"Players.I was up there last night and the night before, waiting for Rake to die."
"So they're allcoming home?"
"Most of us.You came home."
"Of course.We're burying our most famous citizen."
"You didn't like Rake, did you?"
"I was not a fan. Miss Lila is a strong woman, but she was no match for him. He was a dictator on the field, and he had trouble turning it off when he got home. No, I didn't care for Eddie Rake."
"You hated football."
"I hated you, and that made me hate football."
"Atta girl."
"It was silly.Grown men crying after a loss.The entire town living and dying with each game. Prayer breakfasts every Friday morning, as if God cares who wins a high school football game. More money spent on the football team than on all other student groups combined. Worshiping seventeen-year-old boys who quickly become convinced they are truly worthy of being worshiped. The double standard—a football player cheats on a test, everybody scrambles to cover it up. A nonathlete cheats, and he gets suspended.The stupid little girls who can't wait to give it up to a Spartan.All for the good of the team. Messina needs its young virgins to sacrifice everything. Oh, and I almost forgot. The Pep Girls! Each player gets his own little slave who bakes him cookies on Wednesday and puts a spirit sign in his front yard on Thursday and polishes his helmet on Friday and what do you get on Saturday, Neely, a quickie?"
"Only if you want it."
"It's a sad scene. Thank you for shoving me out of it."
Looking back with the clear hindsight of fifteen years, it did indeed seem silly.
"But you came to the games," Neely said.
"A few of them. You have any idea what this town is like on Friday night away from the field? There's not a soul anywhere. Phoebe Cox and I would sneak over here, on the visitors' side and watch the games. We always wanted Messina to lose, but it never happened, not here. We ridiculed the band and the cheerleaders and the Pep Squad and everything else, and we did so because we were not a part of it. I couldn't wait to get to college."
"I knew you were up here."