Bleachers

The next morning, Neely joins Paul for breakfast at Renfrow’s Café, the same café where the Spartans always receive a weekly complimentary meal. Thanks to Rake, who insisted his Black football players receive the same treatment as his White players, it also became one of the first cafés in the state to integrate.

Spartan football regalia lines the walls of Renfrow’s, most notably on the largest wall. In the center of it is “a shrine to Eddie Rake—a large color photo of him standing near the goalposts, and under it the record—418 wins, 62 losses, 13 state titles” (45). Currently, Rake is still alive, but barely.

Paul asks Neely if he knows how Screamer, Neely’s ex-girlfriend, is doing. Neely hasn’t heard from her since college, except for a letter he received a few years ago where Screamer detailed how quickly she was rising to fame in Hollywood. Paul tells Neely that Screamer, who now goes by Tessa Canyon, came back to Messina for their 10-year reunion, wearing “outfits that have never been seen around here” and bragging about her career in film (46). The names of her credits kept changing, and when everyone compared notes at the end, no one had heard of any of the directors, producers, or movies she had mentioned to them.