Quin remembers when life was a story

In this section Quin reflects on his meal and conversation with Jack and thinks back to when his life felt like a story. I think part of the challenge for us is to live life forward as a story. Sometimes it is easy to look back on a golden past, but the challenge is living in the present - present to God and others...

Quin Remembers

Later that night as Quin was in bed his mind retraced the rest of the conversation. After Jack said, “the best,” he, Quin Holsten, had actually started talking about “the game,” as he had come to sarcastically think of it. He had talked about the different times he was behind in the count, and the two errors the shortstop had made. He even talked about the sixth inning when he had loaded the bases with one out and the coach came out to talk to him and was even thinking about pulling him. The coach had asked Quin if he thought he could get out of the inning, and he, Quin the Eskimo, had said with as much passion as he had ever said anything before or since, “Just give me the damn ball.” He then struck the next two batters out. The seventh inning was anti-climatic after that.

Quin had talked about the whole game and Jack had listened spell bound as if hearing the story for the first time, even though Jack knew the story. He had been there after all catching the whole game. Quin was thoroughly depressed by the time he was in bed. He thought of the revelation he had had during the meal. He lay on his back and as he stared into the night he turned the thought slowly and carefully over and over in his mind, testing it and probing it for weakness, until his whole being was convinced. In fact he was so convinced he said his thought out loud into the silent darkness, “That’s when I was still alive. That’s when my life was a story.”

Then having heard his own voice utter with complete matter-of-factness what he now knew was undeniably true, Quin Holsten felt one small tear run down his cheekbone, past his ear and onto his pillow without making a sound in the night.