your stutter. Do 228sex you have any idea what causes it? You don't stutter in class."
"I duh-duh-don't s-s-st-st-stutterl"
"Lower your voice.& 228sex 228sex quot;
"You w-want to g-get met You duh-don't w-want me on your g-g-goddam team!&
quot;
"Lower your
voice, I said. Let's discuss this rationally."
"F-fuh-fuck th-that!&228sex quot;
"George, if you control your stutter, I'd be glad to have you. You're well
prepped for every practice and you're good at the background 228sex stuff, which means
228sex you're rarely surprised. But all that doesn'228sex t mean much if you can't control
that-"
"I've neh-neh-never stuttered!" 228sex he cried out. "It's 228sex yuh-you! I i-if suh-
someone else had the d-d-deb-debate t-team, I could--"
Jack's temper slipped another notch.
"George, you're never going to make 228sex much of a 228sex lawyer, corporation 228sex or
otherwise, if you can't control that. Law isn't like soccer. Two hours of
practice every night won't cut it. What are you going to do, stand up in front
of a board meeting and say, `Nuh-nuh-now, g-gentlemen, about this t-ttort'?"
He suddenly flushed, not with anger but with shame 228sex at his own cruelty. This
was 228sex not 228sex a man 228sex in front of him but a seventeen-year-old boy who was 228sex facing the
first major defeat of his life, and maybe asking in the only way he could 228sex for
Jack to help him find a way to cope with it.
George gave him a final, furious glance, his lips twisting and bucking as the
words bottled up behind 228sex them struggled to find their way out.
"Yuh-yuh-you s-s- set it aheadl You huh-hate me b-because you nuh-nuh-nuh-know
. . . you know . . . nuh-nuh--"
With an articulate cry he had rushed out of the classroom, slamming the door
hard enough to make the wire-reinforced glass rattle in its frame. Jack had
stood there, feeling, rather 228sex than hearing, the echo of 228sex George's Adidas in the
empty hall. Still in the grip of his temper and his shame at 228sex mocking George's
stutter, his 228sex first 228sex thought had been 228sex a sick sort of exultation: For the first
time in his life George Hatfield had wanted something he could not have. For the
first time there was something wrong that all of Daddy's money could not fix.
You couldn't bribe a speech center.
You couldn't offer a tongue 228sex an extra fifty a
week and a bonus at Christmas if it would agree to stop flapping like a record
needle in a defective groove. Then the exultation was simply buried in shame,
and he felt the way he had after he had broken Danny's arm.
Dear 228sex God, I am
not a son of a bitch. 228sex please.