When Jesse was 20, he had met Colin in a shop course at the college.

Colin was a year his younger, and he was the kid brother of Will Martin- the Will Martin, who had set several district records in track and football as a ball carrier when he was in high school. Will had been a senior when Jesse was a freshman, and it seemed like every day Will was splashed across a page of the town newspaper- even featured in ads for Jackson’s Tractors during his magnificent senior season. When Will graduated, he went on scholarship to play football at Oklahoma, and in the wake of Will’s move, Colin entered high school.

Colin tried to follow in his brother’s footsteps because others around him encouraged him to. The only problem was, Colin wasn’t his brother. He was athletic, but his skills were average. In track, he never broke out of the middle of a pack in the sprint events, and in football, his short tryout as a running back ended pretty quickly after he struggled to learn routes and hang on to the ball. Colin tried to be like his brother, but he wasn’t his brother, and in a short time he felt the weight of that.

For the second half of his first football season, he was reverted to special teams, and occasionally used as a linesman or blocker. In his sophomore year, he quit football but stayed with track for another spring. And his parents didn’t mind. They were enthusiastically following Will and his pre-season and season and post-season activities. They made several trips out to Norman to visit him, and to see a few games- and Colin went once with them in his sophomore year, skipping school, to see the OU homecoming game against Missouri.

Will was used in six or seven series of plays, and had a 32-yard run that set up an eventual touchdown. Will was magnificent, and the glow that followed him around their hometown had come with him to Norman. He was serious and winsome and a specimen of winning, and Colin was his kid brother. And Will always took Colin aside when they had family visits to ask him how he was doing. Colin always felt relief in Will’s presence.

It wasn’t the same for Colin back home, though.

Feeling the weight of not measuring up to the town’s expectations for him, Colin decided to drop out of sports his junior year and took a job at the Hamlin”s store on Amherst Street, stocking and occasionally checking. He went to classes but scraped by in school. But he looked forward to holidays and vacations and visit weekends, when he’d see Will.

He admired and loved his big brother, the football star, the magnificent man.

And he didn’t hang out much with any of his classmates, except for with Matt Polk, who also worked at Hamlin’s.

Matt was tall and goofy and a year older than him and he had a wicked dry sense of humor, and he had dropped out of high school and worked to make sure he and his mom got by. Matt didn’t think anyone was anybody, but he was friendly to everybody, even old Mr. McCove, the walking flatulation machine.

Matt liked and accepted Colin, and Colin liked and accepted Matt, and pretty soon they’d spend Sunday afternoons at the lot in front of the Lutheran Church at the edge of town, messing with Matt’s remote control car with a few other RC guys, or fishing at Calley’s Hole out of town east of the railyards.

But Colin mostly worked and read about OU and his brother and wrestled with his homework.

In June, before summer workouts ramped up heading into his seanior season, Will came home for 4 days in his new used blue sedan, and after a two-day whirl through town to see old friends and favorites, after finishing an hour segment with the sports guy on KOXA on Saturday morning, Will came back to his family’s home and entering, yelled “Colin- let’s go!”

They said bye to their folks and Will drove Colin east half a day to Lincoln. Will took Colin to the mall, to a movie, and to a steakhouse, where they talked about family and football, movie stars and mom and fears and the future, and Hamlin’s and home. Occasionally, they were stopped by a guy or two who knew who Will was, who remembered the Nebraska-OU game, who remembered Mallard getting hit hard, and Will recovering the fumble for the surprising tying touchdown, who knew Will’s million dollar smile. Will was always curteous, exchanging kind words and a barb or two with the fans, and then he’d quickly come back to Colin.

They stayed overnight at a chain inn, slept in late, bashed each other with pillows and then the twin mattresses, and then headed back home. Colin talked more than he had talked the entire year, and Will listened as he drove.

On Monday morning, before Will hopped in his car to head back to Norman, he gave Colin one of his game worn jerseys from last season- a big white shroud with a large red 21 on back- and after a smile and a hug to each of his family members, he wheeled off, turned right onto 4th and onto Main Street where he’d pick up the highway east.

Colin was wearing the jersey that evening, at 8:47 PM, when the phone rang and, moments later, his mother shrieked and burst into a loud cry. When he came out of his room, his mom was collapsed on the living room couch sobbing, and his dad held the phone to his ear, his free hand on his forehead.

Will had been in a multiple car accident outside of Edmond, Olkahoma.

Will, pride of their hometown, emerging college football star, Colin’s big beloved brother, was dead.