the saliva he fought not to swallow
Much later, in subsequent events’ light, Johnette F. would clearly recall the sight of the boy’s frozen hair slowly settling, and how the boy had said whom, and the sight of clear upscale odor-free saliva almost running out over his lower lip as he fought to pronounce the word without swallowing.
Context
The withdrawing body's tell preserved in retrospective dread: the clear saliva welling over his lip, the fight to say the word without swallowing, remembered later in the light of whatever became of this boy. The physiological fact of the cold quit is the detail the whole scene finally rests on — not what Hal said but what his mouth was doing while he said it.