kids. One kid held out his hand and gave Tom’s dad that Indian head penny. He kept the penny and survived the war, came home, got a good job, married and had two sons. He gave the penny to Tom on his 13th birthday. Tom’s life definitely got much better.

Them came the last game he played just before Thanksgiving, in November 1943.

That night, Tom picked up a fumble on our 12-yard line in the last five minutes of the game; it was a fumble by the other team, which was ahead by three points.

Tom shifted his hips and stutter-stepped his legs so fast that the tacklers’ hands slipped off. He was running down the field, crossing the white lines of the yard markers, the 40, the 50, the 40, the 30, and the crowd was jumping up and down on the wooden bleachers and we were screaming so loud into the cold night air it was like one loud voice.

The enemy was chasing him, two big guys. One of them made a lunge. His hand caught Tom’s foot. Our hearts stopped; we thought Tom’s big run was over. We went AWWWW!

Tom lurched forward and one hand touched the ground. Tom staggered a few feet and got his legs under him just as the other enemy leaped at him. Tom swung his hips sideways, reached out his right arm to shove the guy’s helmet, and the guy nose-dived into the grass.

Amy on the sideline ran parallel to him, shouting cheerful encouragement.

Tom crossed the goal line. He knelt in the middle of our roars like big ocean waves breaking over his bowed head. Then, knowing it was real, he spread his arms and Amy leaped with joy.

We ran out on the field. At first his face was quiet, dark, and then, as he felt our cheers and love, his face cracked a big toothy grin. He waved and waved. He danced around, celebrating. Football scholarship to OU for sure! Cheerleaders led by Amy danced around him, flashing their golden arms and legs.

The players lifted Tom on their shoulders and some grownups were there too: the coach, the mayor, the principal of the high school, Tom’s dad. They marched around the stadium carryingTom.

From the novel The Penny Crusade