Gump and Co - By Winston Groom Page 0,2

moon still just hangin right there over the water. All of a sudden I just felt like cryin, an I leaned over on one of the big pilings that holds up the pier. Damn if it didn't bust right off into the water, rotten, an carried me with it. Shit. Here I am again, a fool, standin in the water up to my waist. I wouldn't of minded then if a shark or somethin had swum by an eat me up. But it didn't, so I waded on out an caught the first bus back to New Orleans, just in time to start sweepin up in the strip joint.

A day or so later, ole Snake dropped by Wanda's about closin time. His hand was all bandaged up an in a splint from gettin it sprained on my head, but he had somethin else on his mind.

"Gump," he says, "let me get this straight. After all the shit you have done in life, you are now the cleanup man in a dive like this? Are you crazy? Let me ask you somethin - you still run as fast as you did in college?"

"I dunno, Snake," I said. "I ain't had much practice."

"Well, let me tell you somethin," he says. "I don't know if you know it, but I am the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. And as you might of heard, we ain't doin so good lately. Like we is oh and eight so far, and everbody's callin us the 'Ain'ts'! We gotta play the goddamn New York Giants next weekend, and the way we are goin, we will then be oh and nine, and I will probably get fired."

"Football?" I ast him. "You still playin football?"

"Well, what else am I gonna play, you idiot - the trombone? Now, listen here, we gotta have some kind of trick against them Giants on Sunday. And I think you might just be it. It won't take much - just one or two plays, that's all you'll have to practice. You do okay, you might make a career for yourself."

"Well, I dunno, Snake. I mean, I ain't played no football since you thowed that pass out of bounds on fourth down to stop the clock an we lost the championship to them cornshuckers from..."

"Damnit, Gump, don't remind me of that again - it was twenty years ago! Everbody's forgotten about it by now - except apparently you. For God's sake, here you are moppin up a beer joint at two in the morning and you're turning down the opportunity of a lifetime? What are you, some kind of nut?"

I was about to answer yes when Snake interrupted me an begun scribblin on a bar napkin.

"Look, here's the address of the practice field. Be there tomorrow at one sharp. Show them this note, and tell them to bring you to me."

After he left I stuck the napkin in my pocket an went back to cleanin up the place, an that night when I went home I laid up in bed till dawn, thinkin about what Snake had said. Maybe he was right. Anyhow, might not hurt to try. I remembered those times back at the University of Alabama all them years ago, an Coach Bryant an Curtis an Bubba an the guys. An when I did, I got kind of misty-eyed, account of they were some of the best times of my life, when that crowd was roarin an yellin, an we almost always won all our games. Anyhow, I got dressed an gone out an got some breakfast, an by one o'clock I had arrived on my bicycle at the New Orleans Saints's practice field.

"Who you say you are again?" the guard asts when I shown him Snake's napkin. He is lookin me up an down pretty suspiciously.

"Forrest Gump. I used to play ball with Snake."

"Yeah, I'll bet," he says. "That's what they all say."

"I did, though."

"Well, wait a minute, then." He looked at me kind of disgusted like an went off through a door. Few minutes later he comes back, shakin his head.

"All right, Mr. Gump. Follow me." An he takes me back to the locker room.

Now, I have seen some big fellers in my time. I remember them University of Nebraska players, an they was big. But all these fellers, they is not big - they is huge! In case I ain't tole you yet, I am six-six an weigh about two hundrit forty - but these guys - they look