End Zone

Twin deck left, ride series, white divide. Gapangle down, 17, dummy stitch. Bone country special, doubleD to right.

Papers blew across the field. I put a gentle block on their left end, helping out Kimbrough. Madden threw to nobody in particular. The stands were almost empty now. I ran a desultory curl pattern over the middle, putting moves on everybody I passed, including teammates. Madden threw behind me. I reached back with my left hand and pulled it in, a fairly miraculous catch. There was open field for a second. Then I was hit from the side and went down. One of their cornerbacks helped me up. I returned to the huddle. We went to the line and set. The left side of our line was offside. We went back again. Taft ran a near offbike delay that picked up four. The gun sounded. I walked off the field with newspapers whipping across my legs. We went quietly through the tu

Hauptfuhrer was standing over us. "Shut up and pray," he said.

Part Three

20

Lle

"They broke it," he said. "It's a clean fracture. Right below the elbow. I saw the x ray. It's broke clean. They broke it all right. No question about it."

"I hate to tell you how many yards they gained rushing," Billy said. "A lot of them right over my frail body."

"I didn't even see the last three quarters," Le

"Where's Creed?" I said. "I haven't seen Creed all morning."

The driver closed the door and eased onto the highway. This time there was no separation of offense and defense; the two buses were mixed. Le

"How's Conway?" I said.

"Collarbone," Billy Mast said. "I don't know how bad. He must be in the other bus. I haven't seen him. But I know it's the collarbone. Kimbrough told me at breakfast. They got the collarbone."

"How's Lee Roy Tyler?"

"Knee. They got the knee. Wrenched knee. Not too bad. He'll be ready."

"What about Randy King?"

"Knee. Knee. They bundsided him. They got him good. Last play of the game. The blind side. They got the knee. They caved it in on him."

"What about Yellin? How's Yellin? He was really hopping around."

"They got the ankle. They kicked it and then stepped on it. I saw it this morning. The right ankle. It's badly swollen. It's purplish in color. He'll be limping for a few days."

"Dickie Kidd," I said.

"Shoulder separation. Deep bruise on left calf. Latter injury reported to be of particular interest. Starshaped. Multicolored."

"How'd he get it?"

"Shrapnel," Billy said.

"What about Jessup? Jessup was ru

"He bit his tongue. Fat lip too. Swelling under both eyes. No further comment at this time."

"Who else got what?"

"Bobby Iselin, pulled hamstring. Terry Madden, broken nose. Ron Steeples, mild concussion. Len Skink, worms. Everybody else, assorted contusions and lacerations."

"What about Fallon? I saw them working on Fallen in the training room."

"Fallon. An oversight on my part. Fallon. They got his middle finger."

"What did they do with it?"

"They broke it."

We rode in silence for a while. Jerry Fallon came back and showed us his finger. One of his teeth had been knocked out and he showed us the blank space. I had slept ten hours the night before but I was getting sleepy. Fallon went away and I settled down in the seat. Up front Andy Chudko started strumming his silver guitar. De

"Uh, this is maxcom, robomat."

Billy Mast looked at me.

"Robomat, this is maxcom. Do you read?"

"Uh, roger, maxcom," he said.

"You're looking real good, robomat. Is that affirm?"

"Uh, roger. We're looking real good."

"What is your thermal passive mode control?"

"Vector five and locking."

"Uh, what is your inertial thrust correction on fourth and long?"

"We read circularize and nonadjust."

"That is affirm, robomat. You are looking real super on the inset retro deployment thing. We read three one niner five niner. Twelve seconds to adapter vent circuit cutoff."

"Affirmative, maxcom. Three one niner five niner.

Twelve seconds to vent cut. There is God. We have just seen God. He is all around us."

"Uh, roger, robomat. Suggest braking burn and midcourse tracking profile. Autopath is transtandem. Blue and holding."

De

"We didn't give it enough. We didn't let it all hang out. But it's over now and we still have two games to play. Next week we find out what we're made of. We have to be big out there. A lot of the guys are hurting. Practically everybody's hurting. But we have to shake it off and come back. We have to guard against a letdown. You can suffer a letdown by wi

"Function," Billy said. "A rule of correspondence between two sets related in value and nature to the extent that there is a unique element in one set assigned to each element in the corresponding set, given the respective value differences."