Chapter 6

The first sermon at Devon was to show that if you broke the rules, then they broke you. All the classrooms were crowded. I had the same dorm that Finny and I shared in over the summer session, but this time Leper Lepellier wasn't across the hall. Brinker Hadley now lived there and when I went to visit to him I stopped. I didn't want to see the tray of snails that Leper collected replaced Brinker's flies. I realized I was late for my afternoon appointment; I never used to be late. I was supposed to be at the Crew house. On my way over I stopped on the footbridge and thought of Finny. Instead of thinking of the tree or pain, I thought of his favorite tricks. When I got to the Crew House, Quackenbush, the crew manager, said, "Late, Forrester" (68). He then told me to, "Get some towels" (69). A job like this was usually for boys with physical disabilities. He had a built body, and talked in a mature voice. He was systematically disliked throughout the school, and was very ignorant to who I was. "You, Quackenbush, don't know anything about who I am. Or anything else" (71). This really sparked him, and he called me a maimed son-of-a-bitch, so I hit him hard across the face. We fell into the water, and his rage was extinguished. I then said slowly, "The next time you all anybody maimed, you better make sure they are first" (71). I fought that battle for Finny. I never pictured myself being Finny defender, and in some way I felt like I did that for myself. On my way back to the dorm, I came across Mr. Ludsbury. I told him that I had slipped into the river, and he said, "Yes I think you have slipped in any number of ways since last year" (73). If only I had. He then said I had a call in his study, and it was Finny wishing me a happy first day. All I could hear was friendliness and affection in his voice. He said I was crazy at his house, and just wanted to make sure I was okay and didn't let anyone else room with me. I told him I was going out for assistant crew manager, and he was left dumbfounded. Finny said it had nothing to do with sports, and he was right, I wanted nothing to do with sports. Then he said, "Listen, pal, if I can't play sports, you're going to play them for me." (77). And that’s when I lost part of myself to Finny.