JOYCE CAROL OATES
377
floated clear, floated and floated , clear, a thousand no a million
miles away.
•
•
•
The last time Harvey had won anything it was $40 on the Sugar
Ray Leonard - Tom Hearns welterweight match, three, four years
ago , just a bet with an older guy at work and nothing to brag about
but he'd felt good for weeks; it was something to focus his thoughts
on when he was low . Then the memory faded and he had to make an
effort to remember what it was that had felt so good .
The $40 had disappeared right away. He spent it all before he
got home that night.
(A long time ago when he was sixteen or seventeen he'd thought
maybe he might become a professional boxer: fooled around at the Y
one winter, planned on trying out for the Golden Gloves lightweight
division, but nothing came of it in the end. His mind was quick but
for some reason his fists were slow. He never really learned footwork .
He fought a defensive fight , hadn't much instinct for going out after
his opponent . The coach liked him and said he'd be known as "Iron
Man" Kubeck if he ever got the knack , he could absorb as much pun–
ishment as any of the guys his age and size in the gym, but no one
made much effort to encourage him and eventually he lost interest.
So he admired great boxers like Sugar Ray but he always felt a secret
thrill, almost a taste of satisfaction, when they got knocked down and
hurt bad and the camera showed how stunned they were, how for a
split second or maybe longer they didn't know where the fuck they
were or what had happened to them. Now you know what it's like,
Harvey would think. Though in his half-dozen serious matches at
the Y he'd never been knocked down so hard he couldn't get back up
on his feet again.)
This time, with the money he won, he wanted to concentrate
more . He thought maybe he'd divide it up .. . some for Marian, some
for his parents, some for the loan company (he still owed about half
the list price on the Impala he'd bought two years back), some for
himself, and some for a night on the town with his buddies . They'd
drive up to Shore Acres Beach and work their way down, back to
Surf City, he'd treat them all to oysters, pizza, corn on the cob , all
the beer and drinks they wanted, what the hell . But also he wanted
to surprise Marian and Paulie with a new color t.v., nineteen inches,
