Chapter 4 Chapter Four

Coach Bryan and the rest of them came up with a secret trick that no one should reveal, not even our own people.They've been teaching me to catch the ball.After practice every day, there were always two hitters and a quarterback going on to drill me in, and I ran out and caught the ball, and ran out and caught the ball, until I was exhausted and my tongue was down to my belly button.But I've gotten to the point where I can catch the ball, which Coach Brian says will be our "secret sauce." ——It's like the "atom bomb" or something, because other teams will find out after a while that the teammates don't pass the ball to me, and they won't be on guard.

"And then," Coach Brian said, "we'll let you run as much shit as you want--a six-foot-two, two-hundred-and-forty-pound guy—hundred yards in nine-and-a-half seconds. They were amazing!" By this time Bob and I had become good friends, and he helped me learn some new tunes on the harmonica.Sometimes he comes down in the basement and we sit there blowing together, but Bob says he'll never play better than me in his life.I'm telling you, friend, if it wasn't for this harmonica, I'd probably be packing up and going home, but playing the harmonica makes me feel so good, I can't describe the feeling.It's like my whole body is the harmonica and the music gives me goosebumps when I play it.The knack of playing the harp lies in the movements of the tongue, lips and fingers, and the movement of the neck.I guess chasing those passes made my tongue stick out a bit longer, and that's definitely a trait, so to speak.

The following Friday I got dressed up and Bob lent me pomade and shaving lotion.Then, I went to the "Student Union" building, and there was a huge crowd of people at the concert venue. Sure enough, Jenny stood on the stage with three or four people.Jenny was in a long gown and she was playing guitar, and another one had a banjo, and there was a guy fingering a double bass. They played very well, and Jenny saw me standing at the back of the crowd, so she smiled and motioned for me to sit in the front with her eyes.It felt so good to sit on the floor and look at Jenny.I kind of want to buy some fudge later.See if she wants to eat a little too.

They performed for an hour or so.The audience seemed to be happy and comfortable listening.They sang pieces by Joan Baez, as well as Bob Dylan and the "Peter, Paul, Mary" chorus.I leaned back, closed my eyes and listened, and suddenly asked.I couldn't figure out what was going on, anyway, I got out my harmonica and played along with them. That thing was really weird.Jenny was singing "Gone with the Wind," and as soon as I started playing, she stopped for half a second, and the banjo player stopped, and they all looked very surprised, and then Jenny grinned.She went on singing, and the banjo player stopped to let me play solo for a while, and when I was done, the whole audience applauded.

At the end of the show, the band was taking a break, and Jenny came off the stage and said, "Forrest Gump. What's going on? Where did you learn to play that stuff?" Anyway, after that, Jenny pushed me to join their band.The orchestra plays every Friday, and if I don't go out to perform, I can earn twenty-five dollars a night.I was in heaven until I found out that Jenny was sleeping with the banjo player. Unfortunately, the situation in the English class was not so smooth.A week after Mr. Ben read my autobiography to everyone, he called me into his office.He said, "Mr. Kimball, I think you should stop playing tricks and start getting serious." He handed me back my homework, which was a report on the British poet Walworth.

"The Romantic period," he said, "wasn't about writing a whole lot of 'classical bullshit.' Poppers and Dryden weren't two 'ruffians.'" He told me to rewrite it, and I realized that Mr. Ben didn't realize I was an idiot, but he would. In the meantime, someone must have said something to someone, because one day my guidance counselor in the athletic department called me into his office and told me I could skip class and go to the University Medical Center the next morning to talk to a Mills The doctor reports.I went early in the morning, and Dr. Mills had a large stack of papers in front of him, and he was going through them.He sat me down and started asking me a bunch of questions.When the questioning was over, he told me to take off my clothes—only my underpants, which was a relief, because of the unfortunate incident that had happened to me the last time an army medical officer told me to—and he went on to study Me, staring into my eyes and all, and hitting my kneecap with a little rubber mallet.

After that, Dr. Mills asked me to come back in the afternoon and asked me if I would like to bring my harmonica, because he had already heard about my piano skills, so I wonder if I would like to play a piece in his medical class?I said yes--even though it seemed odd to a fool like me. There are about a hundred students in the medical class, all wearing green aprons, writing notes.Dr. Mills seated me in a chair on the podium with a pitcher and a glass of water in front of me. He talked a lot of nonsense that I couldn't understand, but after listening to it for a long time I thought he was talking about me.

"Genius idiot," he said aloud, and everyone stared at me. "This man, who can't tie a tie and can barely tie his shoes, is only about six to ten years old intelligently, and physically—in this case—has the body of an Adonis." Mills The doctor gave me a smile I didn't like, but I was stuck, so to speak. "But the mind," he said, "the mind of a genius idiot has a rare reserve of talents. Therefore, Forrest Gump can solve advanced mathematical equations that none of you can solve, and he can do it as easily as Liszt or Beethoven." Learn complex pieces. That's genius idiot," he repeated, gesturing to me.

I didn't know what to do, but he said he wanted me to play a tune, so I pulled out my harmonica and played "Fantastic Dragon, Breathe Fire."Everybody sat there looking at me like I was a bug or something, and when I was done playing the tune, they were just sitting there looking at me--no clapping or anything.I hoped that they would not like to hear it, so I stood up and said, "Thank you." I turned around and left.fuck it. There were only two other things that mattered in that term.One was when we won the National Football Championship and went on to the Orange Bowl, and the other was when I found out that Jenny Curran was sleeping with the banjo player.

We were scheduled to play at a fraternity at the university that night.We practiced hard all afternoon, and I was so thirsty that I could drink water from the toilet like a dog.But there's a small store about five or six streets away from the Ape Dormitory.So, after practice, I went over there to buy some cumin and sugar, and made myself a glass of lemonade that my mother used to make for me.There was a cross-eyed woman behind the counter, and she looked at me like I was a robber or something.I was looking for limes and she said, "Can I help?" I said, "I want limes." She said, "There's no limes in the store." So I asked her if she had any lemons , because I want to drink lemon juice, but there are no lemons or oranges in the store.That store doesn't sell those things.I searched the store for at least an hour, and the woman got nervous, and finally she said, "Can you buy anything?" So, I took a can of peaches and some sugar from the shelf, thinking that since I couldn't buy anything else Well, maybe I can get myself a glass of peach juice—if I have it. I am dying of thirst. Back in the basement of the dorm, I open the can with a knife, then wrap it in a sock with peaches and squeeze it into the bottle. I Pour in some more water and sugar and stir it, but, let me tell you - it doesn't taste like lemonade at all - honestly, it tastes like hot, stinky socks.

Anyway, I was supposed to get to the fraternity at seven, and I found it, and a few guys were already setting up instruments, but Jenny and the banjo player were nowhere to be seen.I asked around a bit, and after that, I went out to the parking lot to get some air.I saw Jenny's car and thought she must have just arrived. All the windows were fogged so it was impossible to see what was going on inside the car.Uh, out of nowhere, I suddenly thought she might be in the car, couldn't get out, maybe on that debilitating drug or something, so I opened the car door and looked in.As I opened the door, the light came on. She was lying on the back seat, the upper body of the dress was pulled down, and the hem was pulled up.The banjo player was also in the car, on top of her.Jenny saw me and immediately screamed and waved her arms, like that time at the movie theater, and it occurred to me that she might be molested, so I grabbed the banjo player's shirt--that was all he had left-- Grab him off her. Well, even an idiot knows I'm doing something wrong again.God, think what a good thing I've done.He cursed at me.She cursed at me, too," pulling my clothes up and down, and finally, Jenny said, "Oh, Gump—how ​​could you do that!" "He said and walked away. The banjo player picked up his banjo and left too.' Anyway. After that, it was clear they wouldn't welcome me to continue playing in the small band, so. I went back to the basement I still can't quite figure out what the hell is going on, but that night Bob sees the light on in my room so he sits down and I tell him about it and he says, "Jesus Gump, they're fucking ! "Well, I guess I might have thought of that myself, but honestly, I'd hate to know that. Sometimes, though, men have to face the truth. Being busy playing may be a good thing.Because it was pretty hard to find out that Jenny did that with that banjo player, and besides, she probably never thought of me that way.By this time our team hadn't lost a game all season.Up for the national championship in the Orange Bowl with the corn guys from Nebraska.It's always been a big deal with the Northern teams because they're bound to have players of color on their side, and that would scare some guys on our team—like my ex-roommate Curtis—but I Personally, I've never worried, because most of the colored people I met growing up were kinder to me than white people. Anyway, we went to Miami for the Orange Bowl.The ball game is about to begin.We're all a little jittery.Coach Brian came into the locker room, didn't say anything, just said something like you have to work hard to win, and then we walked on the court, and they kicked off first.The ball came straight at me and I grabbed it in the air and ran straight into a crowd of Nebraska corn-growing blacks and big whites each weighing five hundred pounds. This was the case all afternoon.They led us 28-7 at half-time, and we were all downcast.Coach Blythe walked into the locker room, shaking his head like he expected us to disappoint him.Then he started drawing formations on the blackboard and he was talking to quarterback Snake Man and a few other guys, and then he called my name and told me to go down the hallway with him. "Gump," he said, "that shit has to stop." His face was close to mine, and I felt his breath hot on mine. "Forrest," he said, "we've been training 'em to pass the ball to you in secret for a year, and you've been doing great. Now we're going to use that play against their corn guys in the second half, and they're going to be dumbfounded .But it's all up to you, lad—so, on to the field later. You've got to run like a wild beast for me!" I nod.By this time it was time to get back on the court and everyone was cheering and shouting, but I kind of felt like there was an unfair worry on my shoulders.Whatever it is, though—sometimes it's unavoidable. The first time we hit the ball, quarterback "Snake Man" said in the line of the human wall, "Okay, we're going to play Forrest Gump now." He said to me, "You just run two Ten yards, then look back and the ball will be delivered to you." Sure enough! In the blink of an eye, the score became twenty-eight to fourteen. After that we played in order, except those Nebraska corn-growing blacks and dumb whites didn't just sit around and watch.They had some tricks, too—mainly crowd tactics, all rushing towards us as if we were cardboard dummies. Still they were kind of surprised I was catching the ball, so after I'd had four or five balls and it was twenty-eight to twenty-one, they started putting two guys on me.But that way, no one was watching wing Guin, who hugged Snakeman's pass and brought it to the fifteen-yard line.The spot-shooter "Weasel" scored and the score became twenty-eight to twenty-four. Coach Blythe came up to me from the sideline and said, "Gump; you may be out of your mind, but you've got to win this game for us. As long as you get the ball over the line again, I'll let you in myself Be President of the United States, or whatever you want.” He patted my head like I was a dog, and I just went back on the court. The Snake Man is pinned behind the center line the first time he strikes, and time flies.On the second attack, he tried to outwit them by posing as a long pass and handing me the ball, but about two tons of Nebraska corn beef, black and white, all fell on me.I lay on my back on all fours, thinking that must be what it must have been like when a whole net of bananas fell on my dad. After re-queuing, "Snake Man" said, "Gump, I'm going to pretend to pass the ball to Guin, but the ball will be thrown to you, so I want you to run to the wing back and turn right, the ball will pass there The eyes of the "snake man" were as wild as a tiger. I nodded and followed suit. Sure enough, the "snake man" threw the ball into my hands, and my target goal went straight to the midfield.But then all of a sudden a giant guy flew into my arms and slowed me down, and then all the Nebraska corn growing blacks and dumb whites in the world grabbed me and stepped on me and crushed me and I fell to the ground .Oh shit!With just a few yards left we won.After I got up, I saw that the "snake man" had asked everyone to line up to prepare for the last attack, because we had no time.As soon as I was back in position, he ordered a rush and I ran out, but suddenly he threw the ball twenty feet over my head and purposely let it go out of bounds—to stop the timer, I guess, because there was only It's two or three seconds away. Unfortunately, however, "Snake Man" got himself confused, and I guess he thought it was our third attack and we had another chance, but it was our fourth, so we lost the ball, and of course the game.It seemed like the kind of thing I would do. Anyway, I was really upset about the loss because I figured Jenny might be watching the game.If I had scored to win the game, she would have forgiven what I did to her.But the sky does not follow people's wishes.Coach Brian was very upset, but he held back his displeasure and said, "Well, guys, there's another chance next year." except me.The matter of playing ball will also not follow people's wishes.