'I know you will, son. You'll find Oscar Veech in the training room. Send him in here.'
'One thing I've been meaning to ask since the minute I walked in. What's that picture taped to the wall? Who is that in the picture? Is it anybody in particular?'
'Somebody sent that picture to me many years ago. Looks like it came from some kind of religious book for kids. People were always sending me things. Good luck things or prayers or all kinds of advice. Not so much now. They've been keeping pretty quiet of late. But that's a Catholic saint. I've kept that picture with me for many years now. Teresa of Avila. She was a remarkable woman. A saint of the church. Do you know what she used to do in order to remind herself of final things?'
'Something to do with a skull, I think.'
'She used to eat food out of a human skull.'
'I'll go find Veech,' I said.
In my room later I became depressed. No American accepts the deputy's badge without misgivings; centuriesof heroic lawlessness have captured our blood. I felt responsible for a vague betrayal of some local code or lore. I was now part of the apparatus. No longer did I circle and watch, content enough to be outside the center and even sufficiently cunning to plan a minor raid or two. Now I was the law's small tin glitter. Suck in that gut, I thought.
Jimmy Fife came in and sat on Anatole's bed. Fife was a defensive back who had been disabled all year, a ruptured spleen. Someone had accidentally kicked him during a practice session the previous spring. He had been very close to death. Many players still kidded him about it.
'Nix went wild last night and started throwing ash cans through windows. His ass has likely had it.'
'Coach made me captain,' I said. 'As of now, I captain the offense.'
'Congrats,' Fife said.
'I don't know if it's good or bad. I feel a little bit upset. I guess I just have to get used to it. So Nix went berserk.'
'Completely amuck,' he said. 'I saw the last part of it. It took six people to carry him off. It was a real fistswinging melee. I didn't get anywhere near it. Stupid to expose the spleen to contact at this point.'
'But Nix was out in the snow with us a little while ago. I just realized. I'm sure Nix was there. He was in the game we were playing out in the blizzard.'
'I don't doubt it,' Fife said. 'He's an animal. He's an animal's animal. The animals themselves would vote him allanimal. After a night like last night anybody else would be in bed for a week. Animalism aside, I'll tell you what he really is. He's a nihilist. He himself says so. I've had conversations with the guy. He blames it on his name. Nix meaning no, no thanks, nothing.'
'I've never talked to the guy,' I said.
'I've had conversations with the guy. He's pretty interesting, albeit a little bit stereo.'
'What do you mean-stereo?'
'I mean psycho. Did I say stereo? What a funny word to use.'
'You said albeit a little bit stereo.'
'Did I say albeit? That's incredible, Gary. I'd never use a word like that. A word like that is way out of my province.'
'But you used it, Jimmy. I'm certain.'
'I must have been speaking in tongues,' Fife said.
He bounced on the bed a few times, his mouth wide open, and I thought he might be trying to cast out a minor playful worddemon.
'Anyway,' I said, 'Nix has probably had it.'
'Sure, they'll get him for the windows. It's my guess he'll be gone for good. Have you heard about Conway's insects?'
'Offensive captain,' I said. 'That means I go out for the coin toss. If Coach doesn't object I think I'll go out with my helmet off. I'll carry it rather than wear it. I think it looks better. It sort of humanizes the coin toss. Then I can put it on again as I come running off.'
'Who's the new defensive captain?' Fife said.
'I don't know. Coach didn't say and I didn't ask.'
'How is he? I hear he's the same.'
'He's in a wheelchair,' I said.
'A wheelchair.'
'Don't ask me why. Something to do with his legs, I guess. At least that's what he seemed to intimate. Maybe not.'
'Where's Bloomers?'
'I don't know.'
'John Butler tells me he's been hearing strange noises at night. These noises come from the other side of Butler's wall. The other side of Butler's wall is right here. It goes on for hours, Butler says it goes
'I don't know anything about it.'
'Conway,' he said. 'I started to tell you about Conway's insects. He's got this tremendous assortment of insects in his room. A few days ago he went out In the desert and dug them out of hibernation and brought them back to his room. Everybody's been going in there to look at them. I think he wants to put them in some kind of cage or giant bowl. Arrange it like their natural surroundings. Some dirt, some small plants, some rocks. And then see what happens.'
'It sounds horrible.'
'I think it might be interesting, Gary. We'll get a chance to see what happens.'
'What could happen?'
'They could reproduce. They could fight among themselves. I don't know. But it might be interesting. Conway knows all about insects. They're his field. He was telling us all about it. It's pretty interesting from a number of viewpoints.'
'Has he built this thing he's going to build yet?'
'Work on that starts tomorrow. For the time being he's keeping them in a number of jars.'
'What kind of number? How many insects are there?'
'Maybe forty all told. All different kinds. Beetles, spiders, scorpions-mostly beetles. The spider incidentally is not an insect. The spider is an arachnid. Let's go take a look.'
'I'd just as soon stay here, I think, Jimmy.'
'A quick look,' he said.
'How quick?'
'In and out, Gary.'
'I've got things to do. We'd have to make it a very quick look.'
'We'll just stick our heads in the door. Wap. In and out.'
We went down the hall. I saw two people come out of Conway's room. Four others were there when we walked in. Conway escorted us around the room. There were ten or eleven large jars. Most of the insects seemed to be asleep.
'Tell Gary about the tiger beetle,' Fife said.
'The tiger beetle is a very interesting creature. The tiger beetle hunts by night. It moves swiftly over the ground or it climbs trees. It goes after caterpillars mostly.'
'What's so interesting about that?' I said.
'Tell him about the radioactivity.'
'Insects are highly resistant to radioactivity,' Conway said. 'In case of an allout somethingorother, they'll probably end up taking over the planet. All the birds will be killed off by the fallout. But the insect resists fallout. He won't have birds feeding off him. He'll be able to reproduce freely.'
'Most people are aware of that,' I said.
'But I'll tell you a mistake almost everybody makes. It concerns the spider. The spider is not an insect. The spider is an arachnid.'
'I know that. Almost everybody knows that.'
