the chin strap had slipped to his mouth, where it tugged his upper lip into a fishlike sneer. The little bowl of the strap, which had once cupped his chin, now brimmed with blood from his streaming nose.
As a nurse, Jenny was not over impressed with blood, but she cringed at her anticipated collision with the thick, wet, hard-looking boy, who somehow dodged her, lunging sideways. With admirable trajectory and volume, he vomited on his fellow wrestler who was struggling to support him. “Excuse me,” he burbled, for most of the boys at Steering were well brought up.
His fellow wrestler did him the favor of pulling his head gear off, so that the hapless puker would not choke or strangle; quite unmindful of his own bespattering, he called loudly back into the open door of the wrestling room, “Carlisle didn’t make it!”
From the door of that room, whose heat beckoned Jenny in the way a tropical greenhouse might be alluring in midwinter, a man’s clear tenor voice responded. “Carlisle! You had
two
helpings of that dining-hall slop for lunch, Carlisle!
One
helping and you deserve to lose it! No
sympathy
, Carlisle!”
Carlisle, for whom there was no sympathy, continued his lurching progress down the corridor; he bled and barfed his way to a door, through which he made his smeared escape. His fellow wrestler, who in Jenny’s opinion had also withheld his sympathy, dropped Carlisle’s headgear in the corridor with the rest of Carlisle’s muck; then he followed Carlisle to the lockers. Jenny hoped that he was going somewhere to change his clothes.
She looked at the wrestling room’s open door; she breathed deeply and stepped inside. Immediately, she felt off-balance. Underfoot was a soft fleshy feel, and the wall sank under her touch when she leaned against it; she was inside a padded cell, the floor and the wall mats warm and yielding, the air so stifling hot and stench-full of sweat that she hardly dared to breathe.
“Shut the door!” said the man’s tenor voice—because wrestlers, Jenny would later know,
love
the heat and their own sweat, especially when they’re cutting weight, and they
thrive
when the walls and floors are as hot and giving as the buttocks of sleeping girls.
Jenny shut the door. Even the door had a mat on it, and she slumped against it, imagining someone might open the door from the outside and mercifully release her. The man with the tenor voice was the coach and Jenny, through the shimmering heat, watched him pace against the long room’s wall, unable to stand still while he squinted at his struggling wrestlers. “Thirty seconds!” he screamed to them. The couples on the mat bucked as if they were electrically stimulated. The batches of twosomes around the wrestling room were each locked in some violent tangle, the intent of each wrestler, in Jenny’s eye, as deliberate and as desperate as rape.
“Fifteen seconds!” the coach screamed. “
Push
it!”
The twisted pair nearest Jenny suddenly came apart, their limbs unknotting, the veins on their arms and necks popping. A breathless cry and a string of saliva broke from one boy’s mouth as his opponent broke free of him and they uncoupled, bashing into the padded wall.
“Time’s up!” the coach screamed. He did not use a whistle. The wrestlers went suddenly limp, untying each other from each other with great slowness. A half dozen of them now lumbered toward Jenny at the door; they had the water fountain and fresh air on their minds, though Jenny assumed they were all heading for the hall in order to throw up, or bleed in peace—or both.
Jenny and the coach were the only standing bodies left in the wrestling room. Jenny observed that the coach was a neat, small man, as compact as a spring; she also observed he was nearly blind, because the coach now squinted in her direction, recognizing that her whiteness and her shape were foreign to the wrestling room. He began to grope for his glasses, which he usually stashed above the
As a nurse, Jenny was not over impressed with blood, but she cringed at her anticipated collision with the thick, wet, hard-looking boy, who somehow dodged her, lunging sideways. With admirable trajectory and volume, he vomited on his fellow wrestler who was struggling to support him. “Excuse me,” he burbled, for most of the boys at Steering were well brought up.
His fellow wrestler did him the favor of pulling his head gear off, so that the hapless puker would not choke or strangle; quite unmindful of his own bespattering, he called loudly back into the open door of the wrestling room, “Carlisle didn’t make it!”
From the door of that room, whose heat beckoned Jenny in the way a tropical greenhouse might be alluring in midwinter, a man’s clear tenor voice responded. “Carlisle! You had
two
helpings of that dining-hall slop for lunch, Carlisle!
One
helping and you deserve to lose it! No
sympathy
, Carlisle!”
Carlisle, for whom there was no sympathy, continued his lurching progress down the corridor; he bled and barfed his way to a door, through which he made his smeared escape. His fellow wrestler, who in Jenny’s opinion had also withheld his sympathy, dropped Carlisle’s headgear in the corridor with the rest of Carlisle’s muck; then he followed Carlisle to the lockers. Jenny hoped that he was going somewhere to change his clothes.
She looked at the wrestling room’s open door; she breathed deeply and stepped inside. Immediately, she felt off-balance. Underfoot was a soft fleshy feel, and the wall sank under her touch when she leaned against it; she was inside a padded cell, the floor and the wall mats warm and yielding, the air so stifling hot and stench-full of sweat that she hardly dared to breathe.
“Shut the door!” said the man’s tenor voice—because wrestlers, Jenny would later know,
love
the heat and their own sweat, especially when they’re cutting weight, and they
thrive
when the walls and floors are as hot and giving as the buttocks of sleeping girls.
Jenny shut the door. Even the door had a mat on it, and she slumped against it, imagining someone might open the door from the outside and mercifully release her. The man with the tenor voice was the coach and Jenny, through the shimmering heat, watched him pace against the long room’s wall, unable to stand still while he squinted at his struggling wrestlers. “Thirty seconds!” he screamed to them. The couples on the mat bucked as if they were electrically stimulated. The batches of twosomes around the wrestling room were each locked in some violent tangle, the intent of each wrestler, in Jenny’s eye, as deliberate and as desperate as rape.
“Fifteen seconds!” the coach screamed. “
Push
it!”
The twisted pair nearest Jenny suddenly came apart, their limbs unknotting, the veins on their arms and necks popping. A breathless cry and a string of saliva broke from one boy’s mouth as his opponent broke free of him and they uncoupled, bashing into the padded wall.
“Time’s up!” the coach screamed. He did not use a whistle. The wrestlers went suddenly limp, untying each other from each other with great slowness. A half dozen of them now lumbered toward Jenny at the door; they had the water fountain and fresh air on their minds, though Jenny assumed they were all heading for the hall in order to throw up, or bleed in peace—or both.
Jenny and the coach were the only standing bodies left in the wrestling room. Jenny observed that the coach was a neat, small man, as compact as a spring; she also observed he was nearly blind, because the coach now squinted in her direction, recognizing that her whiteness and her shape were foreign to the wrestling room. He began to grope for his glasses, which he usually stashed above the
Similar Books
