Since the schools that did extensive and well-planned solicitation of athletic talent were content to fit breathers into their schedules. Carvel was matched against many of the teams that always attract national interest.
Thus the gate receipts were adequate, and Gunner Robertson, the head coach, was very adequately paid. His job was to so handle a semi-commercial squad as to provide the constant threat of an upset.
Carol Ann knew Tom was disappointed that she wasn’t able to attend the Saturday game against Blaight University, whose team maintained about the same standards as Carvel. But sitters cost money and the day threatened to be cold and she did not want to risk taking Tommy.
The small and ancient radio could pick up just one local station, but that was the station broadcasting the game.
There was always the fear of his being hurt, of course. And somehow it was worse listening to the game than actually being there.
She turned the radio on at two o’clock. She smiled when she heard the announcer say, “and in the offensive fullback slot for Carvel is Big Tom Lamar, six foot two, two hundred and fifteen pounds and one of the hardest-driving backs that these tired old eyes have ever seen. It will not surprise me, folks, if Carvel has All American material here. We’ll watch him closely during this, Carvel’s third game of the year. So far they have had one victory and one defeat. They are eager for a victory today.
“Now the Carvel team is coming out on the field. It’s a clear, cold day, perfect football weather. The Carvel squad looks like it had a lot of snap. Those red and black uniforms have a trim look. Carvel will receive and defend the south goal.”
Tommy was tottering around on uncertain legs, pulling a wooden duck that quacked and flapped its bill. He stopped by the radio with half his hand in his mouth and looked solemn as though he were following the game.
Blaight held Carvel after two first downs and ran back the kick to their own thirty. They kicked on third down, and Big Tom came back into the game.
On the second play, the announcer’s voice rose in excitement and she could hear the roar of the crowd. “Right through the middle he went in a line plunge, and got into the secondary and for once they gave him the right kind of blocking. Twenty, fifteen, ten, five and over for a touchdown! Man, that Lamar can run like a... well, he can run!”
“Daa?” Tommy asked.
“Yes, baby. That’s your pop.”
In the second quarter, a pass into the flat took Carvel to Blaight’s twelve. She held her breath while Tom took it over in three punishing smashes, once off tackle, and twice right through the middle.
After the half, with Carvel leading 13-0, Blaight took to the air in earnest. Their passes began to click and they took it in four plays down to the Carvel fifteen. Two defensive backs were injured and Tom Lamar was sent in as defensive fullback. Blaight shifted to line play and made four yards in two attempts. On the third play, they passed out to the right and deep. The receiver was waiting on the one. Tom came knifing in from the side, went high, and picked the ball out of the air. He made it back to the fifty before he was run out of bounds.
That setback seemed to take the heart out of Blaight. Carvel pushed over three more scores during the second half, and the game ended with the score 33-0.
He arrived back at the apartment a little after six. She met him at the door and after his kiss, she looked at the purple bruise under his eye, touched it with her fingertips.
“Hey!” he said, pulling away. “I got needles in there. Feels that way.”
“Darling, you were a hog all afternoon. I’ve got no sympathy for you. According to the announcer, you’re the greatest thing that has happened to football since the dropkick.”
He had his arm around her as they walked through to the kitchen.
“Oh, sure!” he said. “Me and Grange. Listen, I’m just a guy earning his fifty bucks a month.”
“Go on, you love it!”
“That’s the trouble with getting married, honey,” he said fondly. “You have to let somebody in on all your secrets.”
She became solemn. “Are you sorry?”
He rumpled her dark hair, and laughed at her. “I resent you every waking moment.”
She pivoted as he had taught her, thumped him with a short right hook in the middle. He fell back against the wall, pretending to cry.
Tommy, in his highchair, gave them one wide-eyed look and then began to bellow with all the power of his lungs.
It took them a long time to convince Tommy that they had been fooling. When at last he smiled through the tears, Carol Ann said. “See how much security means to them?”
The good humor fled from Tom’s face. “A good thing he doesn’t know how thin an edge his security is balanced on.”
“But that’s a different sort of security, darling. That’s financial. Emotional security is so much more important.”
But somehow she knew her words had made him think of how they all were hostage to fortune, and how precious they were in their well-being.
After he came back from his rounds of the campus buildings, he sat at the small desk and puzzled over the accounts. She saw the frown cm his forehead. She went over and put her hand on his broad shoulder. “It’ll come out all right, Tom,” she said softly.
He smiled up at her. “I’m glad somebody thinks so,” he said wryly.
On the last Wednesday in October, Carol Ann counted the money in the cigar box in the top drawer of the desk. Two dollars and a little change. Not nearly enough to cover the groceries they needed. It was a surprisingly warm day. The grocery store was on the comer two blocks from the foot of the hill on which they lived.
Tommy crowed with delight as she guided the stroller down the slope and she said, “On the way up, my man, you walk. Your vehicle will be laden with edibles.”
Near the foot of the hill three coeds crossed diagonally toward the campus. Carol Ann was surprised at her feeling of anger when she looked at them. Maybe it was envy. They were laughing, their voices silver-clear in the autumn air.
Carol Ann knew that the two years of cutting comers had left a mark on her. Tiny lines at the corners of her mouth, a sallowness under her eyes. She felt enormously older than the three girls. They wore casual, sloppy clothes and somehow those clothes were in painful contrast to Carol Ann’s ironed and faded neatness. For a moment she wished that she could return to those carefree days — days laden with nothing more important than a new shade of lipstick, a movie that couldn’t be missed, a wonderful new dance band...
Immediately she was ashamed of herself, knowing that in many ways she had something that possibly not one of the three would ever possess.
The grocery store had been recently converted into a self-service steup. She parked the stroller in front, took Tommy through the entrance and looked around until she located Mr. Endry, the owner. He was in a far corner taking canned goods out of a case, marking the price on them with a black crayon and stacking them on a display rack.
She was timid about what had to be done, but there was a relief in remembering the way Mr. Endry had always joked with her, and clucked at Tommy.
Holding Tommy by the hand she went up behind him, coughed and said, “Mr. Endry?”
He turned and smiled at her. He had a lean face, a half-bald head and sharp smiling blue eyes behind rimless glasses. “Well, hello there, Mrs. Lamar. Who’s that good-looking fellow?”
“Say hello to Mr. Endry, Tommy.”
Tommy put half his hand into his mouth and stared at Mr. Endry solemnly.
Mr. Endry laughed. “What can I do for you today, Mrs. Lamar.”
“Well, I hate to ask for this sort of favor, Mr. Endry, but I wonder if I could charge groceries until the end of the month. It will only be a few days—”