'So what happened?' Neely asked when it became apparent that Mal wanted prompting.
'You know what saved me?'
'Tell us.'
'Rake.Eddie Rake. When I was hangin' on for my life, under that boat, I didn't think about my momma or my dad or my girlfriend, I thought about Rake. I could hear him barkin' at us at the end of practice when we were runnin' sprints. I remembered his locker-room speeches. Never quit, never quit. You win because you're tougher mentally than the other guy, and you're tougher mentally because your trainin' is superior. If you're winnin', never quit. If you're losin', never quit. If you're hurt, never quit.'
A long pull on the cigarette while the two younger men digested the story.Meanwhile, outside the car, civilian drivers swerved onto shoulders and hit brakes to make way for this law enforcement emergency.
'I finally got hit, in the leg. Did you know bullets can get you underwater?'
'Never really thought about it,' Neely admitted.
'Damned right they can.Left hamstring. I never felt such pain, like a hot knife. I almost passed out from the pain, and I was gaspin' for breath. Rake expected us to play hurt, so I told myself Rake was watchin'. Rake was up there somewhere, on the side of the river, watchin' to see how tough I was.'
A long cancerous draw on the cigarette; a halfhearted effort to blow the smoke out the window.A long pause as Mal was lost in the horror of this memory. A minute passed.
'Obviously you survived,' Paul said, anxious to get to the end of it.
'I was lucky. The other five got boxed up and shipped home. The boat burned and burned and at times I couldn't hang on because the hull was so hot. Then the batteries exploded, sounded like direct mortar hits, and she started to sink. I could hear the gooks laughin'. I could also hear Rake in the fourth quarter, 'Time to suck it up and go, men. Here's where we win or lose. Gut check, gut check.' '
'I can hear him too,' Neely said.
'All of a sudden, the shootin' stopped. Then I heard choppers. Two of them had seen the smoke and decided to explore. They came in low, scattered the gooks, dropped a rope, and I got out. When they hauled me in I looked down and saw the boat burnin.' I saw two of my buddies lying on the deck, burnt black. I was in shock and finally passed out. They told me later that when they asked me my name, I said, 'Eddie Rake.' '
Neely glanced to his left as Mal turned away.His voice cracked just a little,then he wiped his eyes. No hands on the wheel for a couple of seconds.
'So you came home?' Paul said.
'Yeah, that was the lucky part. I got outta there.You boys hungry?'
'No.'
'No.'
Evidently Mal was. He stomped the brake pedal while veering to the right, onto a gravel lot in front of an old country store. The Ford fishtailed as Mal brought it to a violent stop. 'Best damned biscuits in this part of the state,' he said as he yanked open his door and stepped out into a cloud of dust. They followed him to the rear, through a rickety screen door, and into someone's small and smoky kitchen. Four tables were packed close together, all surrounded by rustic-looking gentlemen devouring ham and biscuits. Fortunately, at least for Mal, who appeared to be ready to collapse from hunger, there were three empty stools at the cluttered counter. 'Need some biscuits over here,' he growled at a tiny old woman hovering over a stove. Evidently, menus were not needed.
With remarkable speed, she served them coffee and biscuits, with butter and sorghum molasses. Mal plunged into the first one, a thick brownish concoction of lard and flour that weighed at least a pound. Neely, on his left, and Paul, on his right, followed along.
'Heard you boys talkin' last night up in the bleachers,' Mal said, shifting from Vietnam to football. He took a large bite and began chewing ferociously.'About the '87 game. I was there, so was everybody else. We figured somethin' happened at halftime, in the locker room, some kind of altercation between you and Rake.Never heard the real story, you know, 'cause you boys never talked about it.'
'You could call it an altercation,' Neely said, still prepping his first and only biscuit.
'No one's ever talked about it,' Paul said.
'So what happened?'
