146
PARTISAN
REVIEW
He was watching with shy and particular interest the hump
between Willard's heavy shoulders, which he had often wondered
about but never yet had the chance to examine so privately. It
was almost as if Willard were slightly hunchbacked, the low way
he always carried his head and sloped his shoulders and the way this
hump bulged out just below the base of his neck; yet if he were de–
form~d,
he CO\lld not have such ability and strength.
It
must be a very
greatly developed muscle, Richard realized, yet it was a funny place
to have a muscle; he feIt there now on
his
own body and there wasn't
even the beginning of a muscle there; just bone. Could it be bone?
But that would be a deformity; and on Willard, more than any other
thing, it was what made him unique among /others, and marked his
all but superhuman powers. Whenever he had done anything physical–
ly creditable Richard carried
his
head low, let his mouth hang
open, and tried to hump
his
back, scarcely knowing of it any more;
and so, though it was not generally realized, did many other boys in
this school.
"Hey you," Lee said, and startled, they looked: one minute past
four. Richard felt a spasm of shame: could ye not watch with me
one hour? Besides, they were keeping somebody over his time.
«Jesus!"
Hobe Gillum said, and they stood up quickly. Both of the boys in
cassocks ducked in shocked acknowledgement of the Name and
Willard's dark face brightened with his satanic parody of falsetto
laughter. Lee Allen said with unusually kind gravity: "I sure would
hate to have to report anyone for cussin right in Chapel, and on Good
Friday too." Hobe's eyes turned Indian, with pride toward Willard,
in defiance toward Lee. "Aw forget about it Lee," George Fitzgerald
said, "he just wasn't thinking." "I don't want to report you or
nobody else," Lee said. "You just watch your mouth, Hobie." "He
didn't mean anything," Richard said; and even before everyone
looked at him and said nothing, he was miserable. "Better put your
shoes on you kids," George said, and with relief Richard sank his
hot face over' his shoelaces. They felt contempt for him, he was sure,
and he felt contempt for
himself.
Willard thought better of Hobe for
cussing than of him for standing up for him, and so did he.
Lee
jumped on Hobie because Willard's cackling about it bothered him
and he couldn't jump on Willard.
If
it hadn't been Good Friday
and Richard had spoken up like that, he knew that somebody would
