46"No, I wouldn't.""And I spent my money on a long-distance call! All for nothing. Well, it's spent, on you too.So start talking, pal. And it better be good. Start with sports. What are you going out for?""Crew. Well, not exactly crew. Managing crew. Assistant crew manager.""Assistant crew manager!""I don't think I've got the job—""Assistant crew manager!""I got in a fight this after—""Assistant crew manager!" No voice could course with dumfoundment like Finny's "Youare crazy!""Listen, Finny, I don't care about being a big man on the campus or anything.""Whaaat?" Much more clearly than anything in Mr. Ludsbury's study I could see his facenow, grimacing in wide, obsessed stupefaction. "Who said anything about whoever they are!""Well then what are you so worked up for?""What do you want to manage crew for? What do you want to manage for? What's that gotto do with sports?"The point was, the grace of it was, that it had nothing to do with sports. For I wanted nomore of sports. They were barred from me, as though when Dr. Stanpole said, "Sports arefinished" he had been speaking of me. I didn't trust myself in them, and I didn't trust anyoneelse. It was as though football players were really bent on crushing the life out of each other, asthough boxers were in combat to the death, as though even a tennis ball might turn into abullet. This didn't seem completely crazy imagination in 1942, when jumping out of trees stoodfor abandoning a torpedoed ship. Later, in the school swimming pool, we were given thesecond stage in that rehearsal: after you hit the water you made big splashes with your hands,to scatter the flaming oil which would be on the surface.So to Phineas I said, "I'm too busy for sports," and he went into his incoherent groans andjumbles of words, and I thought the issue was settled until at the end he said, "Listen, pal, if Ican't play sports, you're going to play them for me," and I lost part of myself to him then, and asoaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: tobecome a part of Phineas.
477Brinker Hadley came across to see me late that afternoon. I had taken a shower to wash off thesticky salt of the Naguamsett River—going into the Devon was like taking a refreshing showeritself, you never had to clean up after it, but the Naguamsett was something else entirely. I hadnever been in it before; it seemed appropriate that my baptism there had taken place on the firstday of this winter session, and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight.I washed the traces off me and then put on a pair of chocolate brown slacks, a pair whichPhineas had been particularly critical of when he wasn't wearing them, and a blue flannel shirt.Then, with nothing to do until my French class at five o'clock, I began turning over in my mindthis question of sports.But Brinker came in. I think he made a point of visiting all the rooms near him the first day."Well, Gene," his beaming face appeared around the door. Brinker looked the standardpreparatory school article in his gray gabardine suit with square, hand-sewn-looking jacketpockets, a conservative necktie, and dark brown cordovan shoes. His face was all straight lines—eyebrows, mouth, nose, everything—and he carried his six feet of height straight as well. Helooked but happened not to be athletic, being too busy with politics, arrangements, and offices.There was nothing idiosyncratic about Brinker unless you saw him from behind; I did as heturned to close the door after him. The flaps of his gabardine jacket parted slightly over hishealthy rump, and it is that, without any sense of derision at all, that I recall as Brinker's salientcharacteristic, those healthy, determined, not over-exaggerated but definite and substantialbuttocks."Here you are in your solitary splendor," he went on genially. "I can see you have realinfluence around here. This big room all to yourself. I wish I knew how to manage things likeyou." He grinned confidingly and sank down on my cot, leaning on his elbow in a relaxed, athomeway.It didn't seem fitting for Brinker Hadley, the hub of the class, to be congratulating me oninfluence. I was going to say that while he had a roommate it was frightened Brownie Perkins,who would never impinge on Brinker's comfort in any way, and that they had two rooms, thefront one with a fireplace. Not that I grudged him any of this. I liked Brinker in spite of hisWinter Session efficiency; almost everyone liked Brinker.But in the pause I took before replying he started talking in his lighthearted way again. Henever let a dull spot appear in conversation if he could help it."I'll bet you knew all the time Finny wouldn't be back this fall. That's why you picked himfor a roommate, right?"
- Page 1 and 2: 1John KnowlesA Separate Peace
- Page 4 and 5: 4Devon was both scholarly and very
- Page 6 and 7: 6sprang out, fell through the tops
- Page 8 and 9: 8a kitchen rattle from the wing of
- Page 10 and 11: 10true and sincere; Finny always sa
- Page 12 and 13: 12Withers, perched nervously behind
- Page 14 and 15: 14of the great northern forests. I
- Page 16 and 17: 163Yes, he had practically saved my
- Page 18 and 19: 18Up the field the others at badmin
- Page 20 and 21: 20that Finny could shine at it. He
- Page 22 and 23: 22"You can try it again and break i
- Page 24 and 25: 24tonks and shooting galleries and
- Page 26 and 27: 26But Finny gave me little time to
- Page 28 and 29: 28was weakened by the very genuinen
- Page 30 and 31: 30"Don't go." He said it very simpl
- Page 32 and 33: 325None of us was allowed near the
- Page 34 and 35: 34The door was slightly ajar, and I
- Page 36 and 37: 36We found it fairly easily, on a s
- Page 38 and 39: 38"Sure, I'll be there by Thanksgiv
- Page 40 and 41: 40Still it had come to an end, in t
- Page 42 and 43: 42"How many?""Who knows? Get some.
- Page 44 and 45: 44The houses on either side were in
- Page 48 and 49: 48"What?" I pulled quickly around i
- Page 50 and 51: 50They laughed at him a little, and
- Page 52 and 53: 52"I'm not sure, Leper, but I think
- Page 54 and 55: 54After they had gone we laborers l
- Page 56 and 57: 56To enlist. To slam the door impul
- Page 58 and 59: 588"I can see I never should have l
- Page 60 and 61: 60"So," Brinker curled his lip at m
- Page 62 and 63: 62So the war swept over like a wave
- Page 64 and 65: 64We went into the gym, along a mar
- Page 66 and 67: 66you at the Funny Farm.""In a way,
- Page 68 and 69: 68large rambling, doubtfully Coloni
- Page 70 and 71: 709This was my first but not my las
- Page 72 and 73: 72Giraud but Lepellier; we knew, be
- Page 74 and 75: 74"Who wants a Winter Carnival?" he
- Page 76 and 77: 76Still the sleek brown head bent m
- Page 78 and 79: 78ELWIN LEPER LEPELLIER.
- Page 80 and 81: 80escapes from is danger, death, th
- Page 82 and 83: 82"That's what you say. But that's
- Page 84 and 85: 84a good boy underneath," she must
- Page 86 and 87: 86the Mess Hall, I had to eat every
- Page 88 and 89: 88"How's Leper?" he asked in an off
- Page 90 and 91: 90I didn't say anything."He must be
- Page 92 and 93: 92never will.""You're so wrong I ca
- Page 94 and 95: 94I believed you," he added hurried
- Page 96 and 97:
96acoustics in the school. I couldn
- Page 98 and 99:
98the tree did it by itself. It's a
- Page 100 and 101:
100"Here! Go get him," said Brinker
- Page 102 and 103:
102"I can't think of the name of th
- Page 104 and 105:
104Dr. Stanpole stopped near the do
- Page 106 and 107:
106hurt my stomach and I could feel
- Page 108 and 109:
108and "psycho" and "sulfa," strang
- Page 110 and 111:
110His face had been struggling to
- Page 112 and 113:
11213The quadrangle surrounding the
- Page 114 and 115:
114Brinker slid his fingers into th
- Page 116 and 117:
116At the gym a platoon was undress
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