"Who will keep time?" Matt asked.
"I will," Mary Anne offered, checking her watch. "Ten seconds. Five seconds. Go."
With a slight splash, Matthew began scooping quartered slices of peaches into his mouth with such a zealous sucking and slurping that even his father paused to witness the divertissement. He did not chew the peaches, rather, he swallowed them whole as though they were live goldfish with bone and viscera intact. The juice rolled down his mouth and his neck, dripped on the table and matted his hair. As each second passed, the noise of the contest increased, for it became necessary for Matt to breathe at the same time he was eating. When peach juice began to flow from his nose and when Matthew had gagged twice, Lillian quietly excused herself from the table. But her son did not miss a stroke as he shoveled the peaches from the can to his mouth with extraordinary speed and endurance. When Mary Anne cried," Ten seconds left!" Matthew picked up the entire can, turned it upside down and drained the juice violently, his adam's apple straining and pulsing like a metronome. He slammed the empty can on the table a moment before Mary Anne called "Time. "His brother and two sisters gave him a standing ovation which lasted over twenty seconds. Bull just shook his head and concentrated on the roast beef. Once he looked up at a grinning, triumphant Matthew and said, "I'm raising a goddam peach eating champ. Jesus Christ!"
At six-thirty, Ben finished packing his uniform and was waiting in his room for the summons from his father to leave for the game. Kneeling before the crucifix in his room, he mouthed a prayer that instantly shamed him and he renounced it as soon as he was certain that it had been fully articulated and received by the ear of God which he imagined to be as large and black as a galaxy. But his renunciation lacked the fire of the original prayer. Ben prayed for his own personal success. The team could lose, in fact could be beaten badly, but Ben wanted and needed a credible game while under the dispassionate gaze of college scouts. The prayer rose out of him obscenely.
Outside his window he heard the sounds of hoofs drumming against the pavement. He looked down and saw Toomer pulling his wagon into the backyard. Grabbing his gym bag, he rushed down to see him. When he reached the back door, he saw Toomer presenting Lillian with the flowers he had not sold that day.
"Toomer, bless your sweet little heart for thinking of me. I'll put them in water right now and make an arrangement for my dining room table. Are you sure I can't pay you something?"
"No, m-m-ma'am. I k-kept them out for you."
"Ben, you see what Toomer brought me. Isn't that the sweetest, most thoughtful thing you ever heard tell of?"
"Ol' Mom," Ben thought," she can make people feel better over nothing than anyone I've ever met."
"Well, Toomer. I'm gonna have to bake you some sweet potato pie and bring it down to you sometime this week."
"No, ma'am. No n-need," the man answered, smiling.
"I didn't ask you if I could. I told you I was going to bring you a pie and I'm going to do it. May the Lord stick pins in my eyes if I don't."
She ran into the house to put the flowers into water before the family left for the game. Ben walked up to the mule and looked up at Toomer, who watched him with eyes that were dark and kind. It embarrassed Ben when he realized he had not seen Toomer at all since basketball season had begun.
"Hey, white boy," Toomer said.
"That's a nice looking donkey you got there," Ben said.
"That isn't no d-donkey, white boy. This here is Man o' War, the f-f-fastest mule in Ravenel County."
"Well that's about the ugliest mule I ever did see."
"That so. Well, I r-r-reckon you about the ugliest white b-b-boy I've ever seen too."
"How you been doin', Toomer. I've missed seeing you," Ben said, jumping up on the wagon seat beside the black man and punching him affectionately in the arm.
"Not so b-b-bad. Been readin' in the paper you some kinda shiny s-s-stuff now. You too much stuff to go h-h-hunt up Mr. Oyster this weekend?"
"We got an away game on Friday," Ben answered.
"Weekend only last one d-day for you?"
"I'm riding around with Sammy Wertzberger on Saturday. There's church on Sunday. How about Sunday afternoon?"
"That's good."
"I wish you could come see me play tonight, Toomer."
"I ain't no fool, white b-boy. Only a crazy nigger would go struttin' in the middle of them shabby d-dressin' white folk. But show 'em some strut tonight, white boy. Wiggle when they want to see some w-w-waddle."
"I will, Toomer. Thanks for coming by."
"Now don't play too good so you think you got too much s-s-stuff to come see Toomer."
"You know better than that, Toomer."
"Get off this wagon, white boy."
"Get this damn donkey out of this yard 'fore I call the police, flower boy."
On this night, the locker room had exposed nerves. Philip Turner vomited into a janitor's sink surrounded by mops and pails. Coach Spinks put out a cigarette by dropping it into a newly opened bottle of R.C. Art the Fart combed his hair for fifteen minutes straight, sat down to await the pre-game talk, then excused himself explaining that he had forgotten to comb his hair. Ben tied and untied his shoes without a single recollection of having done so. Finally, the whole team was dressed, had listened to Coach Spinks's pre-game harangue, and now waited on that trough of suspended time when each second seems weighed down by the glistening bullion of tension.
"We got to take the challenge to them," Jim Don shouted.
"Yeah," everyone agreed.
"Their ass is grass and we're the lawnmowers," Art added.
There was a commotion at the locker room door and the manager's voice was raised in a shrill, feckless protest. "Ben, Ben, where are you, Ben?" a voice boomed.
Mortified and more than slightly irritated, Ben answered, "Back here, Dad."
Colonel Meecham walked into the alcove red-faced, expansive, and massive. It was the first time that Ben had noticed that his father had not changed into his civilian clothes since he had gotten home. Bull walked past several players to get to his son.
"There are college scouts from four different colleges in the stands tonight. Four colleges! You gotta gun it up tonight, boy. Those guys are looking for a scorer."
"Dad would you go back and sit with Mom for god's sakes. We're trying to get ready for a game."
"I'm trying to get you fired up, Ben. There's people come to watch you, son. You ought to go for about forty big ones tonight," Colonel Meecham said, unable to contain his ecstasy.
"Well help Ben get it tonight, Colonel," Pinkie said.
"Attaboy, Pinkie. I want all you boys to shine tonight. The largest crowd in the history of the school is out there screaming their lungs out. The cheerleaders are so happy they're . . . they're . . . they're jumping through their own assholes."
Ben could smell the heavy presence of bourbon on his father's breath. Beneath the flight jacket he could detect the slim outline of his father's silver flask. Since it was not a Friday and there was no happy hour, he had forgotten to keep track of how much liquor his father had consumed. But all the signs were there. Bull Meecham was approaching that prime meridian of inebriation that his wife, his sons, and his daughters, based on a grievously embattled history, had come to fear.
"I'll see you later, Dad," Ben said.
"These boys think they're tough," Bull said, slurring the last two words. "Bust 'em in the chops the first play of the game, sportsfans, and they'll know you mean business. You've got to draw first blood against a bunch of hogs like this. If you show weakness or fear, they'll chew you a new bellybutton."
"Thanks, Dad. See you later," Ben said, leading his father by the arm toward the door.
Bull whispered to Ben when they reached the door," I want you to look like a goddam gatling gun, you're shooting so much."
"O.K., Dad. O.K. Go sit with Mama."
"A great ballplayer always has his best games against the best teams."
"I will, Dad. I p
romise."
When Ben returned the other players grinned at his obvious discomfiture at his father's intrusion into the forbidden realm of the pre-game locker room. Coach Spinks would not have been amused.
"I'm sorry, gang. Dad gets excited at times like this."
"You think your dad's excited," Art said. "Mine ain't taken a shit in three days."
"Neither have I," said Pinkie.
"Boy, your dad's really tanked up," Jim Don said.
"No, he isn't, Jim Don. He's just excited."
"You don't think I know a drunk when I see one," Jim Don countered.
"Shut up, Jim Don," Pinkie said fiercely. "Don't talk like that about someone's old man."
There was a period of silence. Two of the players went to wash their mouths out. Ben leaned over to Pinkie and asked," Where's your daddy, Pinkie? I haven't seen him at any of the games. Is he here tonight?"
The silence deepened. Ben felt immediately that the question was lanced with pain.
"He was cut in half by a skier's boat two summers ago," Pinkie said.
"God, I'm sorry, Pinkie."
"You didn't know," Pinkie said.
In the moments that followed Ben forgot about the game and concentrated instead on his uncanny instinct, his intuitive genius for asking the wrong question. This ability normally asserted itself when he was nervous or did not know what to say or felt it was a social obligation to say something. Throughout Ben's life, he could walk up to a complete stranger, ask him a single question, and hit with remarkable accuracy the raw nerve. "Did you sprain your ankle?" Ben would ask. "No, I limp because I had polio as a child," the stranger would reply. "Where is your mother?" Ben would ask. "She died of cancer last night," would come the reply. The nadir of his distinguished career in asking the wrong question had come when he was playing second base in pony league and a boy walked up to bat who clearly had not been trained with an eye for style or classicism. Ben yelled out in one of those rare yet complete moments of silence, a doldrum among the spectators," Hey, why doesn't someone teach that kid how to bat!" Ben heard the gasp from the crowd and in one of those desperate moments of prescience before the trial by fire begins, he knew that the dragon of hurt was hissing out of an empty, grief-ruled place from the boy at home plate. "Why don't you come here and teach me how to bat, wise guy?" the boy said, holding up the stump of his left hand, the bone encased in skin and tapering to a thin, vulnerable cone. The moment had become a metaphor and Ben had found something pure and universal in that moment of exposure, and he carried the image of that stump in his mind as though it were a talisman that could ward off future errors of judgment. But it had not worked that way. If there was an affliction, if there were a secret that caused great pain, if there was something hidden behind a smile or protected by a grimace, then Ben could bring it to the surface with an innocent, ill-conceived question. And he had an instinct for preciseness. He could ask the absolutely worst question at the most inopportune moment. "Why didn't you and Mr. Smith ever have any children?" Ben would ask. "We did," would come the answer from a voice of immeasurable cold," they all died in a fire." There was never a proper or adequate response to these answers. One merely withered.
The buzzer went off ending the girls' game and the voice of the manager squealed out for the team to take the court. Then there was movement and the borning once more of the transcendent fraternity that comes between athletes in the unseen moments when they move together toward the lights of an arena and the waiting crowd. Suddenly bursting into light and the vision of eight hundred eyes that had gathered to see them prevail, they spread out thoughtlessly, the layup lines forming without conscience, animals of habit. And each boy according to his own capacity drank in the applause that poured over his entrance. Ben bathed in the unction of his shouted name.
Bull and Lillian occupied the fourth row above the scorer's table. They sat with Paige and Virgil Hedgepath and several other pilots from the squadron. Behind them sat Ed Mills, Cleve Goins, Hobie Rawls, Johnnie Voight, Dr. Ratteree, and Zell Posey. Sighting Karen with her two friends to the right and beneath the scoreboard, Ben waved to them and winked as he retrieved a loose ball. He could not find Matt and Mary Anne in the crowd.
At the jump center in the middle of the court, a short, stocky, rat-faced boy came up to Ben, grabbed him by the belt, and growled at him," You aren't going to score a single goddam point tonight, Meecham, 'cause I'm gonna be on you like stink on shit."
"I ain't Roselle, Peanut," Ben answered.
"What?"
Peninsula was the tallest team that Ravenel had encountered all year. Their center, Sanders, was six feet five inches tall and both their forwards were over six three. Art looked undernourished and lost as he stepped into the circle to jump ball with Sanders.
Sanders tipped the ball to Peanut Abbott as he had done to begin every game in the whole season. Only this time Ben anticipated where Sanders would tip it, left his position as soon as the centers were airborne, reached the spot where the ball landed at precisely the same moment as Abbott, gained control of the ball, and broke for the bucket. Abbott crabbed along beside him until Ben whirled with a reverse dribble, sprinted for the basket, and laid up the first two points of the game. The crowd erupted in a deep, sinewy exaltation of triumph.
Peanut took the ball out in confusion, angry at himself, and anxious to repair the damage and erase the embarrassment. Bull saw Ben set up a trick that Bull had taught his son. Ben pretended to start back to the other end of the court for defense, but his eye was on the rattled guard, Abbott, who stepped out of bounds quickly and looked for the other guard who motioned for the ball near the foul line. The flow of every man on the court was heading for the opposite end of the court until the ball left Abbott's fingers and Ben cut back between the two guards, intercepted the ball cleanly, and in a single dribble scored his second layup in less than twelve seconds.
Then the game assumed a dimension of reality. Sanders began to work the pivot with a grace and instinct that was a pleasure to watch. There was an artistry to his shots and a lordliness to his moves. He scored on three straight turn around jump shots as the pace of the game quickened. Jim Don scored on a tap in. Abbott scored on a layup when Ben failed to get back on defense. "Defense, Meecham. You bum," he heard his father scream. Philip scored on a long jump shot from the side. Sanders faked Art, wheeled around him, and soared up high for a dunk shot. Coming down court, Ben got by Abbott and drove straight at Sanders, who moved up to stuff the layup. Ben slid the ball off to Art, who scored an unmolested layup.
Toward the end of the quarter, Ben stole two passes from the same forward and drove the length of the court to score. On both shots he was fouled by Peanut Abbott. Both shots were answered immediately by two arching, swooping hook shots by Sanders.
In the middle of the second quarter, Ben had a spurt where he played the game better than he had ever played it in his life, played it better than he was capable of playing it. He scored on three savage drives to the basket and on two of the drives he was fouled by Sanders. Then he hit on two jump shots and led two successive fast breaks where he shuffled bounce passes to Philip and Art filling the lanes. To end the half, he took the ball away from Abbott on the dribble and scored on an ostentatious reverse layup after a behind-the-back dribble that had more relationship to the big top than it did to basketball.
But no matter what Ben did, his efforts were matched by the unmeretricious competence of Wyatt Sanders. He was simply as good as he had to be.
Several times he slapped Ben on the fanny as Ben passed him going to the bench between quarters or during time outs. It was a meaningful slap and Ben understood the message it conveyed. There were times during athletic contests when two of the athletes became aware that the true contest was between them and that their team would win or lose according to the quality of their performance. When Ben's eyes met Sander's eyes, something of worth was transferred between them. The relationship grew stronger as the game wore on and the sense o
f competition between them intensified. By the fury with which they strove to win, they were honoring each other and celebrating each other's gifts. It was a feeling, a tenderness in the sweetly savage brotherhood of athletics that came very seldom.
By half time Ben had scored twenty-one points and was in the middle of the best game of his life. Sanders had scored sixteen points and was in the middle of one of his best. Calhoun trailed Peninsula by six points. But Sanders had picked up his third foul while trying to intercept a drive by Ben at the end of the half.
The strategy derived by Coach Spinks during intermission was sound and surprisingly so. He wanted Ben to get the ball and drive straight toward Sanders, trying to draw the fourth and fifth fouls. Without Sanders, Spinks felt that the Peninsula team would be demoralized beyond redemption. The key was to eliminate Sanders as soon as possible in the third quarter.
At center court for the second half tip-off, Abbott once more seized Ben's belt and said," You aren't gonna score a goddam point this second half, Meecham."
"C'mon, get off it, Abbott. I told you I wasn't Rosie Roselle."
"You wait and see if you score."
Sanders easily controlled the jump ball, tapping it to the red-headed guard who played opposite Abbott. The guard dribbled it into his own back court as he watched for Sanders who was maneuvering to get free underneath. When Sanders broke for the foul line, the guard lofted a lazy pass in the middle. Jim Don anticipated the pass and intercepted it on the run. Ben broke for the far basket. Jim Don's pass was long and Ben had to sprint for it. As he caught the ball, he had to shoot at the exact same instant. He threw the ball up softly, off balance as he headed out of bounds. The ball rolled around the rim and dropped out. Ben tried to regain his balance before he slammed into the folding chairs and spectators sitting at his end of the court. He gained control of himself by falling against a man and a woman, bracing his fall against their shoulders. At the split second he was turning around Peanut Abbott cracked into the back of Ben's head, his forearm shivering against the base of the brain. Ben flew over two rows of folding chairs and fell on top of a small girl who screamed until a host of arms lifted Ben out of the wreckage and off the girl.