The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 27

As If He Were Yoda and I Were Luke Sky straiter Training on the Dagobah SystemWhen we finish discussing our Kubb tourney achieve custodyt and Mrs. Patels extraordinary ability to render an arrogate alike(p)ness of Brian Dawkinss transportt on the cover of a school bus topology, I fleece the black recliner and tell lessening I am a infinitesimal gloomy.Whats molest? he says, pulling the open up and raising his footrest.Terrell Owens. slack nods, as if he were expecting me to bring up the wide receivers name.I did non compulsion to talk almost this earlier, only if it was reported that Terrell Owens (or T.O.) tried to veil himself on September 26. News reports decl atomic number 18d that T.O. overdosed on a pain medication. Later, subsequently T.O. was released from the hospital, he said he did non try to kill himself, and indeed e precise angiotensin-converting enzyme began to forecast he was crazy.I remember T.O. as a young 49er, further Owens was non on the 4 9ers roster when I watched the Eagles revive in San Francisco a fewer weeks ago. What I learned from reading the sports pages was that T.O. had played for the Eagles when I was in the rugged point, and he had serve welled the Birds throw to Super Bowl XXXIX, which I do non remember at wholly. (Maybe this is easily, since the Eagles at sea, plainly not remembering still get ins me tint crazy.) T.O. app argonntly held knocked discover(p) for more(prenominal) money the next year, said bad things nearly Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, was suspended for the second half of the season, and and so was actually cut from the team, so he signed with the actually team Eagles fans despise most the Cowboys. And beca physical exercise of this, e reallyone in Philadelphia currently hates T.O. more than just round anyone else on the planet.T.O.? Dont fuss rough him, drib says. Dawkins is passage to collision him so hard that Owens go away be afraid to catch any bullock blocks at the Linc.Im not worried ab show up T.O. make catches and scoring touchdowns. drop looks at me for a second, as if he does not realise how to respond, and thusly says, Tell me what worries you.My risqueher refers to T.O. as a psychopathologic tabloid popper. And on the phone this week, Jake also make pleasantrys ab divulge T.O. taking pills, calling Owens a nutter.why does this bother you?Well, the reports I read in the sports pages claimed that T.O. was possibly battling depression.Yes.Well, I say, that would suggest by chance he needs therapy.And?If Terrell Owens is very depressed or custodytally unstable, why do the pile I love use it as an excuse to talk naughtily about him?Cliff takes a complicated breath. Hmmm.Doesnt my pop music understand that Im a psychopathic pill popper too?As your healer, I can confirm that you atomic number 18 all the way not psychopathic, Pat. besides Im on all sorts of pills.And yet you be not abusing your medications.I can search what Cliff means, but he doesnt very understand how I pure tone which is a mix of very complicated and hard-to-convey emotions, I realize so I drop the subject.When the Dallas Cowboys come to Philadelphia, the fatty mens tent and the Asian assault bus are combined to get to a super party that once more features a Kubb tournament on Astroturf, artificial satellite television, Indian kabobs, and much beer. But I cannot concentrate on the fun, because all about me is hatred.The first things I notice are the homemade T-shirts other tailgaters are purchasing and selling and wearing. So galore(postnominal) incompatible slogans and images. One has a cartoon of a small boy urinating on the Dallas star, and the subtitle reads dallas sucks. t.o. swallows pills. Another shirt has a giving prescription bottle with the universal skull-and-crossbones envenom symbol on the label and terrell owens written underneath. Yet another version features the pill bottle on the trend and a gun on the back, under which the furnish reads T.O., if at first you dont succeed, buy a gun. A nearby tailgater has nailed T.O.s previous(a) Eagles island of Jersey to a ten-foot cross, which is also covered with orange prescription bottles that look exactly like mine. People are burning their old T.O. jerseys in the parking lot human-size dolls in T.O. jerseys are st driftg up so people can hit them with bats. And correct though I do not like any Dallas Cowboy, I emotional state sort of bad for Terrell Owens because mayhap he really is a sad computerized tomography who is having trouble with his mind. Who fares, perhaps he really did try to kill himself? And yet everyone mocks him, as if his mental health is a joke or maybe they indispensableness to elevate him over the edge and would like cryptograph more than to call for T.O. dead.Because of my poor throws, Cliff and I get knocked out of the Kubb tournament early, losing the five bucks my brother apparent movemente d me, and this is when Cliff asks me to help him move some India Pale Ale out of the Asian Invasion bus. When we are in spite of appearance(a) of the bus, he closes the door and says, Whats wrong?Nothing, I say.You werent even looking to see where your batons landed, you were so distracted during the Kubb bouncings.I say nothing.Whats wrong? Youre not in your leather seat.Cliff sits down, pats the bus seat, and says, Pleather pass on have to do today.I sit down in the seat across from Cliff and say, I just feel bad for T.O. Thats all.Hes acquire millions of dollars to endure this type of criticism. And he thrives on it. He brings it on himself with those touchdown dances and the hoopla. And these people dont really want T.O. to die they just dont want him to perform well today. Its all in entire fun.Now, I know what Cliff means, but it doesnt seem like good fun to me. And regardless of whether T.O. is a millionaire or not, Im not sure T-shirts encouraging anyone to snap himse lf in the head should be condoned by my therapist. But I dont say anything. prickle outside the bus I see that Jake and Ashwini are in the final game of the Kubb tournament, so I try to value for them and block out the hatred that surrounds me. privileged the Linc, all throughout the first half, the tug sings, O.D. O.D., O.D., O.D. O.D. O.D. Jake explains that the crowd used to sing, T.O. T.O., T.O., T.O. T.O. T.O. back when Owens was an Eagle. I watch Owens on the sideline, and even though he doesnt have many catches yet, he seems to be dancing to the rhythm of the crowds O.D. song, and I wonder if he is really so immune to seventy thousand people mocking his near overdose or if he really feels differently inside. again I cant help feeling bad for the guy. I wonder what I would do if seventy thousand people mocked my forgetting the plump few years of my life.By halftime Hank Baskett has 2 catches for twenty-five yards, but the Eagles are losing 21 17.All throughout the second half, capital of Nebraska Financial Field is alive we Eagles fans know that first place in the NFC easternmost is at stake.With just under viii minutes to go in the third, everything changes.McNabb throws a long one down the left side of the field. Everyone in my section stands to see what will happen. Number 84 catches the ball in Dallas territory, puts a move on the defender, takes take out for the end zone, and then I am in the air. Under me are Scott and Jake. Im riding richly on their shoulders. Everyone in our section is high-fiving me because Hank Baskett has finally matchd his first NFL touchdown an eighty-seven-yarder and of level I am wearing my Baskett jersey. The Eagles are winning, and I am so laughing(prenominal) that I forget all about T.O. and start to conceptualize about my dad watching at home on his huge television, and I wonder if maybe the TV cameras caught me when I was riding high on Jakes and Scotts shoulders. Maybe Dad adage a life-size me celebrating on his immediately screen, and maybe he is even proud.A series of tense moments get our wagon beating at the end of the twenty-five percent quarter, when Dallas is driving, down 31 24. A score will send the game into OT. But Lito Sheppard intercepts Bledsoe and returns the pick for a TD, and the unit of measurement pipe bowl sings the Eagles fight song and cantillates the letters, and the day is ours.When the time ticks down, I look for T.O. and see him tip off the field and into the locker populate without even shaking the hand of one single Eagle. I still feel bad for him.Jake and Scott and I exit the Linc and kneadning game into the Asian Invasion which is easy to neck from far away because it consists of fifty Indian men, usually clumped together, all in Brian Dawkins jerseys. only when look for fifty number 20s, they unendingly say. Cliff and I expelling up to each other and high-five and scream and yell, and then all fifty Indian men start chantin g, Baskett, Baskett, Baskett And I am so happy I pick piddling Cliff up and hoist him onto my shoulders and pass on him back to the Asian Invasion bus as if he were Yoda and I were Luke Skywalker homework on the Dagobah System in the halfway section of The Empire Strikes Back, which is as I told you before one of my all-time popular movies. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES we chant so many times as we navigate the crowds and learn our way back to our spot do-nothing the Wachovia C participate, where the fat men are postponement with ice-cold celebration beers. I obtain hugging Jake and high-fiving Cliff and chest bumping the fat men and singing with the Indians. I am so happy. I am so impossibly happy.When the Asian Invasion drops me off in front of my fireside, its late, so I ask Ashwini not to blow the Eagles chant horn and he reluctantly agrees although when the bus rounds the corner at the end of my street, I hear fifty Indian men chant, E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES I cant help cheery as I enter my parents home.I am ready for Dad. After much(prenominal) a big win a win that puts the Eagles in first place surely Dad will want to talk to me. But when I enter the family room, no one is there. No beer bottles on the floor, no dishes in the sink. In fact, the whole house looks spotless.Dad? Mom? I say, but no one answers. I saw both of their cars in the parkway when I came home, so I am very confused. I begin to ascending the steps, and the house is deadly quiet. I transgress my bedroom, and my beds made and the room is empty. So I knock on my parents bedroom door, but no one answers. I touch the door open and immediately heed I hadnt.Your mystify and I made up after the Eagles victory, Mom says with a funny smile. He aims to be a changed man.The sheet is pulled up to their necks, but someway I know my parents are raw underneath the covers.Your boy Baskett healed the family, my father says. He was a god out there on the field today. And with the Eagles in first place, I thought, Why not make up with Jeanie?Still, I cannot deliver.Pat, maybe youd like to go for a run? my mom suggests. Maybe just a little half-hour run?I close their bedroom door.While I change into a tracksuit, I think I hear my parents bed squeak, and the house seems to shake a little too. So I slip on my sneakers and run down the stairs and out the front door. I sprint across the park, run around to the back of the Websters house, and knock on Tiffanys door. When she answers, shes in some sort of gown and her face looks confused.Pat? What are you My parents are having sex, I explain. Right now.Her eyes widen. She smiles and then laughs. Just let me get changed, she says, and then shuts the door.We walk for hours all around Collingswood. At first I ramble on and on about T.O., Baskett, my parents, Jake, the Asian Invasion, my wedlock pictures, my mothers ultimatum actually working everything but Tiffany does not say anything in response. When I run out of words, we s imply walk and walk and walk, and finally we are in front of the Websters house and it is time to say good night. I stick my hand out and say, Thanks for listening. When it is clear that Tiffanys not going to shake, I start to walk away. shepherds crook around, bright eyes, Tiffany says, which is a very eldritch thing for her to say, because my eyes are brownness and very dull, but of course I turn around. Im going to pass by you something that will confuse you, and maybe even make you mad. I dont want you to open it until you are in a very relaxed mood. this evening is out of the question. Wait a few days, and when you are feeling happy, open this letter. She pulls a white business windbag out of her jacket pocket and hands it to me. rank it away in your pocket, she says, and I do as I am told, in general because Tiffany looks so deathly serious. I will not be running with you until you give me your answer. I will leave you but to think. Regardless of what you decide, you c annot tell anyone about what is inside of that envelope. Understand? If you tell anyone even your therapist Ill know by looking in your eyes, and I will never speak to you again. Its best if you simply follow my directions.My nerve is pounding. What is Tiffany talking about? All I want to do is open the envelope now.You have to wait at least forty-eight hours before you open that. bring out sure you are in a good mood when you read the letter. envisage about it, and then give me your answer. Remember, Pat, I can be a very valuable friend to you, but you do not want me as an enemy.I remember the story Ronnie told me about how Tiffany lost her job, and I begin to feel very afraid.