Chapter 3

The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session was a success. Eight of us were in our room and everyone was asking questions, but no one asked about such a club. We met every night, and opened the meeting by jumping off the tree ourselves. Finny created many rules without even noticing it, and I hated it. Every time the limb seemed higher and every thing scarier. I went to the meetings every night, even though I never felt like going, but never protested against it. In the afternoon we went outside and headed far down the fields toward a wooden tower that was about ten feet tall. We walked over and Finny noticed a large, heavy, leather-covered medicine ball. "Now this, you see, is everything in the world you need for sports. When they discovered the circle they discovered sports" (28). Finny hated the sport of badminton. As others came, he started to think of a way everyone could get some exercise. Bobby Zane suggested we call it Blitzkrieg, but in conclusion it was called Blitzball. Finny threw the ball at me, and yelled at me to run, and I ran toward the river. The object of the game was to knock the person down who had the ball. You couldn't use your arms and when you did knock them down, it was your turn for possession. Everyone played it, and Phineas had unconsciously made it to favor his athletic gifts. One day, Finny saw that A. Hopkins Parker held the school swimming record at 100 yards free style in 53.0 seconds. I told him, "He graduated before we got here" (34). Finny was insulted, and decided to try and break it himself. I found a stopwatch in the office and said, "On your mark-Go"(35)! We swam without losing his pace and came up with an interested expression. He had beaten the record by .7 second. When I was talking of ways to show everyone, Finny told me he was going to do it again, and not to tell anybody. I wasn't sure why he didn't want anyone to know, but I kept it a secret anyway. Then he said, "Let's go to the beach" (37). Going there was forbidden, and it also threw away any time I had for studying. We biked there and Finny felt that he had to entertain me the whole ride. When we reached the beach in the afternoon, the tide was high and the surf was heavy. The waves were very strong and ground me onto the shore. We had dinner at a hot dog stand, one glass of beer, and then slept on the beach. Finny then told me how I was his best pal, and I started to say it back, but then something held me back.