Blog Post #4

“Isn’t that something? He said, shaking his head.

“Weird like everything else around here. I don’t think I get it.”

“I didn’t either, for a while. I’ve seen the hurdlers, the shot, and disc guys doing stuff like that. Never made sense. Then I figured it out. What they’re doing is they’re playing track.”

“Playing?”

“Right. See, when you’re doing the actual thing itself, it’s so competitive and serious, I don’t think anybody really has much fun at it. Rarely in practice and never in meets. Oh, they like the idea of it all right, they like going to competitions, and they like being on a team and the general hullabaloo of being a jock. But when you get right down to it, while you’re doing the thing itself, it’s not a lot of grins. I can’t remember a mile race in my life that was even mildly amusing.”

“So what was all that back there about?”

“Well, sometimes Spider or one of the others will be sitting around here and suddenly realize that he likes doing what does. He may have turned it into a compulsion or a job, but it was once something he did as a kid just for the neat sensation it gave him. So Spider will have a few tokes and suddenly realize he loves sailing through the air without having to hand someone a boarding pass. I’ve seen Mobley drink three pitchers and go out and heave his goddamn shot around a playground by moonlight all night. Weird stuff like that . . .”

“But they do this every afternoon. I don’t see why he would want to go out in some garage . . .”

“It’s very simple. Though it looked amazing to us, for him jumping six-five is like strolling around the block. He could do it in his sleep. So, for him to make it into a play, all he had to do is drop back several notches off his true capabilities; he puts on a pair of cutoffs, rigs up a stupid cane pole for a bar, and he does . . . what he does. It would be like me going out and running a 4:20 mile. I don’t know how else to explain it. They do it all the time. Everybody likes to watch, particularly when the high jumpers do it. They make up these fantastic situations, give themselves glamorous foreign names, pretend it’s some great vendetta in the Olympics or something . . .”

This section of dialogue takes place right after Quenton brings Andrea to the garage of Doobey Hall to show her how the track athletes of Southeastern University wind down. They come across a high jumper showing off his stuff to pass the time. I chose this section because of the way Quenton explains why the track athletes are the way that they are. Quenton is speaking as though he has figured out the majority of what is happening but still hasn’t fully grasped the answers he seeks. Andrea is completely confused but is fully committed to hearing out Quenton and learn more about what makes him, him.