Thanks to rougehero88 for the encouragement.

"Stay calm," answered Nurse Regina. "That device is measuring brain activity. Other vital signs are stable. I'll get the doctor."

A few minutes later Dr. Witherspoon arrived. He took a look at the monitors, and explained, "Riley's brain is showing minimally more activity. He can't communicate, but he might be able to hear. This is the best time to try to reach him. You need to cheer him up, give him a reason to live. Familiar voices should help. Start with a few minutes at a time. Oh, his foot is healing nicely. I have to see other patients now, so good luck."

When the doctor mentioned that familiar voices should help, Huey quickly sent some text messages.

Robert perked up, but then got nervous. "The last things I said put Riley into the coma. Huey, what should I say?"

"Cheer him up … say only nice things … reward him somehow … I got an idea. Offer him his own room. Make the guest bedroom his room."

"But if we have guests …"

"Like Tom and our cousins from New Orleans? Now you can tell them we don't have a guest bedroom and you won't be lying."

Robert looked at Huey. "That's a good point. But this sounds like a plan for you to get your own room."

"Well it has to work that way. And if we really need that room, Riley and I can share my room for a couple days. We haven't killed each other yet, so we should manage if we have to."

"Okay, but I … I'm still afraid I'll mess it up again. Huey, you're the most gifted speaker I know, you go to talk to him."

Huey wasn't the most comfortable with the responsibility.

"Me? Are you sure? I'm not exactly the best at cheering people up, and he never listens to me anyway. Actually, you don't listen to me a lot either."

"He listens more than you think; he just usually ignores your advice. But it might be different now. You can do it – you always know what to say."

With Granddad in this state of mind Huey had to admit he was the better choice for this task. He took a deep breath and walked into Riley's room.

"Riley, the doctors say you might be coming out of a coma and be able to hear me now. Now I know people say we're complete opposites, but that isn't true. One thing we have in common is defying what we see as unjust authority. Another is the ability to recognize bull when we hear it. Funny how Granddad ain't so good at that. So, I'm not going to feed you any bull.

You're not as ignorant as you let on. Occasionally you say things that help me realize the perspective of the general population. And you sometimes make compelling logical arguments for your point of view, even if I usually disagree with it. But most importantly, I need you around to be my sparring partner. Or I should just say to fight with.

You may not have realized it but you are contributing to my causes. When I face adversaries, I am going to have to be the best fighter I can be, and you have contributed a lot to that. You are the best person around here to engage in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat.

Nobody else in school will fight me. Caesar sure as hell ain't no fighter. Granddad won't pay for martial arts lessons. But you can fight, and it's clear you've gotten a lot better over the past couple years. You used to be too predictable, but you've been mixing up your moves a lot better. You're actually very resourceful and force me to be more alert and aware of more possibilities and to constantly up my game. Your reflexes are fantastic – well so are mine, but … the simple truth is we make each other better.

We make a great team when we have a common enemy, like when we're defending the house. It's clear we can rely on each other then; too bad it doesn't happen more often.

And remember what you said to me last summer. Your words were, "I ain't no quitter."

Huey felt it best not to mention that Riley declared he wasn't going to quit going for a record of lying on the floor watching television all day. In his current state Riley might not remember to what Huey was referring to.

Riley opened his eyes, but didn't speak.

That small motion thrilled Huey more than he wanted to admit. His speech apparently was effective. "Can you talk?"

Riley just looked at Huey blankly. Huey noticed that he had replies to the texts he sent before talking to Riley.

"That's okay, you don't have to talk. Maybe I've gone on long enough, and you'd rather talk with your friends. They should be here to see you now."

Riley blinked, and Huey interpreted that as a "yes," and was happy to leave the room and make his announcement.

As Huey thought, Caesar, Jazmine, and Cindy had arrived, and were waiting anxiously with his grandfather. "Riley opened his eyes. He didn't say anything, but he did blink. I think he had enough of listening to me, and needs to be cheered up more."

"That's great news," exclaimed Robert. "Now which of you is the most cheerful?"

Suddenly all eyes were on Caesar.

"You can do it, Caesar," encouraged Huey.

"Yes, it's amazing how you can be so positive when you're with Huey all the time," pointed out Jazmine.

Complimenting Caesar turned out to be a dig at Huey for being negative so often, but before there were any more comments Caesar agreed to try.

"Fine, I'll give it a shot."

Caesar took a deep breath and walked into Riley's room. Caesar put on a big smile and greeted Riley with, "What up, Dawg?"

Caesar's unfailing cheerfulness was impossible to ignore. Riley muttered, "You Huey's friend."

Caesar was encouraged by how quickly he got Riley to say something.

"Aw, I've been your friend since the day we met."

"You always hang with Huey."

"I'll be hanging with you more in the future when we make movies. I saw the video."

"Everybody saw the video."

The video was all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Riley didn't know how long he had been out, but in fact within a day there were more than five million views and a million likes on the various platforms. Riley's act was guaranteed to live on for eternity.

It had all been captured on no fewer than four security cameras placed all around the J. Edgar Hoover Elementary School. The cameras were installed the previous October when for the first time in its history the school experienced a disturbing number of acts of vandalism. To the astonishment of absolutely no one in all of Woodcrest, the culprit turned out to be Riley. And now those same cameras recorded him being a hero.

It was recess for several classes including Riley's, and he was standing alone near the street, debating whether or not he would return to class when recess was over. Putting that decision off, he was planning his next act of mischief when a strong gust of wind almost knocked him over. Looking up, he saw a large oak tree sway, and then heard a crack. A large part of the trunk became detached and it started to fall, directly toward a girl who turned out to be Jennifer, playing soccer with her friends. She was apparently the goalie, not moving nearly so much as the others. Highly focused on the ball, anticipating that it would soon be kicked toward her, she was completely oblivious to the tree.

Riley didn't think, he reacted. If he had thought at all the outcome would have been much different. Had the crack of the tree been the sound of a starter's pistol in a track meet he would have been charged with a false start for jumping the gun. One of the security cameras had a good side view of the incident, clearly showing the impossible distance Riley had to cover, even without the three-foot high chain link fence marking the boundary of the play area that he was supposed to stay in.

However, the security footage provided irrefutable evidence of what happened next. With extraordinary acceleration Riley was going at full speed in two steps, a speed which would have won any sprint race for his age. He yelled, "Look out!" but no one ever paid attention to him, and Jennifer continued to be absorbed in her game. In five steps he reached the fence and vaulted the shoulder-high obstacle with a barely discernable decrease in speed. He continued on, and it looked like the tree was set to crash on Jennifer's head just as Riley would arrive.

There were shrieks from Jennifer's playmates as they finally saw the descending tree. She turned her head and thought they were screaming to warn her that Riley was about to tackle her. But tackling her to the ground would not be enough. If they managed to avoid the tree trunk a heavy branch still would have crushed their legs. Instead Riley grabbed her around the waist and picked her up while still running. The cameras showed that the trunk missed the girl's head by no more than two inches.

Jennifer was close to Riley's size, and it was very difficult to remain upright while holding her to his side with one arm. With more strength than he should have been capable of he forged ahead one, two, three more steps, and felt branches coming down on the back of his head and shoulders. With the last bit of his strength he made one more desperate lunge, and almost cleared the tree. One substantial branch smashed his right foot. The tree bounced a little and he pulled his foot out, but he sure there were broken bones.

He had scraped his knees and elbows, but that was nothing; he had scraped them thousands of times in his typical activities. Jennifer only suffered minor bruises and scrapes. The video footage became unclear as they were surrounded by classmates, and soon the siren of an ambulance was heard.

Caesar continued, "Remember when we were talking about making movies, and you said you didn't want to read or write very much?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, I'm gonna be the producer, and I want you to be my stunt man."

"Stunt man? Never thought of that."

"You'd be great at it. You're a great athlete, and you can tolerate a lot of pain. I've never seen anyone else take punches like you can. And you must've been whipped by your grandpa hundreds of times, and it never bothers you for long."

"2,437."

"You count your beatings?"

"It helps me deal with the pain."

"Anyway, you'll be great. There'll be lots of action, and fight scenes with thugs and gangstas that'll be perfect for you."

"Do stunt men make a lot of paper?"

"Mine will. How about a million for our first movie?"

"Fo' real?"

"I'm gonna draw up a contract right now. Here, I'm signing your cast." Caesar wrote something on Riley's cast.

"Gotta shake on it." Riley raised his right arm and made a fist, the first time he moved that day. He and Caesar sealed the deal with a fist bump.

"Great! There's someone else who wants to see you now."

Caesar left Riley's room, and announced, "Riley's talking just fine, and he moved. Just a fist bump, but I think he's gonna be okay. Who's going next?"

They decided Jazmine would be the next to visit. She entered the room and stood next to Riley's head. When she hesitated to speak, Riley greeted her first.

"Hey Jazzy."

"Hello Riley. How are you feeling?"

"Aight. Guess I needed a nap."

"Nap? Do you know how long you were out for?"

Riley shook his head. "An hour?"

"More like a day and an hour. I thought Huey or Caesar told you. And it was a coma, not a nap. Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah." Riley grinned. "I missed a whole day of school and I ain't getting in trouble for it!"

"That's not what I meant."

"And I be in great shape for a dead man."

"Coma doesn't mean dead. It means …"

"Never mind, I know. Not worth wasting time acting like I don't know stuff like that anymore. But it makes sense; I thought I dreamed Huey told me something about a coma."

Jazmine wanted to talk about something else. Looking at Riley again, she found a good topic.

"Oh Riley, you got your cornrows messed up. We have to make an appointment to fix that when you get out of here."

Jazmine ran her fingers through Riley's hair, making slight improvements but needing a comb or brush to do a better job. Ordinarily Riley would object, but on this occasion, he didn't feel like doing so. It did feel kind of good.

"Huey hates it when I touch his hair," continued Jazmine.

"I ain't Huey; his loss."

Jazmine thought about her disagreements with Huey over her own hair, and changed the subject.

"Can I sign your cast?"

"I dunno, d'ja ever learn how to write?"

"What! I'm eleven! Of course I can … oh you're messing with me."

Jazmine ruffled Riley's hair some more, harder this time. Riley didn't mind. Jazmine continued, "Maybe I'll accidentally give you dreadlocks instead."

Riley seemed amused at the possibility. "You gonna give Caesar cornrows, then?"

Jazmine hadn't expected that response.

"I hadn't thought of that. What would be the point?"

"Who needs a point? Just to mess with Huey and Granddad."

Now Jazmine giggled. "Do you think Caesar would go along with that?"

"You shoulda seen Cees' just now. He never been like that with me before, and he'll do anything I ask now. We gotta take advantage of that while it lasts."

Jazmine had to admit that sounded like Riley.

"Can you do Caesar's voice?"

"What up, baby, Brooklyn rules!"

Jazmine was startled by how well Riley impersonated Caesar's voice.

"Okay then, it's a deal."

Jazmine then signed his cast and said, "There's another thing. My Dad did something for you, but I'm going to let the next person tell you."

Jazmine left the room and told the others, "Riley's in a good mood now, and acting like himself. Your turn, Cindy."

As Cindy entered Riley's room, Jazmine went over to Caesar and explained her and Riley's plan. Caesar snickered. "Maybe we better do this on the weekend. Don't think school could handle that. Do I have to get a cast and crutches?"

"Maybe this will have to wait. Oh, can you do Riley's voice?"

"What up, Jazzy?"

"That sounded more like Huey. Riley does your voice better."

"You a hater."

"Hey, that was an honest opinion … oh, that was supposed to be Riley. That's a little better, but you need to work on it."

"Doing both their voices is hard."

"I guess so. It would take a very talented person."

"I am very talented! Just give me some time."

Meanwhile, Cindy walked briskly into Riley's room. "What up, Reezy?"

"S'up, C-Murph. Jazzy said you got somethin' to tell me."

"The nurse outside said your foot will heal in time for basketball season in November. Mr. Dubois got the basketball league to redraw the boundary lines, so we're gonna be on the same team this year! You don't have to play with all those losers, who are being split up on other teams. But now with us on the same team we're bound to win the state championship this year!"

It takes Riley a few seconds for the news to sink in. "That ain't fair to the rest of the league." Then he grinned. "That's great! I'll just miss going against you."

"Hey, if you're worried about playing against me, we'll still go against each other in practice. I can help you with your D, which could use some work."

"My D is …" Riley sighed. Defense was not the strongest part of his game. "Fine, you right."

Seeing that Riley might be turning sad, Cindy continued, "And you gonna help me with trash talking. There ain't nobody better at that than you!"

That made Riley crack a smile, but he quickly returned to a more bitter face. "You ain't got what it takes to be a good trash talker."

"What? I do too!"

"You're just a dumb blonde who uses her looks to distract opponents."

"I have real skills! As for dumb …" Cindy suddenly realizes Riley is trash talking, and this is his way of teaching her. "The doctors said you were in a coma because you had minimal brain activity. It's amazing that they could tell that from your usual self."

Riley couldn't help but break the scowl on his face for a moment, but recovered to continue. "I saw a copy of your IQ test at school, and the result came back negative."

"While you were talking with C-Man and Jazzy the doctors told me they x-rayed your head, but couldn't find anything in there."

"Your coach told you not to shoot three-pointers; they too confusing because you can't count that high."

"Your coach could never get you to understand what 'double dribble' means."

"You ain't never been called for double dribbling 'cuz you can't bounce the ball more than once without hittin' your foot."

"Your feet smell so bad they killed the plastic plant in the hall."

"Did your daddy buy those clothes for you? They went out of style – nah, those ain't never been in style."

"I hope they let you take that hospital gown home with you. That would make be a major upgrade for your wardrobe."

The verbal exchange went on for another ten minutes. Outside the room, the animated conversation was very noticeable. "What's going on in there?" asked Robert.

"Can you see those monitors?" replied Regina. Riley's vital signs are returning to normal. This is the quickest recovery of this type I've ever seen. Just let them keep going. I'll let the doctor know."

Cindy is running out of breath, and then something hits her. "Wait, go back. Did you say I had looks?"

Avoiding the question, Riley barked, "I'm fine. Where my clothes? I gotta get outa here; I got stuff to do!"

Cindy stepped back, and responded, "Huey or your Granddaddy help you with that. Hey, Jazzy and C-Man signed your cast. My turn."

Cindy signed Riley's cast while Huey stepped into the room since Robert was still nervous. When Cindy left, Huey spoke;

"Your clothes are in that little closet over there, but it's going to take some time to get you discharged. The doctors have to check you again and make sure you're okay. And you're right, you have stuff to do. Here's the homework the school gave me to give to you."

Huey thrust some papers at Riley, who scowled and then sighed. He read the first problem: "If a sprinter runs at 21 miles per hour, how long will it take him to run 77 feet?"

Riley took the pen that had been used to sign his cast and wrote 2.5 seconds on the paper.

"Come on, you can't just guess and write a number down, and you have to show your work."

"What there to show? The numbers are rigged."

"Rigged? What do you mean?"

"I mean you can cancel 11 so 77 divided by 5280 is 7 over 480, divided by 21 is 1 over 3 times 480 equals 1440 or two times 720, so times 3600 or 5 times 720 is five halves or 2.5, dumbass."

Huey's face went blank as he tried to follow Riley's rapid arithmetic. "77 … times 3600 … over 5280 … You still need to show some work so your teacher will understand." Huey shook his head. "This is really advanced for fourth grade … oops, this is my homework."

"I'm charging you a hundred bucks an hour to be your math tutor. I be tutoring you for a minute, so that's $1.67 so far."

"I don't need no math tutor!"

"How about an English tutor?"

"Since when do you speak proper … oh forget it!" Huey felt like slapping Riley, but this was not the time or place. He had to be satisfied with helping restore Riley to a more normal state. Huey sorted through the homework, dumped Riley's correct assignments on his chest, and stormed out of the room. "Granddad! It's perfectly safe for you to talk to Riley now!"

Robert couldn't avoid facing Riley any longer, yet still entered the room tentatively.

"Hey boy, heard you was better."

"I'm fine. You don't look so good."

"I … uh, it's just that I … I'm so proud of you, and I shouldn't have been so hard on you, and I'm sorry I whipped you so many times, and we should discuss an allowance, and … you think you moving into the guest room is a good idea?"

Riley's face scrunched. Something was still way off. "You an impostor. My Granddad don't apologize for stuff like that and he don't make deals with me; he always orders me what to do. What happened to him, and why they send in a weak, sick old geezer in his place? I gonna close my eyes, and when they open, I want my real Granddad here."

Granddad snapped.

"Now look here, Boy, you are moving into the guest room, and you're responsible for keeping it clean. If we do have guests, you share Huey's room while they're here. And you're gonna have more responsibilities. You gotta mow the lawn half the time, and clean the house, and whatever I say, and not gripe about it. And don't think that just because you got a broke foot you can get away with anything. I'm gonna keep track of all the times you mess up, and as soon as that foot is good, you're getting a beatin' for each screwup!"

As he opened his eyes, Riley's sour face turned into a grin, with a hint of evil in it.

"That's better. Now how fast can you get me out of here?"

"When the doctors say you can leave. Now be quiet and do your homework."

Robert stormed out, and promptly ran into Huey just outside the door.

"I know you were listening. What just happened?"

"Riley manipulated you into turning you back into the Granddad he's accustomed to."

Robert was still a mixed-up jumble of emotions.

"I can't have no nine-year-old grandson manipulate me."

"He can be good at that, and he's done it before. Remember when you ordered him to get cornrows after forbidding him to do so?"

"I did what?" Robert was flustered. "I was so mad at him for acting up and framing you that I was just glad he didn't look like you anymore. Now I'm used to it, and … well, no one will confuse you two anymore. But this manipulating thing …"

"I think in this case you should just let it go. But I have to agree that allowance is a good idea."

Granddad thought for a moment. "You're doin' it too, this manipulation thing, ain't you? Allowance, and you don't want to lose your own room."

"Well, we are brothers. We do have some things in common."

There was silence, and then Huey noted, "I'm supposed to call Jennifer to let her know Riley's better." Huey walked a few steps away to make the call, while Robert convinced himself that not having a guest bedroom was a good idea.

Back in his hospital room with Huey's homework problem in mind, Riley was thinking, "2.5 seconds … 2.51 seconds … if I had been a hundredth of a second faster, I wouldn't have broken my foot and needed to be hospitalized and then … how would everything be different?"

He sighed, and continued on with his homework. Things would be different from now on, but he could adapt. Huey said Riley adapted to Huey's fighting techniques, forcing both of them to improve, so Riley figured he could adapt to this situation. He would use this new reputation to his advantage in the future. He didn't know how yet, but he had plenty of time and was sure he would recognize the opportunity when it came.

Notes: In the comic strip,

Riley declares he ain't no quitter on July 14, 2001.

Caesar and Riley discuss working on movies on July 28, 2001.

Robert first forbids Riley getting cornrows on August 23, 2005, but Riley tricks him into ordering Riley into getting cornrows on September 9, 2005.

Jazmine braids Riley's cornrows on September 10, 2005.

Riley does impressive mental arithmetic, particularly division, on February 12, 2005.