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The plate with the grilled cheese sandas on the table It was cold and the bread had dried out, but he sat on the edge of the bed and ate it anyhile his body warht up his mother’s scent from the sheets Because of his braces, he couldn’t bite down on a sandithout getting bread sludge stuck in the wires, so he broke off bites one at a tiht, his father found hiht on and sat down beside hi an arm around Jon’s shoulder
"You weren’t at fault, Jon I don’t want you to think anyone blah"
Jonfrom his chest to the soles of his feet His cheeks flamed and he looked up at his father blankly Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to hiht have saved her life He was only thirteen Hisshe was fine, and he’d taken her at her word In the absence of adult counsel, he’d waited for a cue In a flash, he sa pathetic his ministrations had been, how irilled cheese sandwich, as though thather life
It wasn’t until years later that it dawned on Jon his father had uilt about his failure to leave a contact number In truth--and Jon wouldn’t learn this until later still--Lionel had been in a hotel roo a talk at Boston College
His brother caain The ree Jon and his dad fashioned a life for themselves, like two old bachelors His dad paid the bills and kept their world, more or less, on track The house was a ht home fast food, or ordered in from any restaurant that would deliver Lionel went back to teaching fresh long hours at UCST Jon pretty nize that he was grieving He knew so black had settled over him like a veil He spent a lot of his free time in his room As a fat boy, he had no friends to speak of, so he was colish and art, bad in everything else A cleaning lady came in twice a week, but that was about as ave him sympathetic looks, but his demeanor was so dark they didn’t have the nerve to console hi, without any discussion at all, Jon found out his father had signed hi sessions of summer ca engage across the country nonstop during June and July The day after school was out, Jon was shipped off to Michigan This was a so-called sports progra which they eighed daily, lectured about nutrition, berated for their eating habits, and forced into long sessions of exercise, during which the occasional boy collapsed Oddly enough, Jon enjoyed hiuilt, the silence of the house, even the yawning loss of his mother, all of that was set aside for two ed to choose a sport--basketball, football, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, or track
Jon took up long-distance running He liked sports where individual achieve with hi in his nature that lent itself to team spirit He wasn’t cooperative by nature, not a rah-rah kind of guy He didn’t want to wear a uniforuishable fro on his own He liked pushing his, the pain in his legs as he covered ground
By the tirowth spurt had ht had dropped by twenty-two pounds and he’d added three inches to his five-foot-six-inch height During ninth and tenth grades his braces came off and he shot up another four inches He also dropped an additional ten pounds Running kept hiolf and in his spare time caddied at the club He and his father operated on separate but parallel tracks, and Jon was fine with that
In August of 1964, prior to Jon’s freshman year at Climp, Lionel appeared at the door to the den where Jon was slouched on the sofa watching television He had his feet propped on the ottolass of Diet Pepsi balanced on his chest His father had been going out a lot, but Jon hadn’t thought much about it