Part 4
Chapter 69
Sitting in Quimpy’s living room where there was little heat, Ron watched the NCAA Basketball Championship game with Quimpy and two of his friends, Roger and Eli. He had hung out with Roger before. They were both English teachers, but Roger had grown so depressed at the idea of grading papers that he was developing a nervous condition that caused him to break out into hives whenever he gave his class an assignment. As their football Sundays went on, Ron would see the red splotches begin to gather on Roger’s neck and he would dig at them with his fingernails and grow more sullen. Silently, Ron had hoped that he would never become like this and wondered how Roger could possibly be doing his best for his students when they very thought of reading their words made him sick. Once he had brought a stack of papers with him to read as they watched and Roger had lost the color in his face as he saw Ron begin to shuffle through the pages and read and smile and share a comment that one of his students had written. When he could not take it anymore, Roger said to Quimpy, “If he’s gonna keep doing that, I’m going to go home.”
Quimpy had responded by breaking out one of his special, saved jar of Thai sticks and after a few puffs Ron was too stoned to read anymore and had put the papers away. After that, Ron had little respect for Roger and never mentioned his teaching or his students again. Secretly, he told himself that Roger was just one of those public school teachers who was in for the money and should have been doing something else.
Quimpy had tried to soothe Roger’s disturbed equilibrium. “You know Ron, he’s still just an idealistic fuck up who thinks that someday we are going to have a cultural revolution.” They had both laughed at Ron’s naiveté, and Ron had responded by smoking more of the Thai stick that Quimpy would have thought imaginable.
However, this was the first time that he had met Eli, who was Quimpy’s mentor and hero. Like Warren, Eli was from North Carolina, but unlike Warren, he spoke very slowly and utilized long pauses in his patterns of speech that caused most people to want to interrupt and finish sentences for him. Eli had retired from teaching and had a house on top of a mountain. He was married to one of his former students, who was thirty-five years his junior. He had been a legendary tennis coach. Quimpy had explained to Ron that Eli was a true genius and that it was impossible to understand the way that he truly looked at the world. Ron felt that he had seen this act before.
The game pitted two legendary coaches against each other, Dean Smith from North Carolina and Bobby Knight from Indiana. Smith was a gentleman and Knight was a raving lunatic. Ron was the only one in the room who thought that Indiana was going to win. Eli had been shocked by Ron’s opinion and asked him to explain.
“Smith is a pussy,” said Ron in way that was sure not to endear him to Eli. “He has no killer instinct. Knight will just put his foot on your throat and stomp the life out of you without thinking that it should be any other way. Smith wants to be elegant. He wants to be well thought of. Knight just wants to beat the shit out of his opponents.”
Eli sat back. “That is a rather vivid,” he paused, “interpretation, another pause, “of how to…” he changed his position on the chair “…play a game.”
Ron smiled. Quimpy shook his head with silent grinning laughter.
Roger said, “Dean Smith is a brilliant tactician.”
“For a pussy,” said Ron.
“Quimpy tells me… that you… are a teacher, Ron?”
Roger stiffened. Quimpy said, “Ron teaches in a Catholic School.”
Eli smiled. “Well, that explains a lot, doesn’t it?”
Quimpy and Roger laughed. Eli puffed on his pipe. Ron lit a joint.
It was a Monday night and he was making an exception. He never went out during the week, but since this was pretty much the extent of his social life and the championship game was a big deal, he had decided to come. He was already regretting it. It was late and he wanted to be home and settling in with his papers and thoughts of his next day. But he knew that he had to start going out some of the time.
At the half, Indiana scored on a long shot that put them up 27-26 for their first lead of the game. The halftime show was dedicated to an update on the condition of Ronald Reagan who had been shot the day before. Surgeons had successfully removed a bullet and the President was said to be doing very well.
Quimpy, who actually was an acknowledged intellect on JFK in Dallas, was explaining that he thought that Reagan had been set up by the secret service to teach him a lesson. Quimpy believed that Reagan had somehow pissed the wrong people off and that a bullet in him was scheduled to get his attention and to put him back on track. Eli contended that it was in this case just an ill-mannered lunatic who thought that he knew what was best for the country. Looking over at Ron, he added, “Not unlike…in spirit… the essence of the way that you describe …Bob Knight.”
Ron just said that he didn’t like Reagan but hoped that he would live. “I just don’t want to ever see another American President killed.”
Roger said, “They’re all no good fucks anyway.”
In the second half, Indiana got off to a slow start but then routed North Carolina. Ron felt vindicated. As soon as the game ended, he slipped out and drove home and went to bed as quickly as he could so that he would be ready for his real life in the morning.
Before he left, Eli congratulated him on his analysis and said that it had been a pleasure to meet him. Ron was a little taken aback. He knew that perhaps he hadn’t been fair to Eli. He had been too guarded to take anything that the guy said at face value. He had shaken his hand and said that he had enjoyed meeting him very much. As he lay in bed, trying to go to sleep, he wondered if Rahway had damaged him with respect to meeting new people. They had been so sure that what they were doing was new and exploratory, but now it seemed that they made each other unhappy more than they did anything positive for each other.