Monday, September 15, 2014

The Schism, parts 3634 - 3637

 3634. After a while, waking up from his nap on the coach box, a sleepy Alexis began to watch the boys playing in the yard. A wrestling match was going on, but it was a gentle affair. Two boys would firmly grasp each other’s shoulders, and at a signal begin to push and shove each other inside a square marked in the dirt of the yard. 


 3635. The objective was simply to force one’s opponent to have to put one foot outside the boundary and as soon as that happened the match was called and another boy entered the ring to face the current champion. The match was supervised by a student of an upper grade, who had the distinction of being undefeated in the game of, “Land” as they called it.


 3636. The name of the game long ago was “Get out of My Land,” but had been shortened to, “My Land,” and then just the single word “land,” as so often happens. 



3637. The boys were restricted to this form of combat for a simple and obvious reason, their uniforms had to be kept constantly in pristine condition so that, if God Forbid there should be a sudden inspection, all would be in order and no crease or shoelace out of place. These uniforms of theirs were almost as elaborate as Alexis’s coachman’s outfit.

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