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Back The Fall of Valor
Chapters (51)
  1. Introduction by Michael Bronski
  2. BEGINNING
  3. II
  4. III
  5. IV
  6. V
  7. VI
  8. VII
  9. VIII
  10. IX
  11. X
  12. XI
  13. XII
  14. XIII
  15. MIDDLE
  16. II
  17. III
  18. IV
  19. V
  20. VI
  21. VII
  22. VIII
  23. IX
  24. X
  25. XI
  26. XII
  27. XIII
  28. XIV
  29. XV
  30. XVI
  31. XVII
  32. XVIII
  33. XIX
  34. XX
  35. END
  36. II
  37. III
  38. IV
  39. V
  40. VI
  41. VII
  42. VIII
  43. IX
  44. X
  45. XI
  46. XII
  47. XIII
  48. XIV
  49. XV
  50. XVI
  51. About the Author

“I’m sure nobody expects you to interrupt your honeymoon to write thank-­you notes for a dozen pairs of salt-­and-­pepper shakers and a couple of totally useless Lazy Susans.”

“Oh, but brides always do!”

“Forget it, beautiful. Come on, how about a quick dip first, just to get it over with.”

“I’d love it, Mr. Howard.”

“You too, Cliff? I won’t trouble the learned doctor.”

“Guess I’ll get some sun first,” Cliff said absently. “Maybe later.”

Bill Howard and Billie ran hollering down to the surf, and Cliff sat in the sand. Grandin lay down on his back.

“How do you feel, Johnnie?”

“All right.”

“I suppose you miss Eth.”

“Very much.”

Surprisingly Cliff asked, then: “Rather not talk?”

“No, not especially.”

“I’ve been thinking of you, Johnnie,” he said. “I’m sure going to miss you, gosh, when we go away from here.”

“I shall miss you too, Cliff.”

“You know who you remind me of, Johnnie, kind of? Not really, but in a way. Just happened to think of it last night. One of the swellest men I ever met, the nicest kind of guy you could ever want to meet.”

“Who is that?”

“When I was in college my best buddy and I had a heck of a time trying to pass English. He played football too, and of course we couldn’t play in the big games unless we passed—you know how they are about those things. Well, there was this English prof Joe and I had, by the name of Scott,” Cliff went on; “Scotty, I called him—and he gave us an awful lot of his time trying to help us out. Gee, he was a great guy, Johnnie, when you come to think of it. Wonder whatever became of Scotty. . . . Why, there wasn’t anything he didn’t know about. He knew everything in the world there was to know about books and things like that. He read more books! It was a real education just to be around him, honest it was. You and he would have gotten along great.—And listen to this, Johnnie, do you know what he used to do for Joe and I? Why, nights before exams he used to sit up with us almost all night long helping us cram so we’d be able to pass—going over the whole course with us, over all those little things Joe and I had been too dumb to get in class,” he added, with a laugh. “You wouldn’t believe how much he used to do for us, you wouldn’t believe it! Why, we owed everything to him, Joe and I did. I know darn well that neither one of us would have graduated even, if it hadn’t been for Scotty. I can’t begin to make you understand the time he gave us—the time alone!”